We’re All in this Together

Many of us don’t really know a whole lot about what Jesus said, but we’re often quick to offer an opinion, however borrowed or obtained.  The equation goes something like this:  Jesus = the church = the televangelist I saw on TV last night.  Am I interested?  “No, thank you.”  But Jesus did say some very cool things.  So can we talk?

In our day, as in his day, sins have degrees of “badness”.  It is still our favorite way of separating ourselves from others.  Girls will say, “Well, I wouldn’t do that,” or, “How could she stoop that low?”  And how many times have you heard someone with a drug problem say, “Dude, I don’t smoke as much as he does!” (my personal favorite).  The thing is, you can always find someone who smokes more, which means you can always feel a little better than someone, which means you’re okay and someone is not.

The interesting thing is that in Jesus’ day that big, ‘bad’ sins were virtually the same as the big bad sins today:  drugs, sex, and alcohol.  Things haven’t changed much!  These X, Y, Z sins fall below some agreed upon cut-off point for moral decency.   The A, B, C sins of pride, greed, lying, racism, and hate tend to fare much better on the same scale.  From what we read, Jesus hung out with a lot of X, Y, Z folks and not by accident.  They were his friends - which is pretty wild when you think about it, and this left him open to regular criticism.  Let’s just say, it was not a great way to start off a successful religious career.  So what was his point, his message?  Consider these two stories...

Story one - He is interrupted suddenly by men dragging before him a woman who’s been caught in the act of adultery.  (Old Testament law required punishment by stoning.)  They hope to put the great teacher of love in a lose-lose situation (forgive and condone, or judge and stone.)  As the story goes, Jesus thinks a little, writes something in the sand, and then suggests they proceed with the stoning.  But here’s the catch - the first pitch must be thrown by someone who had never sinned.  Whoops.  The crowd thins.

Is he saying that it’s okay to sleep with someone’s husband?  No.  He is saying that we’re all in this together.  Jesus is in effect taking out the “line” separating her sin from their sin.

Story two - He’s preaching to thousands of people on a mountain side.  There’s a mix of good religious people and riff raff.  We’ve got A, B, C-ers and X, Y, Z-ers and they’re all well acquainted with where they fall on the morality scale.  Yet, in this talk, Jesus says the outrageous: if you look at a woman and think about adultery, you’ve as good as done it.  And if that weren’t upsetting enough, he goes on to put murder and name-calling on the same level with the same eternal consequence. 

What is he doing here?  Is he trying to put us on some neurotic head trip?  Think about it, though.  This is a very smart man (we still talk about him 2000 years later, for some reason).  He isn’t trying to make us mental or give us more guilt.  He is trying to get us all in the same room, to put us all in the human condition together.

I am a follower of Jesus, not because I am good enough, but because I believe in what he taught.  I have my closet, you have yours.  My sins may fall above the line and yours may fall below, but we’re all in this thing together - Life.  He took the line away, and that’s a cool thing because life is a “together thing.”  And life really starts when we’ve got the courage to face our “stuff” without shame and comparison.