Most of you know I am a TOTAL Nebraska Cornhusker fan. Part of that loyalty (only partJ) comes from my deep personal respect for Tom Osborne, legendary former football coach and current Athletic Director for Nebraska. Osborne, along with a few other coaches, has established an amazing reputation for integrity and living out his Christian faith.
One of those other coaches is Joe Paterno.
Anyone who has listened to or read the news the last few days knows the irony of that statement.
Joe Paterno has been known as a kind, decent, Christian man of integrity for almost 5 decades of coaching.
This morning, Joe Paterno was unceremoniously fired. And many are saying he got off easy. As much as I respect this man—and I still do—I agree.
If you haven’t read the news, the short story is that years ago Joe Paterno discovered one of his key assistant coaches was a child molester. He reported it to his boss, the Athletic Director, who kept it quiet—and from then on, so did Paterno. As a result, the man was allowed to continue abusing children.
The problem is, Paterno himself admits he didn’t do enough. He says he has a lot of remorse over that fact, and that’s good. But it doesn’t change what happened. When we repent, it is important to our own growth—and our ultimate forgiveness—but it doesn’t change the fact that our sins—of omission or commission—still hurt people.
But many say, he’s a good man! He doesn’t deserve this.
Not true. Not of Joe Paterno, not of me, not of you. We are not good (Jesus himself said so in Mark 10:18!), we are sinners, and that sin bears a penalty. We tend to think if someone is better than someone else (in our opinion), or if we like them, they don’t “deserve” punishment (defined as consequences for their sin). But they do. And so do we.
Don’t misunderstand. I still respect Joe Paterno. And if I knew him personally, I don’t believe I would turn my back on him at this time—even though I have spent most of my adult life trying to raise awareness (and action) of Christians regarding child abuse and domestic violence. I recognize that we are all sinners, and no one’s sin is no worse than mine, because mine caused Jesus to die on the cross.
But I can like someone and still recognize their sin, and the justice of God in allowing punishment for that sin.
Perhaps there is more than one lesson here for all of us? The biggest being, it is a good thing God’s ultimate justice is fulfilled by the death of Christ. The judge died for us so that we wouldn’t have to eternally pay the penalty. In the meantime, our actions (our sin) have consequences, and that is as it should be.
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