Our pasts are always with us, whether we want them there or not. You can’t escape your past. It shapes and forms you so that you react and behave in certain ways. Though your context has changed, your past is still relevant. And most of us are frantic to hide our pasts so people don’t stare. So the question is this: “So how can your past be redeemed and utilized for good.” How can all the things that you have experienced, the good and the bad, the best and the worst, help you be a better person, be a better Christian, love God and others more?
There is a great scene from Lost:Kate: “I want to tell you what I did.”
Jack: “I don’t want to know. It doesn’t matter who we were, what we did before the crash. 3 days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over.”
That is the picture of redemption. If we were stranded on an island we would get a fresh start. No one would know anything about you unless you told them. God has the same attitude, even though he does know everything about us. He accepts us despite what we have done. There ‘s a little story in John 8 about this.
Jesus stands among a crowd, and they bring her in. She’s known throughout the town as a slut, and they finally caught her in the act. They caught her having sex with some guy she barely knew. So they bring her before Jesus and start in on her.
“We caught her Jesus. This whore was caught having sex, and she’s not married. We can’t have this sort of stuff in our synagogue. What would people think? Let’s get rid of this filth. What do you think? Beating? whipping? stoning? Hello? Jesus? Are you going to play in the dirt all day or are you going to get up and help us execute the law?”
Jesus finally rises and says: “I’ll help you. Let’s head down to the stoning pit. Everyone who doesn’t have a past grab a stone and let’s get going. That’s right—all of you who haven’t done anything wrong or worthy of punishment can join me. We’ll get her good.”
As he stoops back down the people look around in amazement that he would say something like that. Their past’s were nothing compared to this sluts, but there it was. How could they pick up a rock, after all that had done some things. So they went home, embarrassed, angry, frustrated that they could not enforce their brand of justice.
Jesus looked at the woman and said simply—“I guess you aren’t going to die today. I’m not going to stone you. I care more about forgiveness than justice. But let me make it clear. If you leave here today having accepted my forgiveness and you go back to your promiscuous way of life, you’re trashing my grace. Live new. Live free. Live forgiven.”
This is the story of God’s faithfulness compared to our sinfulness. It was completely within Jesus’ right to execute that woman. It is completely within God’s right to press the smite button for us. But he doesn’t. God is faithful to his character of love and holiness no matter what we do. Psalm 107 contrasts God’s faithful past against our sinful past. The point of the psalm is clear—God’s faithfulness can redeem our unfaithfulness.
No matter what the people did, no matter how often they turned their backs on God, God would still restore them. God’s faithfulness overrides our unfaithfulness. No matter what we have done, no matter what we will do, God can forgive. And until we get that, our pasts will haunt us, control us, and dictate how we live, and we will never get past them. We can either accept God’s forgiveness or return to the life of sin. But if we choose to live a life of gratitude because of God’s faithfulness, he is calling us to be the voice of light in the dark world. He is calling us to learn from our pasts and build up the body through our experiences. May we live like those who have been given a fresh start and may we treat one another in the say way.
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