We were in the mouth of the goal, and the guy next to me was yelling at me. He had a good reason. I had just thrown him to the ground.
It was during a college soccer game with our rivals. We were vying for position on a corner kick, and the guy on the other team was trying to box me out, so I grabbed his shirt and pulled him down. He was not happy.
What I did is not allowed in soccer, though it happens frequently. Just watch professional soccer on TV. The professionals do it all the time. Doesn’t make it right, though, so if you get caught, the ref will penalize you.
In that game, I didn’t get caught. But I sure made the other player mad. When he angrily yelled at me, I tried to ignore him. I wanted to act like it was nothing. Part of the game.
We’ve all made really bad choices, some far worse than an illegal action on the sports field. I’m talking about the times we intend to hurt, wound, and ignore, giving in to our baser selves. I’m talking about when we commit sin or when we omit good behavior. Often, we act like this to the people closest to us. Family members. Friends. Co-workers.
When we do something sinful, after the initial intensity of the situation, maybe after some time passes, we can want the ramifications of the act to fade away. We might want to ignore it. We might not want to deal with what happened. Even if it affected one of our relationships, we can want to avoid facing the offense head on.
It is difficult to bring up. Perhaps we don’t want to admit that we behaved so poorly. We can wish that people will just move on. They all know it happened. Why do we need to talk about it? Can we just get past it? It feels so shameful and awful to rehash it. Let’s just move past all that.
Do we have to talk about it? Do we have to go through the motions of admitting what we did, saying we’re sorry, receiving forgiveness, making amends?
In next week’s blog posts, we read the story of one of Jesus’ closest followers who is in that very situation. This man committed a huge offense. Lots of time has gone by, and he is not dealing with it. What’s worse is that the person he offended was Jesus.
What will happen? You might know the story. Check it out in John chapter 21, the final chapter of the Gospel of John. We conclude our blog series through John this week with the story of Jesus and his friend.
Photo by Casper Nichols on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 