How Do We Confront Sin in Our World? — Part 2

What Would Jesus Do?

Finally, there is the “Jesus” approach. More accurately, it should be the Jesus “approaches,” since there are varied ways Jesus used to address the sin He encountered. These can be seen in separate incidents recorded in the Gospels. Looking at these passages, we see that Jesus dealt with sin at times with anger (not where you might think), with deliberation, with compassion and with lamentation. Jesus used each of these encounters as a way to teach the sinner or those around the sinner lessons that were designed to draw them to a greater understanding of God and His call to reconciliation.

Using the most obvious examples of Jesus confronting sin, we can see it in the cleansing of the Temple, the healing of a man on the Sabbath, the encounter with the woman at the well and the woes pronounced upon the scribes and Pharisees.

• Jesus at the Temple

In reading the Gospels, it isn’t unusual to see an incident mentioned in the first three Gospel accounts but not included in John. Seldom does an incident get recorded in all four. One such passage is the cleansing of the Temple area. The Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—all give short versions of the event, and it comes as Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time. John’s account is more detailed and comes at the beginning of His ministry. If you are familiar with the passages, you know that Jesus, upon entering the Temple area, began to clear out the people who were selling livestock for sacrificial rites and the money changers, using a whip made out of cords, and overturning tables.

Many people associate the event as Jesus expressing a righteous anger, but in none of the accounts does the Bible indicate that Jesus acted with this emotion. I don’t think the cleansing was an act of anger. For one thing, the suggestion of an angry reaction means that Jesus didn’t enter the Temple area with the intent to do what He did, but He acted spontaneously when He saw what was happening. He got angry, and His anger led Him to do what He did. This seems inconsistent with what we know of Jesus and the why and what of His actions and words. Jesus once said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the One I claim to be and that I do nothing on My own but speak just what the Father has taught Me” (John 8:28). The idea that Jesus would be surprised by what He was seeing is dispelled by the fact that He had been coming to the Temple from His infancy; He must have seen and observed all that was taking place in the Temple in all those visits. Living a life of obedience to the Father and His familiarity with the Temple already leads me to believe there was no anger in His response, but it was instead a controlled, carefully considered event.

“But He turned over tables and starting lashing out with a whip!” many will argue as proof of His anger. Not necessarily. If I wanted to get someone’s attention in a loud, crowded area, one of the first things I’d do is get everyone’s attention. What better way to do that than to walk up to a moneychangers table and flip it over, then doing it again? And why not start a small stampede by cracking a whip over the animals gathered in the area? John writes that Jesus first cleared the area, then drove out the cattle and sheep, and addressed those selling doves. In other words, He didn’t cause anyone to lose their property (although it stands to reason that the moneychangers probably weren’t the only ones gathering up the loose change scattered about). This would draw attention to Jesus, and He would use the opportunity to express His message: “How dare you turn My Father’s house into a market?” (John 2:16).

No, my first example of how Jesus confronted sin was to stand up to it, to fight back against it, not with raw emotion but with reasoned actions and words. He stood His ground and fought for what He knew was God’s desire. His actions at the Temple were those of a courageous man of conviction and assurance of being in the right. So, one of Jesus’ approaches to confronting sin was to take an attention-getting stand against systemic practices of sinfulness.

• Jesus at the Synagogue

There was a time when Jesus got angry and dealt with sin in His anger. The only mention of Jesus getting angry is in Mark 3:1-6. Jesus entered a synagogue where a man with a withered hand was also present. Jesus was being carefully watched at this time by those who opposed Him. They wanted to see specifically if Jesus would heal the man on the Sabbath, which was a violation of Pharisaic laws. It is not unreasonable to believe that the handicapped man was a plant specifically to test Jesus.

Dealing with the issue, Jesus first told the man in question to stand up in front of everyone. Then Jesus, addressing the crowd, asked, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath to do: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (v. 4). Jesus, aware that He was being scrutinized specifically over the issue of healing on the Sabbath, raised the question, and when a person asks a question, it’s usually with the expectation of an answer. But there was none forthcoming from those lying in wait for Jesus to act. Again, in keeping with Jesus’ obedience to God and acting and speaking only as the Father instructed Him, it’s quite possible Jesus knew there would be no answer.

I don’t know if it was the silence, or the callous attitude that did it, but Mark records that Jesus “looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed, at their stubborn hearts” (v. 5), Jesus acted. He told the man to stretch out his hand and when the man did so, everyone saw that the hand was no longer shriveled.

It’s interesting in this passage to see how Jesus dealt with sin when He was angry. Most of us, when we are angry, lash out at the one with whom we are mad. That’s not what Jesus did, though. His response was to do what was the right thing. He did good, not evil, by healing the man’s hand. It was the most effective way to address the sinful attitudes of those who were there in the synagogue not to draw close to God but to find a reason to reject and condemn Jesus. In other words, in this approach toward sin, Jesus demonstrated a willingness to defeat the sin by being consistent with God’s ministry of reconciliation and restoration.

• Jesus and the Woman at the Well

The third approach that Jesus used to address sin was to establish a relationship with the sinner before confronting the sin. This is seen in the way He spoke with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well as seen in John 4. In this passage, Jesus begins a conversation with a woman who has come to the well to draw water. Through the progression of the dialogue, Jesus is able to speak to her sin and lead her to a new understanding of Him and the Father.

The conversation begins with Jesus asking the woman for a drink of water. She’s amazed that Jesus, a man, would speak to her, a woman. She’s further amazed that He is Jewish and she is Samaritan, yet He still chose to speak to her. The conversation then shifts from the difference between them to Jesus telling her that if she knew to whom she was speaking, she would be asking water of Him. She notices He has no means of drawing water from a well, and He responds with the fact that He is the source of living water. She mistakes this living water for a running stream or river instead of a well. He in turn responds that the person who drinks of His water will never be thirsty again.

As I read this passage, I wonder what’s going through her mind. Does she think He’s flirting with her? Does she think He’s a little daft? I can’t help but think that any other man would have quickly been figured out and the conversation would have come to a quick end. But Jesus is different. She tells Jesus to give her the living water so she’ll never thirst again. I think she’s making a joke of it, but Jesus tells her to get her husband and come back to the well.

This is where the sin of the woman is revealed. She tells Jesus she has no husband. Jesus confirms this with her, telling her she has had five husbands and is currently living with a man that is not her husband. The conversation has suddenly taken a sharp turn from water to very personal things, things He had no way of knowing if He was just some ordinary person.

She tells Jesus He is a prophet and tries to change the subject away from her to safer, far less personal topics of religious differences between Jews and Samaritans. She tries to get Him to answer the question about where a person should worship God.

Jesus’ response is that where we worship God is irrelevant. How we worship is what matters. Jesus tells her to worship God in spirit and truth, because God is spirit.

Thwarted in her effort to get Jesus off onto a tangent of religious debate, she throws out another question about theology, making a statement about the coming Messiah having all the answers. At this point, Jesus tells her she’s found that Messiah, and it is Him.

She leaves as Jesus’ disciples are returning from the town. She goes to her town and tells people she’s met the Messiah. The rest of the village comes out to meet Him, and they, like the woman, come to believe in Him.

Jesus’ approach here was to establish a relationship with her without condemnation or accusation. When He confronted her about her sin, He simply stated the fact and she reached her own conclusions.

• Jesus and the Seven Woes

The last approach I want to look at is how Jesus addressed those who opposed Him. In this passage, Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites. A hypocrite was an actor, someone who presented themselves as one thing while being something else entirely. In looking at this passage, there are at least two ways to read it.

One way to read it is Jesus renouncing the religious leaders of the day with a withering condemnation in His voice. This is akin to the angry Jesus of the Temple, only here He’s the righteously angry Messiah refuting those who refuse to acknowledge Him and lead others astray.

Another way to consider is that Jesus’ tone of voice is one of sorrow and regret for those who are too blind to see the reality of the Word of God standing before them. Rather than embracing the presence of Immanuel—God with us—they double down on their efforts to thwart God’s plan.

I’ve always thought the Bible has one drawback in that it is written, not spoken. Granted, if we had been able to have a recording of Jesus’ words, it would all be in Aramaic, but at least we’d have tones of voices and better insight into what was being meant as well as said. Still, we don’t have a recording, only the written word, so we look at the written word to get the context.

My belief is that Jesus approached this with sorrow and regret, rather than an angry denunciation.  I base this upon my understanding of the loving Christ, and I look at the words with which Jesus concludes this passage. In vs. 37-39, Jesus says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” The tender words of wishing to gather the people as a hen gathers her chicks speaks of a kindness, a sadness born out of a deep abiding love, not of anger and judgment.

In Matthew 23, Jesus begins the lesson with an affirmation of the religious leaders. He tells His audience that the leaders sit in the seat of Moses and that their words must be obeyed. However, Jesus very quickly distinguishes between the words and the actions of these leaders. “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (v. 3b-4). Jesus then points out the motives of the religious leaders: “Everything they do is done for men to see” (v. 5a). He mentions their religious identifications are overgrown and prominent, their love for the honored seats and honored greetings by others.

It is only after Jesus has pointed out the discord between the words and actions that Jesus then begins to enumerate the sins of the religious leaders: They shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces (vs. 13-14); they make “converts” who are only given a false sense of security (v. 15); they misrepresent what is truly important regarding one’s integrity (vs. 16-22); they are sticklers for the letter of the law while ignorant of the spirit of the law, emphasizing the law over relationships (vs. 23-24); they are consumed with outward appearances without regard for the true cleansing that comes from within (vs. 25-28); and they honor and praise those who are long past while ignoring the Word of God in their very presence (vs. 29-32).

Yes, Jesus calls them snakes and a brood of vipers (v. 33), which does sound angry, but I get more a sense of frustration here. But this passage (vs. 33-36) is the pronouncement of judgment that is coming to them because of their hypocrisy and failure to recognize God’s message to them.

There are other times that Jesus confronts sin. John 8 begins with the woman caught in adultery, where Jesus confronts sin with compassion and understanding. In fact, most of the times Jesus confronts sin it is with compassion and understanding. The point is that Jesus was not afraid to confront sin, but He looked at the context and the occasion and responded appropriately. He was not locked into one particular approach, but was always open to the Father’s leadership in His approaches.

Conclusion

There can be no doubt that we live in a society and a world filled with sin, and we are forced to face it daily. How we respond to that sin will tell the world about our relationship with God through Christ as we are led by His Spirit. As we live our lives, we will at times need to stand up to sin and how we do it will go a long way toward helping others see God’s grace and mercy or cause them to turn away from God.

One last reminder is that Jesus tells us that we are to be sure we remove the post from our own eyes before we even begin to try to remove a splinter from another’s eye. In other words, be sure that which we are confronting isn’t also blatantly before us in our own lives. With the confrontation of sin must also and always be accompanied by self-awareness and humility. “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

Sin must be dealt with, in our world and in our own lives and hearts, not because God demands we condemn but to bring others into the light of God’s amazing grace and mercy. That must always be the goal and the purpose for all we do.

© 2018 Glynn Beaty