Note: This is the sixth article in a series called Overcoming the Five Failures of Us. Previous articles are always available at http://www.webbweekly.com.
When Jesus addresses the church in Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29), He calls out the church leaders for tolerating the wicked influence of a woman named Jezebel. The scandal was not Jezebel. The scandal was the church leaders allowing her to have influence in the church.
Was Jezebel scandalous? Most certainly, but that’s another story. We’ll come back to her later in this article.
Scandal – A Human Failure
A scandal is defined as something that causes public shock and results in outrage and condemnation. In the original Greek, the word scandal refers to the bait stuck in a trap. If you take the bait, you get caught. That’s a scandal.
The first recorded scandal was the sin and fall from innocence of Adam and Eve. The second was Cain’s murder of Abel.
The world became full of scandal and wickedness until God rid the earth of the human race with a global flood—except for Noah and his family. No sooner had the flood receded, but Noah’s son Ham became the next scandal. The devil is always baiting another trap.
The Old Testament records plenty of scandals, but the worst is King David. God described him this way, “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” See Acts 13:22 and I Samuel 13:14.
Kind David proved to be an exceptional king — and then the events recorded in II Samuel 11 took place. His scandalous story contains adultery with Bathsheba, manipulation, cover-up, conspiracy to commit murder, and the murder of one of his great warriors, Uriah. David’s actions are truly deplorable.
The New Testament has its scandals, too: the betrayal of Judas, Peter’s denials, and Ananias and Saphira lying to the church.
Every generation of Christians gets rocked by highly public scandals. Years ago, it was Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert. Most recently, world-renowned Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias was found to have lived a scandalous double life — sexually abusing and manipulating women all over the world. All so incredibly devastating.
And then there are the countless local church scandals involving pedophilia, affairs, pornography, prostitution, abuse of power, embezzlement, extortion — it’s a long list. Every scandal leaves us hurt and confused, saying, “That’s the last person I would have expected to do such a thing.”
Scandal isn’t just a Christian problem; it’s a human problem. Coaches, teachers, politicians, scout leaders, CEOs — good people in positions of authority or influence are vulnerable to scandal. We all are. And if we think we’re not, we’ve already taken our first step toward the devil’s baited trap.
The point is this: We humans have a scandal problem — and that means the church has a scandal problem.
Damage Done
Every church scandal casts a long shadow. Worst of all is the damage done to the victims and the terrible life-long scars left behind. Then, there is the damage done to the name of Jesus Christ and the mission of His Church. Every scandal results in damage done — and the damage is far-reaching.
Let’s get back to Ahab and Jezebel.
The story of Ahab and Jezebel is recorded in I Kings 16 through II Kings 10. You can’t mention Jezebel without first calling out the scandalous failures of King Ahab. I King 16:29-33 summarizes his scandalous leadership:
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, son of Omri, became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel for twenty-two years. Ahab, son of Omri, did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.
While Jesus mentions Jezebel to Thyatira, the true scandal of the Jezebel story is King Ahab and his choice to marry her. He is the one who opened himself and Israel to her pagan and immoral influence.
Jezebel could not be influential without a complicit Ahab. In Thyatira, Jezebel could not be influential without complicit church leaders. The primary scandal Jesus is rebuking isn’t Jezebel; it’s the leaders who were complicit in her schemes. Why were they complicit? Why was Ahab complicit? Let’s be honest: it’s because men want what Jezebel is selling.
And what about today? Why is our world in such a mess? Why do so many women and children suffer sexual abuse and injury? Why are the abortion, prostitution, gambling, and addiction-peddling industries so powerful and successful? The answer: because men want what they’re selling.
Men, the real scandal is us. Women and children suffer because men make scandalous choices. And then, to heap insult on top of injury, we blame our scandalous activities on the very women we abuse.
In John 8, a woman was brought to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery. Where was the man caught in the act? Jesus saw through their evil and intentional complicity. Men, until we wake up and become true men of integrity and honor, our world and the precious women and children God has placed in our care will suffer terribly.
Jesus commands us to overcome scandal. He wouldn’t have commanded it unless it could be done. Next week, we’ll focus on how we overcome the failure of scandal.
