In our current day we are confused as to how to treat those
caught up in a scandalous sin. By scandalous sin I mean those sins that gain notoriety,
rightly or wrongly, among Christians. So, someone who yells at his kids on occasion
is seen as bad but not seen as extraordinarily so. However, someone who beats
his kids is scandalized for life. Someone who drank too much at a party is not
ostracized in the same way as the person who is a fully fledged alcoholic. The
entire nexus of homosexuality and transgenderism is a scandalous sin in that
its commission causes others to treat the commissioner differently. Some say
our approach in the past has been too negative, too condemning, and simply too
un-Christ-like. Others say that the nature of this scandalous sin make
it so that we cannot approach these sinners in a way that enables their sin anymore
than we ought to love our alcoholic neighbor by buying him a drink.
The clear message of the life of Christ is that he went and
dined with sinners. He went and had fellowship with them. He did not avoid them
but sought them out. He did not turn them away but accepted their invitations.
He did this with those like the prostitutes whose sin was also their curse.
They likely had no more desire to live that life than women caught in that
lifestyle do today. He did this with those like the tax collectors whose sin
involved the oppression and exploitation of others. He did this with those like
the Pharisees whose sin blinded them to their own need of salvation. There is
not a type of sin so grievous that it extends beyond the power of the life,
death, and resurrection of Christ. There is not a type of sin so scandalous
that it alleviates us from our calling to follow Christ’s example in loving our
neighbors and enemies. Towards those caught up in sins of sexuality our
attitude must be the same as our stance towards the alcoholic or the white-liar
or the anger prone. Christ died for sinners like us and calls us to love
sinners like us.
My life passage for this sort of thing is in John 8. When
the woman who had been caught in adultery is presented to Jesus to test him, he
challenges her accusers to consider their own sin. This is a great mercy. He
could have merely shamed them for their self-righteousness, but he invites them
to look back on their own lives and wonder if their sins put them in a higher place
than her. To a man they turned back, the older ones first. Did they turn back
first because they had more to be sorry for? Or, being older, did they lack
something of the innate self-righteousness of youth? Who knows? But this isn’t
the end of Christ’s mercy to sinners. When the woman says that there were no
accusers left, Jesus first said that he, too, would not condemn her. Stopping
there it sounds like Christ did not care about her sin. Please note, there’s nothing
to suggest that she was falsely accused here. Contrary to those who see sexual sins as old fashioned, it is clear that she had sinned. Christ then
did two things. He forgave her for her sins and told her to go and sin no more.
The contemporary-Christ would not have found her behavior a problem and so would
not have had need to forgive her. Likewise, in his forgiveness he did not affirm
her adulterous lifestyle but told her to change her ways.
In our current situation there are those who wish to use the
practices of Jesus as proof that the Christ-like life will not speak against
the newly popular homosexual or trans lifestyle. They say that love and guidance
cannot go hand, but this goes against the very practice of Christ. He called
sinners to himself for forgiveness and called them to leave their sinful ways
in obedience to him. The women who left their prostitution to follow him did not
continue to sell themselves, Matthew did not keep up his tax collection racket,
and Paul did not remain in the Pharisaical path. Christ reached out to each of
them and drew them to himself in forgiveness and love, a love that included
drawing them into a new lifestyle, whether or not the contemporary culture
affirmed that lifestyle.
Indeed, let us follow the pattern of Christ in our interaction
with our neighbors and our enemies. The amazing thing about Christ’s life here
among us sinners was not that he was nice to nice people. The amazing thing was
that he was nice to awful people. The amazing thing about Christian grace is
that it is offered to those who actively do not deserve it. When we reach out
and befriend our sinful neighbor, whether their sins are scandalous or mundane,
we do so with the pattern of the God who dined with the likes of us. When we
reach out and befriend our sinful neighbor, whether their sins are the
self-righteousness of the old school religious right or the self-righteousness
of the too cool for school religious left, we do so with the pattern of the God
who created the world with its glories and pleasures and called it “Good.”
Let us love the guilty around us with the love of the one who
while we were still sinners, died for us. Let us convince them of his way not
by shaming them for their sin nor by telling them that sin is no cause for
shame. Let us invite into our homes those who have no right to claim our
attention. Let us show them the love that has been shown to us and point them
to the one who will lead us away from our sin and not merely accepts us as we
are. Let us lead them to the one who calls us to love our neighbors and to obey
his commandments. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
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