Jesus said,
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
I've
been reading I Never Thought I'd See The
Day, by Dr. David Jeremiah. On pages 87-88, he makes this interesting
comment. "This is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about
badness. They have lived a sheltered
life by always giving in." They
have not struggled against it so they don't know what it takes. The people who
crucified Jesus all thought they were doing something good. The Jews were
commanded to kill those who claimed to be prophets or who tried to lead the
Jewish nation astray. Pilate was maintaining the peace and preserving his job.
The soldiers were doing their jobs. Jesus was doing His. Most of these people
were blindly doing what seemed like the best thing to do at the time. Only two
are described as having any difficulty with the choice they made: Jesus, who
suffered in the garden of Gethsemane and chose to bear the responsibility and
punishment of the sin of the world, and Pilate, who argued against crucifying
Jesus then washed his hands of responsibility when he was backed into a corner.
C. S. Lewis discussed this idea of bad people not knowing much about
badness a number of times. The instance that comes to mind at the moment is
from Screwtape Letters. Screwtape chided his "nephew," Wormwood for
wanting to entice his "patient" into "spectacular sins." It
was better, he argued, to coax people into small sins that didn't awake their
consciences. Small sins that don't seem to matter much were more effective at
separating a person from God.
I
have seen this in my own life - once very clearly. One day I was in the kitchen
and ate a spoon full of peanut butter. The thought that flashed through my mind
was what is worse, a spoon full of peanut butter or murder? Intrigued, I took
that idea on my mental gerbil wheel. I had to admit I was, and am, far more
often tempted to eat peanut butter than I am to commit murder. I am more apt to
give into the temptation to eat peanut butter than I am to murder someone. Were
I likely to commit murder, or if I were given the choice between someone else
eating peanut butter or murdering me, I might think the peanut butter the
lesser sin, but the sin that I do commit (or am likely to) is worse than the
sin that I don't commit (or am not likely to.) How many of us think that eating
peanut butter could be a sin? We don't tend to think it one, but eating peanut
butter can be rebellion against the way God created us. "We wants it, my
precious.... And we shall have it, ah, yes, my precious...."
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Birthday of
Charles Dickens
Frederick Douglass
Sinclair Lewis
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray (Oxford English Dictionary!)
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