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“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa September, 2004 Several
years ago, our family was on a Florida
vacation. One evening in
the motel, our then-three-and-a-half-year-old daughter,
Monica, decided
to amuse herself by leaping from one bed to the other,
and back again.
My wife, Charlotte, and I were terrified that she would
eventually fall
and hurt herself. We weren’t thrilled with the prospect
of having to
find an emergency room in the small coastal town where
we were staying.
My wife, Charlotte, and I tried everything to get Monica
to stop her
insane bed-leaping. With each leap, our fear,
frustration, and anger
multiplied. We scolded her, spanked her, and practically
sat on her to
get her to stop. Eventually, she did stop—when she got
tired of the
game. But not before she gave her mother and me a good
scare and a good
deal of frustration.
Remembering young Monica’s antics, I’m reminded of the way God must feel about us sometimes. God has told us, through Moses and the prophets, and later the apostles, what we should and shouldn’t do. But we do the opposite of what we should. This problem is known as “sin.” Initially, the problem of sin was explained by the story of Adam and Eve (Gen. 2-3). Paul puts it even more succinctly: But God’s response to disobedience isn’t like Charlotte’s or mine. God doesn’t try to prevent us from doing things we shouldn’t; instead, God lets us go our own way and experience the consequences of our actions. In the case of sin, the consequence is especially severe: “For the wages of sin is The Psalmist wrote, “Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.” (Psa. 51:5 NRSV). But by Jesus’ time, the focus was on the law, and on whether or not people obeyed the law. Jesus turned things back to their original intent by focusing on internal matters, thoughts and attitudes, rather than external actions or conditions: “‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder,” and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment;’” (Matt. 56:21-22a NRSV). He let the righteous people know that hating someone—holding a grudge—was just as bad as murdering that person! Like Jesus, Paul took things back to their original intent. He attributed sin to “the flesh” or what the NIV calls “the sinful nature” (Rom. 7:5). He wrote that We live in a world of people who are “slaves to sin” but they don’t know it. We live in a world that is in the grip of sin but most people either don’t realize it or don’t care. It’s up to us to let them know, to proclaim the “Good News.” We don’t have to live in sin. We don’t have to bear the consequences of our sinful nature. Our sins have been washed away by Jesus’ blood. We can proclaim with David and with Paul, “blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.” (Psa. 32:2, Rom. 4:8 NRSV). “But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.” (Rom. 3:21-25a NRSV.) |
