We got the page. Two shooting victims were being brought in by rescue squad to the hospital emergency room. One victim had already died at the scene. As a pastoral care volunteer at a large medical center, I followed the hospital chaplain as he responded to the page and raced to the emergency room trauma center.
Already a team of doctors and nurses of various specialties were gathering in preparation as the chaotic scene began to unfold. The unidentified patients were rushed in and triage began prioritizing the patients in an effort to save their lives.
As information about the victims slowly began to be compiled, family members were notified. Many of them had already heard of the violence and had come flooding through the emergency screening booth as security personnel checked for any concealed weapons. Serious questions were being asked: “Is my son okay?” “Do you have any information on him?” There were three families present but only two of the victims had survived. None of the families knew if their sons were still alive or not. There were gangs involved and those respective members had also gathered. The lobby area was packed with a range of emotions - crying, fear, tension, and anger. Along with the dozens of police officers present, the gang intervention person was there trying to mitigate the situation.
It was our job to separate the families, find consultation rooms for them, care for the children present, and pass along any tidbit of information that came available from the doctors. As we prayed with the families and offered our services, the looming question was in everyone’s mind: “Why did this senseless, random act of violence have to happen? Why do people hurt people and caused misery and death?
That’s the question of the day, isn’t it? Especially when we look at the opposite perspective: people committing random acts of kindness. These spontaneous deeds come from the heart and are bestowed upon unsuspecting people who cross our paths. We may pay the toll for the car behind us, take a pie to the firefighters at their station, donate a stuffed animal to a child at a hospital, give money to a homeless person, donate blood or an organ, carry the groceries to an elderly person’s car, or simply pray for a person. How do we process the difference between these radically different acts?
Jesus was in the middle of this dilemma when He lived His life here on earth. On one hand He had the scribes and Pharisaical Jews who were in constant conflict with Him, trying desperately to trap Him with their legalistic ideals and condemn Him to death. In Matthew 23, Jesus states they are descendants of those who murdered the prophets:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, “If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” Thus, you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets” (Matthew 23:29-31).
He calls them blind, hypocrites, and Sons of vipers – asking the rhetorical question, “How will you escape the judgment of hell?” Outwardly they looked like righteous people, but inwardly their hearts were filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. They would eventually arrest Him, brutally beat Him, and nail Him to a cross. Their act of violence resulted in the death of an innocent man - the Son of God. Ellen White writes:
“Priests and rulers forgot the dignity of their office and abused the Son of God with foul epithets. They taunted Him with His parentage. They declared that His presumption in proclaiming Himself the Messiah made Him deserving of the most ignominious death. The most dissolute men engaged in infamous abuse of the Savior. An old garment was thrown over His head, and His persecutors struck Him in the face saying, “Prophesy unto us, Thou Christ. Who is he that smote Thee? When the garment was removed, one poor wretch spat in His face” (DA 715.3).
On the other hand, Jesus performed acts which were radically different from the Pharisees. As you read the accounts of His life in the Gospels, you find lepers leaping for joy after being miraculously healed, blind men able to see, deaf and dumb to hear and speak again, demoniacs freed from legions of evil angels, paralytics able to walk again, and the dead raised to life. You discover miracles of:
· water being turned into the best wine ever tasted,
· boats, that they were on the verge of sinking, filled with huge amounts of fish,
· feeding the hungry with so much bread even a bakery could not produce that amount in one day,
· even the wind and waves obeyed him, and
· compassion to a thief hanging on the cross next to Him even though He was in excruciating pain himself.
Fortunately for us, God did not have to ask, “Is my Son okay” or “why did this senseless act of violence happen to Him?” With His infinite wisdom and love, He knew this dilemma of sin we face here on earth. He knew the battle between good and evil. He knew that if Jesus did not come as Savior, Satan would win out in his violence against mankind and all hope would be lost. He sent His Son to be our example. The area was packed with heavenly angels and gangs of evil angels – all there to witness the outcome. Again, Ellen White writes in The Desire of Ages:
“Had they known that they were putting to torture One who had come to save the sinful race from eternal ruin, they would have been seized with remorse and horror. But their ignorance did not remove their guilt, for it was their privilege to know and accept Jesus as their Savior. Some of them would yet see their sin, and repent, and be converted. Some by their impenitence would make it an impossibility for the prayer of Christ to be answered for them. Yet, just the same, God’s purpose was reaching its fulfillment. Jesus was earning the right to become the advocate of men in the Father’s presence” (DA 744.3).
God turned Satan’s vicious, brutal act of killing Jesus into the most wonderful act of kindness the world would ever know! Jesus was to embody the Father’s love as He hung there on that cross and as He rose on the third day. We were undeserving. He was selfless. It was a gift. And with it, we all can be saved from Satan’s violent acts.
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