An Awful Lot of Scandal: Part Ib

His footsteps come on the heels of those whose hands are dipped in blood, in lies, in adultery and prostitution. HIS hands are clean, untainted by any kind of evil whatsoever. But does He strut? Does He take this opportunity, handed to Him on the silver platter of centuries, to rub it in the faces of those less righteous than He?

No.

His pace is meek, His dignity unassuming and humble. He is preceded by men with tarnished reputations and He is surrounded by them as well, but He taunts no one. He does not make a noisy celebration of His own exemplary example. He does not say, “See, this is what you should be like and I am better than you for being so.”

No.

Rather, He does the most astounding thing. He does a thing that the most righteous of human beings have never even contemplated. He takes His exemplary example, His righteous reputation, His flawless life and He walks up to me and says…

“Let’s trade.”

…What?

“You are drowning in regret, swathed in a past that is rife with wrong, more so than with right. But I have come, and walked upright and righteous — see? No stains. So come, let us trade.”

You mean to say…You’ve done all that work of righteousness, not to illuminate and chastise my own unrighteousness, but to trade….righteousness for unrighteousness?

Yes.

His footsteps come on the heels of those whose hands are dipped in blood, in lies, in adultery and prostitution. HIS hands are clean, untainted by any kind of evil whatsoever…

Some would say it’s the greatest scandal, that this King would give up His reputation in exchange for one like mine.

I say it is The Most Beautiful Scandal Of All.

In No Uncertain Terms: Part I

this is how the world falls over.

first, someone does something bad. then, someone else calls it ‘good’. so other people do it too, because it’s ‘good’. eventually, someone comes along and says, “this is not good. this is bad.” people take sides. there is lots of fighting. then someone says, “fighting is bad. we should stop fighting.” everyone stops fighting but some people are still doing bad. they do bad for a long time. the other people, who said it wasn’t good, start to wonder if maybe it’s not THAT bad…

more people start doing the bad thing. occasionally, someone pipes up that it’s not good, but then someone else says, “fighting is worse. and what do you know anyway? stop judging me.”

over time, there are more people doing bad than there are people doing good. so bad starts to look good and good starts to look bad.

and then the world falls over.
—
the world is slowly falling over because the people doing good have stopped talking and the people doing bad never listened anyway.

so who’s fault will it be when the world falls over?

everyone’s. including yours and mine. †

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. Romans 3:10