Sin No More

August 31, 2007, 9:30 am; posted by
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Jeremiah 9:1 — “O, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.”

Sin looks most despicable on the heels of a perfect day, and Tuesday was a perfect day. Driving to Atlanta to pick up our son and his wife for a visit, the sky was a brilliant blue with towering pillars of white on the horizon, looking, as my wife noted, “like some futuristic city in the clouds.” A whole week with them began with a family meal of fajitas, shared with our daughter and son-in-law, then was supposed to culminate in a late evening of catching up over pizza. When I went to order the food, I found a desperate voice mail I had missed by forgetting to take my cell phone to Atlanta.

I made the call back, apologizing for being out of reach, then excused myself to visit a home in turmoil. The contrast was striking, leaving a long-awaited joyful reunion to arrive in a place of unspeakable despair and unfathomable anger. A wife has fallen, a husband is so angry he can’t speak. She cannot even look up, her eyes filled with tears, while he can’t even bring himself to look her way.

She looks so lost, and he looks so shattered; in love, yet separated by an impossible gulf of sin.

Outside on the porch he described the confrontation that confirmed his worst fears. “That’s when I lost it. I mean, I really lost it! But I never touched her. I wasn’t raised that way.” Of course I knew before he spoke that he never touched her; I know how his father, a pastor, raised him. He’s a good friend.

But I know her even better, ever since she knocked a cup of hot coffee onto my lap, just 5 years old at a Bible study I was teaching. Her parents were horrified and she — like now — was terrified. This will be a lot harder to fix than that was. All I could do was listen, let them know that there was hope even though they couldn’t see it now, and offer our help.

As I was leaving he said, “I did something really mean to her, but I don’t regret it.”

“I took her Bible, laid it on the coffee table in front of her, and told her to look up all the verses on adultery and read them.”

It’s not until I was back home that I wondered if she actually did read them. If so, she found Jesus saying to the crowd around the adulterous woman, “Let he that is without sin among you cast the first stone.” Then she read that after they all left, He directed his gaze at her and said, “Hath no man condemned you? Then neither do I, go and sin no more.”

Oh Lord, if it were only that simple.


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