Hating Jesus' Friends

I constantly hear people quoting the refrain, “Love the sinner; hate the sin.” It makes for a great bumper sticker, especially as it is about as deep as one. The problems with the statement run a whole lot deeper than the thickness of a bumper sticker. It’s really bad theology and a distortion of Jesus’ message.

Yes, I know the Bible tells us to avoid sin and in no way to encourage it. Yes, I know we are to keep ourselves above reproach. Yes, I know that sin is not pleasing to God. The problem is the other things I happen to know. To start with, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world.” Secondly, if we back up two chapters in John’s gospel, we find Jesus empowering everyone receiving him to become children of God. In becoming children of God, the only sin that is relevant is one’s rejecting Jesus, rather than receiving him. In fact, when Jesus speaks with Nicodemus, sin is not part of the discussion. When Jesus speaks with the woman at the well in Sychar, Jesus does not share a note of condemnation regarding her sin. Jesus heals an official’s son, saying nothing about sin. Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath and only mentions sin in passing on a second encounter with the man. Nowhere in these conversations does Jesus highlight sin as a pressing issue that must be confronted head on.

For Jesus, sin is assumed, much as background noise to what mattered. There was no need to inform the people around him that they were sinners, that they had fallen short, that they were imperfect. They knew that. The message Jesus came proclaiming was not sin and condemnation. The message was God’s grace, welcome, and love.

That love was expressed by Jesus living among the people who needed love. That love was given to them in meeting their needs. Jesus did not bring up sin as something they needed to repent of prior to receiving grace, mercy, love, acceptance, and compassion. These Jesus gave out freely and generously. In fact, the blessings of God through Jesus came prior to his discussions of sin. To the woman caught in adultery and cast before Jesus to be condemned, Jesus first proclaimed her forgiveness. Her accusers left one by one when he called them to face their own hypocrisy. When they had left, he told her that he had no condemnation for her. Only then did he tell her, “Go and sin no more.” Grace came first. Forgiveness and acceptance were his first responses. Even as he tells her not to sin, he has no word of hate or condemnation.

Sure, you can scout the Bible and find a phrase somewhere about God abhorring one’s sin. You can find a text that says something to the effect of God hating sin. That is not, however, the attitude we see in Jesus’ dealings with people.

“Love the sinner; hate the sin,” begins with a statement of condemnation. It begins by considering others as less worthy than the one making the declaration. It communicates that those people are sinners, and I hate their sin. It hardly includes the speaker as one of the sinners whose sin is hateful. Instead of communicating love, grace, and acceptance, it immediately erects a barrier between us and them, whoever they happen to be.

That is not love. Love does not otherize. Love does not lump people into categories of worth. Love does not pump itself up while tearing another down. Love raises the other up, instead. Love first welcomes and includes. After the fact, we can work on getting our lives on the right course as we journey together.

The religious community around Jesus often denounced him as a friend of sinners. In so doing, they claimed not to be among that crowd of scum. Jesus, however, embraced the community around him as his friends, as people he loved, as ones for whom the Heavenly Father desired to provide and welcome with open arms.

If people can't hear a clear message of love, our claims of love hollow. We can't love people with whom we refuse to gather and accept as they are. We can’t love those we don’t attempt to know. Yes, we might be called names for countering so much prevailing religious wisdom. While others may call those I accept and embrace as unworthy, I’m in good company. I’ll attempt to be more like Jesus who just called them friends.



— ©Copyright 2023, Christopher B. Harbin 



http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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