It seems that within American Christianity we shy away more and more from talking about sin. We have changed the vocabulary from words like sin, wickedness, and evil, to words like mistakes, shortcomings, and "my bad." Rarely do we talk about the magnitude of sin and sinners before a holy and perfect God. Rarely do we pause to contemplate what it means to sin, what it does to our relationship with God and that is a problem.
Last week as I was reading in the Gospel of Mark I read Mark 8 beginning in verse 36 where Jesus forgives a woman who had sinned much. The context is that Jesus is eating at one of the phariseas homes and a woman who was described in the account as a "sinner" came in wiped and washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and hair and anointed them. The Pharisees could not grasp why Jesus would allow a woman with the reputation of this woman to do this. Let's jump into the story at verse 41, "A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon answered, 'The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.' And he said to him, 'You have judged rightly.' Turning toward the woman he said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven- for she has loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.' And he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'"
When we begin to minimize the magnitude of sin before a holy God we minimize our love for God. When we begin to redefine the words sin, evil, and wickedness we redefine our ability to stand amazed at God's incredible love and grace towards us. If God has only forgiven a "pretty good" person that does not motivate us to live the kind of counter-cultural, upside down, life that the Gospel calls us to live. However, when God forgives someone who is a sinner, who has offended God deeply, who is wicked, who is evil, (which describes all of us) that gives incredible motivation and reason for that person to love God, to follow God, to live for Him. That person is not following Jesus because they have to, they are following Jesus because they want to! Understanding who we are in our sin, understand the magnitude of our sins before the God who created us, is the key to stop living a Christian life feeling like we have to serve God and to start living a Christian life where we want to serve God.
Let us continue to talk about sin. Let us continue to reflect on and think about the magnitude of our sin. Let us continue to realize more and more how sin looks to our creator and sustainer. When we do we will see more and more clearly how sinful we are. How wicked we are. How evil we are. As we see that we will also see the amazing, astounding, unbelievable grace of God that has forgiven me and as a result we will love much!
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