Many of my blog posts ask questions about how our worldviews influence our thinking and behavior. So, as Christians celebrate Holy Week this week, it’s a great time to consider two contrasting worldviews at the heart of this week.
My image for these competing worldviews is the Continental Divide, the line that divides the watersheds in our western mountains. Depending on which side of the Divide a raindrop falls, it will eventually end up flowing into the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. Just so, some worldviews make “an ocean of difference” regarding what we believe and where we end up.
The watershed issue I want to consider during Holy Week is the human dilemma the Bible calls “sin”:
Is sin so debilitating that it warps one’s very being? Is sin so powerful that it counteracts all our best efforts to overcome it?
On one side of this divide, people answer “no, sin is NOT this debilitating and powerful.”
Their response would be: “While I make mistakes, I see myself as basically good. With more effort on my part, I can become even better. I have within myself all I need.” The people rolling like raindrops down this side of the great divide are searching for incremental help.
Now this may surprise you, but a good number of folks on this side of the divide are interested in Jesus. They resonate with Jesus’ compassion—especially the way he treats outcasts in his society. They find in Jesus’ teaching and lifestyle just the example they need to slowly become better persons. Thus, they try their best to follow Jesus’ example. Since following Jesus’ example in their individual lives does not require organized religious activity, often these folks are not church-goers; however, they often consider themselves spiritual people.
Here’s a second surprise. One might expect people on this side of the divide to be happy and carefree, while those on the other side (who have a darker view of sin) to be morose or joyless. Strangely enough, I’ve observed that this is often not the case. Why? Because people on this side have their entire well-being emotionally resting on their own efforts.
If they have a great career, a wonderful family, and the respect of their peers—life is good. But what if their career tanks? What if their kids turn out to be an embarrassment to them? What if the person whose love they depend on leaves them or dies? What if they lose the respect of their peers? Remember, their worldview tells them they have within themselves all that they need. In my experience, there is no deeper pit of despair than when trying harder will never be enough. But on this side of the divide, that is the only option.
One final surprise.
I suggest that a disproportionate number of fanatics (even religious fanatics) are on this side of the divide. How can that be? Normally we associate fanaticism with “true believers.” But remember, success or failure on this side of the divide depends solely on one’s own efforts. This means some will do ANYTHING for their cause. They might claim God told them to kill abortion-performing doctors. They might shout vile, hateful language against those who disagree with them. If it’s all “up to them,” some people (certainly not all) will justify any means if it achieves their ends.
On the other side of this divide, people answer “yes, sin IS this debilitating and powerful.”
Their response might be: “I do not have within myself the resources to live a good life. In fact, I see myself as deeply flawed; without outside help, there is no hope for me to be the person I want to be.”
These are people who take sin with a radical seriousness. Instead of incremental help, they are searching for transforming help. In the Bible, we find this encounter:
“When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
People who see themselves as sinners…. People who realize that they don’t have what it takes to live a truly good life … people who know they are sick… These are the people who answer when Jesus calls them. They might be glad for Jesus’ inspiring example. But they know they need more than just a good example. For them, sin is a radical problem in their lives—not a common cold, but a cancer. They know sin has bent and warped them and they cannot fix themselves.
These people find radical help for this radical problem in Jesus’ death on the cross. Although they don’t pretend to understand all the nuances of what happened on the cross, they know they need help—really deep help that cost Jesus his life.
Does this mean they see themselves in a self-demeaning “I’m nothing but a worm” kind of way? Perhaps a few do, but most are as emotionally healthy as anyone else. They just know they need transforming help—help far beyond anything they can achieve on their own by simply trying harder to be a good person.
C.S. Lewis points out the difference between incremental and transformational change:
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And we cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We constantly must be hatched or go bad.”
Two contrasting worldviews. On one side of the great Divide, people go through life as “just an ordinary, decent egg.” On the other side, people realize their situation is more precarious: “we must be hatched or go bad.”
And so, there are two contrasting views of Easter. On one side, Easter is a cultural holiday on which “ordinary, decent eggs” might gather the family.
On the other side, Easter is the supreme day of victory! For anyone who has not genuinely wrestled with the reality of their sin-sickness, Easter makes an audacious claim: transforming change IS POSSIBLE. Jesus Christ is the “outside help” to do for us what we continually fail to do ourselves: be good people.
Yes, all of us are far from perfect, but through Jesus’ death on the cross, sin’s power over us was broken–you and I can experience forgiveness, freedom, release and new life. Jesus’ resurrection that first Easter confirmed that the cross was not the end for him; he conquered sin and death, and so do all who trust in him. While we were hopeless, Jesus died to make us whole.
On this side of the Great Divide, as Paul says, ““Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God.”
Question: On which side of the “divide” do you find yourself? How did you get there? (Please share your thoughts in a comment).
