A Sin By Any Other Name

 Remember the story in Luke chapter seven? Our Lord has been invited to dinner at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. I imagine it was quite the buzz!  This young Rabbi at the home of a Pharisee!  WHAT????? His "new" and controversial ideas were sweeping Judea like a storm. The Pharisees, the self designated religious elite, were concerned and collectively began trying to thwart this ministry. So Simon has him over for a meal. It is not a secret invite. It is big news!

You know the rest of the story ..the woman, overwhelmed by her sins and filled with remorse, her eyes unable to hold back the tidal wave of tears, begins to weep onto the Lord's feet and dry them with her hair.  In an incredibly moving act she lovingly pours expensive perfume on them. Surely this touched the hearts of all those watching. They were witnessing "godly sorrow!"

But not everyone saw the beauty in this picture.  Remember Simon?  His pride prevented him from seeing the scene as it was .  He began to mentally demean both the behavior of the woman and the diety of the Lord. He knew the woman was "sinful "and so was he. But compared to HER sins, his were smaller and  fewer. If only this Messiah knew . Oh but He did and never one to miss an opportunity to teach God, Jesus tells this parable (Luke 7:40-48).  It seems that two people are in debt. Both owe money ..one a little and one a lot. The situation was hopeless and neither could pay.  So the lender wiped out the debt for both .  Zero, zilch, nada, nothing.   All forgiven. Then Messiah says "which one loved him most?". Obviously both were relieved and grateful .. obviously one had more to be thankful for.  Right?

When Jesus correlated it with sin, and more importantly , forgiveness, it was obvious . But why didn't Simon see it? The same reason we don't!  I grew up in the church and my parents ensured or at least tried to ensure that my sins wouldn't be THE BIG ONES!  It's called parenting...which is good!  But as an adult, I tried to be remain faithful, believing that sin would indeed separate me from God. And I struggled and fell. Romans 3:23. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". 

Hmmm .....even little sins? Yes...even sin lite.  In an effort to justify ourselves, we look around. It is too easy to compare our sins with other people's sins.  Seems like theirs are way worse than ours.. right?  And, we feel so much better with the little ones. But all people sin.   And all sin is wrong.  All sin separates us from God. So our "little" sins make us feel oh so much better. But remember Jesus correlated many sins with greater love? No, we shouldn't sin more! But we have to realize that, as Christians we are freed from sin ..not freed to sin !  All sin separates us from God.  We don't like BIG sins!  Again ALL sin separates! But we have this little trick.   We just change the name of our sin and then it becomes sin lite. Sin lite is much less offensive ( to us but not to God).   You see, while other people commit adultery, we have a fling.  While others get drunk and misbehave, we have an adult drink and socialize. While others are tax evaders, we look for loopholes and a lie we call. "a little white lie", or we say "just kidding".  There is no such thing as a non-sinful sin.  When we sin, we miss the mark.  The mark that God set for us.   All sin is wrong and no matter what we call it we still miss the mark !  Everytime!  And our sin is as distasteful and as disappointing to God as everyone else's. Simon and the sinful woman ..same.

Perhaps the most famous quote from Romeo and Juliet goes like this, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet". It is not the name of something that defines it's character/nature.   God says sin is sin and the nature of sin is that it displeases God... no matter what you call it!  

Blessings 

Neva