Who’s to blame?

The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.   Isaiah 53:5

Amy Ullock decided to get a tattoo on her arm.   It was to be a beautiful tattoo — literally.  Ullock wanted the word BEAUTIFUL tattooed on her arm. The tattoo artist typed the word into his computer, got a sample copy of it, showed the copy to Amy, traced it on her arm, and tattooed away.

When he was done Ullock’s delight quickly turned to distress when she noticed that the word Beautiful had been misspelled.  It was written Beatiful.

To say the least, Ullock was upset.  The tattoo artist was also upset.  Naturally, there was a fight.  It was a fight that eventually took both of them to a Nova Scotia small claims court.

Ullock blamed the artist.  The artist blamed Ullock.  Eventually, the judge ruled Ullock couldn’t blame anybody other than herself for the mistake.  The artist had shown her the sample copy before doing his work.  It was her responsibility to catch the error before it became permanent.

In life, there is no end to blaming others for our problems.   In debt up to your eyeballs?  Those credit card companies were irresponsible for issuing multiple cards to you.  The university should have known that those student loans were more than you could afford.

Suffering in marriage?  It’s your spouse.  It certainly couldn’t be you!  

Those politicians are to blame for the mess this country is in.   Have poor self-esteem?  That must be because of the way your parents raised you.  

Yeah, other people are to blame for the fact that we are out of shape, suffering from addiction, and primarily focused on serving ourselves rather than others.   Someone out there is to blame.  

And while we are at it, let’s blame God — the one who originally created a perfect world — for all the ills that we see in this world.

In worship at our church, we often begin by reciting 1 John 1:8  “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

There is a reason for that.  By playing the victim card all too often, we set aside personal accountability and our need and responsibility to change.  

This is nothing new.   When God confronted Adam in the Garden of Eden after they had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam blamed both God and Eve for his wrong.  In turn, Eve blamed Satan for tempting her (Genesis 3).   

Then along comes Jesus.  How different is He.  Here is Someone who comes to take blame, rather than give it.  The prophet Isaiah tells us some 700 years before Jesus even appeared:  The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him/Jesus.

All that is wrong in this world was not brought about by God, who created it all, and declared it to be good.  The evil we see, was brought about by our rebellion against God.  

No matter.  By dying on the cross, Jesus paid for all our wrongs – the sin of the whole world.  

Jesus took the blame, so that God might look at us and declare us to be blameless in His sight when we trust and believe in Him.  Ephesians 1:4

Now, isn’t that BEAUTIFUL?  

John C. Lehenbauer, Pastor Emeritus

Christ Lutheran Church and School, Perry

johnlehenbauer@gmail.com