Pay attention to yourselves

 I think what I enjoyed the most from the reading from Sunday was the little line in there where Jesus says "pay attention to yourselves." Yeah, about that. About that.

When Jesus says things about having to forgive, about not leading these little ones into sin, he says in there, in the sandwich of words 'pay attention to yourselves.' And truly, as Christians, it's a matter for us to consider - that is, how much of our focus on sin is focus on sin outside ourselves? The answer? A lot. But that's the human condition. 

It's normal to think of ourselves as being the baseline, the neutral, the base, and everything else is a variant around us. And when we think about sin, we think about the sin of other people as sin. That's what makes the world fall apart. That's what causes degradation and collapse. When other people do bad things, that's what sin is. But sin is like breath, as I'm fond of saying. That is, it's much much easier to detect someone else's bad breath than your own. And it's much much   easier to detect someone else's sin than your own. After all, how often has someone offered you a breath mint, or a life saver or gum or something, and you just sort of stared at them. What could they possibly mean by that?

They mean you stink. And believe it or not, your sin is perfectly on display to everyone you know....except you. All the people around you, they know that you have a terrible temper, that you're mean with money, that you're a gossip or a fraud, they know you talk about yourself far too much, that you don't bother thinking too much about anyone else's needs, and so on. They all know these things, even though you don't see them as being integral parts of yourself. 

But when Jesus makes a caution, and says that if you lead little ones into temptation, it would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and for you to be thrown into the sea, he follows it up by saying 'pay attention to yourselves.' And that's a line that you really shouldn't skip over. For in reality, there's likely a lot of time that you spend thinking about the sins of others, what they should or should not be doing, how badly they've gone off course, why they should smarten up, that kind of thing, but Jesus doesn't tell you about that, does he? He says 'pay attention to yourself.' For if we are to be serious, and to assume that Jesus is being serious too, he means what he says. When he says that it is dangerous business to tempt others into sin, that we should be as concerned about that as we are about the sins that we easily identify in others. If we believe that sin is bad, as we do, then we run head on into the reality that we have, whether glibly or deliberately, convinced others to sin who would not have done so otherwise. We took people who were wavering on the fence, not sure if they wanted to go down a path or not, and talked them into going all the way. Sure, they were thinking of dishing out the new hot gossip, or telling you something that they should have taken to their graves, or whatever, and you and I persuaded them to do what they should not have done. In that moment, the conversation could have gone either way - they could easily have been talked out of sinning, but we became enablers, and talked them into it. We did so because it suited us to do so, and like it or not, that sin becomes our problem. Pay attention to yourselves indeed - this is something that we have fallen into on multiple occasions. 

So, if Jesus is truthful, if it matters that we lead others into temptation, then what is to be done here? And if Jesus is truthful that if someone sins against you and repents, over and over again, then you must forgive them, does this apply to us? Pay attention to yourselves, once again.

For in reality, we all know that this is true, do we not? Have we not cursed those who have led us into sin and temptation? Do we not think that they truly ought not have done that? Have we not desperately pleaded with divine providence to smite those who refuse to forgive us for our actions? We believe sincerely that people really, truly, genuinely should have to forgive us when we have gone far wrong. It comes down to the idea that even when we do not deserve to be forgiven, we still should be, because we're us. And that's typically where we can tell that something is true, you know? Like when we believe that other people should do it. And here we are, at the intersection of truth and effort, where we understand that the way we believe that other people should behave is not always the way we want to behave.

We can smell their breath. But they can smell ours.

Pay attention to yourselves, then. Understand that these are words spoken not to people who have long since become dust, but are words spoken to you, too. And that's the issue that we are all going to have to deal with - the things we know people should do are not things that we do, and once we acknowledge that, then we're going to have to deal with the fact that Jesus is pointing out to us our need for a breath mint. Which he provides.

Why be a Christian at all? It comes down to forgiveness of sins, you know. And the forgiveness of sins that we're looking for is the forgiveness of sins that comes through the blood of Jesus. And that is the only way you can ever get or find some solace in the midst of the gap between how you feel people should behave, and how you behave. The greatness of the faith that we have is it's not about telling you to be better. Jesus doesn't show up and tell you to get better breath, you know. Instead, he shows up and says to you 'you need a breath mint. You stink. But I'm going to provide you with one' and then does. The whole work of redemption, of salvation, is simply that. There are ways people should behave, and when you pay attention to yourself, you find that you have not done it, and Christ is the one who makes you whole through the cross.