What is Sin?

"And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." (Mark 10:46 - 52)

Sin comes from the Greek word hamartia meaning literally, "missing the mark." Most often the damaging effects of sin are underestimated. Just as a very slight perturbation to an arrow shot by an archer can cause it to deviate significantly from the bulls eye, so it is with sin which draws humans away from the communion that God desires with His people. God wishes for us to lead fulfilling lives; He knows better than we do what will make us happy and wishes to fill our hearts with joy, but yet, we think somehow that we can do better, that we think we know what is best for our lives irrespective of the will of God. In our pride, we do not like to think we are missing the mark, but the reality is that we are off the mark, and very often we do not even see the mark at all. And by not admitting our blindness we only make matters worse, because we do not ask for help from God to put us back on the correct trajectory. And because we do not ask for help, we drift even further from God and His desire to guide our hearts towards His love. And thus we sin (miss the mark) all the more without even knowing it. Once we are so far off course that we cannot even perceive the mark, we no longer have a reference point, and the likelihood that we will go even further off course is all the greater; we become totally lost. It is this aspect of sin which is most underestimated. We do not become lost over night. It happens little by little without us realizing it. This is why the Church teaches us to constantly pray to God for guidance to keep us on track, to help us to see our sin which draws us off course, and also for forgiveness from God for having abused our privileges and all of the good things He has given to us.

This is why the Church teaches us to do as the blind beggar in the gospel account cited above. Let us not deceive ourselves by thinking that if everyone where more like ourselves and less like our mean neighbor or boss, the world would be a much better place to live in. If we all think like this, then nothing can change. We do not have power to change other people, but we do have the power to ask God to help us to seek out the corruption in our own hearts and eliminate it. Let us not be in a state of denial regarding our blindness, but let us rather eagerly seek the healing touch of our Lord Jesus Christ, even though many will attempt to stop us from doing so as they did the blind beggar.

See more about sin at the Orthodox Church in America website.