2023-02-18 A Meditation on Emphasis

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (Jn 1:17 ESV)

If you ever put emphasis on a word amidst sentences, it may be to highlight that yes this is your politics, or your lifestyle, or your cause. “A woman involved…” suggests that the man speaking it wants to reassure that he is of the straight cut of cloth. Emphasis on the word “sin”, as in “fell into sin”, showcases the believer’s studiousness and diligence: this is an evangelical for certain, if he or she believes in Man’s Fall!

But also there is the temptation we all face to be crowd-pleasers vis-a-vis climbing to the top of the pig pile and asserting that all is Law, and all Law is something we have mastered: thus, we are at the top of this pile of Man’s effort. If we live in the Jewish realm (spiritually speaking) then according to the emphasis in both Paul’s words and Jesus’ words, we are separated from God and alien to Grace. So maybe our friend the would-be convert is stressing on the wrong things; he or she would be forgiven of a lifestyle, but is not forgiven if relying on their own self-righteousness to save. Are there any tears of remorse here? Are those tears sincere?

More than that, it should not be so easy to wander into the Christian fold; nothing can replace the years under false authority, authority of the flesh, authority of the ambitious mind, authority of the wanton indulgences. These things require a stark vote; all, whether willingly or not, are suddenly called to a vote: today, if you hear the challenge, vote to forgive for the sake of that One named Christ. Throw out all cynicism and Man’s need for a purgatorial period of time.

But all this only for those who come after, who come in the wake of tables overturned and merry plugging away curtailed, disrupted, confronted, broken, upset. We know the power of imputation, that is, of being named and labeled as a good man or woman, in a sermon, in an introduction to a new circle of friends (especially when we’ve been prepped that this is about to go down).

All this to say that we are those patient, to know our calling as servants and as soldiers, and therein to recruit widely and yet personally. We recruit to save a crumbling society. We recruit because Jesus distinctly and decisively warms the meal, heals the sick, addresses somehow a Word’s power to cleanse from all interfighting, the power of relief, of grace, when both sides, all sides, in the politics lovingly accept cutting away, discerning relief, extraction, fatherly, motherly love of a special variety. Our boring fussy things are finally labeled secondary and moot. For after all we were bored of those things. Or rather, they had not the power to save or to speak a word in season.