When I was a kid, we used to ride the bus to school. Back in those days, in either sunshine or rain, we would trudge up the hill to catch the bus. Excuses to our parents were neither made nor accepted. It wasn’t so bad, and a person could get used to it since all the other kids performed the same feat every morning. It was an era of seldom-traveled rural roads - most of them dirt; and big-old yellow school buses with numbers painted on their sides.
Everyday was the same and I even liked riding the bus – until he showed up. He was a year older than me, tough as nails from growing up dirt poor and being the product of a broken home. The boy was vicious, and he took it upon himself to make my life miserable from the very first moment that I met him. Being that he was much bigger than me, when I could not avoid him I merely accepted whatever punishment he dished out on any given day. After all, I figured since he was in a grade above me, once we made it to the school he would have to go his separate way and I would be left in peace to lick my wounds. This worked for a year or so. Until he failed a grade in school, which is what we called it back then. Today I think it is called being ‘held back’ a year, but it was the same thing. What it meant was that now even the arrival at school was no consolation as he was now in the same grade as me.
It only got worse. A few years down the road he began visiting my church on Sundays. I did my best to avoid him as it was the well-learned path of least resistance to his antics, and needless to say I didn’t welcome him or thank him for coming to church as we usually did for our visitors. Thinking back in honesty, it would have made no difference to him, either. He would have met my well-wishes with sadistic derision, or a swift and painful thump on the ears, or both.
One Sunday morning I was appalled when he walked down the aisle and surrendered his soul to Jesus. The nerve! I thought to myself. Surely he did not mean it, as hateful as he was. After services it was part of the routine to join in a line and welcome new members into the fellowship of the church. I stood off in the back, refusing to go down the aisle and shake his hand. It angered me even more when I saw the sweet, dear old ladies of the church obviously fawning over him. I decided he may have fooled them with his act, but he wasn’t going to fool either me or God. We both knew better!
Years went by and I am proud to say that I got over it. He must have as well, because there was a noticeable change in his life from that day forward. Yes, he slipped a time or two; we all do. But his hatefulness and cruelty stopped as if someone had turned off a faucet. Although we became friends later, I never told him how I had felt that day he gave his life to the Lord. It was probably due to a sincere sense of shame on my part that I never did so.
In Romans chapter 2, Paul opens with a fantastic thought: “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” Sin is sin no matter who commits it and we have all shared a common blame since Adam and Eve went Dutch on a fruit-salad back in the Garden of Eden. We like to compare ourselves to others because in our deceptive hearts we think we look better when we do so. Sadly, God is not going to compare us to each other. He will compare us to His Son and the perfect example He set for us while he walked here on earth.
I may not ever commit murder or adultery, and knocking over a convenience store is probably not in the near future for me. But I cannot judge others that do those sordid deeds and believe that my sins will look smaller or somehow pale in comparison. I’ve missed the mark in my own life on countless occasions. In the end, God will judge me for sin in the same manner that he will judge a serial killer – by His Word. His Word states that all have sinned. Not some. Not a few. All.
It is exhilarating to me when I attempt to comprehend it. The same grace that God provided to save my soul and furnish me with eternal life is also available to even the vilest sinner on death row. God can forgive us both. Jesus died for us both. Heaven has been prepared for us both.
It truly is an amazing grace.
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