Last Thursday I was telling Vicki about a situation when I felt I was treated unfairly (sorry, I can’t tell you). Just so happens Vicki had the same thing happen to her, she also had been treated unfairly. Sunday, one of our sons argued that we treated him unfairly. This past Monday night I was talking to a young man who is being treated unfairly; he is being bullied. Tuesday night our Journey group met and we were reflecting on our past, some shared experiences of things in their past that were unfair. And wouldn’t you know it, Wednesday night I learned about another man who had been treated unfairly. And as I was thinking about people who have been treated unfairly, the Spirit brought to mind some of the times when I treated people unfairly.
Much of our journey through life is filled with circumstances that were, or are, unfair. But probably none more unfair than a situation I’ve benefited greatly from. The story is told in Isaiah 53; from The Message paraphrase, it goes like this:
1Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him [How is that fair?].
7-9 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—and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.
10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. 11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—the best of everything, the highest honors—Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep [How unfair!].
May God’s grace be sufficient for you when treated unfairly, and please forgive me if I have treated you unfairly. In the mean time, may we meditate in quiet wonder this week of what the Father considered fair treatment for our sins.
Forgiven and healed,
Mike Altena