Lenten Perspective: Sinners and Hypocrites

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Sinners and Hypocrites

When some of the legal experts from among the Pharisees saw that [Jesus] was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, "Why is he eating with sinners and tax collectors?"

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do.  I didn't come to call righteous people, but sinners."

Mark 2:16-17 (CEB)

Come, ye weary, heavy laden
Lost and ruined by the fall
If you tarry till you're better
You will never come at all

From "Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy" by Joseph Hart

Toward the beginning of the First Letter of John, we read,
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.¹

If you're like me, then your first impulse, when reading this passage, is to read light as "goodness" and darkness as "sin."  When read in such a away, the writer's initial statement tells us that God is pure goodness and that in God there is no sin.  Obviously that part of the passage seems correct, but, if we continue reading the passage in such a way, it tells us that, if we are sinful, then we are essentially alienated from God and that, if we want to have any kind of relationship with God, then we need to be cleansed of our sin.

It is commonly said among Christians that "God cannot look upon sin."  In my opinion, this statement just doesn't seem to ring true in light of what we read in the Gospel story.  It is also, I think, problematic and illogical.  If God is as allergic to sin as so many Christians make God out to be, then Jesus never could have lived on the Earth, a planet full of sinners, because, as He said, He and God are one.²

Have you ever noticed that, in the Gospel story, Jesus seems to get along with so-called "sinners" a lot better than He gets along with the supposedly good, upstanding religious folk?

One day, a paralyzed man is brought to Jesus on a stretcher.  Jesus tells the paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven and then proceeds to restore his ability to walk.  Some religious scholars who are present accuse Jesus of blasphemy, because only God can forgive sins.³  Later on, Jesus meets a tax collector named Levi and calls him to be one of His disciples.⁴  Jesus' calling a tax collector is remarkable, because tax collectors are among the most notorious sinners of the day.  They are considered traitors to their own people and supporters of an evil empire.  That evening, Jesus enjoys dinner with Levi and some of his fellow tax collectors, and the religious leaders wonder why Jesus would associate with such people.⁵

 

Jesus, the Son of God, is eager to announce the forgiveness of sins, showing that God is eager to forgive sins, yet the religious leaders apparently want to create barriers to absolution.

Jesus, the Son of God, is happy to associate with known sinners, yet the religious leaders want to ostracize them.

It seems to me that it is not God but rather the religious leaders who cannot look upon sin.

The religious leaders of Jesus' day want to believe that they are righteous, but, in reality, they aren't any less sinful than anyone else.  They might act as if they are "holier than thou," but they aren't really holier than anyone.  Their sin is their use of their positions in the religious establishment to prop themselves up and scapegoat other types of sinners, like tax collectors and prostitutes.  Basically, they are hypocrites.  The word hypocrite is derived from an ancient word that describes an actor, a person who makes a life of pretending to be someone the person is not.⁶

The so-called "sinners" of Jesus' day cannot deny that they are sinners, because they have been branded as such and ostracized by the religious leaders.  They are drawn to Jesus because He shows them the love and compassion the religious leaders have denied them.  Jesus is a lot more critical of the religious leaders, who seem to be in denial about their own sinfulness.

Jesus is a friend to sinners, but He is a bit less friendly toward hypocrites.

The First Letter of John continues, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."⁷  When we confess our sins to God, we are not telling God anything that God does not already know, because God knows everything about us.  Confessing our sins requires us to be honest with ourselves, but claiming that we are sinless requires us to have a severe case of denial.

I wonder if maybe, in this letter, light and darkness actually represent truth and deceit as opposed to goodness and sin.  In this case, the writer's initial message tells us that God is truth, and that, in God, there is no deceiving ourselves.  We depend on light for our sense of sight, because the only thing our eyes can actually sense is light.  Without light, nobody can see anything at all.  Similarly, without the light of truth, we cannot see ourselves for who we really are, and, if we don't want to see the truth about ourselves, we must dwell in the darkness of self-deception.

We are not expected to be sinless, but we are expected to be honest.

We are not being ordered to change so that we may have a relationship with God; we are being invited into a relationship with God in which we will be changed.  Being cleansed of our sin is not a prerequisite; it is a result.

Preacher Brian Zahnd suggested in a recent sermon that our sinfulness is less of a legal standing before God and more of a sickness of the soul, making Jesus less like a defense attorney and more like a doctor.⁸  When the religious leaders question why Jesus would associate with known sinners, Jesus replies, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."⁹  We cannot be healed if we are unwilling to admit that we are sick.

It is currently the beginning of the season of introspection and penitence known as Lent.  We all have parts of ourselves that we know are not as they should be.  During this season, may we be honest with ourselves about these things, knowing that, as sinners, we have a friend in Jesus.


Notes:

1. 1 John 1:5-7 (NRSV)
2. John 10:30
3. Mark 2:1-12
4. Mark 2:13-14
5. Mark 2:15-16
6. Wiktionary: "hypocrite"
7. 1 John 1:8-9 (NRSV)
8. Brian Zahnd.  "We Need a Healer."  Word of Life Church, 02/07/2021.
9. Mark 2:17 (NRSV)

The Calling of Matthew was painted by Jacob van Oost in the mid 1600s.