From here:

The discussion with James, more like an argument, had not gone as Jesus had hoped. James, always a bit feisty anyway, being the second eldest, had not liked having this dumped in his lap unexpectedly. In fact he had been thinking about getting married soon, but fortunately there had been no discussions with the father of the potential bride as of yet. James had always labored in the shadow of Jesus, envying his precociousness and the fact that as the eldest, the first born, he was entitled to the lion’s share of the inheritance, even though he, unlike James, was not actually a son of Joseph. This James found hard to swallow.

James was not even placated when Jesus had told him this morning that the inheritance of the eldest should go to him now. James had not accepted, had not believed the family whisperings about Jesus being the Promised One, God’s anointed of the line of David. For one thing, from James’ point of view, Jesus was already twenty seven and as of yet he had made no moves that suggested he might be the messianic one that was to come. Jesus had shown no interest in armies, or the Zealots, no interest in joining the community by the Salt Sea, no interest in resisting tax payments, indeed his whole approach to such troubling matters seemed to be one of non-resistance. How could the son of David be expected to act like this? It certainly didn’t meet James’ expectations or understandings of the ancient prophecies. True, Jesus seemed to have performed a miracle or something remarkable once in a while, but then a miracle didn’t make Elijah the messiah now did it? At least that’s how James viewed things. At most his brother might be some kind of healer or prophet, but he had shown no signs yet of engaging in public ministry or confronting obnoxious rulers like Elijah did. Who knew what to make of Jesus anyway? He was a mystery.

Check it out.

Lord, you turned my attention back to myself. You took me up form behind my own back where I had placed myself becuase I did not wish to observe myself, and you set me before my face so that I should see how vile I was, how twisted and filthy, covered in sores and ulcers. And I looked and was appalled, but there was no way of escaping from myself. You thrust me before my own eyes so that I should discover my iniquity and hat it. I had known it, but deceived myself, refused to admit it, and pushed it out of my mind.

I was an unhappy young man, wretched as at the beginning of my adolescence when I prayed you for chastity and said: ‘Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.’ I was afraid you might hear my prayer quickly, and that you might too rapidly heal me of the disease of lust which I preferred to satisfy rather than suppress [emphasis mine].

—Confessions 8.7.16-17

In vivid language that is hard for our modern ears to hear, Augustine cuts to the chase regarding the deadly consequences of human sin. He is describing the process of his conversion experience and here he points us to a painful but necessary prerequisite. Until we open our eyes and fully confront the deadliness of our sin and how grievous it is to God, we will never really be open to entering into a saving faith in Christ. Why? Because as long as we are convinced that we are not all that bad, then we must perforce believe that we really do not need a Savior. We can do it ourselves. Consequently we spend much of our time trying to gain merit in God’s sight by doing “good deeds,” which we hope will outweigh our bad deeds, or we simply do not make developing our relationship with Christ our top priority. We just don’t see the need to do so.

But Augustine reminds us otherwise. Sin deceives and sin kills. God finds it abhorrent and until it is dealt with adequately, it will keep us separated from God, both in this world and the next. We really do need a Savior because we are incapable on our own of ridding ourselves completely of our sin.

Augustine is not talking here about self-loathing. God does not hate us as persons nor does he tell us to hate ourselves. Rather, Augustine is talking about the sin that has thoroughly infected us and threatens to kill us by keeping us separated from the Source and Author of all life if it is not dealt with adequately.

BTW, did you catch Augustine’s prayer above? While ostensibly humorous, it reminds us of how sin works. Augustine was more content to wallow in his sin than to have God heal him of it. He preferred death to life because death seemed so much more fun. Augustine’s honesty here and elsewhere is one of the reasons why I love reading his confessions and other works.

This is hard stuff to read from Augustine, but it is the necessary first step in helping us see the problem for what it is and falling to our knees and asking God in his mercy to help us (see also my reflection today from the morning Scriptures).

The Good News, of course, is that God has done something about our sin and the separation it causes in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. He invites each one of us into a life-giving and life-saving relationship so that we do not have to worry about living life apart from God anymore.

Have you been given grace to see your sin for what it is? A quick way to tell is to ask yourself how “good” is the Good News of Jesus Christ. When you see sin for what it is, the Good News suddenly becomes more than just something you say in an almost perfunctory manner. Instead, it is analogous to hearing the news that you do not have a terminal disease after your doctor suspected that you might, and that you are going to be just fine after all. It becomes life itself and evokes a sense of immense gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving. Do you have that in you?

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. My Father’s house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

—John 14:1-7 (TNIV)

Today’s Gospel lesson has come under fire from various enemies of the Cross. “How,” they say, “can Jesus be THE way?” Surely he is only A way. But no, this is not what our Lord said. Jesus said he is THE ONE AND ONLY WAY to the Father. This is true because he is the only one who once and for all has taken care of the problem of sin and the attendant alienation that separates us from God. No other religion except Christianity addresses adequately the problem of sin. Sin separates us from God and we can do nothing on our own to end that separation. But by his blood, Jesus has satisfactorily addressed the intractable problem of sin. By becoming human and dying for us, God in Christ has redeemed us. This is why Jesus is THE WAY.

Moreover, the claims of exclusivity leveled against Christianity are ridiculous. Jesus himself tells us that there are plenty of rooms in his Father’s house. God in Christ invites everyone into a saving relationship with him, but sadly not everyone is interested or will accept God’s gracious invitation to have life, real life, in Christ. You can’t be excluded by another if you don’t accept the offer to come to the party. You have simply chosen not to participate and that is not exclusivity as it is properly defined.

Christians do not believe we are saved because we are good people. To the contrary, we know our transgressions and our sin is ever before us (Psalm 51:3). We believe we are saved because we have a God who loves us and gave himself for us in the person of Jesus Christ. We do not claim to know whether salvation is impossible for those who are not Christians. That is up to God alone. But if we believe our Lord’s words here, it does not look real hopeful for those who do not put their whole faith and hope in Christ. That is why evangelism should be such an important priority for any Christian who takes Christ (and the rest of the NT) at his word. It really is a matter of life and death and love dictates that we should not desire anyone to perish. The thought of that is too heartbreaking to bear.

Our Lord invites us into a life-giving relationship with him. Have you accepted his offer? If so, do you know the joy of living forever with the Source and Author of all life, starting here and now? If you haven’t accepted his offer, what’s holding you back? Come and see. Check Jesus out. If you make an honest effort, you will discover that he is good to his word. You have God’s very word on it and the consistent testimony of countless Christians over time and across cultures.

Scripture and tradition habitually put the joys of Heaven into the scale against the sufferings of earth, and no solution of the problem of pain which does not do so can be called a Christian one. We are very shy nowadays of even mentioning Heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about “pie in the sky,” and of being told that we are trying to “escape” from the duty of making a happy world here and now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere. But either there is “pie in the sky” or there is not. If there is not, then Christianity is false, for this doctrine is woven into its whole fabric. If there is, then this truth, like any other, must be faced, whether it is useful at political meetings or no. Again, we are afraid that Heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so. Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to. There are rewards that do not sully motives. A man’s love for a woman is not mercenary because he wants to marry her, nor his love for poetry mercenary because he wants to read it, nor his love of exercise less disinterested because he wants to run and leap and walk. Love, by definition, seeks to enjoy its object.

—C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, look on us and have mercy on us, you who are both victim and priest, reward and redeemer; keep safe from all evils those whom you have redeemed, O Savior of the world.

—Gallican Missal

God became flesh and dwelt among us, taking up the whole person of a human being, body and soul. As God created the whole person, so he redeemed the whole person. In the resurrected Christ there is a human mind and human intelligence, a soul giving life to the flesh, and a true and complete body. The only thing that we have that he did not have is sin.

—Augustine, Sermon 237.4