Berwick Thought for the Week: How the other use of the word ‘scandal’ relates to Christianity

Under the libel laws, you can be sued for spreading scandalous stories about others – that is, stories which cannot be proved to be reasonable.

However, there is another use of ‘scandal’ and this is when a belief or theory is difficult to understand or accept. Scandal, here, means ‘stumbling block’.

In this sense, much of Christianity is scandalous. One early Christian leader, Paul, recognised this: he commented that the idea that Jesus rose from the dead was a scandal, a stumbling block to many.

Another scandal lies at the heart of our Christmas celebrations. This is the thought that the mind of God took flesh and lived within a human being.

The notion of God being found ‘lying in a manger’ and sharing in the life of the poor and of refugees is a very difficult one to accept. For, it implies that there is vulnerability as well as unimaginable strength in God.

But then, the message that Jesus taught was also a scandal and one that we still find difficult to accept. This is, that, in all our diversity, there is finally one purpose to human life, one way to deep-down happiness, which is to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

For me, if we were only able to embrace this ‘scandal’, we could be more hopeful of the well-being of the planet in 2023.