“There is no such thing as bad publicity!”  Always the promoter, P. T. Barnum thrived more from scandal than success.   If not for bad publicity, he would have had little at all.   Similarly, Oscar Wilde once quipped, “There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”   And indeed, scandal has written more history than virtue.

It used to be that scandal was the great disqualifier.   Bribery, adultery, profligacy, and illicit intrigue used to be unacceptable for any person of position or prominence.   Edward the VIII forfeited a throne.  Gary Hart was forced from the race for the presidency.  And Richard Nixon forced to resign.  A scandal, or even the hint of scandal, used to be the death knell for anyone in the public eye.

Now, however, it seems that scandal is relished by celebrities to increase the value of their brand.  Being a bad-boy is prerequisite to the pursuit of modern fame. But scandal usually comes at a cost.  It costs credibility.  It costs relationships.  It costs opportunities.  It makes enemies. And scandal-fueled fame is often as mercurial in its decline as its rise.  The bad publicity of scandal usually has a short shelf life.

Jesus’ public ministry however offers a counter example.   Though his teaching came with authority, his power was attested by miraculous signs, his love for the “least of these” was unassailable, and his obedience perfect and sinless, his relationship with the religious leaders of the day was one of constant scandal and controversy.

While the Scribes and Pharisees felt the weight of God’s law, they failed to find it weighty enough.  They constructed a fence of human tradition they believed would allow them to keep it sufficiently to be declared righteous in God’s sight.  Yet Jesus would teach time and time again, “you have heard it said, but I tell you.”  And then he would take the law to the heart, where the scribal fence had gaping holes.  

Jesus taught that all men needed grace.  That no man could keep the law.  That no one was “good” except God alone.   And that this grace was available to all kinds of sinners no matter whether their sin was spectacular or merely presumptuous.  Jesus’ grace was promiscuous. And his self-righteous contemporaries found it scandalous.  He declared all men sin-sick. In need of the care of a gracious Savior. But self-righteous men hate such grace.  What about you? Are you scandalized by God’s grace?

For indeed, it is scandalous.   We all deserve God’s wrath and curse both in this life and in the life to come.  But God, out of nothing but his free love, unconditioned by anything in us, has chosen to show grace toward ruined sinners by means of a Redeemer.   And as our forefathers noted, “the only redeemer of God’s elect [ones] is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.”

Grace through such a Redeemer was unthinkable and scandalous to men trusting in their own works, accounting themselves righteous before God by their own merit.  Is it scandalous to you?   If the grace of God is not scandalous to you then you probably don’t understand it.  

Join us this week as we examine the call of Levi in Mark 2:13-17 and consider the scandal of grace.  We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.