In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops (Luke 12:1-3).
Jesus could see beyond the façade. Today we may call it, Authenticity. Our desperate need to be our “true selves.” Yet sludge remains abysmal no matter how authentic. No different is the human soul and the Self. Within the pieces of good remain great evils, evils that few think they are capable of and yet human history through the testament of mankind demonstrates otherwise. Jesus grasped what humanity was without God: disfigured images authentic or not. The Pharisees were precariously in the deep as they appeared to have all the knowledge and refinement of the old laws of Moses, but inwardly were “whitewashed tombs” (Matt. 23:27). They would have been better off being “authentic” in the least of realizing their works were never enough. Yet, they would remain damned eternal.
Modern sensibilities fare no different. We remain slaves to our works and hidden deep within our very being, sin resides. This manifestation has various worldly terms including a Banality of Evil (Arendt), the Shadow (Jung), apuñña (Buddhism), or dhanb (Islam). In the International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, a study of sin in African Religions by Kasomo Daniel from the Department of Philosophy Religion and Theology, Maseno University, Kenya wrote concerning the “pragmatic” views that African religions took concerning sin,
In African religion, sin is always attached to a wrongdoer and ultimately the wrongdoer is a human person. The sense here, then, is that sin and evil do not and cannot exist in the human experience except as perceived in people (Kasomo, 147).
Humanity is bound to their nature. A plant nor an animal sins against another plant or animal. Judgement is ours alone. Sin in the inner turmoil of mind and soul. Paul the Apostle pin-pointed the dilemma in Romans 7:15-20:
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Late modernity easily sideswipes sin as a means for pleasure, entertainment, and riches; a TikTok experience that conceptualizes sin as goods and commodities to be bought and sold on the global markets. Worldly placement of right and wrong have taken pseudo pursuits rather than matters of the heart. Not in all cases, but increasingly and disturbingly so. It therefore stands that a great reminder must be placed before the eyes of man, a firm warning of what comes not only from sin, but the ultimate consequence. Additionally, the great hope and freedom that can come from breaking our nature for a super-nature, the supernatural justification of Christ. And lastly, what it means to live out truth in a postmodern world as Christians in community, as sinners and saints, suffers and servants just as Saint Peter instructed.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Next in the series, Sin: Breaking Bad for Good
Citations
Kasomo, Daniel. An investigation of sin and evil in African cosmology. International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 1(8) pp. 145-155, December, 2009. https://academicjournals.org/article/article1379413683_Kasomo%20%20pdf.pdf