Quote from Forum Archives on March 8, 2004, 10:32 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

EXPERIENCE THE PASSION #2/4
OUTRAGEOUS FORGIVENESS
March 7, 2004

Text: Isaiah 53

During his presentation about the impact of the movie, The Passion of the
Christ, Dr. David Mains referred to an event in the life of a well known
entertainer and host - David Letterman. Said Dr. Mains, “This morning my
intent is to talk about a deadly serious matter. Unfortunately, most
Americans no longer view what I’ll preach about with a sense of fear and
trembling. Just the opposite is true. For example, David Letterman said
recently, ‘Here I am, 56, and by all rights it shouldn’t be happening.
But there’s nothing we can do about it now. And I’m terribly excited
about this. I’m scared silly about this. I’m going to be . . . a father!’
The late night host was informing his massive television audience that
his girlfriend, Regina Lasko, was about six months pregnant. ‘I realize
we kind of got the cart before the horse here,’ he laughed. ‘But, I’m
just seeing how much I can get by with, and it’d be nice to have the kid
take over the family business!’ At that point bandleader Paul Schaffer
joked, ‘Tonight, David Letterman Jr. and his guests!’ ‘Oh my God,’
Letterman responded, ‘Does that sound peculiar!’”

Dr. Mains continued, “As long as his name was mentioned, what do you
think God’s thoughts are on this pregnancy? I mean, the studio audience
applauded and laughed and buzzed when Letterman said, ‘I’m just seeing
how much I can get by with.’ The lead to the newspaper story the next day
was, ‘Dave’s next late-night job: diapers.’ Again, what happened was
given a light-hearted spin. Is someone thinking, ‘Come on, reverend, why
make a big deal of a baby being born outside of marriage? With all the
evil and darkness in the world, it’s hardly worth bringing up such a
small matter!’ Well, my first reason is just to demonstrate the attitude
of most Americans regarding sin, which has become quite casual. Then
second, I want to make the point that our thoughts and God’s differ
significantly on this matter. The attitude of a holy God, the God of
Scripture, has always been that sin is a serious matter—in fact, deadly
serious.” (Dr. David Mains, “Experience the Forgiveness,” Experience the
Passion, Mainstay Ministries, CD-ROM)

That is exactly the point that Mel Gibson was getting across in The
Passion of the Christ. Through the Gospel portrayals of the beatings and
the crucifixion, and through the imagery that Gibson used to portray the
internal struggles going on with those involved in the drama. The movie
opens with the quotation from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, in
chapter 53 verse 5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was
crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon
him, and by his wounds we are healed.” The words “transgressions” and
“iniquities” mean our wrongdoing and our sins. They are deadly.

So as we watch or imagine Jesus whipped, one blow after another; as he is
brutalized, bleeding profusely, and in terrible pain; as he is shamefully
presented to the screaming mob that still clamors for his death; as he is
tortured with the crown of thorns being pressed into his head; as the
nails are driven into his hands and feet, then Isaiah’s words from
another verse come to mind: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each
of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.” We want to tell ourselves that we can laugh at one
another’s sinful antics, but to God sin is a serious matter - deadly
serious.

“The wages of sin is death,” reads Romans 6:23. Sin’s payoff is a deadly
serious one. But man doesn’t like the concept of sin. In our “politically
correct” world, it sounds outdated, intolerant, judgmental, harsh, and
offensive. So who’s a no-name preacher to say that a popular entertainer
like David Letterman and his live-in girlfriend Regina Lasko have sinned?
“They probably love each other,” people respond. “The church should
applaud them for not having the fetus aborted!”

But any minister fulfilling the role we are divinely called to fill can
only point out that the only opinion that will hold any weight is God’s.
And the truth is, down through the centuries the Church, following God’s
Word, has consistently seen sin as deadly.

Sin is deadly. Look at it secularly; that is, not spiritually. Even in
our human world, the effects of sin are deadly. Consider just a few of
them: greed, lust, envy, pride, hatred. Any one of these can bring
disaster down upon humanity as individuals and as a whole. The
fascination of sexual conduct without any boundaries has led to more and
more sexually transmitted diseases that are more and more resistant to
treatments. AIDS is far from the only deadly sexually transmitted
disease. But instead of replacing lust with obedience to God, humanity
seeks medical cures. In the meantime, otherwise good men and women
contract diseases and suffer and die.

So, too, with greed and envy and hatred. Isn’t it fairly easy to point
out the misery that such attitudes and behavior wreak upon us day and day
out? Don’t people by the thousands continue to suffer in Haiti and Iran
and North Korea and China and even America just because some people in
the world have established positions of power through injustice and
tyranny and have spawned hatred for others? Haven’t we had killings in
America simply because one person was a different race or because someone
had tennis shoes that another wanted? Isn’t it all too easy to see what
the wages of sin are?

Sin is deadly. It is deadly in the spiritual world as well. It breaks our
fellowship with God. David Letterman and his audience can snicker at
something like his unmarried relations with Regina Lasko, but what has
that done to their fellowship with God? There was none going on that
night, or probably not any other night. Sin cuts us off from God. And it
does us no good to try to be comparative with our sins. In other words,
“Well, I just told a lie, but I haven’t murdered anyone.” True, I would
rather deal with a liar or a cheat than a murderer, but any of those sins
causes our spirit to wither before God. I think that The Passion of the
Christ does a superb job of portraying the downward spiral of Judas
following the betrayal. Guilty for his actions, he is driven to anguish
and then madness by his unresolved guilt. He moves farther and farther
away from God and closer and closer to the demonic evil of satan. As both
the Bible and the movie starkly reveal to us, separation from God is
death. Sin is deadly.

But our story does not end with sin. “But he was pierced for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.” Did Isaiah have any
idea of the full meaning of what he wrote? I do not know, but we do. I
spoke last week about “Outrageous Love.” To do something outrageous is to
do something so outside the ordinary as to be amazing; even unbelievable.
When someone performs an outrageous act, whether good or bad, we cannot
believe it.

Jesus’ forgiveness is unbelievable. We cannot comprehend it. It is
outrageous. Throughout the beatings and the cruelty of torture, the
audience catches flashback glimpses of Jesus as he teaches his hearers to
forgive their enemies; as he gives new life to a woman caught in
adultery; as he teaches his disciples a new covenant. That Jesus could
actually accomplish his own teachings about forgiveness as he is
sadistically beaten and cruelly crucified is beyond our comprehension.
Yet, there it was a couple of times as he was nailed to and then hung on
the cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” It gave
me chills. Outrageous. Outrageous forgiveness.

That has been the testimony of the Christian faith. Outrageous
forgiveness. Sinner after horrible sinner has come to the cross of the
Christ to discover their sins forgiven and removed. Instead of descending
into hell Judas-style, sinners have had the burden of their sins lifted
by the very One who suffered and died for them. Outrageous.

Charlotte loaned me recently a testimony of a named Tom Popania. The
title of his testimony is “Mafia to Ministry.” As a result of a poor
relationship with his own father, Tom developed a relationship with the
Mafia. In fact, he learned that his grandfather had been a boss of some
type in the Mafia. Tom grew in ferocity, power, and wealth. Others feared
him. He survived numerous assassination attempts. He exacted horrible
revenges. He pulled in millions of dollars and spent millions of dollars.
Outwardly, Tom appeared invincible. Inwardly, Tom was amazingly
vulnerable. He would have traded his power and his millions in a
heartbeat for a simple moment of compassion from his father. But Tom
lived a life of hatred; he hated his father; he hated himself; he hated
God.

One day, as he contemplated his fortune and his life, God spoke to Tom.
No lightening, no thunder, no mysterious flashes. But Tom knew God had
spoken to him. God said, “Your millions and your position mean nothing. I
will take from you your very life.” Tom knew that God had just told him
that he was going to hell. But Tom was still not ready to give his life
to Christ. He decided that he was not going to allow God to kill him; he
would kill himself. He prepared to take his own life, another series of
miraculous events took place before he could carry out the deed. He
eventually ended up giving his life to Christ, and through that miracle,
he made an amazing - an outrageous - turnaround. The beatings and cruelty
that Jesus endured was for Tom Popania. Jesus saved Tom through his
outrageous forgiveness.

Now testimonies like Tom’s fill us with amazement at Christ‘s victory.
Easily, we can say, Christ died for a sinner like Tom. Murderer,
extortionist, torturer… Tom was convinced, like many sinners, that he was
“too bad” to be forgiven. Of course Christ died for someone like Tom. But
let us consider the rest of Christ’s amazing, outrageous story.

Jesus died for your sins, as well. He was beaten because I sinned. If you
have watched the movie, or will see the movie, consider that the horrible
beatings and the nails through hands and feet, so graphically reproduced,
were for my sin. And for your sin. What? Your sin was no more than
disobeying your parents? You are a good person? I commend you. The world
does not need to be filled with the likes of Mafia bosses and strong-arm
thugs. It does not need to be filled with dictators who torture and take
life for sport. It does not need to be filled with thieves and robbers
who would break in and steal. But that does nothing for your sin.

Perhaps it is even worse to sit through a movie like The Passion and
recognize that Jesus suffered like that for our so-called “little” sins.
Inconsequential sins. Meaningless sins. Nothing like murder and extortion
and tortures. Acceptable sins. Like living with a girlfriend or
disobeying our folks or spreading a little gossip. “There is no one
righteous, not even one…“ Jesus was beaten, and he bled and died for our
sins - all of our sins. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do.“ Outrageous. Outrageous forgiveness.

Where do you stand in your relationship with God this morning? For you
who see yourself as still deciding whether you want to be called a
Christian, probably the first question you need to answer is whether you
want to live as Jesus modeled and taught - loving God and loving others.
Having fallen short of this standard, having missed the mark, having
sinned repeatedly, it would make no sense to pray, “Jesus, forgive me
please, but be aware that I want to keep living pretty much as I always
have - not paying all that much attention to you, and choosing whom I
want to love and those I want to ignore.”

Rather, you need to admit that you have lived poorly; you’re numbered
among the sheep who have gone astray. You’re a sinner who needs to be
forgiven; you’re lost and wandering around confused. But you want to be
found by the shepherd. If that means getting rid of items in our lives
that are unacceptable, we need to comply. This very day it means you find
time to meet alone with God and set up a plan for how you’re going to
start down a path that’s different than the one you have been on. If it
takes you two months or two years to replace a sinful pattern with a holy
one, so be it. Start the process this very day!

It’s not permissible to make light of the sin, to make a funny remark
like David Letterman and hope people will laugh along with you. This
culture is ripe for judgment. How much longer it has before it’s judged
and found wanting I can’t say, but I promise you this: no nation can sin
with impunity - or sin as though there will never be a day of accounting.
Babylon couldn’t, Egypt couldn’t, even Israel wasn’t able to get by with
that. America with all its swaggering won’t be able to either. And you
don’t want to be sucked into thinking that sin talk is silly or stupid or
not scary anymore.

Does reliving the final hours of Christ’s life through a movie have any
real value? I think so. Mel Gibson’s movie is timely indeed. If you have
seen it, or if you do see it, agree with God that sin is a deadly serious
matter. Jesus suffered not because he was a thief or a murderer or an
insurrectionist or a rapist or a kidnapper or a liar or a con man or an
adulterer or anything of the sort. He suffered and bled and died because
we are all those things. That’s a bitter pill to swallow, isn’t it?

May you know complete forgiveness though Christ our Lord and Savior as
you experience his Passion this Lenten season. “For he bore the sin of
many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Outrageous.
Outrageous forgiveness.
(adapted from Dr. David Mains, “Experience the Forgiveness,” Experience
the Passion, Mainstay Ministries, CD-ROM)

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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