The Worst of Us

And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.1 Kings 16:33

Not just any of the kings before him, but all of them! We might consider Ahab one of the worst of us, but it was his wife that sent the terrors into Elijah. So which of the figures in our modern history is the worst of us? Does laying millions of human deaths at the feet of a particular name make that person the worst? Would it be a man laughing at another person's misfortune that puts him in contention for the worst? What about any or all of my sins; do I get to be the worst because of a lifelong knowledge of the Law from God's word has not prevented me from sinning even to this day? Is there something you have not shared with your brothers and sisters in Christ that would make all of us point to you and say, 'Worst!'?

Jesus didn't point any fingers on the cross. He asked the Father to forgive 'them'. Perhaps that group of they is simply all of us. Poor in spirit, sinning in heart, bumbling, fumbling, people from all ages, nations, tribes, and tongues, the worst of the worst every one of us all in need of the Lord's forgiveness. Yup, I think that's the ticket! I don't need to judge any one person. No further need to search for the worst of us in hopes that my name makes the cut above the list. For all have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard. You, me, Paul the Apostle, John the Revelator, Ahab and that wife of his, Peter the Rock, all of us are the worst, and all can be saved by the blood of the Lamb. Any of us may believe in the Lord Jesus and live in His grace. Amen.

Bucky