Pearls Before Swine

For the more theologically savvy among you, you might be expecting profound and deep thoughts (not by Jack Handey) on Matthew 7:6. Instead I am going to introduce you to the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine” by Stephen Pastis.

I love this comic strip. I never cease to smile when I read it. I don’t know of Pastis’ spiritual convictions, but he often includes religious themes that make me smile and think. Over the next few posts I want to “exegete” some of these strips with you and think about how they can inform our worldview, our view of ourselves, and our knowledge of how others may view us. So without further adieu…

What a wonderful reminder of what people often experience when they hear sermons. What can be passion or excitement from the preacher’s perspective becomes judgment to the hearer. It seems that the Christian world has worked too hard at communicating the message of sin and not hard enough at preaching the message of grace. Interestingly, it is the message of grace that is the overwhelming message of Scripture and must be revealed by the preached Word. The sinfulness of the people tends to reveal itself.

This is something I learned shortly after I became a follower of Jesus. Having been surrounded largely by hypocritical Christians my whole life, when I became a Christian I did my best to tell all of “those” Christians how hypocritical they were and how much they needed to know how sinful they were. In essence, that was the message I preached whenever I got the chance.

As I began to live life as a follower of Christ though, I learned that I didn’t really need to be reminded of my sin. I was all too aware of it every day. Though there were times where I looked at God with a certain amount of arrogance and self-confidence, for the most part I knew I was a pretty crummy person who cared a lot more about himself than I did about loving God or loving my neighbor. And for that matter, I found out that most of the people around me were really in the same boat.

We live in a world filled with hurting people who know deep in their hearts that they are not the people they ought to be and are not the people God would have them be. In the dark recesses of our souls and the closed closet doors we open for no one, we know what lurks. And when we actually get the courage to go to church or talk to a Christian friend and open our hearts just a little bit, we desperately pray for a message of hope. All too often, we get Father Pippy’s wagging finger pointing at our sin.

I read a strip like this and am reminded of the woman that was presented to Jesus in John 8. This was a woman who was accused of committing adultery by the religious leaders of that time and was presented to Jesus to be judged. These religious leaders probably looked a lot like Father Pippy. And Jesus’ response is nothing short of amazing! He knows that she is sinful and that the charges are true. And Jesus, given the opportunity to judge her for her sin simply says, “I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

When I read a comic strip like this I am tempted to minimize sin. Yet Jesus does not ignore nor minimize sin. Sin is spoken of as it is, something to flee. But it is not our job, nor has it ever been our job to be good enough for God. And so Jesus reminds the woman that it is her association with Him that allows her to leave without condemnation. Her call is to sin no more, but she does so in the pleasant company of overwhelming grace. Sin and grace are inseparable.

May my speech and yours call sin what it is. And may our wagging fingers be pointing at the cross  of Jesus which removes condemnation.