The Sin of Others

(Ezra) "saying: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today." Ezra 9:6-7

Ezra has just been informed that the people have allowed their daughters and sons to intermarry with the people of the land. This was forbidden and he is upset about it. He rips his clothes and pulls out his hair and beard. Then he prays the prayer above. The prayer goes beyond these verses, but I thought these two were enough.

Ezra, takes on the sin of others. He heaps himself in with the people who actually sinned, but he didn't do this. He never married someone outside of his people. His sons and daughters didn't intermarry with them. Yet he takes on the sin. Read through the Old Testament and you'll see that one man's sin affects the whole, so Ezra's response is not unusual.

In our day in age it is. Why? Well we don't have to take on the sin of anyone else because Jesus did that for us. So we do not need to rip our clothes and pull out our hair when someone else sins. What I did think while I read this passage was that his response of their-sin-is-mine-sin meant he understood the idea that His people are connected.

Once again, we do not need to take on anyone else's sin, but we tend to respond to the sin of our brothers and sisters with reproach, haughtiness, and condescending. We feel it is our place to condemn, punish, shun. The Scripture clearly tells us how to deal with sin in others and it is done in love. So what if instead we actually did responded with love. Not acceptance of the sin, but love on the person with understanding that we all sin. Love on the person with help, what ever kind God directs us to give them. Love on the person with uplifting in prayer that God will gently convict and correct them. Love on them with help as they go through repentance. Love on them with understanding that there are consequences and they may be hard, but necessary. Just love on them.

I wonder what the Church would be like if we did that.