A while
ago, my bible study discussed the idea of loving those who are difficult to
love. The speaker talked about how easy it is to love the three year old sold
as a sex slave to a wealthy American who beat her and raped her repeatedly for
years. The point to his speech was to say that it’s easy to love the child, but
that we should work to love those who are difficult to love. I automatically
assumed he was going to talk about the American man, but instead he talked
about the little elderly woman who is causing a ruckus in the neighborhood. His
speech was on loving those who are difficult to love, not who society deems
impossible to love, or even unworthy of love. As he was speaking, I could sense
the fierce anger that he had for this American. It was an anger that consumed
him. And from that moment forward, I started to become angry as well, but for
an entirely different reason.
You’ve
probably heard the statistics:
1 million
children are sold into sex slavery a year.
There are
27 million people currently in slavery around the world.
50,000
American women are sold into sex slavery each year.
What do
you think when you hear stats like these? What do you think of when you hear
the name Jerry Sandusky? Maybe phrases such as this come to mind: “Child molester.”
“Rapist.” “He should have his balls chopped off.” “He deserves to rot in hell.”
Maybe you’ve
cast out similar accusations; I’ve heard each of these and more in the last few
days. Maybe you feel the anger that the speaker in my bible study felt. Maybe
you believe that these people deserve to be punished.
But this
is where my anger comes in.
Yes, what
the American man did to the little girl is horrible. Yes, what Jerry Sandusky
allegedly did is awful, and yes, I believe that they should account for their
actions. But to cast so much judgment upon these men, to hurl insults, and
convict them in our hearts angers me. Who are we to cast judgment upon them?
In John
8, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus for him to condemn
her to be stoned. What was his response? “Let any one of you who is without
sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
We,
sinners in God’s eyes, are casting stones at these men.
My heart
is so broken for Jerry Sandusky, and this American man. I cannot imagine what
they must be going through. Getting caught was undoubtedly the worst day of
their lives. The world is completely against them. They are so lost and are
living in such darkness. Their lives are ruined. But what’s even worse is that
should nothing change in their hearts, they are going to spend eternity in
hell.
Sometimes
it feels so good to wish this upon those who are caught doing horrible things.
It feels so right to cast these stones at them. Because yes, I hate what they’ve
done. Yes, I hate that they have hurt people so much. They deserve to rot in
hell. But then again, so do I. The only difference is that I’ve accepted salvation.
I hate
what these men have done, but then I stop to think that they are just broken
men, and that Jesus loves them. In fact, Jesus loves them as much as he loves me. Jesus
loves them so much that He died for them. If Jerry Sandusky was the only man on
earth, if this American man was the only man on earth, Jesus would have died to
save him, even despite knowing what they would do to these children. It
breaks my heart because I know it breaks His.
I hurt
for the little girls and boys that were abused. But the world hasn’t turned
their backs on them. Do these men have a chance if the Christians who are
supposed to love them are the ones filled with hate?
Yes, hold
them accountable. Command them to stop sinning. But love them.
Jesus
loves them, why can’t we?
And to
all of those who have done what the world views as horrible I say this: There
is nothing that you can do that will take away God’s love for you. There is nothing
that you can do that can prevent you from accepting His forgiveness.
