Talking about sin today, but not in a hellfirey, brimstoney way. This is a look at sin from a different angle.
Luke 7:36-8:3; Galatians 2:15-21; Psalm 32; 2 Samuel 11:26-12:15
Ever been in a situation where you are incredibly worried about something, only to find out later that it wasn’t really worth worrying about in the first place? I’m sure we all have. Sadly, the situation that comes to mind is every time I’ve asked a girl out on a date. First I talk myself into it, then I spend the rest of the time trying to talk myself out of it! By the time I would actually get around to asking, I’ve convinced myself that she will decline, and I’m so beyond nervous that, if she accepted, I barely knew what to do!
It’s not the best example of course. Sometimes the issue is a medical test; we tend to steel ourselves up for the worst possible outcome. Or it’s having to confront a person when dealing with a conflict you have. I even have this problem when it’s things that don’t matter, like sporting events. Really the situation could be anything, but it seems like it’s a lot easier to assume the worst even in a situation where we really have nothing to worry about.
Now when something is serious, it causes us a lot more worry. In the past year, two of my relatives were diagnosed with cancer, and I remember how worried my family was when we all found out. We had them on the prayer list here for a while, and your prayers were definitely appreciated. Now they’re both doing quite well, and the sense of worry and dread we experienced when they were first diagnosed seems a bit unwarranted given the outcome.
In a number of ways, we think about sin in similar ways. The Church has, historically, been quite concerned with correcting sinful actions, and because of this spent a lot of time focusing on sin and sinfulness. It becomes a point of worry, and people who do sinful things, or at least things that we see as sinful, tend to get shunned by the church – sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. It’s like sin is a disease that we don’t want to catch!
I guess we are in good company, though maybe “good company” is a bit of a misstatement. Jesus’ dinner host and his other guests in our gospel lesson sure felt this way about sin. When a woman who, Luke tells us, “lived a sinful life” showed up to anoint him, they reacted strongly, saying, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner.”
The Pharisees (who, just to be clear, are not usually a good group of people to imitate. [I’m reminded of a song I always enjoyed – “I don’t want to be a Pharisee. (repeat) ‘Cause they’re not fair, you see. I just want to be a sheep!”]) only saw this woman as “unclean” and “sinful”. They wanted to be rid of her. But Jesus saw her different, he uses a brief teaching to answer the Pharisee’s question, and Jesus ends up forgiving the woman’s sins.
So how differently did Jesus treat this woman than the Pharisees? Jesus met here where she was and offered forgiveness. I’d imagine this woman wasn’t entirely sure how Jesus would react to her. She might have even expected him to shun her, much like the Pharisees and other teachers would. But when Jesus saw her, he said, “Your sins are forgiven… Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Sin is something worth worry about, but it’s also not a big deal. Look at the opening lines of our Psalm for today:
Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away! Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, and in whose spirit there is no guile. While I held my tongue my bones withered away, because of my groaning all day long… Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not conceal my guilt. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.
When we confess – or in other words, agree with God that we have sinned – God basically stops paying attention to our sin; it stops being a problem. As Paul says in the letter to the church in Galatia, “[We] have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ.” When we are justified by faith, God basically stops caring about our sin. That’s good news!
But we also need to remember what else Paul writes: “If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.” Paul ends up expanding on this thought in his letter to the Romans, but we are not forgiven just so that we can go out and sin more. We’re forgiven, as he says in the letter to the Ephesians, so that we can do Christ’s work in the world.
But we are still forgiven. Our sin is something that, while major, through Jesus’ death and resurrection we no longer need to stress out about. All we need to do is turn to him and admit, like David, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Does that mean that the consequences of our sin go away completely? Maybe, but not necessarily, and not in the case of David – but the ultimate consequence, the eternal consequence of sin, isn’t something we have to deal with.
With our sins forgiven, we can stand before God with confidence, not because we’re so great and wonderful and sinless, but because even when we’re not, God forgives us, loves us, and calls us his children.