What About Sin?: Betrayal of Love
Rev. Cynthia Anderson, March 28, 2010 When you look at the news each morning and you hear the latest instance of corruption, scandal or sheer viciousness in the seemingly never-ending cascade of such events, what do you tell yourself about the cause of such behaviors? What do you find yourself thinking is the solution – or do you even think there is a solution? Over the last half-century or more, our culture has offered a variety of probable causes for such scenarios We’ve become quite adept at explaining – or explaining away – bad motives and behaviors – especially our own. And we’ve seesawed in many different directions about how to solve the problems – we’ve regulated and deregulated, we’ve gotten tough on crime while at the same time offering therapeutic options. And we’ve become enamored of self-help programs. We’ve become more willingly to explain away our own behavior and more strident about denouncing others. But we’ve staunchly resisted the idea of sin as an outmoded, guilt-inducing series of rules designed to make us feed bad and hamper our self-actualization. We’ve come to prefer the cultural message that we’re basically good people who occasionally do bad things and that with enough education and therapy we’ll get better. But the Bible challenges that cultural view of human failings. We first need to see that the Bible views sin, not merely as bad behavior or breaking the rules, but primarily as a condition we’re in – one that God does not take lightly and one we can’t get out of by ourselves. The biblical story tells us that our human rebellion against God, our insistence on displacing God from the center of our lives and our identities, has warped and distorted who we are. We are created to be in relationship with our Creator, and when we break off that relationship, when we betray God’s love for us, then the very center of us becomes so twisted inward and misshapen that we simply cannot – cannot – remake ourselves – nor can we even see ourselves clearly anymore. As we stand today at the entrance to Holy Week, the biblical story just won’t let us turn aside from our sinfulness and our inability to overcome it. Over and over in this story leading up to and through Jesus death, we are smacked over the head with the horrific ways in which we treat God and others, the self-preoccupation and self-delusion that blind us, and the fact that there is nothing we can do that will right the situation. And most of all, we are also confronted with the drastic measures God has taken to free us from the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into and can’t get ourselves out of. Many of us would prefer to just skip over this week and get to Easter Sunday. But there’s no way to truly celebrate the victory and power over sin and death God gives us in Easter if we haven’t really come face to face with the power of sin over us and our need for God to intervene so drastically. But we can take heart – because Jesus’ closest friends didn’t want to admit or see any of this either. Just a few short days from Sunday’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the shouts and acclamations of the crowd, things turn ugly and threatening. Jesus has been preparing them for what is about to happen. As he and the disciples share the Passover meal, he turns to Peter, one of his closest friends and most ardent followers, and says that he is praying for him because Peter is about to turn away from him. Peter – always confidently outspoken – brashly says to Jesus – now that just can’t be. I’m ready to go with you to prison – even to death. Peter is so sure that he has what it takes, that he’s brave enough, strong and independent enough, faithful enough, good enough to do what needs to be done. Everyone else may desert Jesus when the going gets tough, but not him. He would never do that. He just doesn’t see the power of sin, the ways in which his brash assumption that he’s different than everyone else is in itself the distortion of sin. And the thing that makes this so heart-wrenching is that Peter really loves Jesus. He really believes that he will be able to stand by that love not matter what. We’ve been there haven’t we? How many times have we told ourselves that our response would be different than everyone else’s? How often do we convince ourselves – even though we’d never call it this – that we have the power to resist sin and do good when others don’t. Do we not lose sight of the grip sin has on us? Do we not assume that it may hold sway in others’ lives but not our own? But what happens when, despite our good intentions, despite our best efforts – we fail and we fail in such a way that we just can’t hide it from ourselves anymore? What happens when our self-deceit comes crashing down around us? What happens in those moments when we truly come face to face with the depths of our own self-absorption, the ways our lives have become twisted by ambition, or fear or the desire for success or importance or security? In short, when we come face to face with our own sinfulness and failures and our inability to fix things. That’s what happens to Peter. He assures Jesus he will never betray or leave him and moments later is asleep in the garden. Then he stands, terrified and confused as Jesus is betrayed by a fellow disciple and is bound, arrested and led away. He follows at a distance, I’m sure intending to make good on his promise that he will follow Jesus all the way. He enters the courtyard outside of the high priest’s house where the whole ugly, horrific chain of events leading to Jesus’ crucifixion has begun. And when he is recognized as one of Jesus’ followers – exactly what he has promised to be until the end – he immediately denies that he even knows Jesus. It happens three times, and each time, Peter’s fear increasing, he denies the very one he’s pledged to follow to death. And as the cock crows, Luke tells us, Jesus turns and looks right at Peter. There is no more bluster, no more false assurance, no more running from the truth. Peter has failed. He’s truly tried. But he has done exactly what he said he would never do. He has betrayed his love for Jesus. He has betrayed Jesus’ love for him. That line “The Lord turned and looked at Peter,” is one of the most poignant of those we will hear this week. Jesus turns and looks and sees Peter through and through. There is no more room for self-deceit. Peter is finally brought face to face with his own failure, with his own sinfulness, and with his own inability to repair what he has so badly damaged. He is unmasked before himself, and perhaps for the first time, realizes how unmasked he is in the sight of God. Jesus turns and looks at Peter and sees the betrayal and denial – at the very moment he is heading for the cross to deal with precisely that – our betrayal of God’s love, our denial of who and whose we are, our displacement of God and God’s purposes with our own. Jesus sees it all. And he doesn’t turn away from Peter -- he turns his face to the cross, willingly bearing the price for that betrayal and all the other betrayals of God’s love. He willingly offers himself to free Peter and all of us from the power of sin and the death it brings. It’s important to pause here for a moment and to allow this to sink in. Jesus doesn’t make excuses for us or allow us to make excuses for ourselves. Jesus sees exactly who we are – and he loves us with a sacrificial love. Jesus understands that sin can’t be merely excused or explained away. The only way is to go right into the heart of sin, the worst that humans can be and do and to go right through it, defeating it from within. You see, Jesus is determined to deliver us from sin – to take in on himself and defeat it, to forever extinguish it’s power and deceit with the truth of his love and life. Jesus takes on all of our sinfulness and its consequences and defeats its power over us – once and for all. That is the good news we hang on to during this week’s difficult journey to and through the cross. It is precisely at the moment that we are unmasked before God -- when we see ourselves as we are, when we see our very real need before God, when we see the power sin has over us – it is precisely at that moment that we can see the love and grace of Jesus Christ for us and to accept our deliverance from the power of sin and death through his life, death and resurrection. That’s what happened for Peter. If you are ever tempted to doubt the grace and power of God to defeat sin and death, to deal with your failures – whatever they may be – look at Peter. Peter is completely unmasked before Jesus. His human sinfulness and frailty are starkly revealed. And Jesus sees all of that and not only forgives Peter, he delivers him and transforms him. Peter is finally freed by the power of the cross and resurrection to be who God intended him to be, to live as God intended him to live. Trusting that God’s grace and power have forever conquered sin and death, Peter is freed to really live for Christ in the world, to truly and faithfully follow Jesus. May it be so for you and for me….Amen. |
