Wiping the Slate Clean

Passage: Ezekiel 18

In this passage Ezekiel echoes a sentiment expressed by the prophet Jeremiah. In chapter 31 Jeremiah says,
In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
Ezekiel repeats the same proverb, and expands on the promise given by Jeremiah. Here Ezekiel belabors the point that God will judge every person according to his or her sin. And at first this part of the message seems harsh. The idea of God keeping track of your sins and holding you accountable for them is something that people in our culture find distasteful about religion. In fact, what Ezekiel talks about in chapter 18 is what we find at the heart of the Gospel. There are two aspects of this discourse that are genuinely good news.

The first is God’s statement to a people who have been convinced, over the centuries, that they are being punished for the sins of their forebears. As the children of Israel and Judah are reminded of the infidelity generations of their ancestors committed against God, they conclude, “There’s no way we can compensate for them.” In the same way that those who believe in Karma are convinced it takes several lifetimes to make up for sins committed in this one, God’s people are convinced they, their children, and their grandchildren will suffer for the failures of their predecessors. God says, “Not so. I’ve wiped the slate clean. From this point forward I will hold you accountable only for your own sin.”

The second is that God will in fact hold people accountable for their sin. This means, for example, a person who has been victimized as a child or during a time of vulnerability can know that her or his abuser won’t get away with what they did. The abuser will, at some point, be held accountable by the one who sees all. Imagine for a moment you suffered abuse at the hands of a parent. You grow up having been convinced it was somehow your fault. The abuse is a source of shame that you carry into adulthood. Shame over what happens predisposes you to think of yourself as vulnerable to and deserving of abuse. You also carry an injustice that at some level you feel the need to rectify. You can’t get back at your abusive parent, either because they’re too powerful, or because they’re gone. You either live with the sense that you are stuck a victim because justice was never done, or you channel your hurt and sense of victimhood into acts of aggression against someone weaker than you. It all stems from the idea that you’re stuck with the consequences of someone else’s sin; stuck with the need to make justice happen.

In this passage in Ezekiel God offers freedom from having to live out the sins of your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. He offers a clean slate – the chance to be defined by your own choices. God also assures us that justice is ultimately in his hands. We don’t have to live our lives obsessed with making sure someone gets punished for our hurt. That’s God’s job. Ours is to live in response to God’s love, not in reaction to our own hurt. God wipes the slate clean and makes us new people.