Justice Miscarried
"He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—"
Isaiah 53:7-8a (Message)
He has to be God in the flesh. Has to.
Beaten and tortured and... He took it all in silence...not a word.
Not a word of complaint, or trying to justify Himself.
no cries of, "you've got the wrong guy! I've done nothing wrong!"
None of it.
And all in light of justice miscarried.
justice miscarried.
This should be a gut-wrenching statement. It should cause us to cry, "no!"
It means that fairness, rightness, what legally and logically "ought to be" is cut short, is disregarded, is thrown out the window.
It is tragedy
It used to be just a phrase to me, but I understand this phrase so much better now.
2 years ago in February we went through the agonizing miscarriage of our third child.
It began slowly and there were quasi-reassurances that things would probably be OK.
But I remember the turning point as clear as if it were yesterday:
Getting the call from my wife during a worship team practice. "We need to go the hospital - right now."
Waiting what seemed an eternity to be called into an ER room, having Nurses and Doctors dismiss my wife's experiences.
"You haven't lost that much blood - you just think you lost more than you did"
Being 'released' and watching my wife pass out in the hallway (due to blood loss).
Getting her admitted for the night... going home without her and weeping uncontrollably as I hugged my in-laws back home, not knowing for certain what was to come.
Getting back to the hospital to learn my wife required 4 pints of blood - this was not a 'normal' miscarriage.
Learning that we had lost this child and being heartbroken again.
'no. no. please God, no.'
'why....?'
And well meaning nurses and doctors saying, "miscarriages happen all the time." And trying to reassure us that we could get pregnant again.
They had no idea.
We had struggled with infertility after our son was born, and here 7 years years later, a miracle!
And then ten weeks later this crushing heart-break. hope dashed and lost.
'why....?'
Leading worship at church 4 days later was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. And God continues to bring us through the healing process emotionally, spiritually, and for my wife even physically.
Isaiah tells us that justice was miscarried for the servant of God - the Christ. And, rightly understood, all the agony and gut-wrenching that came with our miscarriage pales in comparison to what happened there.
The perfect Son of God who had only ever brought love, compassion, grace and truth was slandered, beaten, tortured, flogged with a cat-o-nine-tails, mocked, spat on, crucified. The Innocent condemned.
'why God, why is this happening?'
The miscarriage of justice for the Christ is infinitely worse than what happened to usbecause He got what I rightly deserve. It was no fluke or bad biological processes - no 'accident'.
And did He sulk or complain or try to persuade the Romans He was innocent?
When beaten and flayed, "He opened not His mouth", "he took it all in silence"
Could a mere human do this?
If it was a mere human , if it were me, you can bet I wouldn't be silent. From pleading my case to screaming in agony over that torture, I can guarantee you, I would not be silent.
The night before, in the Garden, He definitely asked the Father to take the cup away:
'Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me..'
- but ended with "yet not My will, but Yours be done."
He knew full well what was in store. And He chose to go anyway.
Yes, the reason was ransom of us - but let's not make the cross simply all about us.
The agony of miscarriage is that the heinousness of our sin demanded the cross - demanded the miscarriage; that the innocent be counted as a death-penalty criminal.
Our hearts should break over what we did to Him.
Our hearts should be rent at the knowledge of the cost of the cross and the miscarriage that happened.
But equally, our hearts' sorrow is mixed with awe, adoration and yes, even joy over the fact that God's heart is so much purer than ours and that this miscarriage does not lead to hope dashed - but hope assured, hope solidified, because through it we are ransomed back to God by the hand of God through the Son of God.
What a God this is!
"Alas and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I
Was it for sins that I had done
He hung upon the tree
Amazing pity, grace unknown
And love beyond degree!
My God why would
You shed Your blood
So pure and undefiled
To make a sinful one like me
Your chosen precious child
Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut His glories in
When Christ the mighty Maker died
For man the creature’s sin
Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear Cross appears
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness
And melt mine eyes to tears"
Music and chorus lyrics by Bob Kauflin
Lyrics by Isaac Watts
© 1997 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI).
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Daily Thought for Holy Week – Tuesday
The Divine Exchange
Stop to think about this:
9/11
What comes to mind?
Tragedy? Sorrow? Grief? Loss?
Anger towards those who perpetrated it?
I think it’s safe to say ‘Love your enemy’ doesn’t come quickly to our minds. At least it doesn’t to mine. And because those responsible have not been brought to account, there’s still a part of me that longs for justice. Not forgiveness.
Let’s bring it closer to home. We are offended by someone or a situation and what do we do? We write them off. We cut off communication. We harbor bitterness, resentment or anger. We long for justice.
Let me step into the spotlight here and just say – this is me all too often.
I’ll be branded first on this, lest you think I am standing in judgment or striking an altruistic pose.
Not so with Christ.
Back to Isaiah 53. This is verse 3:
“He was despised and rejected — a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care..” (NLT)
What a sad and powerful end to that statement. He was treated cruelly and we could care less.
It’s as if in this prophecy we’re reminded that God’s servant – the Christ – went through all this and we held him in contempt.
Big deal. Who cares.
Sobering.
But it gets more heart rending…
Verse 4:
“Yet it was our weaknesses(the sickness of sin) he carried; and He carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him punished by God. We naively thought that God was punishing Him, striking Him down because of His sins.” (my expanded translation)
(It was our punishment he bore but we stupidly thought, “He’s getting what He deserves.”)
And then comes the lynch pin…
“But”
verse 5
“But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His wounds(with his stripes) we are healed (made whole).
700 years before Christ’s birth Isaiah predicts a flogging and piercing through.
And did you catch what Isaiah says?
He’s getting what we deserve.
He goes on…
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.
We screwed up. We failed. We didn’t just stumble. We ran headlong into sin, laughing skipping and thumbing our nose at God. Even the ‘best’ of us like senseless sheep wander away.
BUT
Here is the divine exchange: God’s suffering servant takes upon Himself our sin and the just punishment for those sins.
Why? We’ve done nothing to earn it. Isaiah even clarifies this for us later in 64:6 -
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
We’re told that when we recognize and receive this substitutionary sacrifice, turning from our own way to His we receive forgiveness. Complete and total forgiveness. And it is a gift. This is what is meant by “repent and believe”.
At the cross, God chose to forgive those who would shred His laws and flaunt their sin.
Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
This breaks me afresh again – because I know the mud holes I wallowed in (and am still drawn back to).
Forgive me if this next word picture makes you cringe, but I have found it very helpful:
At the cross, God chose to embrace those who were giving Him the finger.
And more than embrace – go to jail doesn’t cover it. Pay the penalty, pay the debt doesn’t cover it.
Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
He died … for reckless, wayward, rogues who couldn’t care less. For little hellions throwing bricks through the stained glass windows, laughing maniacally.
For. Us. Sinners.
wow. This is grace – unmerited favor.
So how does this relate to 9/11? How does this relate to other awful, senseless tragedies and injustices, crimes and atrocities?
I am not naively saying that extending forgiveness in the light of bare-faced evil is easy. Not by any means. It’s tough when it is required for the ‘little’ things.
What I am saying is this – what an amazing God, Who demonstrates forgiveness on a level that boggles our minds. It proves again that He is God because He demonstrates that which we are sometimes unwilling and sometimes unable to do ourselves:
He forgives the unworthy - the desperately and completely unworthy.
He takes on flesh, He endures humiliating abuse heaped upon Him, He suffers excruciating torture and death – all borne out of His heart of love & justice; “for the joy set before Him” (Heb 12:2); out of a passionate, all consuming desire to see the glory of Yahweh preeminent.
What mercy at the cross! What grace! What compassion!
So be overflowing with thanks and humbly glory in the Divine Exchange.
Stop to think about this:
9/11
What comes to mind?
Tragedy? Sorrow? Grief? Loss?
Anger towards those who perpetrated it?
I think it’s safe to say ‘Love your enemy’ doesn’t come quickly to our minds. At least it doesn’t to mine. And because those responsible have not been brought to account, there’s still a part of me that longs for justice. Not forgiveness.
Let’s bring it closer to home. We are offended by someone or a situation and what do we do? We write them off. We cut off communication. We harbor bitterness, resentment or anger. We long for justice.
Let me step into the spotlight here and just say – this is me all too often.
I’ll be branded first on this, lest you think I am standing in judgment or striking an altruistic pose.
Not so with Christ.
Back to Isaiah 53. This is verse 3:
“He was despised and rejected — a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care..” (NLT)
What a sad and powerful end to that statement. He was treated cruelly and we could care less.
It’s as if in this prophecy we’re reminded that God’s servant – the Christ – went through all this and we held him in contempt.
Big deal. Who cares.
Sobering.
But it gets more heart rending…
Verse 4:
“Yet it was our weaknesses(the sickness of sin) he carried; and He carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him punished by God. We naively thought that God was punishing Him, striking Him down because of His sins.” (my expanded translation)
(It was our punishment he bore but we stupidly thought, “He’s getting what He deserves.”)
And then comes the lynch pin…
“But”
verse 5
“But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His wounds(with his stripes) we are healed (made whole).
700 years before Christ’s birth Isaiah predicts a flogging and piercing through.
And did you catch what Isaiah says?
He’s getting what we deserve.
He goes on…
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.
We screwed up. We failed. We didn’t just stumble. We ran headlong into sin, laughing skipping and thumbing our nose at God. Even the ‘best’ of us like senseless sheep wander away.
BUT
Here is the divine exchange: God’s suffering servant takes upon Himself our sin and the just punishment for those sins.
Why? We’ve done nothing to earn it. Isaiah even clarifies this for us later in 64:6 -
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
We’re told that when we recognize and receive this substitutionary sacrifice, turning from our own way to His we receive forgiveness. Complete and total forgiveness. And it is a gift. This is what is meant by “repent and believe”.
At the cross, God chose to forgive those who would shred His laws and flaunt their sin.
Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
This breaks me afresh again – because I know the mud holes I wallowed in (and am still drawn back to).
Forgive me if this next word picture makes you cringe, but I have found it very helpful:
At the cross, God chose to embrace those who were giving Him the finger.
And more than embrace – go to jail doesn’t cover it. Pay the penalty, pay the debt doesn’t cover it.
Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
He died … for reckless, wayward, rogues who couldn’t care less. For little hellions throwing bricks through the stained glass windows, laughing maniacally.
For. Us. Sinners.
wow. This is grace – unmerited favor.
So how does this relate to 9/11? How does this relate to other awful, senseless tragedies and injustices, crimes and atrocities?
I am not naively saying that extending forgiveness in the light of bare-faced evil is easy. Not by any means. It’s tough when it is required for the ‘little’ things.
What I am saying is this – what an amazing God, Who demonstrates forgiveness on a level that boggles our minds. It proves again that He is God because He demonstrates that which we are sometimes unwilling and sometimes unable to do ourselves:
He forgives the unworthy - the desperately and completely unworthy.
He takes on flesh, He endures humiliating abuse heaped upon Him, He suffers excruciating torture and death – all borne out of His heart of love & justice; “for the joy set before Him” (Heb 12:2); out of a passionate, all consuming desire to see the glory of Yahweh preeminent.
What mercy at the cross! What grace! What compassion!
So be overflowing with thanks and humbly glory in the Divine Exchange.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Daily Thought for Holy Week – Monday
The Face of Christ
In preparation for Holy week and our services on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, I have been reading Isaiah 53 in several translations: NIV, ESV, KJV, NLT, CEV and the Message – and I am in awe of Christ again.
These prophetic words, written some 700 years before Christ’s incarnation will give you pause to reflect in humble adoration if you let them.
God’s plan of redemption through his suffering servant on display.
Here’s today's piece of the passage:
“There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to Him.” (53:2b NLT)
Had we been alive when Jesus walked the earth He would not stand out, physically, in a crowd.
Our culture is so preoccupied with beauty and attractiveness (sadly, this is even in the case in the church – just look at 95% of ‘Christian’ album covers).
Beyond leading to an unhealthy view of others, diminishing their value in the sight of God – it distorts our perceptions of God.
I think our view of salvation can be diminished when we “clean-up” Jesus & when we “clean-up” the cross (or coat it in gold and wear it around our necks!)
[aside: can you imagine how absurd it would look to have a little gold electric chair on a chain hanging around your neck? But I digress…]
I think the more we understand that He wasn't good looking, the more we can relate to his humanity.. Jesus - fully God, fully man. When we gussy Him up I think we lose some of that reality.
According to Revelation - Jesus still bears our scars
Thankfully, this passage in Isaiah is the only physical description we have of Christ in the Scriptures.
Honestly, when was the last time you saw a movie of the life of Christ, where the actor portraying Jesus was unattractive?
- The Passion of the Christ
– good looking guy
- The Jesus Film
– good looking guy
- Matthew
– good looking guy
- The Gospel of John
– good looking guy (it’s Desmond from LOST for Pete’s sake!)
- Jesus of Nazareth
– good looking guy (my wife and I disagree on this one, so I went with her opinion)
*NOTE: OK – Willem Dafoe (Last Temptation) ‘works’, but the film was awful (imo)
Now, I realize that film companies hire mostly on looks, second on talent… but you know who I’d like to see portray Jesus? Given the above passage from Isaiah?
Steve Buscemi (Fargo, ConAir, Armageddon)
I tried to find an image online that wasn’t glamorous of Steve and had a hard time.
With all due respect to Mr. Buscemi, who is a very fine actor, he is just not your classic Hollywood definition of attractive. This makes him a great candidate for a film version of the life of Christ.
Actually most of the men here are a good starting place.
I’m so thankful Christ didn’t come as one of the ‘in’ crowd, but He came as described in Isaiah – a humble, suffering servant.
So please, this Holy Week, keep in mind that Jesus was not attractive physically; he didn’t seem kingly, but outward appearance has never mattered to God. And consider those around you who you might think have: "nothing beautiful or majestic about (their) appearance, nothing to attract us to (them)" - for these too bear the image of God - perhaps more than we realize.
This holy week – give God what He values most – your heart, your soul, your ‘inner man’.
In preparation for Holy week and our services on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, I have been reading Isaiah 53 in several translations: NIV, ESV, KJV, NLT, CEV and the Message – and I am in awe of Christ again.
These prophetic words, written some 700 years before Christ’s incarnation will give you pause to reflect in humble adoration if you let them.
God’s plan of redemption through his suffering servant on display.
Here’s today's piece of the passage:
“There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to Him.” (53:2b NLT)
Had we been alive when Jesus walked the earth He would not stand out, physically, in a crowd.
Our culture is so preoccupied with beauty and attractiveness (sadly, this is even in the case in the church – just look at 95% of ‘Christian’ album covers).
Beyond leading to an unhealthy view of others, diminishing their value in the sight of God – it distorts our perceptions of God.
I think our view of salvation can be diminished when we “clean-up” Jesus & when we “clean-up” the cross (or coat it in gold and wear it around our necks!)
[aside: can you imagine how absurd it would look to have a little gold electric chair on a chain hanging around your neck? But I digress…]
I think the more we understand that He wasn't good looking, the more we can relate to his humanity.. Jesus - fully God, fully man. When we gussy Him up I think we lose some of that reality.
According to Revelation - Jesus still bears our scars
Thankfully, this passage in Isaiah is the only physical description we have of Christ in the Scriptures.
Honestly, when was the last time you saw a movie of the life of Christ, where the actor portraying Jesus was unattractive?
- The Passion of the Christ
– good looking guy
- The Jesus Film
– good looking guy
- Matthew
– good looking guy
- The Gospel of John
– good looking guy (it’s Desmond from LOST for Pete’s sake!)
- Jesus of Nazareth
– good looking guy (my wife and I disagree on this one, so I went with her opinion)
*NOTE: OK – Willem Dafoe (Last Temptation) ‘works’, but the film was awful (imo)
Now, I realize that film companies hire mostly on looks, second on talent… but you know who I’d like to see portray Jesus? Given the above passage from Isaiah?
Steve Buscemi (Fargo, ConAir, Armageddon)
I tried to find an image online that wasn’t glamorous of Steve and had a hard time.
With all due respect to Mr. Buscemi, who is a very fine actor, he is just not your classic Hollywood definition of attractive. This makes him a great candidate for a film version of the life of Christ.
Actually most of the men here are a good starting place.
I’m so thankful Christ didn’t come as one of the ‘in’ crowd, but He came as described in Isaiah – a humble, suffering servant.
So please, this Holy Week, keep in mind that Jesus was not attractive physically; he didn’t seem kingly, but outward appearance has never mattered to God. And consider those around you who you might think have: "nothing beautiful or majestic about (their) appearance, nothing to attract us to (them)" - for these too bear the image of God - perhaps more than we realize.
This holy week – give God what He values most – your heart, your soul, your ‘inner man’.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)