Violence grabs headlines because it shocks us, shattering and scarring lives, leaving a void at the dinner table or in bed.
Sadly, Guatemala remains one of the 10 most violent countries on the planet — a dubious distinction considering the group includes countries at war. Since 1996, Guatemala has supposedly been at peace, its 30-year civil war ended, but old-timers have told me they felt safer when the civil war raged.
In such a context, a lynch mob’s eye-for-eye response to violence is understandable and often welcomed by many. The locals see it as a “limpieza” or cleansing.
As we approach Easter (April 4, 2010), it occurs to me that this time of year celebrates what happened after a mob had its way with the Son of God, the only sinless one to walk this earth. To be more accurate, the mob condemned Jesus Christ and handed him over to professional killers for his crucifixion.
Lynch mobs aren’t known for cool, rational thought.
Some 16 years ago, a friend hurried to town in the Guatemalan mountains searching for his children amidst a lynch mob. He told me he met a friend there shouting among the mob whose mind seemed off a bit, as if he were in a fog, stirred up by frenzied rumors and fears. Only after my friend asked a series of questions, did the man come out of the “fog” and decide to go home, away from the danger.
In the weeks leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus Christ willingly walked toward Jerusalem as a lamb to the slaughter, knowing he faced a friendly, welcoming crowd whose allegiance would pivot within days and begin to thirst for his blood. He knew the Jewish religious rulers, jealous of his fame, had effectively issued a death sentence for him, seeking any means possible to take his life and restore their perverted sense of order — illegitimate, hypocritical power before peons.
Yet the prophet Isaiah tells us this wasn’t the whole story.
According to Isaiah, God graciously had a hand in the unjust murder — the murder of the just for the unjust. God loved us and sent his son to his death for us ... and for his glory, promising the Christ would “prolong his days” and rise again to life.
“Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;Yes, Roman soldiers hammered the nails through Jesus’ hands, but the Apostle Paul sheds further light:
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days,
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
— Isaiah 53:10.
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him,” — Colossians 2:13-15.What was “set aside”? Our failures, debt records and “trespasses.”
Who nailed this record of our trespasses to the cross? God did.
Whose hands were nailed to the cross? Christ’s were.
Whose sins were nailed to the cross? Yours, mine and ours.
Who was killed? Christ was.
Who was dead in “trespasses” and sin? I was.
Who should have died for their sins? You and me.
Whose hands could not move? Christ’s hands.
Whose outstretched immobile arms “disarmed the rulers”? Christ’s arms.
Who was murdered? Christ was.
Who triumphed? Christ did.
Who loved? Christ did.
Who lives? Christ does and so do I by faith.
And so can you.
Happy Easter.
For more, see Acts 2:37-40.
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