The Ignorance of Sin

February 17, 2009

Today's reading: Leviticus 4-5 and Acts 6

I realize that Leviticus isn’t exactly one of my favorite books in the Bible, but today, I found something that more than caught my attention. From the first few verses, there is a clause about “when anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands”.

In short, all those sacrifices are for sins that we know that we committed, and those that we don’t know that we committed. I suppose that we could interpret these in New Testament behavior, since we don’t sacrifice animals anymore. I suppose it means that we should confess our sins, and the one that we don’t realize that we have committed.

So let’s interpret this from a Catholic standpoint. I suppose that I could go to confession and say, “bless me father, for I might have sinned”.

Dang, does this mean that we are responsible for the sins we don’t know that we did? I am guessing that it has something to do with the sins that we commit while we are sleeping. I remember hearing a story about a guy who killed his wife in his sleep. I always wondered if that story is one of the worst urban legends in the whole world or the guy who actually killed his wife in his sleep has the absolute worst alibi.

Or maybe if we don’t confess these sins that we haven’t realized, we go to hell. Double dang! We’re all really screwed, aren’t we? I know I’ve probably committed several sins today that I haven’t realized yet.

So, I’m sure if there was ever a situation where I was called up and tried for being a Christian, I’m pretty sure they would nail me on some sin or something. Probably one that I didn’t realize I was committing, I’m sure.

Yet when this type of situation happened with Stephen, the people had to make up evidence on him. Seriously, Stephen literally had the faith of an angel, and he wasn’t even a priest. He was some guy who was called upon to wait tables. I’m guessing he didn’t just take the job because he got the short straw, but he probably saw it as a great honor.

I suppose this is a lesson about getting rid of sin as much as we can. So no one can look at our life and wonder if we are a Christian or not. As for whether sins are covered if we don’t realize that, I believe that God is still working on that.