Just this week I read about a church “expelling” two of its members due to a high-profile, scandalous betrayal. The pastor spoke to the media, stating that church discipline was a church-family matter, yet he confirmed that the two people were no longer members of his church. That church missed its opportunity to show the world what scandalous grace looks like.
The church is often worse than the priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan. They saw the wounded man and passed by him on the opposite side of the road. The church tends to walk over to its own wounded (yes, betrayers are often wounded people who create and inflict more wounds) and proceed to kick them.
Sometimes I wonder if the adulterous woman was somehow related to the Pharisees. Was she the wife or sister or daughter of one of their own? I wonder this because the church is best at kicking its own when they’re already wounded.
Some would say church discipline is necessary and that might include dismissing the betrayers from membership. Some would argue that there’s been no true public admission and repentance. Some would argue that expulsion might lead the betrayers to repentance.
Maybe. Maybe not.
People who’ve been caught in betrayal usually aren’t ready to repent. People have to come to repentance on their own; it can’t be forced. Even when there’s been no repentance, no heartfelt sorrow over the damage done, I can guarantee the betrayers are wounded and living in their own private hells. How can the church assist in their healing if it’s kicking at their wounds and turning them away?
It’s sad that it often takes an outsider—like the Good Samaritan—to assist in healing. The priest and the Levite, both religious men of the wounded’s own kind, left him for dead. It was a foreigner, one who by the standards of the day should’ve passed by on the other side, who took care of the wounded man.
Why, Church, are you part of a deeper wounding rather than the healing? Are you worried that wounded, broken people will mar your reputation? Let me break it to you: your reputation can’t get any worse. In fact, I daresay it’s worse than the reputations of the betrayers. In addition, your pews are full of secretly wounded, broken people who are watching to see how you treat others, hoping you’ll offer mercy and grace.
Church, it’s time to step up and help people heal. It’s time to defend your own. It’s time to drop your stones, draw a line in the sand, and stop conversing with the accusers. It’s time to help the wounded. Trade in your church discipline and tough-love tactics for mercy. Otherwise, your message of love and forgiveness is nothing more than a clanging cymbal.
