SIULAI 3, 2023
Slingshots and Sin
Kau fana sengai mo e angahala
JUDGES 20:16
AMONG ALL THESE WERE 700 CHOSEN MEN WHO WERE LEFT-HANDED; EVERY ONE COULD SLING A STONE AT A HAIR AND NOT MISS.
FAKAMAAU 20:16
‘I he kakai kotoa ko ia, na‘e ‘i ai ha toko fitungeau, ko e fili, na‘e hema; ko kinautolu ni kotoa te nau lava ke makataa‘i ha tu‘oni lou‘ulu, ‘o ‘ikai hala.
These highly accurate southpaw slingers give us an insight into the meaning of the verb chata, commonly translated "to sin." That they did "not miss," in Hebrew, is they did not chata. To chata is to miss the mark. Similarly, in Proverbs 19:2, the man in a hurry "chata his way," misses his way. To sin, therefore, is to fail to live up to an expectation or duty, to be less than what God has targeted for us. One cannot chata unless there is an objective standard, a law, a goal. The Lord's target for us is to image him fully on earth, to be what he created us to be. As sinners, it's not that we don't aim-we are always aiming for something. It's just that our targets are usually selfserving, self-devised schemes of self-righteousness rather than the life of sacrificial love encapsulated in divine laws.
Not only did Jesus never miss the target; he hit God's bull's-eye for all of us. He was not simply a "good boy" who never broke the rules. He was fully, perfectly human as his Father intended all of us to be. Baptized into his body, we are thereby restored to the image God desires us all to share.
"O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!" (Ps. 41:4).
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