The Good, The Bad, and The Impossible
If any of you saw the Super Bowl this past Sunday, you probably also saw the Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial. At 81 years old, Eastwood remains a figure of toughness and resolve for Americans. Growing up, Clint Eastwood was one of my heroes.
Though his characters always had a dark side to them, you always knew that the real bad guys were going to get what was coming to them. Not to mention he always had the best lines:
“You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” And “'Bout time this town had a new sheriff,” and my personal favorite: “Go ahead. Make my day.”
The constant theme in his movies is justice, plain and simple.
Whenever the authorities let evil go unpunished, Eastwood steps in to set things right… if only it were that simple.
The Ugly
The truth is much more difficult to endure. All around us we see wickedness and injustice, but where is our avenger? Where is the one who will set things right in the real world? The video in the last post only adds to our plea for a deliverer. When we look to the pages of Scripture we see God’s people crying out over and over again, “How long, O Lord?” and “Why, O Lord, do you stand so far away?” It even speaks of creation itself groaning as it waits for God’s redemption.
The Uglier
Now that we have established that this world is not a pretty place, the situation gets worse. Even if we decided to get 10 of our friends together, strap on our six-shooters, and exterminate the all the villains, there would still be 10 villains with smoking guns. Like I said earlier, the truth is difficult to handle.
In reality, we are all villains (yes, even Mr. Eastwood). We have rebelled against a holy God, and because of our rebellion we stand not on God’s side but on the side of his enemies. When injustice happens in this world, God is the most offended party. Time and time again we have chosen not to honor him as God, to disobey his commandments, and to pursue wickedness instead of righteousness.
The Ugliest
Despite our evil dispositions we can still observe with our relative standards when there is a miscarriage of justice, or when one who is (relatively) innocent suffers. But the greatest injustice happened when the Perfect One, Jesus Christ, came and lived a sinless life, and yet he was executed with common criminals. Our blood should boil at this outrage.
The Impossible
If that were the whole story our situation would be miserable indeed. However, as Acts 2:23-24 says, “This Jesus was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” Through Christ, God has defeated Satan, sin, and death, and become the just and justifier of the one who has faith. By his resurrection he has inaugurated his kingdom, calling us to place our faith in him and to work towards bringing justice to this world until the fullness of his kingdom comes.
Or, to use my Clint Eastwood paradigm, God used the Ugliest to redeem the Uglier, freeing them to work in the ongoing restoration of the Ugly.