What do we do when we are wronged?
The very existence of this question is a symptom of the type of world we live in. We do not live in a world of innocence. We live in a world that creaks and groans because of the Fall.
It is when we have been wronged that we feel most strongly that there is such a thing as Right and Wrong. There are behaviors that really are objectively reprehensible, not just that the majority of humans at the present time happen to be displeased by it. There is a real Right and Wrong. At bottom we all know this. We know this especially when we are on the receiving end.
Romans indicates that God has written his law on our hearts. He indicates that through nature we know God and are responsible to him. Through the dark desires of our heart we suppress the truths that we naturally know... so that we can chase down those dark desires. The atheist knows God, yet has suppressed that knowledge. Coming to know God, for the atheist, will be less like a dispassionate agreement at the end of a syllogism and more like a delighted/terrified, "Of course!"
When we have been wronged, we are driven to the acknowledgement of Right and Wrong, and we are driven to acknowledgement of the Law Giver, the Creator. And when we are on the receiving end, we ought to realize that God also is on the receiving end. Yet, because of his holiness, his love, his exclusive claim on the other person, God receives the hurt and the sin with far greater magnitude and capacity than we are even able to. Those sins that break your heart and cause you pain also break God's heart and cause him pain, but because of who he is, he sees and knows the iniquity to depths that we cannot. God's heart aches for the repentance of sinners with a gravity we cannot yet know.
The cry for justice, the cry to be be vindicated is Biblical. The Psalms are drenched with it. The Holy Spirit in our hearts will have us cry out against the brokenness in this world. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Deliver us from evil! We live in a world where this cry, this prayer, really means something.
What do we do when we are wronged?
Do we take vengeance? No. As Christians and as humans we are not that sort of people. Shall we allow the wickedness of others not merely to hurt us, but also to effect a transformation of our own hearts and souls into something decidedly ugly. Vengeance is not ours to take. May we find a refuge against this worst sort of infection! Evil cannot overcome evil in the end. Ultimately only good can do it.
Law exists, courts exists, the police exist - imperfect though they may be - to see justice done as much as possible, to provide a way out besides retaliation. All these things exist because we live in a broken world. But thanks be to God that they do exist! They now provide a shadow pointing to a greater reality. They provide a present means for us to approximate the true justice of God.
The God who has laid the law on our hearts is powerful and desirous to see justice done. Yet he is patient. And in the end - as the Christian view of things holds - there will not be a single unequal balance. All that is crooked will be laid straight. Those who stand and shake their fists at God and at man now will bow either willingly, or they will be made forcibly to bow before the Judge of perfect holiness and goodness.
When I am wronged, I entrust the other to God's justice. I pray for justice now. May God see fit to use the system in place now to provide what may be provided. But if we get it wrong, we can trust that he will not. Trust in the character and faithfulness of God is what allows me to endure.
Now how do we understand the crazy command to love and pray for our enemies? We cannot do away with this command and act like it didn't exist. Yet, how can we bear to obey it? Enemy-love is so foreign to our nature.
And yet, what we must realize is that my very own injuries toward God, my own iniquities toward God, my own lack of thanks and trust are greater than anything anyone has done to me. If you step on an ant, you don't feel guilt over it. But if you ran over a child, you couldn't contain your grief. Because there is such a huge difference between the ant and the child. If you punch some guy in a bar, you may get sued. If you try to punch the President, you may get a lot more than you bargained for. The latter is a far more serious offense. Because of the difference, the level between the two.
The difference between me and God is infinite. An offense against God is far worse than an offense against me. When someone has wronged you, do you also ache over the fact that God has been wronged?
I have wronged God! I have made him my enemy. I have lacked thanks. I have lacked prayer. I have tried to captain my own ship. I have disregarded his law! I have committed the same sins over and over and over. I have allowed anger to overcome me. I have held others guilty for offenses that I have committed... that I continue to commit. I have betrayed the one who has given me breath and life. I have lived for my own life and happiness and glory. And I have fallen far short of the glory of God. And my wages - what I deserve for this - is nothing other than death. There are not enough ages to pay the debt that I have owed against the infinitely holy and good God who is really there. My record shows that I have been an enemy to God.
And yet, the cross!
Before I loved God, before I pursued him... he pursued me. He loved me! The cross is the measure of this love. When I doubt God's love for me, I look to the cross. Jesus absorbed all the righteous wrath of God that was due to me when he shouldered that tree and breathed his last. He climbed Calvary and shed his blood for me knowing the mess that I would make of my life. I have nothing to boast of except the grace of God in the face of the Jesus who died and rose to pay for my sins.
God's love overcomes his enemies.
But his love does not negate his justice. Jesus' cross fulfills God's justice. Having passed over the sins of man for ages, the cross was the answer to why that patience did not negate his holiness. By rights Adam and Even should have been toasted at the tree of their disobedience. Yet God's patience allowed a greater revealing of his glory by making the way for Jesus' greater obedience at a tree...
To love enemies is impossible in our own strength. But nothing is impossible with God.
God welcomes those who repent. So should we. If we expect God to forgive us, we must forgive. We are called, I believe, to love and desire the repentance of those who have wronged us. And this does not negate the cry in our heart for justice. But what it means is that when the other has repented, we must see that justice has been done in the cross. The nearly-unbearable weight of being really wronged must lead us to magnified view of what Jesus has really accomplished, what his cross really means. It is no small thing! Reconciliation is costly.
When we are wronged, we are in good company. When we are wronged, Jesus has allowed us to share something with him. Imagine the weight of the world on his shoulders, all those who betrayed him, who accused him falsely, who did not give him justice... Jesus suffered all injustice so that justice and mercy might truly meet in his reality.
We await a Judgement Day. We pray. We hold on. We rely on the Holy Spirit who is with us. We work for justice. We pray for justice now. We forgive. We love. They will know us by our love.
