Sometimes, questions fly through my head and won’t leave. Questions like “How could the Carolina Panthers play their worst game of the season during the biggest game of the season?” and “How does a major presidential campaign not ensure that they’ve locked up all the domains with their candidate’s name in them (see jebbush.com to learn more – OOPS!!)?” Important questions for sure, but this post is the result of another question that popped into my mind recently.
Did Jesus ever call another person a sinner?
I know, it seems like a weird question, almost pointless even, because surely he did, right? I mean, he’s the Son of God, and if anyone was qualified to look another person in the eye and speak the words, “You’re a sinner,” it had to be Jesus. Right?
Wrong.
Seriously.
He never did. Not once. Ever.
It took me most of a morning this week to confirm it, but after reading every red letter contained in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it’s true, and I’d recommend you grab your favorite Bible and take the time to verify it.
Heck, I might need to again, as well, because my “raised in church” self still can’t believe it.
But it’s 100% true.
So Jesus never talked about sin?
Well, that’s not true. In fact, as I read through the Gospels, it became more and more obvious that Jesus talked about sin and confronted sin a lot. He never backed down from pointing out the obvious to those who were struggling with sin. He never once substituted the word “weakness” or the phrase “bad habit” for it.
In fact, for someone who didn’t call people sinners, he sure did talk a lot about sin. And that, friend, is the genius of Jesus.
Jesus wasn’t scared of sin, and he wasn’t shy about the fact that his entire mission was to save sinners. He even told amazing stories about the joy in heaven when just one sinner repents (Luke 15:7, 10). He just never called someone a sinner in a way that would shame them, brand them, and mark them the way that the religious leaders did. Pharisees called people sinners (Matthew 9:11; Luke 7:39), people called themselves sinners (Luke 5:8; 18:13), even crowds of sinners called other people sinners (Matthew 11:19; Luke 19:7).
But Jesus? Not one single time. From others, the term “sinner” was derogatory, inflammatory, and “punch in the throat” anger producing.
But Jesus? When he talked about sin, people who had been trapped suddenly saw light at the end of the tunnel. People who had been shamed found a man who lifted their heads and their spirits.
[Tweet “Jesus had a way of dealing with sin without labeling the sinner.”]Jesus had a way of dealing with sin without labeling the sinner, and it would serve the church well to reclaim that art, because we tend to do the exact opposite. We label the sinner and seem powerless – or at least, unwilling – to deal with the sin.
The results are obvious, aren’t they?
We shame; he saves.
We label; he loves.
We distance ourselves; he draws near.
We cement the old identity; he creates a new one.
And he does it all without ever ignoring the sin or shaming the sinner.
It’s pure genius, and it’s the genius of Jesus.
