What about the Coldplay couple?
Hi, I’m Mark Daniels and this is another Short Shot.
By now, you’ve probably seen it posted in dozens of places online: A couple caught in a seemingly intimate embrace on the Jumbotron at Gillette Stadium at a Coldplay concert in Boston, trying to conceal themselves. Their reaction seemed to show they had something to hide. But I don’t want to heap burning coals on the two. The Internet, and even sports talk radio shows, have done a lot of that. Instead, I want to make a few broader points triggered by this incident.
First, let’s stipulate that adultery is contrary to the will of God. The Sixth Commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery.” This means that sexual intimacy outside the bounds of marriage between a husband and wife is sin.
Jesus makes clear, though, that this commandment is often broken even when physical adultery doesn’t happen: “...everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent [Jesus says] has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28)
God’s commandment against adultery, then, doesn’t just prohibit the kinds of outward markers that might be captured by a camera and go viral on the Internet. Adultery, like murder, God’s Word says, happens in our hearts, minds, and imaginations too. Adultery in those places is as much of a sin in God’s eyes as anything we may think happened at Gillette Stadium.
This leads to a second point: Nobody listening to or reading this is innocent of this sin. If you think you’ve never committed adultery, you’re in denial.
The only One Who ever avoided adultery was Jesus, God in human flesh. Jesus, though tempted, avoided sin altogether. Because of this, He was able, at the cross, to take our sins onto Himself, killing their power over us through His death. God’s Word says that “the wages of sin is death,” the condemnation we deserve. (Romans 6:23) But, by His death on the cross, Jesus can make us what we could never make ourselves: innocent, guiltless, and worthy to live with God now and forever. The Bible puts it this way: “For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Once, you know, some self-righteous men, intent on stoning to death a woman they’d found committing adultery with a man, dragged the woman to Jesus. They must have thought that any holy man would want to see this woman executed. But Jesus said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7) The Bible tells us that, recognizing their sins, each of the men dropped their stones.
I feel certain that if Jesus had been physically present at Gillette Stadium when the images of the Coldplay couple appeared on the Jumbotron this past week, He would have told the jeering audience, “If any of you are without sin, keep jeering, keep taunting, keep making fun. And to the Internet audience, Jesus would say, “If you’re without sin, keep posting, sharing, and liking.”
Here’s the sad thing, I suspect, though. The men confronted by Jesus for their sins, whether their favorite sins were idolatry, misusing God’s name, murder, thievery, dishonoring parents and others in authority, stealing, covetousness, gossip, or adultery, were honest enough to acknowledge their sin and put down their stones. But in this era in which morality isn’t regarded as a fixed set of standards coming from a holy, omnipotent God, but as a lot of movable personal preferences, I doubt that many would put down their stones. In these times, when we speak of “my truth” and “your truth,” rather than of immutable truth and the law of right and wrong written on every human heart at conception, something every child is born knowing, nothing is wrong, and everything is wrong. We can castigate others for their wrongs and justify our wrongs as being no big deal. We can condemn politicians we hate for their wrongs, yet justify the same wrongs committed by our favorite political figures. We can cast our stones on the Internet, at the water cooler, and in our minds without a second thought.
I can’t imagine the hell being endured by the Coldplay couple’s families and by them as a culture with no moral standards, judges them as having no moral standards. The truth is, as the Bible says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23) If this moment serves to remind us of this fact, we may be open to receiving the good news–the Gospel–that Jesus, God the Son, has, by His death and resurrection, already conquered our sin and the condemnation and death that we deserve. Jesus’ promise, as stated by the Bible is this: “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
Saved from sin.
Saved from death.
Saved from condemnation and eternal humiliation.
That promise is for all people.
And anyone who, by God’s power, turns from sin and death and turns to Jesus with whatever amount of faith in Him you have, receives the forgiveness and new life He has already earned for you.
That includes the Coldplay couple.
It includes the crowd that jeered them.
And it includes any and all Internet trolls.
It includes you and me.
Today is a good day to receive the gifts of repentance for sin and faith in Jesus. By the authority of Jesus, I give these gifts to you now. (John 20:23)
Receive them and live.
God bless you. See you next time.
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