Easter Monday

"You do not strike a blind man; you take him by the hand."

Note: Happy Easter Monday to all.  I look forward to joining any who would like to join us this Wednesday at 5:00 pm Eastern for prayer and silent resting in God.  Click here to register for the Zoom link, if you haven’t registered before. I usually re-send the link as a reminder around noon on Wednesday to all who have registered. (It’s free.)

I read a couple of newspapers online, including The Washington Post. The Post allows readers to comment at the end of most articles, and I tend to look at those comments when an article is likely to elicit thoughts on religion, especially Christianity.

Today, on Easter Monday, a reader who identifies as Christian commented that “Jesus spoke of the necessity of repentance. He said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. He said, go and sin no more. To teach that he accepts you in your sin is blasphemy.”

I hear some version of this often. “To teach that he accepts you in your sin is blasphemy.”

Here on Easter Monday, I offer this suggestion: To say that Christ does NOT accept you in your sin would be blasphemy. But it’s important to say also that Christ accepts and dearly loves the blasphemer!

I depend on this for my own healing and salvation. Emily Dickinson speaks of my heart when she writes, “We both believe, and disbelieve a hundred times an hour, which keeps believing nimble.”  I don’t have any interest in dueling scripture citations, but I understand the scriptural quotations of the commenter differently.

Yes, repentance is necessary if in this life you are going to know more fully the unconditional love and acceptance of God. Yes, Jesus said, “Go and sin no more,” but he knew full well that we all were going to sin (fall short) every day of our lives — he gave us a noble aspiration. And yes, when I love Christ, I tend to hear and obey Christ’s commandments more readily; but in spite of my best intentions, I seem to ignore Christ almost as frequently as I love him. I take comfort in the tax collector who said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” not the Pharisee who was so darned good. (Luke 18:9-14)

I don’t have much interest in dueling scripture quotations – I’m much more interested in the overwhelming arc of Divine Love and Forgiveness in the bible as a whole. But here in the Easter season when I hear again the idea that “To teach that Christ accepts you in your sin is blasphemy,” I’m drawn to ponder a couple of scriptural quotations that speak of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension:

“When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32)  That’s about as inclusive as it gets – all people, saint and sinner alike.

and

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)  If you ask mockers and crucifiers if they know what they are doing while they’re mocking and crucifying, they will respond, “Hell yes, we know what we’re doing!”  These are the very people Jesus forgives. People like yours truly.

One early Christian theologian illuminates this last verse for me. Speaking of how Christ treats those who turn away from him, he writes, “The ignorant need to be instructed, not punished. You do not strike a blind man; you take him by the hand.”

The bottom line for me is that Christ very intentionally embraces all people, saint and sinner alike. It is a Way, a Truth, and a Life that initially offends our sense of fairness, perhaps. But ultimately (in this life or the next, I believe), such healing love brings us to our knees in wonder, converting the unrepentant sinner and confirming the tentative faith of the saint.

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"Is it not true that Christ draws near with love to those who turn away from him? …  So it is that our divine Master instructs with benevolence those who set themselves against the divine teaching. For the ignorant need to be instructed, not punished. You do not strike a blind man; you take him by the hand."

Dionysius the Areopagite, (5^th-6^th Century), Letter 8

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"Where is God’s justice? Here, in the fact that we were sinners and Christ died for us:
In place of what sinners justly deserve, he gives us resurrection."

Isaac of Nineveh (7^th century), Ascetic Traditions, 60

Rafa (3) and Tuck (13), who miraculously manifest the Divine Love and Forgiveness everyday