Crocodile Tears

Crocodiles can't chew up their victims. They have to tear off chunks from their prey and this is hard to do unless the prey is somehow stationary. The croc can do a death roll and take off limbs here and there because the body provides a counterweight but most often what is needed is other crocs to grab onto the victim in order to position the prey in a way so that they can be fully devoured.

We have a contagion in this culture where we have become apologists for people who do evil rather than a defenders of the innocent where empathy is for the victim or victims. I've seen this in and outside the church. Those who do the evil are constantly excused under the guise of forgiveness and grace, and then the victims are often blamed or dismissed as bitter obstacles of Christlikeness, as though Jesus would justify the perpetrator and condemn the victim.

Let us be clear, Christ condemns the perpetrator and vindicates the victim. The perpetrator is condemned and must repent, not just say sorry, but cease from his evil and make amends in whatever way he can. If he has committed a violent crime, amends means execution, even if he is forgiven. If it's a pastor who has committed an equivalent spiritual crime, amends means being removed from his position, even if he is forgiven. 

There aren't a lot of people with whom Christ interacts in the Gospels who we see as repenting from a particular sin where restitution is needed but a huge example comes to us in the form of Zachaeus. It is interesting to note here that Christ does not pronounce salvation has come to Zachaeus and his household when he believes and asks Christ to dinner. He does not pronounce it as He walks through the door. He announces it only after Zachaeus promises to return what he has stolen from others sevenfold and to sell his securities and give the money to the poor. That is when Christ says that salvation has come to his household. Until then, Zachaeus was damned even though he had Christ in his house because his repentance needed to include amends.

But why amends? Because Christ is on the side of the victim, not the perpetrator. Until the perpetrator of an evil makes amends, Christ is against him. Grace and forgiveness do not remove the need to make amends, they come as a response to it. 

But this isn't merely a literary speculation. Christ actually says it outright. In Matthew 5:21-26, Christ states that unless amends is made with a brother against whom an individual has committed an evil, specifically here, the evil of attacking him even verbally in anger, no forgiveness will be offered by God and his worship is in vain.

Why? Because God is on the side of the victim, not the perpetrator.

So why are we defense attorneys for the perpetrators rather than prosecutors for victims like God and His Christ are? Because we're criminals trying to justify ourselves by turning grace into a license to excuse evil. We see ourselves as sinners so we don't want to condemn others who are sinners (as long as we aren't the victims of course--then we're all about the victims). That's where you get all the pronouncements, "I am Lindsay Clancy." 

Others do so out of partiality because the perpetrators are liked by them better than the victims. Hence, the perpetrators, their family or friends, must have had some good reason to do what they did, and even if not, they should just be forgiven without a repentance that makes amends. 

But both of these are actually the sin of partiality because both emphathize with the perpetrator due to some personal connection rather than seeking righteous judgment, which is the judgment of God upon the perpetrator for the vindication and restoration of the victim.

But only God can justify, so self-justification is the path to Hell for both those who do evil against the innocent and those who justify the wicked and condemn the innocent or those who represent them for daring to pursue amends from those who have harmed them. 

In other words, it is not merely those who do the evil who are damned without true repentance but also those who would proclaim them innocent or forgiven when no true repentance with amends has been made. These are they who "loose" the Law and the Prophets for others whether they do these things themselves or not (Matt 5:17-20). 

It is true. They are Lindsay Clancy. They are the murderers who justify other murderers, and they shall share her condemnation. They also forge a path for other murderers since now murder has been excused. As it is here, so also in the church. Those who excuse the unrepentant guilty because of partiality have joined them in their damnable sins and shall share in their judgment.

After all, it takes a group of crocodiles to rip apart the prey caught by the jaws of only one of them. They have all taken a piece out of the victims. They shall all share the same end.