We are a judgmental lot. We think nothing of judging others’ sins, ripping flesh from their bones, gutting them and leaving a carcass laying on the side of the road. Sort of like the carrion birds were doing to the dead possum the other day. They scattered as I rode by. I didn’t look back but I can pretty much guarantee they “re-congregated” at the carcass to pick it apart some more. It didn’t dawn on me till this morning how much like us they are. Obviously, I’m not talking physical appearance. We are not so hideously ugly as they are.

Unless…

Unless you consider what we often do. The old saying is way too often true:

“The church is the only army that shoots its own wounded.”

I go back to my original statement: We are a judgmental lot. We tend to do that even more when, after classifying sin, we pick someone apart. Their sin is worse than mine or one sin is worse than another.

Those thoughts hit me as I read an exchange from Luke 13:1-9 that Jesus had with His audience about some Galileans Pilate had killed. “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worst sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think they were worst sinners than all the other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no.” I confess I don’t totally understand this passage but it appears to me they thought the Galileans were worse sinners and deserved their lot, but Jesus was correcting that line of thinking.

Maybe it time we stopped the “It is a worse sin to do or be (fill in the blank)” and start seeing all sin for what it is- an affront to God ALL of us are guilty of and in His eyes there is no sin worse than another, except one-the rejection of Jesus. From that there is no return except repentance. 

“Father, help me not to be judgmental, but to turn the searchlight on myself. Help me to stop classifying sin and putting it into files of degrees of sin.”