Amy Cooper
James Bennet
J. K. Rowling
William Gladstone
Winston Churchill
Just a few of the names who have had social media (or real) mobs come after them to cancel them for unpopular opinions or unacceptable behaviour.
We live in a culture obsessed with moral purity. A land of stiff-necked, starched collar pharisees who prowl around looking for sinners to cast out. You don’t even have to be out of line anymore, just insufficiently in line. A word out of turn, a disagreement with the cause du jour, an old tweet surfaced from the foolishness of youth. All of these can get you cancelled, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of mobs.
How should Christians respond to cancel culture? Well, how did Jesus respond to it? Because there is nothing new under the sun and the only startling thing about new cultural moments like ours is that they aren’t new at all.
One of the Pharisees asked [Jesus] to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”
Luke 7:36-39
Do you see what Simon says? Simon says “If this man were a prophet, he would know this woman is a sinner. He shouldn’t speak to her, shouldn’t associate with her, shouldn’t allow her to serve him”.
The woman of the city is unacceptable to the ruling cultural elite. She has done wrong in their eyes. And the pharisees, insufferably sure of their own righteousness, condemn her very presence. She should not be there, should not be heard, should not be seen.
She should be cancelled.
And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
Luke 7:40-47
See the difference in response.
Simon wants to cancel debtors. Jesus wants to cancel their debt.
Simon wants to cancel the sinner. Jesus offers to cancel her sin.
Jesus sees the moralising righteousness of the Pharisee and he tears it apart. What Jesus says here is scandalous. He is saying that this woman, this sinner, loves Jesus more than the holy man.
But also, with gentle and beautiful subtlety, Jesus says to Simon: you are not a holy man after all.
You owe a debt you could never repay as well. Oh, it is smaller than this sinner. You are a paragon of virtue compared to her. But. It. Is. Not. Enough. She may owe millions, and you owe thousands, but you don’t have a penny to your name. Bankrupt is bankrupt. Dead is dead.
See, the heart breaking truth of the human condition is this: when you have torn down every statue of anyone who has ever sinned, when the last statue standing spreads its lonely arms over Rio de Janeiro, when you have dismantled every institution staffed by sinners and broken down every wall and overturned every unjust decision and abolished every unjust law, you will still not have peace.
Because you cannot cancel your way to redemption.
The dividing line between good and evil, to paraphrase Solzhenitsyn, runs not between slave-owner and non-slave owner, right or left, black or white, but through every human heart.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin are not mere cancellation, but death.
Hitler, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rhodes, Stalin, Churchill, Gladstone. All have stood before God with the same problem – a debt they could not repay. Some may have owed more and some less. But none of them could pay, and all deserved death.
But Jesus offers forgiveness.
And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Luke 7:48-50
Jesus’ response to cancel culture pharisees is free forgiveness. Pure grace. Because he has paid the debt, he can cancel the sin and give peace. Not the temporary peace of silencing our enemies, but real peace. Peace on earth, and peace with God through the powerful forgiveness of Christ’s death on the cross.
As the beautiful hymn by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa puts it:
What riches of kindness He lavished on us
Matt Boswell and Matt Papa, His Mercy Is More
His blood was the payment His life was the cost
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
The mob cancels sinners, repentance be damned.
Jesus offers to cancel our debts, pay them in full, and set us free.
So, come to Jesus. The one who cancels sin and forgives sinners.