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 Sin. Suffering. Death. Horror. Abuse. Pain. Tearing and ripping through families and people – leaving destruction its wake. Corrupting everyone it touches – defiling them, changing them, damaging them. Sins so horrific that even being exposed to them makes you feel unclean – the images impossible to purge from your memory. Spots that, like with Lady Macbeth, no amount of water will wash out.
How can God allow such things to happen? If He's all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing…why? Where was He during the rape? During the molestation, during the incest, when my husband wasn't faithful – where was God? Was He just missing in action when my husband started abusing me? Did He take a day off when the experimental medication which worked yesterday Medicare won't pay for today? Why did He allow you to get your hopes up that things were going to get better one minute and then let them be destroyed in the next one?
What can be done about such pain? Where is the Light in this kind of darkness? Can these wounds actually heal? These events leave us feeling... well, less human. Or is this what our fallen humanity really is like? Are we to be so worn down by these events that we simply become callous and dead inside?
“Well, He will wipe away every tear from your eyes...” That's nice, it's sweet to talk about everything being better sometime later in heaven. But what about now? What fixes this? What takes away my pain right now? What will just make it stop?
Christ. He's the only answer. Not just words, but the only answer there really is. Christ is the reason to get up in the morning. Christ is the reason to eat breakfast. Christ is the reason to lift the spoon of cereal to your mouth when you have no more strength at all. Christ crucified for you – me too.
He has taken on our pain. He has taken our sin. He has taken our death. Our sins – He bore them all. From those that are unspeakable, the ones done to us, to the unspeakable things we do and say. He took them all on, and the death which they bring. And by His stripes, we are healed...
Healed. Now. Clean. Made better. Not feel better, but made better. It has to be better. The Word is true. Jesus actually did die for me. He really did rise for me. He truly does make all things new.
When everything has become so evil, when everything has failed, when everything has gone wrong, when the good we want to do truly is nothing but evil, Christ is MOST our Savior. He is most our God. Not just because we have nothing better. We have nothing else. But, it is most true because He is right there, nail scars and all, with His gifts “for you.” This moment is why He came. This situation is why He died. To save you and me.
For in all of this, no one, nothing, not a single thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. He has redeemed even us – in all our fallen humanity. He lifts us up. He picks us up, all of the pieces, and saves us.
He has saved you – not gonna lose one. Not a single one. Not anymore. Not since Calvary. Not one of His precious sheep. Through sin, through death, through this fallen world, He's going to continue to save His people.
He has already saved us. He has so conquered death that now death plays on His team. He has conquered sin, and even He uses all things for our good.
He uses all things – all means all – for our good. He takes every sin that the devil drags us into, everything which befalls us and makes it good “for us.” He's working all things out for us – even through our sins, even through the horrific things that happen to us, even through death itself.
So, today we may stand before His throne clean, pure, and holy. Not “one day,” but today. The spots that we thought can't be washed away have been washed in the waters of Holy Baptism. The stains have been cleansed in His Blood, flowing from His pierced side. We drink life and salvation, at His table. Absolved, forgiven, and made clean. That's who we are right now. Even in the middle of this mess. That's who we will be on the Last Day when we will see what we only know by faith today.
And every now and again, you can see a glimpse of it. Just watch and see. He will bring you out. Sure, on the Last Day. But, look around, you'll see it beginning now. He has already done it with death and sin. He will do it in your life, my life too.
“Lord, I believe, help now mine unbelief.” In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Edited on: April 12th, 2008 2:01 am
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