Those we Scorn

SCORN

My wife and I both love Twitter and Facebook. We have found so many friends there and they are far from all being Christians – although a good proportion are Christian. I suppose we have also made a few mistakes there too – mostly folk who cannot stop using bad language. We certainly don’t eschew atheists either provided it doesn’t get personal or acrimonious. We frequently have a chuckle with Jack or Susie – neither of whom share our Christian faith. We all understand the ‘rules’ and generally, we stick to them. Actually, whether they approve or not, we do pray for them.

A while ago, my wife Tweeted an excellent little pithy saying – “I find it incredible that Christ would die for the sinner in all their mess when we're the ones who look at them and scorn.” I found it again tonight and the Lord impressed upon me the truth and wisdom of this phrase.

“I find it incredible that Christ would die for the sinner.” This is a simple statement of fact for me – I really do find it incredible that Christ should die, should give His life to be exact, for the sinner – that’s you and me.

“in all their mess” – Here’s the truly staggering bit. It is incredible that He should die for us at all, let alone “in all their mess”. We are messy creatures. We mess up our own and other’s lives, and it takes Jesus Christ to leave His place in Glory, with the Father, to come down here to us, to take our mess upon Himself and die for our sin – our mess – so that we might be able to receive eternal life with Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit.

“When we're the ones who look at them” – We just look at them. We don’t have to speak, nor do anything, we simply look at them. Heaven forbid that we should have to touch them, touch their mess, their dirt, their squalor. We shudder at the mere thought of that – so we simply look at them . . .

“and scorn.” What a pharisaic people we are! What snobs! What hypocrites! BUT They are so dirty. We cannot touch them, nor have anything to do with them. We are so much better than them and we really don’t want to be seen with them, or touch them, or even speak to them – do we??

Well I thank God for the modern outreach programs that many churches now adopt. I thank God that some people now not only speak to the sinner in all his or her mess and squalor, they touch them, hug them, feed them, help to house them, and generally obey the injunction to help “the least of these”.

It’s not an easy job. We have to win their trust and maybe even their respect before they will allow us to help them. A free meal or a bed for the night is one thing, but you can’t even think of talking about Jesus until you have demonstrated your faith consistently over a good period of time. Trust and respect have to be earned the hard way. Starting with nothing but suspicion. We have to prove our trustworthiness to them and even combat their contempt for us. After all, “What’s in this for you?” will be their question. We have to earn their respect based on the respect we have for them – it’s a mutual exchange.

However, the rewards are so satisfying when we watch one we may have once scorned, come back into society with a smile and a new found purpose in life. Sometimes, often even, they may have a new found friend in Jesus too.