Day: September 15, 2024

“When he saw her, he had compassion on her”

Guilt and compassion, strange as it may seem to say, are killing us. They belong to our current cultural and institutional disarray. Why and how? Because of a profound misunderstanding about both guilt and compassion. We are made to feel guilty about the actions of those in the past at least as seen through the ideological lenses of the present. The old scriptural adage and truth that “the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children of the third and fourth generation” (Ex. 34. 7, Dt. 5.9) now turns into our being expected to confess the sins of the fathers. The effects of the sins of others does, of course, affect many other generations, but we can only confess our own sins and not the sins of others. We do not, after all, have windows into the souls of others, past or present. This is not to say that we shouldn’t seek to make things more just in our world and day though what that might mean is itself a big question.

The Old Testament lesson at Mattins explicitly emphasises the point about the ownership of our own sins. It begins with a proverb that reflects Exodus and Deuteronomy about the so-called ‘generational curse’ – “the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children of the third and fourth generation”. “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Ez. 18.2). But the Lord tells Ezekiel that “this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel” (vs. 3). For “behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins shall die” (vs. 4). Each is responsible for his or her own actions, his or her own sins, before the truth and justice of God. “The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (vs. 20).

The whole passage importantly turns upon our complaint to God about injustices and injuries, something which God counters in very strong language. It is a strong counter to the victim culture of our times. “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?” (vs. 25). It is all about each of us being called to account. This is actually our freedom and dignity as belonging to who we are in the sight of God. “I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord God” (vs. 30). “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me,” for all sin is really primarily against the truth and goodness of God, “and get you a new heart and a new spirit!” (vs. 31), the law as inscribed on our hearts as both Jeremiah and Paul teach. “Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord God; so turn and live” (vs. 32). To turn and live is repentance and grace. These are powerful statements that counter a mistaken view of guilt. Another’s guilt cannot be our guilt however much it affects us.

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