#Responsibility

I was struck by a story that aired on television this week about an elderly woman who was visiting her recently deceased husband's grave when a man mugged her. He got her purse and $700 cash. The mugging was put on the news and a mugshot of the man who mugged her was there front an center.

A 15 year old boy saw this news report and immediately recognized the assailant as his own father. He didn't know his father well - there had been a divorce when he was just two. But the young man immediately knew he had to act. 

He arranged to meet the woman in a church parking lot. When he did, he apologized for his father's actions and took responsibility, even though he wasn't the one who did it. He even pulled out his wallet and returned a portion of the money his dad took - $250 - for which he’d set aside from his dad to go on a band trip. The woman accepted the money back, but immediately gave it back to him as a gift. 

This young man showed an amazing amount of personal responsibility. Did he have to do this? No. But he did what he thought was right, even though he had nothing to do with the actual robbery itself. 

I can’t help but make comparisons to Christ. Christ took personal responsibility for our sins. We were the ones who were wrong, not Jesus. He basically pulled out his wallet and paid for our sins himself, even though he had no sin. 

2 Corinthians 5.21 says *For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.*

Jesus did nothing wrong. Jesus was sinless. It is we who are the sinners, and it is we who crucified him with our sins. 

God calls on us as Christians to serve him faithfully and bring others to him. That is our Christian responsibility. Ask yourself this evening - am I living up to that? 

If have spiritual needs this evening and need the prayers of the church to get back in a right standing with God, come forward and we will pray with you. If you haven’t yet made the decision to be a child of God through baptism and the forgiveness of your sins that Christ died for, then make that decision tonight. Come while we stand and sing.