sinner!

I had something else in mind, but a recent conversation lead me to this instead.

Since when do I get off pointing my finger and standing in the place of judge? Since when?

It is clear that I am as much a sinner as the next person (or worse), that God, who acts entirely from a position of love, loves humans, and became a human, and suffered and died as a human, did that for them even as he did it for me. That’s clear.

That having been said … we ‘christians’ have this thing about being judges. It’s a ‘thing’ with us. We like it. It makes us bold. It makes us strong and righteous to be able to point out the sin(s) of another. What it really does is move the spotlight off of me on to someone else, and gives me space. I become judge so I don’t see my own sin, sin-full-ness. I don’t want that: too stressful to face myself, so I become judge, and Dread Judge at that. I am vociferous, righteously angry, and stand in the place of God in pointing out this sin or that horror in that person’s life. It's really scapegoating. I peddle the guilt by accusing others. 

Sick. I am sick. I need a doctor. Badly.

It stems from the story of the beginning of Earth things and a particular tree. That tree (or what it represented) had the incredible ability to endow mankind with the knowledge of good and evil, a framework quite different from the one Creator had in mind for the creature he created in his image, after his likeness. Man steps into God’s sphere and becomes a mere shadow of his former self. Wild. Result is I stand in that long line of us who own the right to know right from wrong and to point it out in others. Moreover I have the Bible to prove it.

And then there’s Jesus … and I have to ask myself this. If he is the best representation we have of who God is, then what did he do? How did he behave? What was his view of it? Early on in John’s Gospel the point is made that Jesus did not come to condemn this world, but to save it; vast difference. None less than he taught about the splinter and the log. He it was that defended that woman they caught adulterating; the story is crazy.  His motivation is to encourage her, restore her. He takes her side. When I replace Jesus with me it goes south real fast. I am the chief of sinners and I can point out sin and wrong with the best of them. I am very good at that. Jesus, however, who knows more about that person than I do, never does.

Even when he engaged the woman at the well in Samaria (John 4), he didn't do it to point out her sin; he simply wanted her to know who it was talking to her, and that he knew who she was, what she was, where she was in life. His aim was spiritual: "drink the living water I give you and it will spring up into eternal life".

When the accusations fly, and people are named, and deeds told around the dinner table or the bar table, or the lunch table (or the Lord’s table?), which person am I to the situation? Who am I really? Does the accused see me as an accuser, or as a refuge, a friend, maybe the only one they have left. 

It’s interesting to remember that ‘Satan’ = 'Accuser'.

I guess what I’m getting at is this: do I be Jesus to people, or do I be Satan to people. I really think it’s that simple.

Jesus lived with the accused, the condemned. They came to him because he loved them, and he told them things, wise things, and made them think. And he never stuck his finger in their faces or waved a Bible at them. They could see love in him.

Then one day he said he wanted us to do what he did: care for people. He said that was almost as important as loving God himself. And he spent his life in that pursuit, lived it out, to everyone. Everyone. Even me.

I have to change this. We do. We need to be Jesus to the world, because no one else will.

Fact is, most of the time we don’t know 95% of what underlies the issue, how the ‘accused’ got to this place in life, what really happened, how long it’s been building, and so on. We come into the game in the 9^th inning and act like we’ve watched the entire game. Arrogant, self-righteous, beligerant … anti-Christ.

Lord, help me to take Jesus as my example. To try at all times to be loving first, embracing first, caring first, shalom first. All else follows. ‘Love covers a multitude of sins’. 

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Col 3. 12-14). Brilliantly said.

I have to quit this and start taking Jesus’ side in whatever comes up about whoever. 

Anything else is ‘fail’.

shalom