Sin
What Makes Jesus Run?
John 6:15
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
We sing “Amazing Grace” and recite the confession of sins every Sunday, but most of us don’t understand why we need to confess or why we need grace. In our culture sin has been reduced until we see sinners as someone else – not us! Evil doers are from other religions or are folk who have alternative lifestyles. Our inability to see our own sin has caused us to live our lives not even realizing that we have need of grace.
John 6 is a wonderful, familiar passage. Jesus is a huge success. He has taken a small boy’s lunch and made a meal for five thousand. We love this story. As children we all wished that we could be the girl or boy who gave a gift to Jesus that would be so miraculously used.
After this miracle Jesus has fame, fortune, the praise of men. The people want to make him King. What does He do? He runs. The question we need to answer is, “What on earth could make Jesus, THE UNIQUE SON OF GOD, run?” We might need to run from the same things.
Jesus is running from sin, but not the reduced sin of our society. Some popular American preachers warn us that our children could be led into great sin if they were to read a Harry Potter book. They might not realize that it is a wonderful book of fiction and be tempted to fly off on the nearest broom stick and begin casting spells. Somehow I don’t think that Jesus would run from a good book of fiction.
Then there are some who say that a Tele-tubby by the name of Tinkie Winkie is harmful to our children; that he might threaten the institution of marriage, by influencing our children to be involved in same sex relationships. Somehow I don’t think that Jesus would cause such a fuss over Tinkie Winkie.
People who live in our society do see sin in strange places. One prominent minister said that God let the attacks of 9/11 befall the USA because women are allowed equality in our land. Another said homosexuals were responsible for the attacks. Jesus spent much of his ministry bolstering the role of women, never treating them as special case sinners, and His teachings don’t include the topic of same sex relationships. The people who seemed to give him the most trouble were male religious leaders called Pharisees and Sadducees.
Considering the definitions of sin and sinners in our society, I could feel really good about myself since I am not a woman minister or a homosexual, and since Harry Potter cannot seduce me to be a warlock and because Tinkie Winkie does not turn me on; I could proclaim that I am without sin. I could, if I didn’t have to explain to you what makes Jesus run.
In the book, Tuesdays with Morrie, a young reporter learns lessons about life from his favorite college professor who is dying from cancer. Morrie tells his student, “We live our lives between the tension of opposites.” Sounds like Paul, doesn’t it? (Romans 7:19-20) For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
What is it that divides us from our best selves and causes the UNIQUE SON OF GOD to run? And, where in the name of Tinkie Winkie is the discussion of that kind of sin in our culture?
The sin that divides us can be illustrated by the seven deadly sins and their opposite virtues.
1- We live our lives in the tension between pride and humility. In our society pride is seen as a virtue. Often we see the pride of accomplishment in the eyes of children as they learn something new. This pride may be good but can easily turn from, “I have learned” to “I can learn better than you, so I am better than you.”
Growing up, I learned of racial pride. “White pride” was intended to make me feel superior to people of other races. The same people who talked positively about “white pride” criticized black people for “black pride.”
Unbridled patriotism can be the worst of all pride. We easily forget that the Nazis were proud to be German. Pride in country can give permission to kill people because they happen to be born in another country.
We are sometimes proud to be Baptist, Methodist or Catholic. We are proud of our schools, proud of our church and proud of our children. It is hard not to be proud. I am sure in my life I have been proud of my humility. God help us all, because Jesus, that strange Messiah from Galilee, always warned against pride.
He said, “… the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:26‑27 NRSV)
In humility, Jesus took the towel and washed the feet of his disciples. After that he took the cross and humbly died. Paul says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death‑‑ even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:5‑11 NRSV)
In the end only the humble are exalted. God help us. At our best we do want to be humble.
2- The second of the deadly sins is greed and its opposite virtue is generosity. In many ways, greed is the basis of our society. We are nobody if we don’t have plenty. We look up to the rich like they are holy folk. Jesus says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”(Acts 20:35) We know when we share, we feel better about ourselves. Yet, we all spend more than we should on “stuff” because we want people to know we are somebody. We neglect our children, our parents and our church in the pursuit of money.
Jesus warns us over and over again that riches are dangerous to us. “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Matthew 6:24 When Jesus meets the Rich Young Ruler, recorded in Matthew 19 and Luke 18, the scripture says that Jesus loved him but asked him to give all he had to the poor. The young man leaves Jesus sorrowfully because he had great wealth. Following the passage in both Luke and Matthew is the statement, “…how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:24-25) Throw in the story of the rich barn builder (Luke 12: 13-21), the beatitude, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20), and the judgment passage in Matthew 25:31 and we should be more than convinced that we should seek first the Kingdom of God and not riches.
3 -The third deadly sin is envy and its opposite virtue is love. We can envy our neighbor his possessions, her good looks, his ability, her success or his money. In America we don’t wish to keep up with the Jones, we want to keep up with the Michael Jordans or Nicole Kidmans. Madison Avenue teaches us to envy movie stars, ballplayers and business tycoons. It works… we sacrifice to buy the best cars or best clothes in order impress our neighbors. We can’t love our neighbors if we envy them; the competition for stuff and status separates us. Love is the power that overcomes separation. God, we confess our envy; help us to love.
4-The fourth deadly sin is wrath and the opposite virtue is kindness. We know about wrath. We have all been victims, or maybe perpetrators, of road rage. We live in a world filled with stress that causes us to lash out at others, sometimes violently. In the USA there are more gun related deaths than in the next 25 industrialized countries combined! We spend more money than the rest of the world combined on weapons. Powerful nations like the US have the greatest temptation to wrath.
Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” (Mat 5:44-45 NRSV) The Apostle Paul said, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom 12:17-21 NRSV)
Martin King said, “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy…Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that.”
We have to be reminded to be kind. The world would be a much better place if we let other drivers go first. We could have the best schools, the best roads, health care for all, homes for everybody, no hungry people if we chose kindness instead of wasting our wealth on wrath. We would have more friends and less terror. I believe that Jesus, Paul and Martin are right, and I expect you want to believe it, too. Let us be perpetrators of kindness, defusing anger with compassion.
5-The fifth deadly sin is lust and its opposite virtue is self-control. Lust is not just about sex; lust is when we use our power for our own good, giving no thought to how we hurt others. It is the breaking of the Golden Rule: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12 NRSV) People who use people are never happy, for they live in the fear that people will use them as they have misused others. It takes much self-control not to place ourselves first. But Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35 NRSV)
6-The sixth deadly sin is gluttony and its opposite virtue is faith.
Gluttony is often seen in terms of the amount of food we consume. In a country that super-sizes what we eat and where overeating threatens our health almost as much as smoking, one could easily preach for hours if the sin only had to do with overstuffing ourselves.
However, we are also gluttons of the world’s other resources. We use the earth with little regard for future generations. Steven Hawken, the renowned astronomer, says that human beings will not last until the next millennium because of greenhouse gasses. He recommends that we build spacecraft to carry us to new planets so that the human race will survive. Scientists say that the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina cannot survive another thirty years because of global warming. We don’t hear much about any of this on our news networks because they are owned and or funded by big businesses that are the biggest gluttons of us all. Gluttony can destroy us. I believe that the church needs to call us to faith.
In faith we believe that God will care for us; we don’t have to be afraid of not having enough. In faith we can trust God for our daily bread and not seek to own or control all the wheat fields and bakeries. Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear… Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? …Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ …But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:25-33)
7-The seventh of the deadly sins is sloth and its opposite virtue is zeal.
Americans are not lazy, except perhaps when it comes to dealing with real truth. We will work to exhaustion for the newest “stuff.” We give our attention to things that cannot last.
The church needs to sing sustaining songs, because the work of the Kingdom demands our complete attention. Sometimes we begin the work of the Kingdom, but then we get lazy; the struggle between sin and virtue requires much zeal. Our self, our church, our community, our world are in a mortal struggle against the sin that dwells within us. Jesus calls us to zealousness when he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” Luke 9:23-25
The struggle with sin is for our very being. Real sin separates us from ourselves, from our sisters and brothers, and from God. It celebrates our selfishness, leaves us by ourselves, disconnected from the fellowship of God and all humanity. Living by the virtues connects us to ourselves, our sisters and brothers, and to God.
The temptation to be an earthly King makes Jesus run. Power is about pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth. The Kingdom of God, brought to us in Jesus, is about humility, generosity, love, kindness, self- control, faith and zeal. It is about a King who reveals himself on a cross. “…the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18 NRSV)