Do You Believe?: A Teaching Story

 

Do You Believe?

You have been selected to serve on an ad hoc jury to help improve the flow of cases through the trial court. Soon the bailiff brings into the courtroom  an accused offender, a lifelong, often-convicted criminal. As he looks down at the list of current charges, the judge can be heard to mutter, “Not you again.” Then the judge looks through some of the summaries of the man’s previous convictions, pausing and sighing more than once. After looking back and forth between the criminal himself and the thick list of his most recent crimes, the judge fixes his eyes on the man for several seconds, seemingly trying to understand. Finally, he breaks the silence.

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

The man remains motionless and continues to look at the floor.

Looking at the list once more, the judge asks, “Do you realize that you have broken every one of the Ten Commandments, some of them several times?”

The man just stands there, remaining silent for a few moments. Then he says, “It’s true, I guess.”

“You guess?” demands the judge, angered by the man’s apparent flippancy.

“Well,” the man replies, “I might have broken all the Commandments, as you say. Ten of them, are there? And maybe I did break several of them more than once.” The man looked up at the judge for just a moment, and then looked down again as he said, “But I want you to know, that, in spite of appearances, I believe in them all.”

“You what?” screamed the judge.

“ So I throw myself on the mercy of the Court.”

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Questions

1. If you served on this ad hoc jury, would you vote to increase or decrease or leave the recommended sentence of this seemingly incorrigible criminal? Why would you vote that way?

2. What does the criminal mean by, "I believe in them all"?

3. The obvious analogy from Earthly courtroom to Heavenly courtroom might make us stand back a minute before condemning the criminal. The question here, then, is, "Do you respect God's law and justice system? Do you want harsh justice for everybody else but melting mercies in great supply for yourself?"

4. For a recalibration of God's response to sin and crime, read the sermon by Jonathat Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," and then read the Gospel of John. God hates sin "big time" as the neighborhood kids used to say, but he loves us. The fact is, God loves  us so much that we often develop a too-easy attitude toward sin.