Do you think you understand the journey of a kid trapped in sex trafficking?
I’ll answer for all of us – no, we don’t. From our relatively safe, secure environment, what they’ve experienced is beyond our comprehension.
Now, a tougher question. Can you understand the journey of a trafficker, a criminal who victimizes harmless children?
We might try to ascribe motives or causes – greed, mental illness, etc. But none of those really help us understand how any human being could victimize an innocent child. For most of us, it simply makes no sense.
Then here comes Jesus, saying, “Don’t judge.” If you’re like me, you think he surely must have made exceptions for people like child sex traffickers.
Right?
But – “Don’t judge” was a blanket statement.
DON’T JUDGE.
For a long time, I was confused about that. I thought it meant criminals shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions.
SOCIETY needs laws to function. Simple example – it’s in everyone’s best interest if we all drive on the same side of the road. Those who choose to do otherwise should be held accountable.
But – that’s different from deciding they are “bad.” In fact, Jesus specifically said one of the places we ought to look for him is in prison.
I’ve had the privilege of speaking to men and women in jail. Initially, it was frightening – the security, the clanging doors. But once I got past all that, I noticed something – they weren’t much different than any other audience.
I thought about all my preconceptions, my notions of what “prisoners” would be like. Because they were, well, criminals.
But they were just men and women. Some were engaged. Some were bored. Some were eager to know more about hope. Just like every other audience.
I judged them because they were criminals. But I didn’t know their stories, the battles they were fighting.
I forgot to look for Jesus among them.