It Isn't Fair...

Photo Credit: Morgan Nati

He stood there, amazed. Slack jawed and more than a little irritated; he was fuming! After a long day's work in the fields he was returning to bedlam. Where was his father? The revelers were dancing and playing instruments, the smell of roasted meat filled his nostrils and not far away a familiar but heartbreaking sound of a man's voice filled his ears. He pushed his way past the partiers, to find his brother seated with his father. Laughing and feasting he was wearing one of Father's finest robes over tattered rags and as his hand reached for another chunk of succulent meat he caught a glimpse of the ring as it shone in the firelight. A ring? The robe? Really? Fury began to build in his gut, fiery and acid with the taste of betrayal. As his father looked up and saw him, he spun on his heels. He couldn't stand it any longer - He had to get out of there before he exploded.

"Son?" His father caught up with him outside the large tent. "Won't you come in and celebrate with us? Your younger brother has returned! He is back!"

"How could you?" His heart pounded loudly in his ears, his chest near bursting with anger and humiliation. "How could you treat him like a king when you know as well as I do he was laying with prostitutes and wallowing with pigs? He wasted everything you gave him! Why on earth are you celebrating?"

"But he is back! Your brother is back - We had to celebrate!" His father looked genuinely confused.

"He doesn't deserve it. I never asked you for anything, yet he demands it all and you give it to him! You never threw me a feast for being the good son... It isn't fair!"

Have you been there? Have you ever watched as someone less deserving got the best piece of the pie? Have you ever wondered if there is justice in this world? I have. Many times. I have watched as our own family struggled, ate less than glamorously, didn't vacation, prayed as our business languished. I have looked up from the devastation that I felt and seen those that are so smug and wasteful, less than Christianly, prosper and flourish. I have watched as others enrich themselves on the soil of our despair... It was terrible. It was excruciatingly painful. It wasn't fair.

So where is God's justice? I mean, we hear about how fair He is and how He will be our ultimate Judge at the end of time. Does that mean that we don't get justice until then? We have to wait until the Rapture and return of Christ to see those that are undeserving get what's coming to them? Well, do we????

If I am waiting for that kind of justice, I hope to be waiting a very long time. I hope, for all of our sakes, that it is never fair.

God's love isn't built on justice. It isn't measured out in deserving spoonfuls based on what I have done for Him or how much I have tried to be a "good girl." Thank God for that! God's love - What we all crave whether we are aware of it or not - God's love is based in Mercy and Grace. I cannot earn it or achieve it. I can only ask for it. The very best part about having Him operate that way? If I ask for His love, genuinely and humbly, He will give it every time. Without fail, God will never deny me His love and His grace. That means no matter how ugly I have been, no matter how selfish, how hateful, how murderous my heart, God will always open His arms and welcome me back to His celebration. I am never turned from His table of plenty. He will never ask that I sit in the corner and watch as others eat. He always has my seat reserved for me.

I am comforted by that - for me. I don't much like it when I see others I judge as unworthy allowed the same grace. Why? Because my justice is skewed, my grace is nonexistent, I am without mercy in my heart. I am human. He is God. I look at the situation and want to view the repentance in action. I want to see that the person is really going to be sorry and change their ways. I look at the outward view of a man. God looks at the man's heart. He sees the repentance where it starts, He looks into the soul and judges there - There, where I cannot go.

It seems too easy, doesn't it? That someone can just say, "I'm sorry," to God and He accepts it without prejudice. It doesn't seem fair or right... It is the same with salvation. You don't have to DO anything. You only have to ask and viola! It is done for you. You instantly become a part of the family with all rights to inherit the kingdom of God. You would think that people would be signing up by the droves to get that kind of booty. They don't. It's too easy. Our human nature says there has to be some kind of ceremony, some sort of sacrifice...

The ease in which you and I are saved from an eternity of darkness came at a very high price, the ultimate in sacrifice. The only person to ever live this life without sinning (not even once) took all of it on for us. He did it all! Christ did everything we couldn't do, so that He could climb onto a cross and be covered in every sin - EVERY SIN - past, present and future! His own Father, who vows never to turn from us, turned from Him so that we could have it so easy.

I won't tell you that I don't struggle with the prodigal son thing... I won't tell you that I don't wonder at times why on Earth God allows such painful injustice to wallop me on the head and bring me low. I will tell you I get it. I get that God wanted it to be so easy that to not accept His love would be folly. I get that if I am allowed His grace for every nasty thing I have done and will do, I have to allow others the same process. God's love isn't fair.... And aren't I glad of that?! After all, I am the only one that stands in my way from attending the same feast - And if you know me, you know I rarely miss a party!

Be blessed... not fair.

Not My Department

"Mom?'" My teenage daughter wanted to talk to me... Before I skipped a step and started dancing about the room I took a chill pill and a deep breath. Don't move too fast - She might change her mind.

"Yeah?" I answered nonchalantly (I hoped).

"Do you know any false Christians?"

As usual, her question hit me like a sucker punch from behind. False Christians? Was I even equipped to answer that? It was too late to even make like I had all the answers. She is a teen now and I am arguably the stupidest person on the planet. I better not squander this opportunity to make at least some sense on the subject. I spit my Bubba-teeth out for this one...

"I guess my first question is: what do you mean by false Christians?"

"You know, like there are these kids at my school..."

She went on to describe a Christian club at school that has gotten into the habit of being exclusive with its membership. They mean well, but in their desire to be Godly they shut out kids who are on the edge, who don't look the part, sound the part and can be swayed into behaving badly because it's a natural part of just being a teen. That rebellious, "Don't tell me what to do or how to act" kind of reaction. Would I call them false Christians? No. In fact, I am certain that their love and devotion to Christ is what drives them to make silly claims and decisions about their fellow students. Unfortunately, I know quite a few of these folks in my adult life. I am one.

The conversation with my daughter got me thinking about my own perspective and how it looks to the outside world. I have often told my kids, no matter how big or old my body is, I make the same silly decisions as an adult that a teenager, grade-schooler, or even toddler would. At my core, I am still God's child, and sometimes that comes with an immature attitude.

The kids my daughter was referring to have only part of the equation as do some adults in the same situation. Christ does call us to associate with our fellow Christians regularly, going to church, meeting in study and pursuit of Christ-knowledge, getting together to help out our community by building houses, cleaning up our neighborhoods, etc. He wants us associating with each other to make us stronger, keep us accountable and enlightening us to differing perspectives within our circle of close friends. What He doesn't want is for us to do is decide that only our circle will do. Christ wants us to be open, soft, pliable to the plight of others. Christ wants us to reach out to those not in our comfort zone. If we truly love Him as we should, we cannot be tainted by unbelief or somehow lose our salvation because we kept company with someone who doesn't live the way we do.

Christ Himself associated with some pretty rough characters. He was found with prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers and, at the end, even outright criminals. Christ didn't exclude them. He alone understood that the roughest of folk can come to Him (if even at the last moment) and believe in the need for their own salvation. Not that I am saying we should head out into the inner cities and start sleeping in the streets or put ourselves into obviously dangerous situations. What I am saying is don't make an assumption based on race, creed, looks, clothing, sexual orientation or music choice that the person sitting next to you doesn't want or need or even already love the Lord. You cannot pretend to know the intent of someone else, unless they outright tell you so. You cannot make an assumption based on the outward appearance when God alone is the one who looks into the core of man to determine their heart condition. Don't even try. It will only hurt you in the end. It will out you as one with the more desperate need of forgiveness.

See, the Judgement Seat has room for only one butt, and it is God's. When we try to crowd in there, asking the Creator of Heaven and Earth to scooch over, we make a mockery of the matchless grace He sent to us in the form of his dying, bleeding, bludgeoned Son. He doesn't need our help. He already knows everything He needs to know about our neighbor, our pastor, the gay couple down the street, and ME. Yes, He knows all about me and my issues. The times I have been exclusive, hateful, judgmental, self-righteous and spiteful. All of it. So I have to be very careful when I start tossing around all those pretty polished stones in my house full of glass... I could break a window!

The Parisees thought that they could trip up Christ on this subject. They figured no guy could be this good, except of course themselves... So they set out to ask Him a "stumper", as it were. One of them very smugly approached Jesus as he was teaching one afternoon and asked of all the things that He was preaching, which one would get him eternal life? Jesus turned the tables and asked the "Scholar" what he thought the answer was. In Matthew, Chapter 10 the imposter student replied, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence - and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself." (MSG) Jesus of course commends this answer, as it is correct. (I myself wonder if our Savior isn't imbued with a bit of heavenly sarcasm here, but that could just be me...)

Now the "student" attempts the real trickery. In Verse 29 he pipes up, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?" I can almost hear the sneer in his voice and the expectant hush that fell over that crowd. They all turn to watch as Jesus settles in for one of the most memorable and universal examples of just what "neighbor" really means in a biblical sense. He launches into the tale of the Good Samaritan. Now I could go into a complete history lesson here on how antagonistic the relationship between Jew and Samaritan was. I could give you all the pat answers to the reality of what Christ was pointing at. Do I need to? I don't think so.

What I will say on the subject is this. First: read the chapter for yourself, (Matthew 10:30-37) and make yourself the Samaritan and the man who was robbed a person that you are currently having some very big difficulties with or a general group you have strong opinions about. Really test yourself here. If you think all murderers should go to Hell, put them in the man's place. If you are certain that all homosexuals are doomed to an unforgiven life, stick them there. Second, realize that you are probably not the Samaritan, but one of those guys who walked by and did nothing. Sting a little? It should. It stung me... Now, after you are fully embarrassed by what side you really fall down on, understand that God wants us to step out of the seat of judgement and trust that He knows each persons heart better than we do. Trust that He has that part all handled and our only command from the very beginning has been to simply love His creations. That included all of this creatures. It means that you are not to decide that God doesn't love the murderer, the thief, the homosexual, the liar, the cheat... It means that you are to decide that He does, because that alone is true. We have two directives from Christ's mouth: Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and body and love our Neighbor as ourself.

Love.

That's it.

Love 'em as if your whole being and happiness depended on it, because it does. If you want God to be merciful with you, be merciful with others. If you want God to forgive you, first forgive your brother. Then forgive your enemy. Then pray for them both to be blessed by God. (Crap... I hate it when God does this. This hurts.)

Realize that truly loving others as we love ourselves means that we must juxtapose ourselves into the seat of the defendant, not the prosecutor. It isn't our job to make those decisions. Don't be a door-mat - Christ wasn't. Just realize that under the green hair and the leather jacket is someone's daughter or son (is that a boy or a girl???) and that most definitely God loves them just as much as He loves you. After all, once you quit staring at their outsides, if you could remove the weird makeup or the odd choice of bedfellows, you may just discover they are a lot like you. And me. Some of the roughest treatment of innocent men has been handed down by those who profess to love God. Just ask Jesus. He'll show you with His own Hands.