Your sin will find you out

We’ve all heard the mantra countless times.  A politician or an athlete is caught having an affair or using enhancement drugs, and they come out with a press conference saying how terribly sorry they are, and how they hope their families will forgive them, and so on.

Personally, I’m a skeptic and I question if these people are really sorry or if they  are sorry for having been caught.  I also question why high profile people think they can do these things and not get caught?

For that matter, why do any of us think we can do wrong and not get caught?  Can we act “Christian” in public while acting like the devil in private?  If no one sees, does anyone see? Fortunately, yes.

Ask any child this question and they will tell you that, somehow, they can’t get away with much.   “Mom has eyes behind her head,” they will say.  And that is a good thing. It is as though God has surveillance cameras set up so that when we think it is safe to do what we wouldn’t do in public, it still isn’t safe.

Jesus spoke to his disciples about this very thing in the book of Luke. “‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees,’ he said. ‘They just pretend to be godly. Everything that is secret will be brought out into the open. Everything that is hidden will be uncovered. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. What you have whispered to someone behind closed doors will be shouted from the rooftops.’”

I like to think that when the religious leaders dragged the prostitute to Jesus accusing her of her deeds, what he began writing in the sand were their names and the times they had paid her a personal visit.

From the oldest to the youngest, they dropped their judgement stones because their sin was made known. It is speculation, but whatever he wrote made a big impact on these guys.

It is holy and frightful to know that whatever we say, do, and think is written down in the records of heaven.  It should be a strong motivation to keep ourselves in check in every circumstance.

The Shepherd’s sacrifice

Where briars grow, unwary sheep,

Befogged by hungry need,

Entangle fleece in thickets where 

We only thought to feed.

The Shepherd comes to set us free

From snares of piercing thorn.

Released, we are made whole, but look,

The Shepherd’s hands are torn.

On every bare and rocky height,

The sheep in safety graze.

God shelters us from wind and rain

And from the sun’s bright blaze.

The Shepherd pastures us in peace,

To living waters leads.

All hurts now healed, we are at rest,

But see! The Shepherd bleeds.

These two stanzas of an old hymn make me ever more aware that every time I am focused only on myself and my particular interests, another wound is inflicted onto my Lord.

Every time I speak unkind words, or think unkind thoughts,  another thorn is driven into His temple. And every time I fail to do what I know is right, or fail do to what God has instructed me to do, another lash is laid into his back.

But, when I give Him praise for all He has done for me, I have helped him carry the cross to Golgotha.  When I give assistance to those who are in need, I am giving Him a drink of cold water after he has fallen under the weight of the cross. And when I sit quietly in his presence, I am standing vigil with His mother and John as Jesus cries, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

When I read this hymn, I feel sick at heart because of my own sin and the sins of all humanity. God is calling us all to Him, and Jesus must shepherd the children back.

For he has other sheep than these,

Who have not heard his voice,

But when the last are gathered in

The heavens will rejoice:

The saints who crowd the gates of God

Stand waiting to extol

The last sheep found, for then, ah! look

The Shepherd is made whole.