Jumping Into Lakes With Rocks Around the Neck
A tough, pointed statement from Jesus.
Question: What would it take to make Jesus tell someone to tie a rock around their neck and jump in a lake?
Answer: Causing someone else to fall into sin.
We don’t talk about this enough. We’re so focused on the personal culpability for sin, that we spend very little, if any, time considering what it means for one person to cause another one to sin.
But actually, Jesus says, fall into sin, which may be something different than causing to sin. Sin is as much a noun as it is a verb. We know what it is to sin. But what is it to fall into sin?
I think of those people whose lives have been messed up because of other people’s sins. The obvious examples are the things of abuse or even murder. But there are many other things you can think about that would cause for someone’s life to be thrown into sinfulness, and a sinfulness that is not of their own culpability.
This happens to children a lot, doesn’t it? (And note Jesus’ language in Matthew that deals with this same issue - little ones.) And many of those children whose lives were tossed into the effects of sinfulness by others grow up to do much the same. Sin is a cycle. Many dismiss the notion of generational sin in the Old Testament, but there’s something there, isn’t there?
And so Jesus’ conclusion on it is to invite forgiveness times seven.
Forgiveness times seven.
Can you imagine the faith it takes to do such a thing?
The disciples struggle with it: Increase our faith!
Luke 17:1-6
Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that cause people to trip and fall into sin must happen, but how terrible it is for the person through whom they happen. It would be better for them to be thrown into a lake with a large stone hung around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to trip and fall into sin. Watch yourselves! If your brother or sister sins, warn them to stop. If they change their hearts and lives, forgive them. Even if someone sins against you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times and says, ‘I am changing my ways,’ you must forgive that person.”
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
Prayer
God,
There is more brokenness in this world than I know what to do with. And you call us to forgive. Again and again. Help your people to do such things. The face of the Church is too often a pointed finger. So increase our faith to forgive relentlessly.
Help us to trust you enough to release what we hold. To not pass along what has been given to us in broken ways. To not contribute to the cycle.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.