While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly. (Ezra 10:1,2 ESV)
Honesty
We moderns have a spirit of competition. We seem to feel the need to be the best at everything, or at least something. We think our country is horrible if we are not number one. We lose heart for our college team if they do not have a winning record. We compare income, height, weight, age, career path, and good taste… always yearning to be the best in everyone else’s eyes.
Even in the church.
The strongest evidence for this is the rarity of public confession. We do not want to drop down in the church ratings lists (as if such things exist) and so we keep our sins to ourselves. After all, it is no one else’s business, right?
But Ezra, guided by God, felt differently. He openly admitted, confessed, and hated his sins.
Where we are more likely to bring light onto someone else’s errors, Ezra kept the light pointing at his own heart. Where we are more likely to compare and find ourselves at LEAST not as bad as that other person, Ezra cast himself down. Where we make excuses publicly, Ezra wept.
And what Ezra started, a crowd followed.
What if we copied Ezra today? What if we humbly admitted that we, too, just like those horrible sinners down the road desperately need Jesus? What if we stopped feeling that odd pride that at least we do not do THAT SIN… but only do this little sin… forgetting that every sin is hated by God in exactly the same way?
What if the churches became known, no longer for judgementalism, but instead for open honesty that we need help? And we find that help in the only place help is found.
We are not different than ‘those people’ because their sins are worse. We are different because we have declared we need Jesus.
We are peculiar… let us be honest why.