Charlie Brown by Charles Schulz

Last week, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed and sworn in as America’s newest Supreme Court Justice.  If you followed this situation even remotely, you know it was grueling for all involved.  Allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Kavanaugh.  Politicians, pundits, and protesters hissed, slithered, and bared their fangs throughout the hearings and FBI investigation that followed.  Every time I looked at the news, I felt like Indiana Jones after he was pushed into the snake pit.

I found the whole confirmation process to be a degrading spectacle.  I’m sure most people will agree, whether they supported Kavanaugh or his accusers.

Throughout Kavanaugh’s confirmation, I found myself praying—sometimes for God to illumine the snake pit with a torch, sometimes just to vent my disgust.  One time while I prayed, the Lord spoke. As is often the case, His perspective caught me off guard. The Lord told me the political processes I found sickening were just a mirror held up to me and the rest of humanity.  Whatever you and I hated about this confirmation process is what we are without God.

Now, I agree, this is hard to hear.  But if you didn’t like what you saw in the Kavanaugh hearings, I invite you to repeat after Isaiah: “I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).

Fortunately, God offered a way for Isaiah to be made clean (Isaiah 6:6).  God also offers a way for us to be made clean: “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7).  “All sin” includes sexual sin (if Kavanaugh was guilty) and false allegations (if his accusers were mistaken); it includes pack-minded partisanship and piranhic protests.  In short, “all sin” means every sin, whether yours, mine, or theirs.  And “all sin” is what Jesus cleanses.  Not one is overlooked or left out.

These things confirm Jesus is the righteous judge (2 Tim. 4:8).  No court is more supreme!