What happens in Vegas, stays with Jesus
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6
Daniel J. Habben
āWhat happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!ā
Did a smirk cross your lips? Maybe youāve had one of those weekends in āSin Cityāāyou know, where you let down your hair and drank too much or went to a show that youād never want Mom to find out about. You excused your behavior with a wink because āwhat happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!ā
The impact of sinful choices
If only that were true. Your credit card company wonāt forget what you did in Vegas. Itāll itemize your expenditures and remind you of them a month later. And while Mom may not find out what you really did in Vegas, your conscience knows. You canāt leave that behind in Vegas, can you?
Of course, Las Vegas isnāt the only āSin City.ā Pick any place where humans are gathered, and youāll find enough sin to fill a city. The prophet Isaiah put it this way: āWe all, like sheep, have gone astrayā (emphasis added).
The idea of sheep wandering aimlessly on a hillside probably doesnāt raise the hair on the back of your neck. So letās alter the illustration a bit. Picture a car that āwandersā over the centerline. A moment of inattention is all it takes. What if you were the driver of the wandering car? Imagine helplessly watching while paramedics try to revive the people you just struck. If your carelessness caused their deaths, would you have the courage to attend their funerals? It wonāt stay in Vegas, will it?
This Good Friday weāll get to attend such a funeral. The victim, Jesus, died on a crossāand Isaiah says it was our sins that put him there. We went astray and crossed the centerline of Godās commands . . . and it was Jesus who stood in the path of our sinful collision course. This was no fender-bender. Jesus took our sins head-on and paid with his life. So this Good Friday memorial service, weāll come before the Father with hearts that recognize and regret the impact our sinful choices had on his innocent Son.
Our victory through Jesus
Though we are guilty, we also can attend this Good Friday funeral with deep relief, confident of our forgiveness. In our reading, Isaiah says that God laid our sins on Jesus so that we would have peace. So what happens in Vegas doesnāt stay in Vegasāit stays with Jesus. Weāre clean. Weāre forgiven. No one can accuse any of us of being someone God could never love. He does love us. Good Friday is proof. What happened in Vegasāor last Friday or this morning, for that matterāwas pinned to the cross with Jesus.
So what is our response? The events of Good Friday donāt give us an excuse to swerve toward āSin Cityā and let loose because we know God will forgive us. His forgiveness snaps us to attention, the way a near-miss on the highway makes a driver sit up and refocus. Refocusing on Godās will is what weāll want to do, because heās given us something much better than Vegas. Heās given us victory through Jesus.
Contributing editor Daniel Habben is pastor at St. Peter, Saint Albert, Alberta, Canada.
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Author:Ā Daniel J. Habben
Volume 104, Number 4
Issue: April 2017
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