Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
But they delight in the law of the LORD,
meditating on it day and night.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.But not the wicked!
They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
They will be condemned at the time of judgment.
Sinners will have no place among the godly.
For the LORD watches over the path of the godly,
but the path of the wicked leads to destruction. (Psalm 1 NLT)
Visit any middle school across Canada or the US, and you will soon see a live demonstration of the human propensity for creating in groups and out groups. These invisible, social fences we build are generally designed for one purpose: to help us know who to pay attention to. There is a somewhat disputed social theory called Dunbar’s number that posits we can only have a maximum of 150 meaningful connections at any given time.
Regardless of whether Dunbar’s number is accurate or not, we all understand the limits of trying to maintain too many connections at once. We simply do not have enough time or emotional bandwidth to maintain close relationships with everyone we meet.
While there are benefits to this natural tendency toward creating different concentric circles of relationships – from loved ones at the center, to friends further out, and acquaintances and strangers at the edges – we can also easily fall into the trap of sticking every person we meet into one of two categories: Us or Them.
This practice can be especially insidious among Christians. It is all too easy for us to latch onto passages of Scripture that delineate between the wicked and the righteous, like Psalm 1, or the parable of the sheep and goats found in Matthew 25. Naturally, we associate ourselves with the sheep, and those we don’t like or agree with are clearly goats.
But what if instead of reading these passages as a pat on the back at how good we are doing and a remonstration toward everyone we butt heads with – what if we read them through a different lens? What if we read them through the perspective of Jesus on the cross?
On the cross, Jesus doesn’t see the world divided into sheep and goats, or righteous and wicked, or even sinners and saints. Instead, he sees everyone as people loved by God and extends to them his bloodstained hand of redemption. As we read in Luke 23:34, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.’”
Jesus sees us as fallen people in need of redemption. In his eyes, we are sinners invited to sit at the table of the righteous through Christ’s death and transformed by his resurrection. And he has tasked us with extending that same invitation to others, letting them know they, too, can sit at this table next to Jesus and be made new. Yet, so often we sit at this feast, looking at the delicious food spread before us, and rejoice in our fortune without thinking of those outside the dining hall.
Yes, at Judgement Day, the sheep and the goats will be separated, but that is not a task given to us – in the here and now or in the ever after; it God’s task, and his alone. Our task while we are on this Earth is to be people who invite others to taste and see the goodness of the Lord so they might be united with him.
What would it take to shift our thinking from “Us versus Them” – or even “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” – to “Would you like to sit next to me at the table of Jesus?”
Michael Benson is the communications director for the North American Baptist Conference.