I know that
the pain of injustice affects women as well as men, for the stories are all
around us of abusers “getting away” with things they have done wrong. I also
know what it feels like to be a man who has to bear with his wife and children
hurting over the consequences of another person’s sinful actions that never
seem to be brought to justice.
With all these
feelings churning within me, I brought my heart to God and followed his
invitation to: “Arise, cry out in the
night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your
children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.”[1]
Let’s just say that the Lord heard me pour out a lot of grief for the
injustices against my children.
Then there is
the further invitation: “My
eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees; my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.[2] Since my wife is one of the “daughters”
of my world, a world that has treated her with much injustice, I found it
healing to let my heavenly Father know how I felt about all this.
The
point is simply that it is God himself who calls people in general, and men in particular,
to cry out to him about the injustice that grievously wounds them and their
loved ones. However, there is a way that people can present these things to God
so that it fuels their bitterness and leaves them angry and distant from the
Father in heaven. But, there is also a way that people with faith in Jesus Christ
present these heartaches to their Father so that it results in healing to their
own souls, and soothing comfort to offer to those who suffer in this way.
It
is very fitting that God would teach me this lesson on this particular day. It
is the day we call “Good Friday”. It commemorates the Friday that Jesus was
crucified. It is “good” because Jesus’ death was for the sins of others, and
all the “others” who receive his gift, his payment for their sins, have their
sins washed away[3] so they can know God’s love for them without any fear of punishment
at all.[4]
So,
what does a heart-wrenching journey into all kinds of feelings of injustice
have to do with Jesus laying down his life for the sins of the world? Answer: it
brought me to have some feeling of what it was like for Jesus to suffer for the
sins of others.
After
all, is that not what our struggle with injustice is all about? Isn’t it that
we are hurt, and upset, and angry that we have to suffer because of another
person’s sins? Isn’t that what we keep complaining to God about, that he would
dare to allow us so much pain in our lives because someone else did something
sinful to us, and then seems to be free to carry on through life as if nothing
ever happened?
Isn’t
that exactly what Jesus endured? Isn’t it true that, “He himself bore our
sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed”?[5] Do you see that? Do you see the injustice of Jesus bearing “our” sins on “his” body?
But, do you
see the utter love that would bear that willingly, would create man from dust
knowing that one day he would die for that man’s sin? Do you see the love of Jesus,
“who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God”?[6]
And,
would you share with me this wonder that God would pick the day people
commemorate the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ to open the flood gates of
pain to my own feelings of injustice, all so that I could feel the wonder, the
awe, the reverence for my Savior who would bear such feelings WILLINGLY?!
All
week I have been preparing for my Easter Sunday message which includes this
verse: “…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share
his sufferings…”[7] This morning God gave me a feel of what I will be sharing with others. If we
truly want to know Jesus, and we most definitely want to know the power of his
resurrection, then we must also know what it feels like to share in his
sufferings.
I testify
that, this morning, God very graciously let me feel an extremely personal
experience of the pain of injustice, so that he could lovingly and graciously
take me into his arms, and hold me close to his heart,[8]where
I could hear the heartbeat of this love that knows the feeling of injustice far
more than I could ever experience. He died for MY sins.[9]
His experience of injustice now makes God just[10] to
pick me up and hold me close without any fear that he will ever judge me as my
sins deserve. [11]
I am thankful
that Jesus let me “lose myself” in laying my complaint before him.[12]
It got me ready for something very special. I felt the wonder of his willing
submission to injustice. Who but Jesus would
think of such a thing? And, who but my Father would think of teaching me this
today.
From my heart,
Monte
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