By Rich DuBose
“In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean’” (Luke 5:12 NLT).
The above encounter is radical stuff. The idea of “karma” was widespread among the Gentiles and the Jewish people. It was commonly accepted that if you have a disease or problem in your life, it was because you deserved it. So, not only were the sick dealing with the disease itself, but they lived under the shame and condemnation of deserving it. The unspoken question that hung in the air around sick people was, “What have you done?”
Remember the story in John 9 where Jesus and his disciple came across a man who had been blind from birth? “‘Rabbi,’ his disciples asked him, ‘why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?’” (John 9:1-2, NLT)
The idea of Karma was deeply ingrained in their thinking, although it probably wasn’t identified by that name. They may have heard of Karma because the Indian concept was purportedly developed in the 5th and 6th Centuries B.C.
Barbara O’Brien writes, “Karma is a word everyone knows, yet few in the West understand what it means. Westerners too often think it means ‘fate’ or is some kind of cosmic justice system. This is not a Buddhist understanding of karma, however.”
“Karma is a Sanskrit word that means ‘action.’ Sometimes you might see the Pali spelling, kamma, which means the same thing. In Buddhism, karma has a more specific meaning, which is volitional or willful action. Things we choose to do or say or think set karma into motion. The law of karma is therefore a law of cause and effect as defined in Buddhism.” (Learn Religions website, February 13, 2019).
The principle that everyone ultimately gets what they deserve fits well with a “cause and effect” view of life. Every culture essentially has some form of this philosophy integrated into it. But it has a Luciferian ring to it, because it ultimately teaches the doctrine that everyone must pay for their own “sins.”
We find echos of Karma embedded in the American doctrine of “Rugged Individualism” that emphasizes personal accountability over community engagement. We detect it in varying levels in the financial markets and economic systems of the world that promote a form of hyper-capitalism that honors the strong and disparages the weak.
The bottom line with Karma is that everyone gets what they deserve, and if anyone veers off into the nebulous territory of grace, some people are offended and angered. They believe no one should be given a “free pass.”
For Jesus to heal a blind or leprous person (without them doing anything to earn it) bordered on spiritual treason. Some were undoubtedly thinking, "Who does Jesus think he is, indiscriminately blessing sinners and giving grace to those who have little standing with the synagogue and the religious hierarchy?
The Anti-Karma Kingdom
With the gospel of Jesus, not only do we NOT get what we deserve, but we end up getting something far better than we could ever hope for.
In Matthew 20 Jesus likens God’s Kingdom to a landowner who sends workers into his vineyard throughout the day. As with any employer, you would think the workers would be paid according to how long they work, but these aren’t. Everyone gets paid the same amount regardless of how long they’ve worked, which is the perfect illustration of how grace works.
“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing.”
“At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’” They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’” (Matthew 20:1-7, NLT).
When the landowner paid everyone at the end of the day, they all received the same amount of money, regardless of how many hours they worked. Who was offended—those who had worked the longest. Why, because they believed in Karma. They wanted everyone to get what they deserved.
The good news is that with God, Karma is dead. God’s law of living and fundamental order doesn’t buy into what the world tries to pass off as acceptable. With God we’re forgiven while we are still sinners, and loved even though we are still haters. Who loves like this?
Being a recipient of such love is enough to change us from the inside out, which is actually the point of it all. We are changed by God’s love, not loved because we have changed.
What have you done? It doesn’t matter, Jesus loves you anyway.
Hallelujah!
Rich DuBose writes from Northern California. Photo by Miriam Alonso of Pexels.com
On the web at: richdubose.com. All Rights Reserved © 2025. Join Rich on Blue Sky @spiritrenew.bsky.social.
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. lockman.org
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.