Watchmen

Passage: Ezekiel 33:1-11

On a plane trip about ten years ago I watched a movie about a career cop who goes looking to find a bone marrow donor for his young son. It turns out the closest match is a sociopathic killer the father helped put behind bars years earlier. When the cop goes to make his appeal, the convict responds, “Just give me moment to savor the irony. Here I am stuck on death row, and all I have to do to kill again is sit here? And a cop’s kid, no less.”

In Ezekiel 33 God confronts his prophet with a dilemma. God says, “I’ve given you the task of warning my people about the judgment that’s coming. If they don’t change their wicked ways, they’re finished. But if you fail to give them fair warning, I’m going to hold you accountable for their deaths.” God goes on to say, “You may be tempted to let my people get what they deserve. You may even want to sit back and enjoy the show. But as my watchman, you have the responsibility to deliver my warning." God says, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?”

It’s easy to think of God only as judge. Too often God is characterized as angry – an angry God preoccupied with punishing evildoers. When God’s children think this is God's priority, we make it ours, too. We lobby lawmakers to legislate against “immorality.” We picket funerals. We make public statements about how God is punishing us all for the sins of a few. We want to create as much distance as possible between ourselves and the sinners so we don’t get caught in the crossfire. God tells Ezekiel it doesn’t work that way. He says, “Don’t think you can stand back and escape the fire. Take your place alongside the sinners, and pray for grace.” We stand watch – not as onlookers safe in our own self-righteousness, but as those entrusted to sound the alarm. We delight not in the thought of the sinners finally getting theirs, but in the promise that God’s grace is great enough to save even the worst of us.