Today’s Scripture Reading
(September 23, 2018): Leviticus 4
As I sat in court
with a friend waiting for his case to come before the judge, I watched a cringe-worthy performance as a senior man tried to fight his speeding
ticket. He had some excuses for why he
was speeding. The first was that he didn’t realize what the speed limit was,
essentially arguing that his sin was unintentional. The excuse was immediately
shot down by the judge, ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking it.
Attempt number two was that the radar equipment was
not properly maintained and therefore his recorded speed was incorrect.
The officer who had issued the ticket was in the courtroom and had the reports
with him that stated that the radar gun had been
calibrated the morning of the incident. Once again, the defense motion was dismissed.
But the senior man was not quite done. His third
attempt to get the ticket dismissed was to admit that he knew he was speeding,
but that he had diabetes and had left
home without his medication, and he was speeding home to get it because he was
beginning to feel sick and was about to pass out. I think I visibly sank in my
chair with this last admission. There were a
couple of things wrong with this third attempt. First, he had already
denied speeding. With this third admission,
he was telling the court that his first two attempts to get out of the ticket were
lies. His credibility was shot, although
it was evident that he didn’t understand that. The second problem with this
third defense was that he was admitting
before a judge that he was driving in an impaired condition. No, he had not
been drinking. But driving a car when you are about to pass out because of
illness is no less illegal. I wanted to stand up and walk up to the man and
tell him to cut his losses and go and pay
the ticket because this could get quickly
out of hand.
In
defense of the
judge, I think he ignored the man’s last statement. He declared that the ticket
was valid, and instructed the man to go and pay it. I think it could have ended
much worse and I don’t think that the man had any understanding of how badly
his moment before the judge had gone.
When we sin, the
reaction we see is often, deny, deny, deny. Maybe it is just the most natural
reaction. It is so much easier to say that “I didn’t do that” than to admit
that we are flawed. And this is even more true
when our sin is unintentional. Our reaction is often
that if I didn’t know it was wrong, then I can’t be held responsible.
The reality, as is repeated on some crime
shows I have watched over the years, is that ignorance of the law is not an
excuse for breaking the law.
But this is magnified
when a leader sins. No matter who we are, we need to admit our failings. And
that includes when our sin is unintentional. When the time arrives that we
realize that we have sinned, we need to step forward and pay for the sin, and
not simply try to have it excused. The procedure listed in Leviticus is similar
to the procedure for the unintentional sin of a nation or a priest, but it was
important enough to have a distinct entry
within the Law of Moses. As leaders, we need to set the example and own up to
our sins and mistakes, both the intentional and the unintentional.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 5
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