The Unkindest Cut of All

(Originally posted 2/11/08)

I've recently experienced one more of too many disappointing interactions with so-called Christian brothers and/or sisters. I'll be sparing the details, mostly to protect the guilty. Suffice to say that this event provided more material to people who already take every opportunity to think poorly of me. Never mind that it was founded on falsehood, spread abroad by undisciplined, wagging tongues.

Rumors and gossip. Half-truths and whole lies. Misunderstandings and sour grapes. One expects these things outside of the Kingdom, but insiders should expect better. We are, after all, a chosen people. We should be emulating our King. We should be setting ourselves apart. There's a song whose chorus contains these words: "They will know we are Christians by our love." I guess that some just prefer to hide in the shadows and remain unknown.

Shakespeare undoubtedly envisioned a version of this, albeit a probable secular one, when he wrote these words:

For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar lov'd him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart. . . .

How, pray tell, can we as believers, in good conscience, be so thoughtless and cold as to betray a brother? How can we hate our own blood that much? There is plenty in this world to hate, all of it more deserving of our venom. There are causes a-plenty that need zeal and passion to move them along. Why the do we waste our indignation on those most deserving of our compassion and our forbearance?

Well, in some ways the answer is obvious. We in the light still bear a dark side. Some of us spend more time as Dr. Jekyll, others as Mr. Hyde. For some, the doctor rarely makes an appearance anymore. We all have this dualism. The apostle Paul wrote:

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Did you hear the good news? We have been rescued. We have been set free. Our liberator has cut loose the rotting corpse which had been lashed to us. So what are you waiting for? You prefer bondage to freedom? You say you don't mind the burden of that stinking, rotting corpse you carry around?

Step outside your cell, people! The door is unlocked, open. Leave your friend inside when you come out.

Oh, and close the door behind you.