This week I am considering two contrasting worldviews at the heart of the Christian Holy Week. Depending on which side of the Continental 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” between people.
The watershed issue I am considering is what 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?
On Monday I considered those who answer “no” to these questions. On the other side of this Divide are those who answer “yes.” 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. They are searching for transforming change. 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…. who realize that they don’t have what it takes to live a truly good life … who know they are sick… These are the people who answer when Jesus calls. 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 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 not incremental help but transforming help—help far beyond anything they can achieve by simply trying harder to be a good person.
CS Lewis points out the difference between incremental change 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.”
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.” Two contrasting worldviews.
The events Christians remember this Holy Week offer genuine transforming change for all who know they are sick and need help.
