Law Enforcement, hypocrites, and Christ

A few weeks ago I was checking my newsfeed on Facebook and a friend had posted an article about a rural borough police officer caught in a drug deal.  About a year ago the town I live in was shocked by the conduct of one of our officers who shot and killed a person in what looked to be a very manageable situation.  We all know a story.  My friend is a police officer and his comment was something like, "Don't judge us all by the bad ones."  My comment back to him was, "I'm glad ministers don't face this scrutiny."  Sarcasm...It's a tool of the angry.  I must admit that if you want to make people angry, pretend to be caretakers and enforcers of the law, any law, and hold other people accountable while not following it yourself.  You can be a police officer, a US marshall, a soldier, a doctor, a lawyer, a minister, etc...we are all supposed to work within a frame that is a set of codes and even "conducts"-but it doesn't always work.   

We all know a story...one of a minister who hid sins for years, a police officer caught doing something he or she was supposed to protect us from...every day there seems to be a new story.  Christian people are often reduced and portrayed as the most reactionary, the most legalistic among us.  How convenient for our enemies!  Whether we want to admit it our not, those who enforce the law have enemies who want to expose the hypocrisy of their real lives.  

The reality of the "bad egg" in every basket that seems to ruin the whole bunch reminded me of the Pharisees and Sadducees in the New Testament.  They were the enforcers of the law, and they took it seriously, but while they held the people accountable-they found it hard to actually live it and they lost the true meaning behind the law.  Their enemy was Jesus, who exposed them for what they were...hypocrites.  In fact, to find a good Pharisee in the New Testament seems like a miracle.  We are grateful to read the story of Nicodemus in John, to see him eventually follow Christ and restore the meaning of God's law.  

Jesus teaches, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Yet, he would say just before that, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

What we must understand is we are all in some way or another hypocrites...I certainly am.  Any minister who has taught a class on marriage and family should feel this way, because we all have so much to learn in relating to our spouses and our kids.  Yet, I made a choice to make Jesus my Savior and Lord, and I am His.  Therefore Jesus, who fulfilled the law with his perfect life and shameless sacrifice, accepts me into his cleansing presence.  

Paul would say it this way, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I think the "Old" is the person who is judged and condemned by the law. God is not reconciling the world to himself through the law, but through Christ.  Those who enforce the way of God must do so through Christ and not through a legalistic approach to righteousness.  This is true mainly because we will be exposed by the law.  That is what the law does, and so I am never surprised when someone is held accountable to the law even if they are a law enforcer.  Actually, it seems right to do it.  

But in Christ we are "New" creations, and as new creations we realize that it is only by the power of Jesus that we are even able to be considered righteous - that means law abiding. That is why we should point the world, our friends and neighbors, to Jesus Christ and not to the law.  If there is any good in me, it is because of Jesus Christ and not my ability to live the "perfect" life.  And for my friend who was taken aback by the conduct of one of his colleagues, I would remind him that it is not the badge, the position, or the years of service that makes a person good, but the connection they have to their faith and to their community.  In my line of work, it is not the sermons, the weddings, the funerals, and the years of service that makes one a good minister, but his or her connection with God through Jesus and obedience to the Holy Spirit's leading.    

Draw near to God, because we can through our relationship wth Jesus, and God will draw near to you.  I want to live grateful that I can be the righteousness of God - not by law, but by Christ in me!  

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