Whom can we blame and is it really so bad? (Lord’s Day 3)
Back in the 1980s, over 5000 Canadians received blood transfusions tainted with hepatitis C and HIV. These transfusions were supposed to save lives, but in the long run they didn’t. In the 1990s, this became known as the “tainted blood scandal.” The federal government spent years discussing how they might compensate the victims and their families.
Just like those who received the tainted blood, we have received the guilt and corruption of our first father, Adam. Through our shared humanity and ancestry, we have received a deathly condition; in fact if we were merely sick, there might be some hope for us. But as it is, because of Adam’s sin every single one of us comes into this world dead on arrival. We have a condition of spiritual death and in this condition we are all inclined by nature to disobey God and his law. Apart from Christ and apart from the Holy Spirit, we all tend towards the hatred of God and our neighbour. The reality is that all human beings share a fallen, broken, even dead condition.
But what if we could blame someone for this? In the tainted blood scandal, the victims and their families could blame the federal government and the Red Cross. Especially after 1986 when tests were readily available to detect tainted blood, somebody else could be legitimately blamed. But what about us who have received a spiritual transfusion? Is there someone we can blame for this? And at the end of the day, is it all really so bad?
