Serving a Sex Offender

It’s interesting how relationships change when we find out the dirtiest part of someone. I have a customer who comes in everyday at Starbucks. They get the same drink and pastry, we have extensive conversations on the day or our week, and we talk about things we have in common (i.e. music). The other day, somebody told me that this customer was a sex offender. I didn’t write them off, but I did wonder. Am I supposed to treat them differently? As a Christian, I’ve come up with the answer of no.

I look to the thief on the cross and I remember that we don’t know his crime or what he did, and Jesus treated him no differently than the other guy mocking him on the other side. I think that this is a challenge that faces us as Christ followers, is accepting the person (that clich’e of loving the sinner and hating the sin fits well here). Though the crime is utterly repulsive, and they may deserve death in the eyes of society, what are we to do in the eyes of the Kingdom?