When it comes to sin, does size matter?
Luke 3:7-18 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by
him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to
yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these
stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at
the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be
cut down and thrown into the fire." 10 "What should we do
then?" the crowd asked. 11 John answered, "The man with
two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should
do the same." 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized.
"Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" 13
"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them.
14 Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He
replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely-- be content
with your pay." 15 The people were waiting expectantly and were
all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. 16
John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful
than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing
fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into
his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 18
And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news
to them.
Does size
matter?
Several
years ago, after a church council meeting, some of the taller guys were giving
me a hard time about my height compared to theirs. They said, “You know, short
people are more accident prone. That’s because they always have to use a ladder
around their homes.” I countered, “That may be, but shorter guys live longer in
war. We don’t have to duck when the bullets are flying.”
Does size
matter? A pick-up truck is great for moving things, but hard on gas. An
electric car may be great on gas mileage, but it’s hard to fit a family of six
in one of them. A large yard and home are awesome for a large family, but they are
pretty empty and hard to care for when your children leave home. A 6’6” girl is
great to have on your basketball or volleyball teams, but she might struggle a
bit on the cheerleading or gymnastic squads.
Size does
matter in most things in our lives. But when it comes to sin, does size matter?
John the
Baptizer had plenty of people traveling into the desert in order to hear him
preach. He had Pharisees and tax collectors and Roman soldiers and others make
the journey to hear the forerunner of the Christ. Every person in John’s
audience could have looked at others in the crowd and seen much that was wrong
with them. Every person could have looked at themselves and could have
rationalized and excused away their own sins.
Those in
the crowd could have blamed the Pharisees for the burdens they placed on the
people with their additional religious laws. The Pharisees could have
rationalized these laws as necessary for civic and spiritual righteousness. The
people would have blasted the tax collectors for cheating them out of their
hard-earned money. The tax collectors could have excused their collection
methods as being shrewd business practices. The people would have accused the
Roman soldiers for being harsh and cruel in their treatment of the Jews. The
soldiers could have justified their actions as being part of the local law
enforcement.
It was easy
for each member of John’s audience to compare themselves with the others in the
crowd. They would have elevated themselves while belittling those around them.
They would have downplayed their own sins while emphasizing the sins of others.
They would have been desensitized to their own wrongs while having a heightened
sensitivity to being wronged by others.
We still do
the same thing today. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God.” However, that hasn’t stopped us from comparing distances.
It doesn’t
matter how bad you think you are, or how bad other people say you are, you’ll
always be able to find someone who seems worse than you. It doesn’t matter how
good you seem to be, you’ll always be able to find someone who seems better
than you. We’re addicted to comparing, measuring, quantifying, and judging.
We know
that God sees all sin as the same. However, that doesn’t mean that we do. Anger
and aloofness are seen as bad for a marriage, but not as bad as adultery.
However, they can all equally destroy the bond of marriage. Shoplifting,
downloading illegal music or robbery with a gun are considered as different
points on the sin spectrum, yet they are all sins against the seventh
commandment. Picking on the unpopular kid at school or having an abortion both
destroy God’s precious gift of life.
There’s an
unspoken agreement among many religious people that God is like a good-natured
beat cop. He respects and enforces the law, but gives good, ordinary citizens
some leeway. He’s not going to ticket you for driving 60 in a 55 mph zone. He
understands that things happen. Just don’t push the envelope.
The law of
grace has you covered for five miles over the speed limit. But for
carjacking, well, you’ve got a date with the Judge.
In an
effort to be like what we think God is, we’ve concocted a categorization of
sin-sizes modeled after our legal system. No one gets handcuffed for stealing
some pens from work, but they do for robbing a liquor store. Likewise, no one
gets fire and brimstone for cheating on their taxes, but for cheating on your
spouse, well, there’s hell to pay.
In our
minds, we categorize sins on a scale of petty to felony iniquities. This helps
us to look down on other really bad sinners. It allows us to feel prideful that
even though we aren’t perfect, we’re not serial sinners, either. Worst of all,
by categorizing our sins, we perpetuate our favorite, most damnable lie – that doing
our religious best keeps us in God’s good graces.
Our problem is not merely that we
don’t get all that upset about sin. Our problem is that we do not hunger and
thirst for righteousness. We have grown casual and complacent. The message of
repentance is not urgent because we expect God to meet us as we are – just like
everyone else has to.
We are no
better than a brood of vipers, a nest of Satan’s snakes.
So what is
God’s final judgment about sin? Does size matter? How will He rule on the
matter of our lawlessness?
Here is the
sound of God’s gavel falling on all of this nonsense:
·
“There is no one
who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3).
·
“Whoever keeps
the whole law yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it”
(James 2:10).
·
“Scripture has
locked up everything under the control of sin” (Galatians 3:22).
·
“Every
inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time”
(Genesis 6:5).
So when it comes
to sin, does size matter? Yes! All our sin is too big.
The
pressing questions are not, “Is my sin bigger than yours?” Or, “Is yours bigger
than mine?” Instead, it’s the question, “Which sins are bigger than Christ’s
willingness to forgive?” Or, “Which offenses outweigh the cross?” Or, “Which
laws of God that you’ve broken are so bad that Jesus cannot rescue you from
them?” “Exactly which sins are so enormous, so heinous in the eyes of the
Judge, that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot atone for them?”
There are
no sins that are too big for Christ to forgive. He forgives the repentant
abuser or abortion provider, just as He forgives the repentant for the accidental
adultery or outburst of anger. There are no offenses that outweigh the cross.
He has nailed to the cross the little white lies you’ve told at work as well as
the secrets you’ve kept hidden from your spouse all these years. There are no
laws so damning that Jesus cannot rescue you from them. He endured the wrath of
His heavenly Father for every sin from Adam to the last man on earth. There are
no sins that are so enormous that the blood of Christ cannot atone for them. The
divine blood of the Son of God is more powerful than the countless sins of
mortals.
Look at the
people in John the Baptizer’s crowd for evidence of that. The Pharisees were making
people’s lives miserable by placing undue religious burdens of the law on them.
The tax collectors were making people’s lives miserable by cheating them out of
their money. The Roman soldiers were making people’s lives miserable by forcing
their every whim upon the common Jewish folk.
Yet what
did Jesus do with those Pharisees, tax collectors and soldiers? Jesus reached
out to Nicodemus the Pharisee one dark night and removed the burdens of the law
from him. Jesus ate dinner at the home of Zacchaeus the tax collector and
forgave him for his cheating ways. Jesus convinced a Roman centurion at the
cross that this man who had died really was the Son of God.
John
preached, “One more
powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to
untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Jesus’ baptism
is for the newborn infant in the hospital, the foreign exchange student at
Shoreland, and the convicted and converted murder on death row. For Jesus’
baptism fills young and old alike with the power of faith and forgiveness from
the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ Lord’s Supper is for the frequently absent confirmand,
the couple struggling in their marriage, and the shut-in who is grumpy with
constant pain. For Jesus’ Holy Supper offers, gives and seals forgiveness of
sins and the strengthening of faith for those who believe.
Jesus is fair in that He uses His winnowing fork for all people. He gathers
the wheat into His barn, but He burns up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
John was unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandals, but that’s because Jesus would
use those sandals to accomplish so much. With those sandals, He stepped on the
Ancient Serpent’s head. He allowed the sandals to be tossed aside when His
perfect feet were pierced with nails. Then those perfect feet were used to walk
out of the grave alive.
This is good news and it changes people. John confronted people with their
sins so that God might call them to repentance and then bear the fruits of
repentance in their lives. In this way, John connected what happens in the
heart with what is lived out in life. The repentance John called for is not
just avoiding the negative, it is also doing the positive, acting in love
toward the neighbor. That’s why John gave
instructions to the tax collectors not to collect more than they were required
to, the soldiers to be content with their pay, and the general public to share
their tunics and food with the less fortunate. God’s Word works.
In Christ,
there are not a variety of sin sizes. Christ, who knew no sin, was made to be
your sin on the cross. And in Christ risen from death, you have no sin
whatsoever. So long as you are in Him by faith you are free, forgiven, beloved,
perfect, chosen, wanted, and treasured.
The Bible teaches
this good news: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and
all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24). “As far as the east is
from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us” (Psalm 103:12). “For God so
loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in
him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
When it comes to sin,
does size matter? Yes! Each sin is too big. But God’s love for you is bigger.
Jesus’ forgiveness of you is greater. The Holy Spirit working repentance and
sanctification within you is deeper. Amen.
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