Between: A Millstone Around Your Neck Would Be Better

seeing the gaps in the lectionary.

This week: the gap between Proper 21C and Proper 22C.

Context

First things first. We are now many chapters passed when Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem. This means we are getting far closer to arriving in Jerusalem than we are to those easy days when we were all just listening to this Jesus guy because he has some really cool ideas.

He is pushing his disciples to see, not just the weight of discipleship, but the value of it. This stuff sizzles!

Of course, it isn’t going to be easy! What fool would think it is supposed to be! Anything worth doing takes commitment.

But Jesus needs to keep making that plain because we don’t want to get it. We want it to be about the love of God turning other people into the paragons of virtue. Or we want God to magically transform our motivations so we will stop being jerks.

This is the beauty of the Lost Parables. They lull us into thinking it is all about God somewhere else being happy. Then when they’re over, we go wait, that elder brother actually has a point…

So there is a rich cluster of themes present by the beginning of chapter 17.

How untrustworthy their leaders are.
God’s incredible mercy.
The challenge, necessity, and urgency of discipleship.
A great divide between God’s economics and ours.

And the teachings in chapter 16, including the supposedly dishonest manager and the rich man and Lazarus put these themes into new and strange contexts.

Some Sayings of Jesus

The NRSV labels the beginning of chapter 17 as “Some Sayings of Jesus,” which is not the most descriptive. Or inspiring.

While I like to use a film reference to the lectionary editing the Scripture to a more viewer-friendly cut, I want to make a different reference for this one.

These four verses the lectionary skips over aren’t extraneous or the kind of verses that make the director’s cut better. These are more like fan-favorite songs from the back catalog that the band loves to play at concerts. These cuts aren’t the singles for the radio. They’re the deep cuts true fans love. Think Pearl Jam and “Yellow Ledbetter”.

“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, “I repent”, you must forgive.’”
Luke 17:1-4

Alright, maybe I’ve oversold them. Or maybe I’m projecting my love for them onto those “true fans” of Jesus. Guilty.

But the point is that these aren’t “some sayings”. This is essential. Even if these are troubling teachings that parallel with the other Synoptics (Mark 9, Matthew 18).

The Stumbling Block

The image of the stumbling block is a huge part of Matthew.

It is also the kind of thing we’re likely to give about zero percent of our attention, theologically.

The problem is the stumbling block is a theological minefield. And one which seems predicated on a dualistic view. In short: either I’m responsible for someone else’s behavior or I’m not.

And yet overlooking the importance of it runs directly counter to how dramatic Jesus is being here. He is literally saying a gruesome death would be preferable to causing another person to stumble. So it seems like its at least a smidge more important to Jesus than translating this teaching into “just be nice.”

On the other hand, many Christians are involved in communities that take this teaching really seriously. But these don’t seem to be the kinds of places which feel full of the love of Christ when they’re getting shunned for any number of reasons. It’s hard not to be somebody’s stumbling block to faith when they’re tying millstones to other people’s necks.

I’m sorry, but I feel like getting a millstone tied around my neck is gonna make me stumble.

So yeah, this is a really tricky teaching. No wonder people throw up their hands!

But listen to Jesus’s intensity about this. There is nothing “some saying” about it.

Jesus Isn’t Paul

This very much seems like Jesus is talking once again about discipleship. Get ready! The junk is about to hit the fan, guys!

Rather than read like a random saying shoved in because it appears in other gospels, this feels really central to the moment. Because junk is about to get real. And this is the challenge of being disciples.

So when we read it, we might be tempted to think Jesus is giving us instructions that are direct and specific. In other words, we might get Jesus confused for Paul.

This teaching is too related to the foundational theme of discipleship and the core value of love to be treated like a how-to manual.

Core values guide all of our actions.
How-to instructions are situation-dependent actions.

Certainly, this teaching sounds like a situation-dependent action—if somebody sins, forgive. But what does that actually look like? If you have to get more specific than Jesus is, you are actually wading into the core values: love, generosity, hope, forgiveness.

You are searching for the foundation beneath which colors the response.

These aren’t blueprints for building a house. This is Jesus saying I’ve already told you to rebuild this whole community. When you do, make love its foundation. Those that don’t will pay a far greater price.

Those Other Sayings

While it makes a certain sense to make verses 1-4 into the B-sides, I think it actually undercuts these “other sayings.” Because if you read them through, don’t we see how Jesus is riffing on the same theme?

These other two sayings, which we cover in Proper 22C combine with this saying about the millstone to form a more complete picture of discipleship. This is very much Jesus saying Don’t you see? Love isn’t a fleeting feeling for the people you’re attracted to! It’s also not screwing things up for those around you!

This is how we come to a saying about faith and then one about service. Because we are actively avoiding being jerks!

That’s also why Jesus needs to keep teaching us this. Because when we aren’t told what to do, we freak out that maybe we’re doing it wrong. Maybe Jesus wants something else. And then we’re far more inclined to be stumbling blocks for other people. That’s when we’d rather be jerks than do the work.

Jesus’s teachings, however, keep giving us second chances. Or, dare we say, forgiveness. Even seven times a day.

Here’s a parable I wrote to give us a modern context.