Sports fan or not, most of us have undoubtedly heard about the passing of longtime Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno, ending his short battle with cancer.
Paterno had a resume unlike any other college football coach: he was with the same team as a coach for 62 years - 46 of them as the head coach. He led his team to two national championships. And despite all of the criticisms sports talking heads would level against him about his age, relevancy, and abilities, "Joe Pa's" Nittany Lions were a perennial force to be reckoned with on the football field.
Paterno's motto, "Win with Honor," summed up everything that was good about college football, especially in an era where scandals amongst coaches and boosters have been rampant: improper recruiting practices, paying of players underneath the table, and ethics seemingly out the window at all of the major successful college football programs. Paterno was one of the lone bright stars in his class, standing as someone who did the right thing and still succeeded.
But then, in this past year, it was revealed that a longtime assistant of his, Jerry Sandusky, had allegedly levereged his position to sexually abuse several children at various sports camps. What's even worse: Paterno knew about those accusations, including one in particular that was brought to his attention by one of his graduate assistants who claimed that he witnessed it happening on campus.
And after passing the accusation along to his superiors and watching them fail to act appropriately on them, Paterno did little to nothing to follow up or sound any sort of alarm.
And now his life has ended, and the discussion about his life begins.
Maybe you've seen a few of your friends post their brief thoughts about it on facebook or twitter. Most of my friends who have posted about it have been very positive towards the coach, encouraging me and others to look at the sum of the contributions of his life, rather than look on his entire life through the lens of this past year.
But it's hard not to. It's hard not to because of how ugly those alleged abuses are. It's hard to imagine something worse than an adult using his or her position to sexually abuse a child. And although it wasn't Paterno himself who is the accused, he failed to do what any responsible adult should have done - especially one who stood for what he did: step in and put a stop to it.
And so we're left in this place where everyone loses. Those kids, if the allegations are true, have lost something that they'll never regain in this life. Jerry, if convicted, loses his freedom and his reputation for the rest of his life. And Joe Paterno's legacy will, like it or not, forever be asterisked by what he failed to do when it mattered the most.
This is what it's like to live in a world that is marred by sin. The innocent are preyed upon. Those in power abuse it. And even the best of us fail to do what is right all of the time. Everyone loses.
This is where the story ends for most of the folks in this world. Sin is. And depending on the person talking about it, we either need to recognize that sin is ("Sandusky should rot in hell for what he did" or "Paterno's just as guilty - period"), or we need to stop making that sin such a big deal ("But look at everything good Paterno did").
But neither of these two presciptions are where this story ends for the Christian. At least, they are not where the story should end.
Christians experience this thing called grace. And grace refuses to either bow to sin or to manage around it.
Grace is an often used but often misunderstood thing. I've heard a few definitions of grace that I think reclaim it from its sterilized (mis)understanding.
"Grace is doing something for someone that they could never do for themselves." - Dallas Willard
And:
"Grace is giving someone something that you have every right to demand of them." - David Benner
Each of these three - the victims, the accused, and the coach - find themselves in need of grace - in need of someone doing something for them that they can't do for themselves.
Those kids (some who are now adults) need care, safety, understanding, and ongoing counseling to process through what happened to them. Ultimately, they need to discover the grace of Jesus so that they can find forgiveness for what has been done to them. Otherwise, they will forever suffer under the burden of not only the crimes that have been committed against them, but also from the anger, the neverending quest for justice, and the hatred that will inevitably arise in their hearts towards the person who abused them.
Mr. Sandusky, if he did these things and is convicted, not only needs to pay whatever price the justice system levels against him for what he's done. He also needs a heart of truth and contrition, and the humility to scorn the shame and instead admit that what he did to those kids was terribly wrong.
In fact, they need that. They deserve it.
But someone's heart doesn't just magically go from calloused and deceptive to soft and open. Hearts change because God changes them. And God changes them as changed people offer grace to those who do not deserve it - because they themselves didn't deserve it either when God gave them grace. I firmly believe that Jerry Sandusky's heart can only really change if God through Jesus and God's people extend grace. Jerry doesn't deserve it, but needs it. Just like you and me.
And finally, although we are no longer talking about Joe Paterno's eternal destiny, for a few of us, the coach is in the same camp as the accused. He should have done what was right, but did not. Will we settle for hurling justified accusations at his legacy, or will we be the type of people who see his life as an example for why we need grace? What will flavor how we talk about him? What will shape how we interact with people who are like him?
Will we be people who settle for the story ending with the reality of sin, or will we be people who continue to open and write the chapter of God's grace?
Will we give people the very thing that we have every right to demand of them?
Will we be people of grace?
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