Wincing at the Gospel

Last week, I blogged about how we can seek to avoid Jesus by developing a false sense of righteousness. Those who don't think they're ill won't be interested in knowing what the physician has to say.

This week, I came across a poem by Julie Stoner that addresses the same issue. It's from the June/July 2009 issue of First Things. Poetry and I often don't get along, but this one I like:

"I Did Not Come to Call the Righteous"

Matthew 9:9–13

We ninety-nine obedient sheep;
we workers hired at dawn’s first peep;
we faithful sons who strive to please,
forsaking prodigalities;
we virgins who take pains to keep
our lamps lit, even in our sleep;
we law-abiding Pharisees;

we wince at gospels such as these.

How to Avoid Jesus

The boy didn't need to hear it. There was already a deep black wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.

In her 1952 novel, Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor provides this description of the protagonist, Hazel (Haze) Motes. In the course of the novel, Motes does everything he can think of to get away from Jesus. In the end, Jesus wins, though it's not entirely clear whether Motes does.

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Regardless of what's going on with Motes, himself, I find the quote above insightful. During Jesus' ministry years, the Pharisees had convinced themselves of their functional sinlessness through observing a set of laws and procedures. As long as they followed those rules, they figured they were OK and didn't need anyone to save them from anything (John 8.33-41). Of course, the temple sacrifices reminded them of sin, but they were always getting forgiveness because they correctly followed all the procedures that were required of them.

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To them, and to us, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Sick people who know they're sick go to the doctor for help. Sinners who know they're sinners go to the Savior for true restoration and forgiveness.

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Hazel Motes tried to avoid Jesus by living a perfect, moral life. When that didn't work for him, he tried denying Jesus' existence altogether. Denying he was sick didn't work, but neither did denying there was a doctor who could detect sickness.

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The best way to avoid Jesus is to avoid sin. As deluded as Motes was, at least he knew he fell short. We, on the other hand, sit in our church pews and sing our cheesy worship songs and delude ourselves into thinking everything's alright...all the time giving nary a thought to the falling short that we do every day in every way, and nary a thought to our inability ever to make it right.

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[My friend David just posted his own blog entry about Flannery O'Connor. Check it out.]

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Photo: Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes in John Huston's 1979 adaptation of "Wise Blood".

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Augustine On: Your Need for God's Grace (and My Need, Too)

"Therefore, just as it is by your doing that men who were once drunkards are not so for ever, it is also by your doing that those who were never drunkards are not drunkards now." (Confessions, X.31)

If I'm stuck in a sin, I need God's grace to get out. And if I'm free of that particular sin, I need God's grace to stay out.

It seems to me that this leaves no room for self-righteousness, because the "saint" is as dependent upon the grace of God as the "sinner." The picture I have in my mind is of two starving people. If one of them finds food and gorges himself, will he then consider himself superior to the other simply because his stomach is full? He's full because he ate food, not because he is a superior person. The other is hungry because he needs food, not because he is inferior. Fullness comes from food, and obedience comes from God's enabling.

So whether we fall or stand, we need God's grace. And "if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall" (1 Cor. 10.12).