Unjust Desserts

I don't know if anyone remembers the turn of phrase: "getting your 'just desserts,'" meaning what you deserve and what you've earned. Well, we who live in the world are well aware that sometimes it just doesn't turn out that way. Sometimes we get what we don't deserve. Nowhere is this more aparent than in the Easter story... so I take this Lenten season to reflect on a Lord who shouldered burdens that He didn't need to bear.

Trouble
Numbers 33:1-34:29

"But if you don't force those people out of the land, they will bring you trouble. They will be like sharp hooks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will bring trouble to the land where you live." (Numbers 33:55)

As the Israelites are about to enter the land of Canaan, the Lord warns them that they will have to make all others leave. Others residing in this land have set up idols and statues, and God warns that they will "bring trouble." How interesting to see this image of a "thorn in their sides," when the crown of thorns is forced onto Jesus at his crucifiction. It appears that in the end it was not just a certain group of people but all of humanity that brought trouble to the land... and our ever-loving Lord who sent His Son to save us from this trouble, although we didn't deserve it.

Evil
Psalm 35:11-16

"They repay me with evil for the good I have done, and they make me very sad." (Psalm 35:12)

Sometimes I'm very glad that we are not always granted blessings for the good things that we do. Sometimes our helping hand may be greeted with a suspicious countenance. A heartfelt affirmation of faith may be met with sceptical disbelief. And this does make us sad. What... after all... did I do? But it does serve to remind us that the motives for the good that we do are beyond the here and now... they are all for the glory of our Father in Heaven and not for our own good. They may also serve to remind us of the great good that Jesus did here on earth, only to be repayed with such evil actions.

Shame
Mark 15:1-20

"The soldiers beat Jesus on the head many times with a stick. They spit on him and made fun of him by bowing on their knees and worshiping him. After they finished, the soldiers took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him out of the palace to be crucified." (Mark 15:19-20)

The cross... the death reserved for those horrible sinners that deserved to be publicly shamed. It was the death of the murderers, liars, theives. And Jesus who never committed any of these crimes, who never deserved this type of humiliation, shouldered the burden. He bore the sins of the world, so he bore the weight of the murderer, the disgrace of the liar, the emberassment of the theif. Lucado reminds that "crucifixion was intended not only to hurt the victim but to shame him." And Jesus faced a shameful death that he didn't deserve to offer us a life that we cannot deserve... but accept by believing in the grace that God offers us.