Humility -- Reconciliation's Crucial Ingredient

 

He was GUILTY. That best describes how Job felt after being confronted by God (Job 42:5-6) (and depicted here by 19^th Century artist Leon Bonnat in Job). Or, could this actually be Job at the initiation of his horror (1:21), when he was totally stripped of everything, perhaps in a metaphorical sense without even his clothing to cover his nakedness? Job experienced his contrition in a pretty stark way. Perhaps only some criminals in a courtroom who’ve been proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt might feel this way, particularly when they understand the gravity of their punishment. Humility and remorse take over. As people who know our own faults, and are confessing that we come up short next to a holy God, this humility is a must. It’s not in the Ten Commandments, but Paul’s words nevertheless are stamped in big red letters for all of us: ‘… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ (Romans 3:23) We cannot be forgiven, without first humbly admitting our guilt and seeking reconciliation. This is an ethic that we Christians must implicitly understand and live out daily. When confronted with God, there is no alternative. And, likewise when we are confronted with truth here on earth, we must admit its nature, as if we are in fact face-to-face with the One who calls Himself True (Revelation 19:11) – in fact, in eternity we will meet this Faithful and True God. The issue today, in our fallen world, is how to face up to truth with humility, so that people who are divided can be reconciled. We’re all not so different from each other -- even if some of our fellow earth inhabitants don’t worship God -- and we all need that big word, more than ever: Reconciliation.

 

Here's an arithmetic-like formula that suggests how we can get to that ‘R’ word. It starts with what Job modeled for us: Humility.

Humility >> Recognize Truth >> Admit Guilt >> Seek Forgiveness = Reconciliation

 

The world of politics, at least in the United States in 2024, has a dilemma unlike what has gone on before, one which is aggravated by the amount of information and the variety of information sources that citizens have to navigate in order to make well-reasoned choices, especially in election years. How does one know who’s telling the truth? We’ve already addressed this in a previous blog entry (Christians for Ethics in Politics: True or False?) on 1 August 2024, so let’s not repeat that. The issue here is that once truth is known, it is often avoided, or somehow swept aside in favor of ‘just moving on’. Our formula above tells us, however, that real reconciliation between conflicting parties in a dispute (our politics is so often disputatious, by nature) cannot be reached without truth, and guilt-admittance, and forgiveness-seeking happening first, not to mention humility first and foremost. Are our politicians incapable of this today? Could they learn something about this from Christians? Yes, on both counts. Here’s some examples of biblical reconciliation, and some other reminders from Jesus about fault-finding in others. Finally, there’s also a link to an earthly example of how one country – South Africa – employed truth as part of a method to reach reconciliation in the post-Apartheid period of their history:

 

·         Judges 10: 10-16 – one of many episodes when Israel admitted their sin and cried out to God for deliverance and forgiveness

·         Job 42:5-6 – mentioned above in first paragraph also

·         2 Samuel 12:13; Psalm 51 – how King David got back in a right place w/God after sinning with Bathsheba, etc.

·         Acts 2:37-38 – note how Jews, when confronted with the truth, repented and got forgiveness through accepting Jesus as Lord and Christ

·         Matthew 23:24 – See what Jesus has to say to people who are acting like hypocrites…the truth about ourselves is often the hardest to hear

·         Matthew 7: 3-5 – More by Jesus as he takes on people who want to point fingers at others before taking care of themselves first.     

 

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa) - Wikipedia

 

See here for information about the artwork, Job, by 19^th Century artist Leon Bonnat File:Léon Bonnat - Job.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.