Pentecost 46 The Greatest Act

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 46 The Greatest Act

“Christ didn't have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us. (2Cor.5:21 NIRV)

There are two events that stand out in my mind.
The first one: As a young teenager I remember being on a work crew with ten other teens at a camp. I felt very much alone since I didn’t know the others and I was small and skinny besides. One of the kids on the crew was not really accepted by the others and I could sense that if I was going to be accepted in that group I would have to dislike him and treat him like the others did. That’s what I did most of the Summer.

The second event was similar: Where I lived I acted the same. The neighborhood was one of gang related activity where you had to belong to some group or you would be a daily victim of another group. You joined, talked and behaved the way they did just to survive. That was scary all the time. You were always looking over your shoulder.

Both experiences illustrate not only teen-age dynamics but adult behavior as well. Whether it is in business, social activities or even in church the way we handle our world experience is based on that heart-driven behavior which is so clearly described in Genesis 3. The adapting process there is based on sin and the isolation from God it causes resulting in aloneness, its fear, pride, guilt and self-excusing blame. From there it is making one’s self look good at the expense of others.

Perhaps you have met someone or seen someone you thought to be no good, not worthy of thinking about, to be avoided at all costs, just a pariah. Remember as kids we used to judge other kids on the basis of how they looked or what others thought about them? And we made sure we weren’t seen with them but acted toward them based on the influence of others. As we become adults we do the same but with a little more sophistication. There’s always a need to feel ‘in’ and not ‘out.’ We probably still do. That is the core of what Jesus took on Himself, man’s lonely sin-driven need to be his own god.

But it’s that process of judgment we use to secure ourselves that is the essence of what we call sin. Sin dominates every kind of relationship and activity we’re involved in. Sin is exactly what Jesus faced when He dealt with the Pharisees, Sadducees, clergy and officials of Jerusalem. They were the ‘in’ groups politically, religiously and economically. The deck was stacked against Jesus at every turn yet their influence did not faze Him. The more He was Himself in spite of their pressure the more they conspired against Him.

This is how institutional leadership always responds. Sin gets leadership to fear and act from fear, “Get rid of those we can’t control.” Luke 11:50 says this about the high priest that made his judgment of Jesus, “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
What the high priest was saying meant the establishment; its leaders, lands, buildings, forms and structures, must be preserved no matter what the cost. Adult peer pressure is no different than teen peer pressure. It is the fruit of sin at every level of human interaction. This is what denominational structures have become in our time. They are form without substance.

Jesus bore the brunt of all this for every person from birth to death. It is precisely this atmosphere of sin that the devil launched against Jesus. He bore the invisible spiritual reality of sin in all its missile-like dimensions; personal, interpersonal, political and institutional along with its death penalty, and took it to the Cross in our place. When David said, “In sin hath my mother conceived me,” that is the same sin in which each of us was conceived and the same sin Jesus carried to the Cross for each person in every generation until He returns.

God let every person be his own final judge regarding identity, behavior, mind and heart. Gen.6:5 tells it like it is, “God saw that every inclination of the thoughts of a man’s heart was only evil all the time.” Then God allowed Himself to be subject to man’s sinful self-indulgent judgment. He did this by letting His Son be judged, found guilty and suffer the death penalty in order to make us right with Him. He allowed His Son to become thought of, treated and judged as not only a sinner but as sin itself. He did this so that His sinless perfect sacrifice undertaken in our place could bring us back to the Father and to what the Father intended us for in the first place. It is His faith given us that makes us right with God, others and ourselves. That is what the Resurrection proved. That is the good news of the Gospel and that is the work of the Spirit in us. Praise Him today and every day. Stay tuned……..