Kept From Stumbling

These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. (John 16:1)

As I read through the surrounding context, I wonder what Jesus means by this word stumbling. In my opinion, the chapter break should occur between 15:25 and 15:26 where Jesus begins to talk about the coming of the Holy Spirit. That is where I see a logical pause in the flow. In the previous two verses to this one Jesus mentions testifying. First, the Holy Spirit will testify about Jesus and then the disciples are going to testify about Him also because, He says, they have been with Him.

I am seeing in this passage the core issue of the Great Controversy between God and Satan emerging quite clearly. God has been accused of having characteristics of evil found in Satan and as a result His reputation is under tremendous doubt. Our sinful nature predisposes us to question God's motives as we project our own weaknesses and faults onto our opinions about how He feels about us. Thus there is need for strong, valid, truthful witnesses to give public testimony in favor of God to more clearly refute the lying insinuations about what God is like.

When Jesus speaks here of both the Holy Spirit and the followers of Jesus testifying about Him, I believe He is also inferring the fact that He Himself came to bear the clearest testimony as to the real truth about God that has for so long been obscured by the many false beliefs and claims about Him. In essence, what I see Jesus telling us is that God is not only relying on the most reliable testimony of His own Son to refute the accusations of the enemy, He is also looking for as much supporting testimony from every other source to reinforce this testimony of Jesus' words and example.

Given this context which is vital to include when looking for clues to unpack this verse, I find it revealing that Jesus would suddenly mention the idea of stumbling. It also reminds me of the intensive study we did over six months ago on Matthew 18 where Jesus had a lot to say about stumbling. There I learned that in Jesus' thinking, stumbling and offense and sin are all pretty much the same thing. In fact, depending on what version of the Bible you look at, any one of these words might be substituted there for the other.

In the above verse Jesus says that it is what He spoke to the disciples that was meant to keep them from stumbling. Specifically He seems to be talking about the immediate context of what He had just been saying to them which is starting to be quite significant the more I look at it. For the last 10-15 verses Jesus is talking to them about the inevitable clash they will encounter between themselves and what Jesus calls the world – those who do not share their passion for Jesus. He explicitly has told them that the world is going to hate them simply because they will remind the world of Jesus whom it also hates.

The question that surfaces in my heart is, Why would the world hate someone who seemed to be so nonthreatening? Those in the world are generally afraid of anyone coming along with superior force to threaten the power certain groups maintain over those under their control. Yet Jesus was the meekest person ever to walk the face of this earth. So how could this gentle, meek and mild representative of heaven come across as such a danger that reactions to Him should be hatred and violence?

I am not eager to jump into the typical religious explanations of this here. Rather I am trying to stay with the natural questions that my own heart raises and listen for thoughts from God that make more sense at the heart level. And what is starting to come clearly into my awareness, especially after noting the following few verses after the one above, are the words of Peter which have had some of the most impact on my own thinking over the past few years in this regards.

The context I see here as to why Jesus might be warning His disciples about stumbling is both in the previous chapter as well as the following verses. Not only does Jesus speak of the world hating all those who choose to follow in His example and spirit, but 'the world' will feel compelled to expel any such disciples from their synagogues and even go so far as to kill them while believing that they are doing God's service.

Clearly Jesus has in mind here religious people, not what we generally think of as worldly people with little religious agenda. When Jesus speaks of the world in this context He is talking about mainline religious people, not people outside of the sphere of religion. And when He speaks of being ostracized from synagogues He is speaking generically about places of worship, which in our day would clearly be along the line of churches and religious institutions which at that time did not yet even exist.

Several things are starting to emerge for me the more I look at this. First, I see Jesus here telling us to expect animosity from those around us as soon as we take seriously the words of Jesus we find in these passages. Second, hatred is going to manifest itself in ever intensifying persecution and violence against those who follow the example and maintain the spirit of Jesus. Third, the specific reason Jesus gives here in both sections is very clear:

But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. (John 15:21)

These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. (16:3)

I am convinced that this knowing is not referring to intellectual information or data such as doctrines. It is not knowledge of the cerebral sort that prevents us from getting caught up in the spirit of animosity that false religion, what Jesus calls the world, exhibits toward those who truly follow Jesus. It is a kind of intimate knowledge that transforms a person to so think and live and react like Jesus that it acts as a light exposing the falsity and shallowness of the slick, pious veneer that religion relies on to keep itself in power. As soon as real light begins to shine from the hearts and lives of people who really know God at the heart level, there will always be resistance aroused. But the nature of this resistance is most often in the name of defending God. Religion always claims to be serving God while in reality it usually acts to preserve its own interests and control. Religious institutions always gravitate over time toward self-preservation at the expense of true spirituality.

But the question remains, how do these things relate to Jesus' warning here about stumbling? How are Jesus' words in this passage meant to keep us from stumbling whenever we find ourselves facing the inevitable opposition that Jesus talks about here? And more specifically, what kind of stumbling does Jesus have in mind that we need to beware of and avoid by keeping His words clearly in our attention?

Again, I believe one of the clearest explanations of this, a key that has unlocked so many other things for me personally, is found in the words of Peter written later. I believe Peter all his life remained completely amazed at how Jesus responded to these very same situations. And it is this clear example of Jesus that demonstrated explicitly the words He had been telling His disciples and that gave those words real power and vividness during the last hours of His life that took place right after He spoke these words.

I want to amplify the words of Peter a little by using a number of translations that for me help to flush out the deeper implications of this passage more distinctly.

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."

When they shouted bad things at him, he didn't shout back; and when he was suffering, he didn't threaten anyone.

Although he was abused, he never tried to get even. And when he suffered, he made no threats.

When he was insulted, he did not answer back with an insult.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

Christ never verbally abused those who verbally abused him.

To sharp words he gave no sharp answer; when he was undergoing pain, no angry word came from his lips.

Instead, he had faith in God, who judges fairly.

No, he let God take care of him. God is the one who judges rightly.

– but placed his hopes in God, the righteous Judge.

– but left everything to the one who judges fairly.

– but he put himself into the hands of the judge of righteousness.

(1 Peter 2:21-23 NRSV 2001 CEV ERV ESV GNB GW BBE)

In the light of this revelation about God by Jesus and reported by Peter, I strongly suspect that this is likely what Jesus had in mind when He spoke of the danger of stumbling. I am seeing here in these passages that when I encounter the animosity of the world coming from my church, from people who claim to be followers of Jesus and serving God, but who see my beliefs and the way Jesus lives in me to be a threat to their status quo; when they increasingly pressure me to conform to their standards of religion, my natural reaction will be to want to defend myself, to resist, to retaliate with verbal or even physical violence in order to expose them as being the problem. I will be tempted to use accusations and sharp words and attacks similar to what they are using against me. Yet at the same time, I hear Jesus saying that to do anything differently than what Peter described here about how Jesus reacted under similar circumstances will be to stumble.

How in the world am I ever to meet that kind of opposition and have the spirit of Jesus as described so well by Peter? For me that is obviously impossible short of a radical miracle of God. I know my natural heart all too well to think that I could face that kind of pressure and yet act in the forgiving, loving, meek way that Jesus demonstrated during His final hours. I have problems enough maintaining a peaceful, forgiving spirit under little provocations. How can I ever have enough power to overcome my own strong, impulsive reactions to defend myself and react in-kind to others who use force and threats and insults and lies to coerce me to conform to their way of living?

I notice two things here in the words of Jesus that address this problem.

1) These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. (John 16:1)

2) I have to know both the One who sent Jesus and know Jesus Himself personally in such a way that will so radically transform me that what will come out from me will be supernatural. This is what Jesus demonstrated through His total dependence on His Father as the only One who could be trusted when everyone else failed to be fair or just or truthful.

As far as I can see here, this is the core issue involved in stumbling or not stumbling. It is an issue of the heart, not about having correct factual information but a dispositional transformation.

Finally, as I look back at the words of Jesus again here, I see this truth confirmed in a following verse as Jesus continues to speak.

But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. (John 16:4)

My heart's desire is expressed well in one of my favorite songs by Steve Green that expresses my deep longing better than just simple words could ever do. Unfortunately I can't include the sound here.

Just the time I feel
that I've been caught
in the mire of self.
Just the time I feel
my mind's been bought
by worldly wealth.
That's when the breeze begins
to blow I know,
the Spirit's Call.
And all my worldly wanderings
just melt into His Love.

Oh, I want to know You more!
Deep within my soul I want to know You,
Oh, I want to know You.
To feel Your Heart and know Your Mind,
looking in Your eyes stirs up within me,
cries that says I want to know You
Oh, I want to know You more.
Oh, I want to know You more.

When my daily deeds
ordinarily lose life and song,
my heart begins to bleed,
sensitivity to Him is gone.
I've run the race but set my own pace
and face a shattered soul,
But [And] the Gentle Arms of Jesus
warm my hungering to be whole.

Oh, I want to know You more!
Deep within my soul I want to know You,
Oh, I want to know You.
And I would give my final breathe
to know You in Your Death and Resurrection,
Oh, I want to know You more.
Oh, I want to know You more.
Oh, I want to know You more...