Compassion for the guilty?

Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs”. Luke12:1-3

I rather surprised myself the other day by feeling a wave of sympathy for the prominent people in the post office scandal who bear responsibility for the shocking events that have happened. As we all know, an appalling injustice has been done to hundreds of ordinary, completely innocent, people who have suffered, and continue to suffer, as a result.

So… Sympathy for such people? You can’t be serious! They knew something very bad had gone on; perhaps they connived at it; yet they turned a blind eye and did nothing to put it right. They deserve all the condemnation and even punishment that they get! Sympathy for such people – never!

And yet… I did feel sympathy, though of course nothing like as much as for the victims. Was I wrong in this?

What touched me was a newspaper article which, in effect, exposed one of the guilty people to the gaze of the whole world: her high position in the management of the post office; what she was guilty of doing – and, perhaps more to point, of not doing; how grotesquely well-paid she was; how little concern she seemed to have felt for the victims. It was easy to react, “Yes, let her suffer! It’s all that she deserves”.

But then I found myself thinking of the sobering words of Jesus in Luke 12:1-3: “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known”.

My train of thought went something like this… First, God knows all things, including the secrets of our hearts and the very worst things about each of us. Yet still he loves us.

Second, one day each of us will be called to account before God for the people we have been in this earthly life and for the things we have done – “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Third, this solemn truth applies to every human being, and that includes even those of us who know that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). That’s a wonderfully comforting assurance, but not exactly a truth to make us complacent!

Fourth, the uncomfortable question wouldn’t go away, “How would I feel if all the bad things about me were publicly displayed for everyone to see?” – and, make no mistake, there are plenty of them.

The basic truth can’t be escaped: we are all sinners. To put it in Bible terms: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Or, as Hamlet asks in Shakespeare’s play: “Use every man after his desert and who shall ‘scape whipping?” Who indeed! Certainly not me.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting that people who act wrongly, or even just with appalling negligence, should not be brought to justice; not at all. In this particular case, the sooner that happens the better.

But isn’t there something unsavoury and contrary to the spirit of Jesus when the rest of us – secretly gloating? - decide to come piling in (oh, how righteous and virtuous we are!) to put the boot in and to enjoy their humiliation and mortification. Probably it makes us feel a little better about ourselves… “Well, at least I’ve never done anything like that!” But in reality it just exposes our insecurities and adds to the poisonous air we are breathing all the time. And it covers us with a veneer of self-righteousness.

Most of us have probably managed to stay clear of the really “big” sins: murder, adultery, theft, violence and so on. But have I never hated? or been jealous? or said hurtful words? or been lazy? or turned away from somebody with a claim on my care? or harboured proud thoughts? Have I ever given serious thought to the words of Jesus – that hatred and anger are tantamount to murder, that lustful thoughts are tantamount to adultery? (Matthew 5:21-30). Is it time I did?

We read in 1 Corinthians 13:6 that “love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth”. Yes, the truth must – will – ultimately come out concerning all things. But that is an alarming thought even for those of us who like to think we are basically “good” people. Feeling sympathy for a shamed, humiliated sinner is, I hope, an appropriately Christlike response in such a situation: “There but for the grace of God go I”.

One of the greatest moments in the gospels is when Jesus stood to address the “woman taken in adultery” (John 8:1-11). Her persecutors, confronted by Jesus, have lost their enthusiasm for stoning her to death and melted sheepishly away; whereupon we read: “Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?’ ‘No-one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you’, Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin’.”

Lord Jesus, thank you that your tenderness and compassion reach even to the worst of sinners, including me. Thank you that you came into this world not to condemn it, but to save it. Help me to remember this when I am tempted to self-righteousness, and to hold out the good news of your forgiveness even to those who may be burning with shame. Amen.