I’ve been reading this Novella on Bathsheba’s story. It’s been really good!
I realize that I easily pass her off as promiscuous and manipulative even though there is certainly not evidence to that extent in scripture. I’m realizing that the convenient thing about believing her to be this horrible person is that I get to separate myself from her.
I get to call her an adulteress and ignore all the crap that goes on in my heart that is not that dissimilar to what probably went on in hers. I get to put her in a category and scorn her and be happy I’m not like her and use her to feel better about myself. AND I don’t have to feel compassion towards her(compassion can be hard work!).
The author of this book does a great job of making Bathsheba a real woman- makes her a lot like me, actually. I can identify choices where she’s gone wrong (being infatuated with David, making him into an idol, letting him see her bathe, not saying no when he summons her to his chambers…) but really, her mistakes aren’t that different from ones I make.
Jesus would probably say my sins are just as bad as hers- didn’t he say those words I’d rather overlook: “whoever looks at a woman (or man) with lust has already committed adultery”… and some stuff about a plank in my eye… and not throwing stones or something… heh

So, here’s the rub: It’s not just Bathsheba that I do this to.
I think of Bathsheba as a woman who’s prone to sin in ways I’m not capable of, but moreover, I think of people around me like that too. I don’t think of my sin and sin in people around me as the same kind of sin. I tend to think the sin in other people is worse than mine. And that those drunks who lived down the hall from me or dating couples who slept together- I’m different from them. I’m not capable of making such bad choices… cough cough. And, since I’m so much better than they, I get to justify not having compassion on them AND not spending time with them (afterall, I wouldn’t want to be contaminated by them!). Do you see where I’m going?
I ends up being just like the Pharisees looking down their noses at ‘sinners’…

How do I (we) repent?
Going one way, how do we stop and go the opposite way, loving people as Jesus teaches his followers to?
Could this mean we go and spend time with the Bathshebas around us?
(yeah, okay, I’m kind of leading)

But how could our compassion for ‘sinners’ around us be more sincere?
How could we change how we think of others? Of ourselves?

I look forward to hear what you think!