Binding the Wounds
“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true
justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or
the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.’” Zechariah 7:9, 10a
Jackie Robinson, the
player who broke baseball’s color barrier, endured a difficult rookie season
with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Fans hurled racial slurs and mailed death threats,
opposing pitchers threw beanballs, and even some of his own teammates started a
petition against him.
One man who stood by him
was shortstop Pee Wee Reese. At one game, fans sitting close to the field
abused Robinson mercilessly, and it looked as if he might be near the breaking
point. At that moment, Reese walked across the field to where Robinson was
playing, and put his arm around his teammate’s shoulders. The crowd fell
silent.
Jackie Robinson and Pee
Wee Reese showed the courage to stand for what was right, even when the
majority opposed them. Similarly, Zechariah encouraged the Israelites to pursue
true justice, even when many were practicing hypocrisy and self-centeredness.
We have witnessed much
suffering across the world in the past several months. Hurricanes have ripped
across Texas, Florida and the Caribbean. Over 350 people have lost their lives
in Mexico’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake. In South Asia typhoons and flooding have
taken 1,200 lives and forced millions from their homes. And now, just in the
past week at least 59 were killed and more than 500 injured by a mass shooter
in Las Vegas.
It is easy to feel
overloaded with the scope of suffering we encounter. But if there is one thing
every follower of Jesus is called to do, it is to continue showing God’s mercy
and compassion as much as we can. If anything, disaster and grief can awaken greater
depths of empathy within us for those who suffer.
True justice not only
reacts in sympathy toward victims, but also acts to prevent future harm. We
must open our hearts to the cries of those who endure not only the catastrophe
of natural disaster, but to those who endure the continuing trials of poverty
and injustice. Just as Pee Wee Reese stood up for Jackie Robinson we need to
risk standing for those who are forgotten, misunderstood, and unfairly judged.
When we consider that God
in Christ entered the world as a human, becoming a servant to us and suffering
violent death at our own hands, our minds can hardly fathom the depths of His
love. We did the worst possible thing to the Father of Love; we killed God! And what did Jesus do
while hanging upon that instrument of death and violence? He said, “Father
forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.”
That should leave no
doubt in our minds about God’s heart toward humanity. Like the Good Samaritan,
we are not called to tell people “You wouldn’t have gotten hurt if you hadn’t
traveled that road.” Instead, exercising
“true justice”, we meet the need and go beyond the boundaries of race,
religion, poverty or any other human constructs and simply bind the wounds of
those who suffer.
My roots are in the
South. Though our family moved to Southern California when I was in second
grade, I was born in Texas and spent nearly every holiday with grandparents in
Tulsa, Okla. After Patti and I were married we moved to Oklahoma to be near my
dad. That “southern courtesy” still runs through my veins.
Grandmas call you “hon”
and people say, “Well, bless your heart” in response to just about anything.
(Sometimes meaning the exact opposite of “bless your heart”, though.)
God is calling for
something more than courtesy. The prophet Zechariah reveals the heart of God as
he calls the people to more than surface level kindness, but to action rooted
in heartfelt affection… “let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”
That’s the real key, isn’t
it? What we say and do is always a product of our inner self. Take some time
and reflect God’s actions of compassion as revealed in the Cross. Consider how
He sacrificed for us in the middle of all our muck and dysfunction and let His
faithful love energize your own.
