My fingers rapped the steering wheel to the rhythm of a nameless tune. Preoccupied with a list of stops I’d yet to make, I was totally unaware that my nervous energy had percolated to the surface as I waited for the light to change.
There it is—green!—but the dude in front of me just sat there. I was incredulous; I looked around for confirmation from another driver, a pedestrian, anyone, who shared my astonishment that the guy in front of me was staring at a green light but not moving!
Gathering my composure, I looked through the back window of the car ahead. I could see he was looking up at the light (nixing the assumption that he was texting instead of driving) yet he didn’t move. It began to feel strange… he just sat there staring up at a very green light. “Ummm…that’s a green as it gets, Bud!” I whispered to myself. For some unexplained reason, I resisted leaning on the horn.
And there we sat, just the two us, on a quiet Lancaster street. There was no oncoming traffic, no cross traffic, so he wasn’t simply waiting for the intersection to clear. Still he just sat there. My mood mitigated from frustration to wonder. My breathing slowed. I sensed a drama was being played out, a drama in which I had become an unwitting participant. What was he doing? The light turned yellow, and then red again, but still we sat. “Surely he’ll go when it’s green again.” I settled in for the second act.
An eternity later, the light turned green. And still we sat. Slowly I pulled out around him and drove through the intersection, glancing quickly at the driver as I passed. He was weeping, wiping his eyes with clumsy fingers. I was embarrassed, an intruder into his private moment.
As I drove on I couldn’t help but consider what true life story I had stumbled upon. Had he just left an oncologist with a terminal diagnoses? Had he just received a phone call from his wife of 23 years telling him she wanted a divorce? Or, had his boss just informed him he was no longer needed in their employ? At first I considered that “only he knew his pain.” But then I quickly realized there was at least one more who knew: Jesus knew.
As a pastor, I’m often asked why a good God allows bad things to happen to good people. I wish I had the theological chops to offer a conclusive answer, but I don’t. I am sure of this—Jesus Christ willingly suffered on the cross to not only bear our sins but to personally enter into our sorrows and our griefs. He’s right there for us… and with us.
When you reflect on the Cross of Jesus Christ this Easter, I hope you find genuine hope in knowing that He knows what is tormenting you. He bore the torment of the cross on our behalf. Not only did he carry the burden of our personal indiscretions but he took on every manner of disorder in this chaotic world in which we live. Bad things happen because we live in a broken world. But Jesus is not broken… He is alive!
Because Jesus died on the cross for our sin, He has made the way for us to individually find victory over our sin. And because He rose from that grave, we will one day experience victory over all sickness, sorrow and death. Peter, the same rascal who denied he even knew Jesus before the crucifixion, went on to pen these LIFE words after experiencing the power of His resurrection:
What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven–and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all–life healed and whole. I Peter 1:3-5
Happy Resurrection Day!
Read Ron’s column, Simple Faith, each Saturday on the Faith Page (page 3) of the Lancaster Eagle Gazette, or visit www.lancastereaglegazette.com.