I have three heroes, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther
King Jr. and Jesus. Each of them
understood there was a powerful, transformational relationship between unearned
suffering and redemption.
·
Gandhi led his people in a great
revolution. India wanted freedom from
Colonial English rule. Gandhi took the
tools of suffering and non-violence as his chosen weapons to fight his battles
with. At one time he called his people
to go on a great march … ending at the sea where they made salt. They broke the laws of England that forbade
the production of salt … the English had a monopoly on the salt trade … and
England to defend their profits sent the police and army in. As a result many, many Indians were brutally beaten. The world’s media covered the story … the
world heard about the savagery and took action.
As a result India gained her independence.
·
Gandhi knew as Martin Luther King Jr.
was to learn a generation later … “unearned
suffering is redemptive”.
·
A generation after India gained her
independence, Black Americans found
themselves engaged in a struggle for freedom also. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in that
struggle.
·
He too led his people on a march,
this time over a bridge, where they were met by the police, with batons ready …
as the front row of marchers met the police they were knock senseless to the
ground … but the row behind pressed forward taking their place to be bludgeoned
… row after row … the beaten victims carried away and bandaged … all the while
the television cameras were sending the pictures into the homes of America,
ordinary people became horrified by what they were witnessing … the broken
skulls, black eyes and the beating of the unarmed … non resisting black
marchers caused the silent people to finally demand a change … the end of
segregation was achieved with broken bodies of the non-resisting marchers.
·
There is something truly and
remarkably redemptive about unearned suffering.
Martin Luther King and Gandhi both had a model.
The Prophet Isaiah announced to the world that God’s
chosen servant, God’s Messiah would be rejected by the world.
·
He would be made to suffer greatly. He would be stricken … smitten … afflicted … pierced … crushed … punished and wounded.
·
He would suffer these indignities and
pain on our behalf, because he … the innocent one would take our sins upon
himself and would be punished for them in our place.
·
It would be through Jesus’ unearned
suffering that we receive redemption.
Redeemer.
Each Jew had a Redeemer Kinsman whose task was three
fold.
1. To buy back property or the person sold into
slavery … to ensure freedom.
2. To
take the life of another who had murdered a relative … to ensure justice.
3. (Ruth
and Boaz) To marry a relatives widow,
and to make sure an heir was born … the child born to such a relationship was
treated as the child of the dead person … to ensure a future as a member of
God’s chosen people.
Jesus became the redeemer of the whole world.
·
His death ensures freedom from
slavery to sin. We can become the
recipients of God’s grace. We can enjoy true
freedom to be the people God created us to be.
·
His death pays sins penalty. The wages of sin is death; Jesus has paid
that penalty once and for all time. The
demands of justice have been met.
·
His death ensures an eternal future,
freed from any pain or suffering. A
glorious future in the presence of God.
We no longer need to be eternally separated from God. We have the chance to enjoy the perfect future.
All this has been made possible by the suffering Jesus
Christ. Although he did nothing to
deserve the agony he went through his unmerited suffering made possible the
redemption of the whole world.
·
Each week in the Communion service we
say the prayer of Consecration, reminding us all of the words of Jesus on the
night before he died on the cross…
·
“Jesus
took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it too his
disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you, do this
in remembrance of me’. Likewise after
supper he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them
saying, ‘Drink from this all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for you and for the many for the remission of sins.’
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. both knew
the power of unearned suffering. Gandhi
adapted the ideas to win freedom for India, but did not accept Jesus’ promises
of redemption for himself. He rejected
Christ … I believe to his own loss.
Martin Luther King also adapted the power of unearned
suffering to bring freedom to black America.
King also saw the redemption Jesus won on the cross as something Jesus
did for him. King was able to write:
“More than
ever before I am convinced of the reality of a personal God. True, I have always believed in the
personality of God. But in the past the
idea of a personal God was little more than a metaphysical category that I found
theologically and philosophically satisfying.
Now it is a living reality that has been validated in the experiences of
everyday life. In the midst of lonely
days and dreary nights I have heard an inner voice saying, “Lo, I will be with
you.” When the chains of fear and the
manacles of frustration have all but stymied my efforts, I have felt the power
of God transforming the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope.
Do you have that same assurance of the presence and
care of a loving God in your life. The
choice is yours; you too can either accept or reject the redemption Jesus won
for us on the cross. The choice is yours alone to make. I believe there is no other way to find peace
with God, than through the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.
·
It is only through Jesus’ suffering
and death that we have peace with God.
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