Sin lurks deep in the hearts of the wicked, forever urging them on to evil deeds. Psalm 36:1 TLB
Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that
those who write against it want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it desire the glory of having read it.
Blaise Pascal
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
Sin, understood in the Christian sense, is the rent which cuts through the whole of existence.
Emil Brunner
What would have happened to the Beast if the Beauty hadnt appeared? You know the story. There was a time when his face was handsome and his palace pleasant. But that was before the curse, before the shadows fell on the castle of the prince, before the shadows fell on the heart of the prince. And when the darkness fell, he hid. Secluded in his castle, he was left with glistening snout and curly tusks and a bad mood.
But all that changed when the girl came. I wonder, what would have happened to the Beast if the Beauty hadnt appeared? Better yet, what would have happened if she hadnt cared? Who would have blamed her if she hadnt? He was such a well, such a beast. Hairy. Drooling. Roaring, defying. And she was such a beauty. Stunningly gorgeous. Contagiously kind. If ever two people lived up to their names, didnt the Beauty and the Beast? Who would have blamed her if she hadnt cared? But she did care.
And because the Beauty loved the Beast, the Beast became more beautiful himself. The storys familiar, not just because its a fairy tale. Its familiar because it reminds us of ourselves. There is a beast within each of us.
It wasnt always so. There was a time when humanitys face was beautiful and the palace pleasant. But that was before the curse, before the shadow fell across the garden of Adam, before the shadow fell across the heart of Adam. And ever since the curse, weve been different. Beastly. Ugly. Defiant. Angry. We do things we know we shouldnt do and wonder why we did them.
My beastly side
The ugly part of me sure showed his beastly face the other night. I was driving on a two-lane road that was about to become a single lane. A woman in a car beside me was in the lane that continued. I was in the one that stopped. I needed to be ahead of her. My schedule was, no doubt, more important than hers. After all, am I not a man of the cloth? Am I not a courier of compassion? An ambassador of peace? So I floored it.
Guess what? She did, too. When my lane ended, she was a fender ahead of me. I growled and slowed and let her go ahead. Over her shoulder she gave me a sweet little bye-bye wave. Grrrr.
I started to dim my headlights. Then I paused. The sinister part of me said, Wait a minute. Am I not called to shed light on dark places? Illuminate the shadows?
So I put a little high beam in her rearview mirror. She retaliated by slowing down to a crawl. This woman was mean. She couldnt have cared less if the whole city of San Antonio was late; she wasnt going to go beyond fifteen miles per hour. And I wasnt going to take my lights out of her rearview mirror.
Like two stubborn donkeys, she kept it slow and I kept it bright. After more unkind thoughts than I dare confess, the road widened and I started to pass. Wouldnt you know it? A red light left the two of us side by side at an intersection. What happened next contains both good news and bad. The good news is, she waved at me. The bad news is, her wave was not one youd want to imitate.
Moments later, conviction surfaced. Why did I do that? Im typically a calm guy, but for fifteen minutes I was a beast! Only two facts comforted me: One, I dont have a fish symbol on my car, and two, the apostle Paul had similar struggles. I do not do what I want to do, and I do the things I hate (Romans 7:15). Ever felt like saying those words?
If so, youre in good company. Paul isnt the only person in the Bible who wrestled the beast within. Hard to find a page in Scripture where the animal doesnt bare his teeth. King Saul chasing young David with a spear. Shechem raping Dinah. Dinahs brothers (the sons of Jacob) murdering Shechem and his friends. Lot selling out to Sodom and then getting out of Sodom. Herod murdering Bethlehem toddlers. Another Herod murdering Jesus cousin. If the Bible is called the Good Book, its not because its people are. Blood runs as freely through the stories as the ink through the quills that penned them. But the evil of the beast was never so raw as on the day Christ died. The disciples were first fast asleep, then fast afoot.
Herod wanted a show.
Pilate wanted out.
And the soldiers they wanted blood.
So they scourged Jesus. The legionnaires whip consisted of leather straps with lead balls on each end. His goal was singular: Beat the accused within an inch of his death and then stop. Thirty-nine lashes were allowed but seldom needed. A centurion monitored the prisoners status. No doubt Jesus was near death when his hands were untied and he slumped to the ground.
The whipping was the first deed of the soldiers.
The crucifixion was the third. (No, I didnt skip the second. Well get to that in a moment.) Though his back was ribboned with wounds, the soldiers loaded the crossbeam on Jesus shoulders and marched him to the Place of a Skull and executed him. We dont fault the soldiers for these two actions. After all, they were just following orders. But whats hard to understand is what they did in between. Here is Matthews description:
Jesus was beaten with whips and handed over to the soldiers to be crucified. The governors soldiers took Jesus into the governors palace, and they all gathered around him. They took off his clothes and put a red robe on him. Using thorny branches, they made a crown, put it on his head, and put a stick in his right hand. Then the soldiers bowed before Jesus and made fun of him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! They spat on Jesus. Then they took his stick and began to beat him on the head. After they finished, the soldiers took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified (Matthew 27:2631).
The soldiers assignment was simple: Take the Nazarene to the hill and kill him. But they had another idea. They wanted to have some fun first. Strong, rested, armed soldiers encircled an exhausted, nearly dead, Galilean carpenter and beat up on him. The scourging was commanded. The crucifixion was ordered. But who would draw pleasure out of spitting on a half-dead man?
Degrading the soul
Spitting isnt intended to hurt the bodyit cant. Spitting is intended to degrade the soul, and it does. What were the soldiers doing? Were they not elevating themselves at the expense of another? They felt big by making Christ look small. Ever done that? Maybe youve never spit on anyone, but have you gossiped? Slandered? Have you ever raised your hand in anger or rolled your eyes in arrogance? Have you ever blasted your high beams in someones rearview mirror? Ever made someone feel bad so you would feel good?
Thats what the soldiers did to Jesus. When you and I do the same, we do it to Jesus too. I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me! (Matthew 25:40 NLT). How we treat others is how we treat Jesus. Oh, Max, I dont like to hear that, you protest. Believe me, I dont like to say it. But we must face the fact that there is something beastly within each and every one of us. Something beastly that makes us do things that surprise even us. Havent you surprised yourself? Havent you reflected on an act and wondered, What got into me? The Bible has a three-letter answer for that question: s-i-n. There is something badbeastlywithin each of us. We are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3 NASB).
It is not that we cant do good. We do. Its just that we cant keep from doing bad. In theological terms, we are totally depraved. Though made in Gods image, we have fallen. Were corrupt at the core. The very center of our being is selfish and perverse. David said, I was born a sinneryes, from the moment my mother conceived me (Psalm.51:5 NLT). Could any of us say any less? Each one of us was born with a tendency to sin. Depravity is a universal condition. Scripture says it plainly: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way (Isaiah 53:6 NKJV).
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?(Jeremiah 17:9 NIV). There is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10, 23 NKJV).
We are beasts
Some would disagree with such strong words. They look around and say, Compared to everyone else, Im a decent person. You know, a pig might say something similar. He might look at his trough partners and announce, Im just as clean as everyone else. Compared to humans, however, that pig needs help. Compared to God, we humans need the same. The standard for sinlessness isnt found at the pig troughs of earth but at the throne of heaven. God, himself, is the standard.
We are beasts. As French essayist Michel de Montaigne said, There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. Our deeds are ugly. Our actions are harsh. We dont do what we want to do, we dont like what we do, and whats worseyes, there is something worsewe cant change.
We try, oh, how we try. But Can a leopard change his spots? In the same way, Jerusalem, you cannot change and do good, because you are accustomed to doing evil (Jeremiah 13:23). The apostle agreed with the prophet: The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to Gods lawindeed it cannot (Romans 8:7 NRSV) emphasis mine).
Still disagree? Still think the assessment is too harsh? If so, accept this challenge. For the next twenty-four hours lead a sinless life. Im not asking for a perfect decade or year or even a perfect month. Just one perfect day. Can you do it? Can you live without sin for one day? No? How about one hour? Could you promise that for the next sixty minutes you will have only pure thoughts and actions? Still hesitant? Then how about the next five minutes? Five minutes of worry-free, anger-free, unselfish livingcan you do it? No? Nor can I.
Then we have a problem: We are sinners, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23 NIV). We have a problem: We are not holy, and those who are not holy will not see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14 NLT). We have a problem: We are evil, and evil people are paid with punishment (Proverbs 10:16).
What can we do?
Allow the spit of the soldiers to symbolize the filth in our hearts. And then observe what Jesus does with our filth. He carries it to the cross. Through the prophet he said, I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting (Isaiah 50:6 NIV). Mingled with his blood and sweat was the essence of our sin. God could have deemed otherwise. In Gods plan, Jesus was offered wine for his throat, so why not a towel for his face? Simon carried the cross of Jesus, but he didnt mop the cheek of Jesus. Angels were a prayer away. Couldnt they have taken the spittle away?
Beauty becomes the beast
They could have, but Jesus never commanded them to. For some reason, the One who chose the nails also chose the saliva. Along with the spear and the sponge of man, he bore the spit of man. Why? Could it be that he sees the beauty within the beast? But here the correlation with Beauty and the Beast ends. In the fable, the beauty kisses the beast. In the Bible, the Beauty does much more. He becomes the beast so the beast can become the beauty. Jesus changes places with us. We, like Adam, were under a curse, but Jesus changed places with us and put himself under that curse (Galatians 3:13).
What if the Beauty had not come? What if the Beauty had not cared? Then we would have remained a beast. But the Beauty did come, and the Beauty did care. The sinless One took on the face of a sinner so that we sinners could take on the face of a saint.
From He chose the nails. Thomas Nelson Publishers © 2000. Printed with permission
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