What's good about Good Friday? We hear or read or remember the gospel accounts of Jesus' sufferings and his death on the cross. We may recall St. Paul's words in Romans 5:8, that "God proves his love for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us." That's good news indeed. Jesus' death on the cross brings forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. And so we are rightfully grateful to God for his love and mercy.
But do we realize that God doesn't just love us and the other basically good people? Do we realize that God "wills everyone to be saved." 1 Timothy 2:4. So Christ died also for the other sinners, the ones we dislike intensely, the ones who are not basically good people, the ones who are spectacularly evil.
Do we want Jesus to save Adolf Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer? Do we want him to save the pedophile priests or the killers of Matthew Shepard? Or do we want them to burn in hell for what they did? Because he wants to save them all. He died to save them all. He wants them to accept his gift of eternal life. He wants them to come to heaven forever. How do we feel about spending eternity in their company?
If we want them to spend eternity in hell, we are not perfect Christians yet. This is not to say that they don't deserve hell. But Paul's point about salvation is that it is undeserved, a gift that is given out of love.
And while I can accept this on an intellectual level, I have to admit that emotionally I'm not there yet. There is something in me that hopes that the greatest evildoers have refused the gift of forgiveness.
So on this Good Friday, while we are profoundly grateful for the gift of forgiveness which we have received, let's also ask God to make our hearts more like his — that we may love everyone with a love that is like his — that our sorrow and even righteous anger at evil will not turn into real hatred of evildoers — that we may learn to "forgive those who trespass against us" and others.
An der Grabstätte von Kronprinzessin Cecilie
1 week ago
4 comments:
"If we want them to spend eternity in hell, we are not perfect Christians yet."
I don't think its necessarily wrong to want justice to be carried out on 'wrong doers' as such. In fact i think it would be right to condemn and hate, even, the evils done by humans like Hitler etc. It is also because God is just that we should demand justice as God does.
However, in saying that, we must also be merciful and forgiving to those who have harmed us just as God was and is merciful to us in his great love of sending his Son Jesus to die in our place good friday.
So i think, yes, we are to love and forgive those who have hurt us or have done great evils in this world but at the same time we must also hate the evils that they have carried out.
I suppose it's a sort of balancing act that we as believers need to keep in check. To be both just and merciful just as God is to us, that his justice was fulfilled at the cross and that his mercy was given to us.
i think it helps to remember the good theif. he was executed next to Jesus. he deserved his punishment. he even admitts that he committed his crimes. however Jesus loved him anyway and gave him forgivness when he asked.
i think the key to this problem is mercy. always have mercy in your heart. and leave justice to God.
God alone knows what's in a sinner's heart and mind. We can never know the trials and tribulations a person goes through in their live. We don't know the personal demons and temptations people have. Only God should judge because only he knows the whole situation. We don't know what anyone else is going through (shit we barely know our own situations, if at all). We don't know the anything about the complex interplay of life genetics, upbringing, life expeirences, mental illnesess, temptations, or the general crap that happens to people. (Some say Hitler was even possessed, the Pope at the time thoughts so).
So it is wrong to judge. "judge not lest you be judged." and "let the one without sin cast the first stone." God specifically tells us not to judge. He seems to want to spare us the terrible burden of judging others.
Look at when the mob wanted to stone the protetute. Chirst stepped in and stopped the mob's judgement. He rebucked them. And told them that no shouldn't judge the women. He showed her mercy.
We cannot give people what they deserve. Because no one deserves anything. We must give people want they need, which is Mercy.
If God choose to give us what we deserved, then no one woudl be saved from death and sin. God choose to be merciful and gave us want we needed, His Son.
if you have trouble remember "there but for the Grace of God go I." It is only God's grace that keeps you from a similar situation. Nothing you did made you a good person, it was all God's doing.
I disagree that we should 'leave' justice only to God.
Firstly we inherently 'demand' justice in the same way that God is just and demands justice. So it would be against our in built image to simply leave things until the last days when God will finally complete his justice.
For example if a person murdered someone can/should we let them be and leave justice to God? I think not. For both the sake of those who knew the dead person, the sake of the murderer, society and justice.
The story of the prostitute does not tell us not the 'judge' as such but for us not to condemn people but to have mercy. Mercy that isnt without justice. For Jesus tells the woman to 'leave [her] life of sin'. So it is that Jesus has recognised that she has lived a life of sin but in doing so offers her mercy.
Mercy without justice is not true mercy. But only turning a blind eye to injustices.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments.
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