The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Day 35, Jesus the Stumbling Block

Isaiah 8:14 He will be a holy place;
    for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
    a trap and a snare.
15 Many of them will stumble;
    they will fall and be broken,
    they will be snared and captured.”

Another Isaiah prophecy that Simeon alludes to is this one. He says that “this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel…”

This passage refers to why Jesus was so hard for the Hebrews to understand. The first line says, “He will be a holy place.”

Human beings don’t really understand holy. All we know is that we aren’t. Nor can we be. When God says ‘be ye perfect as I am perfect’ the natural reaction is to (using an old 70s phrase) freak out. Impossible! We are flawed through and through. Paraphrasing what the apostle Paul said, “I didn’t know anything about coveting nor even think about it. I might have done it, but I didn’t see it and know it for the sin that it is until the law said ‘do not covet.’ Then, because I wasn’t supposed to do it, the amount I coveted skyrocketed.”

We do that. As soon as someone says, do this good thing, the natural impulse is to do the opposite bad thing. Or if someone does something honorable that we can’t do, the natural impulse is to find fault with it. Perhaps the method is wrong? Or the timing?

The teachers, scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day couldn’t argue that his miracles were good. A person who has been sick or blind or lame for years suddenly being whole is a wonderful thing. So instead they debated what he said while he did them (how can this man claim to be God?) or when he did them (healing on a Sabbath is work and thus violates a commandment).

Because being around Jesus made it obvious to them on some level that he was holy. And that purity grated on their inmost nerve. It made them want to lash out. Eventually, it made them want to kill him.

Please tell me that I’m not the only one who can relate.

There have been times when I’ve been in the middle of some sin and enjoying every bit of it. Then someone comes onto the scene and does the noble thing that I should have done in the first place. That makes me want to bring him or her down to my level.

I’m sure that’s how these religious leaders felt. But time after time, Jesus was impervious to their attempts to take him down a notch. Is it any wonder the fury they felt until they had to see him killed?

A Sixty-Day Countdown to Christmas


More Days

Introduction to The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Holding Jesus

Day 3, A Sketch of Simeon

Simeon Was a Godly Man

Day 5, Simeon's Testimony

Day 6, Prophecies for the Gentiles

Day 7, Blessing to Nations

Day 8, A Holy People

Day 9, Welcoming God's Firstborn

Day 10, The Name of Simeon

Day 11, Staying Alive

Day 12, Following the Spirit

Day 13, Taking Up Jesus

Day 14, God's Slave

Day 15, True Peace

Day 16, Seeing Reality

Day 17, The Intent of the Law

Day 18, For All Peoples

Day 19, Making Mary and Joseph Marvel

Day 20, A Blessing

Day 21, Hinting at the Rest of the Story

Day 22, Mary Will Grieve

Day 23, Making Simeon into Simeon

Day 24, Prophet to the Prophets

Day 25, A Priest Like Melchizedek

Day 26, Destined for Sacrifice

Day 27, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, part 1

Day 28, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, part 2

Day 29, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, Part 3

Day 30, Jesus as the Lamb (con.)

Day 31, Simeon as a Man of Gratitude

Day 32, Sacrificing Lambs in the Old Testament

Day 33, The Silent Lamb

Day 34, The Messiah as Light

Day 35, Jesus the Stumbling Block

Day 36, Jesus as the Rock

Day 37, The Precious Cornerstone

Day 38, The Stone in Zion

Day 39, The Cornerstone and the Gate

Day 40, The Stone of Judgment

Day 41, Into Zion First

Day 42, Restoring the Booth of David

Day 43, Forgotten Stones

Day 44, Blessed to Receive

Day 45, Crown Him with Many Crowns

Day 46, Identifying the Son of God

Day 47, The Best Storyteller Ever

Day 48, In Bethlehem, the City of David

Day 49, Born a King

Day 50, The Living Jesus

Day 51, The Mountain Tree (Part 1)

Day 52, The Mountain Tree (Part 2)

Day 53, The Root of Jesse

Day 54, David's Branch

Day 55, The Cursed Tree

Day 56, Time Fulfilled

Day 58 through 60

Day 57, Born David's King