Vicarious Sinning

Vicarious Sinning
John R. Petrilli

It’s always risky for a writer to use an unfamiliar term when titling his essays. The word “vicarious” is just such a term. One of Webster’s definitions of vicarious reads, “enjoyed or experienced by someone through his imagined participation in another’s experience: as, a vicarious thrill”. It recently occurred to me that we live in a day of vicarious sinning. That is, our culture is heavily engaged in entering into sinful practices as a type of third party.

Voyeurism is skyrocketing at an alarming rate as Americans spend more dollars and time on pornography than they do on all other forms of entertainment combined. This is nothing but a form of vicarious fornication. Action movies contain scenes inviting spectators to participate in vicarious vengeance as the offended parties dismember and destroy their offenders with bombs, bullets, and firestorms … so much for “Thou shalt not kill”. Television shows allow disgruntled housewives to fantasize over multiple adulterous affairs with their neighbors’ husbands… “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. State lotteries and internet gambling lure millions into violating the command “Thou shalt not steal”. And what shall we say of the myriad commercials that try to seduce us into bowing at the altar of materialism, thus breaking the divine prohibition not to worship any other gods.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, as our entire culture is inundated with instances of vicarious sinning. Most would never dare to act out these behaviors in real life, but they regularly engage in the same sins via the eye-gate and ear-gate. Problem is, Jesus’ exposition of the spirit of God’s law elevated these very actions to become morally equivalent to the actual behavior. The look of lust equals the act of adultery. The covetous eye equals idolatry. Unjustifiable anger, left unresolved through forgiveness, will be given the same divine sentence as the actual commission of murder. Like the disciples of old, we might be tempted to respond to the Lord, “Then who can be saved?”

With God the impossible becomes possible. And that is what the gospel offers us. The impossibility of having our death sentence for sin fully commuted. Jesus took our rap for all the times and ways we’ve violated God’s will and commands. But we must receive that pardon before it becomes a reality in our lives. This process involves a coming clean with our sins, something theologians call “repentance”. The best definition I’ve ever heard for repentance says that “repentance means you’re sorry enough to quit”. This was the kind of life-change Jesus required of the woman guilty of chronic adultery, and it’s the same prerequisite for everyone who would receive eternal life.