BUSTED!

Joshua 9:3-10:43; Luke 16:19-17:10; Psalm 83:1-18; Proverbs 13:4

“… They resorted to deception to save themselves.”

“There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting!”

It is unfortunate (actually, downright sad) that “cover up” and denial have become the expected, first responses to almost every human failing. Maybe I’m naïve, but the most shocking things about this are: it no longer shocks us at all; and it is flat, stinkin’ illogical for anyone who claims Christ as Savior. To the first point, obviously, we don’t demand non-negotiable integrity from ourselves or our leaders, even though we’re quick enough to assume righteous indignation when things don’t turn out well. We deplore any lack of ethics when immorality fails us. As long as we’re happy, though, deluded by perceived stability, we’re also happy to look the other way if our self-satisfaction requires a small sacrifice of truth. It is no real surprise to any student of history, then, that we now find ourselves “busted” in every sense of the word. Christ, prophets before Him, Paul and others all warned us. Our loss of material wealth is merely a symptom of our moral bankruptcy. But there is no integrity in finger pointing, folks. The buck stops with us. We tolerated it. Heck, we encouraged it. Trying to get around that fact is, quite possibly, the worst, most blatant deception in which any of us can engage.

However, all this is redundant. Far wiser men and women have decried our societal woes. That we are reaping what we sowed gets us nowhere. It is simply the door to an even darker, sadder reality: we break God’s heart when we fear confession and forgiveness more than corruption.

Still, that fear is not just remarkably ironic but instinctive. I often think, “How can I get out of (or away with) this?” But I also wonder why. Why, if I truly believe that there is no condemnation in Christ, do I still worry more about what others think and try to cover up my sin rather than confess it and seek forgiveness - UP FRONT!? (This has nothing to do with the “caught with my hand in the cookie jar,” after-the-fact, disingenuous “confessions” we see so often today.) The undeniable truth can only be that it’s more important to me to look good than be righteous. It would – and should – be easy to hate myself for this monstrous blindness, if I ever let myself dwell on it.  So, I don’t. I just lower the bar of “acceptable” behavior until my conscience calluses over, never appreciating how very insidious and evil this way of thinking is.

Looking back, cover up – refusing to engage God or others in immediate confession and forgiveness – is as old a strategy as Eden’s fig leaves. The first, instinctive human reaction to almost every personal ethical lapse is deception. Fear can turn even the most generous saint into a deceptive sinner.  But it is time to ask ourselves what we’re really afraid of. The fact that we fear exposure more than judgment shows just how myopic we are, and just how far we have to go to honestly trust Christ.