Acts 10:34-43

John 20:1-18 IS GOD UNFAIR?

Author Philip Yancey makes the observation that the most common curse word in the English language is the word

“God” followed by the word, “damn”. “People say it,” Yancey observes, “not only in the face of great tragedy, but also

when their cars won’t start, when a favored sports team loses, when it rains on their picnic. That oath renders an instinctive

judgment that life ought to be fair and that God should somehow “do a better job” of running the world.

Most of us have, at one time or another, rolled our eyes heavenward and cried out in anguish, “Why God?”. Reports of random violence, innocent victims plagued by AIDS, the horrors of child abuse and neglect, the killing of police officers, and acts of terror fill the evening news. The hurts in our own lives make us wonder why the righteous seem to suffer and the evil prosper. Or even worse, we find our own troubles to be proof of our unacceptability to God.

We ask, “Is God really in control?” And if God is in control, “Why is life so unfair? Is God unfair?”

The answer we have this morning in our scripture is a resounding, “NO!” Life on this earth is unfair. But God is not.

We need look no further than the cross to discover the great unfairness of life. Henri Nouwen tells the story of a family he knew in Paraguay. The father, a doctor, spoke out against the military regime there and its human rights abuses. Local police took their revenge on him by arresting his teenage son and torturing him to death. Enraged townsfolk wanted to turn the boys’ funeral into a huge protest rally, but the doctor chose another means of protest. At the funeral, the father displayed his son’s body as he had found it in the jail–naked, scarred from the electric shocks and cigarette burns and beatings. Mourners filed past the corpse, which did not lay in a coffin, but on the blood-soaked mattress from the prison. It was the strongest protest imaginable, for it put injustice on grotesque display.

That is precisely what God did on the cross. There was Jesus’ body–naked and marked with scars, bleeding and exposed to all the violence and injustice of the world. The cross reveals that we live in a world of gross unfairness...and with a God of sacrificial love.

Peter summarizes the ministry and person of Jesus in his sermon from Acts 10. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power...he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil...” He was a good man. He was honest and compassionate and made lives better by his presence and his words. And what happened? “They put him to death on a tree.” For Jews, this was the worst of all possible deaths. The Old Testament law made it clear that those who died by hanging on a tree were the most removed from God’s love and compassion. It was a death to be reserved for the blasphemers who would be forever cast out of the community and without possibility of redemption or grace.

This stunning slap of injustice and unfairness shook the disciples of Jesus deeply. They were convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah and now, suddenly, they were left alone...leaderless...helpless...disillusioned and disappointed by God. And they must have had moments of anguish on Friday and Saturday when they screamed out to God and wondered why.

The cross lets us know that no one is exempt from tragedy or disappointment... not even God. Good Friday demolishes once and for all the notion that life is supposed to be fair.

But lest we despair, we need to get to the rest of the story...for what we celebrate this morning is not the unfairness of life, but the power of God. If the message of unfairness seems overpowering in Jesus’ crucifixion, Easter settles the issue once and for all. God is fair.

Early on Sunday morning, the women walked to the tomb, in mourning... expecting to properly care for the body of Jesus that had been so hastily buried before the Sabbath began at sundown on Friday. It was not going to be a pleasant job. The body had been there for over two days. It would be dirty and smelly, but it was a job that would still be done with love and devotion.

But the tomb was empty. The great stone that sealed the entrance was rolled back and something had happened. It wasn’t until Jesus appeared to Mary in the garden that puzzlement gave way to joy. And soon the good news was spread that Jesus was not dead, but had been raised to life once again.

In that resurrection is God’s pledge that ultimately unfairness will be overcome. Ultimately, God will restore all physical reality to its proper place under God’s reign. Life may be unfair. God is not. All that we suffer unjustly in this world is remembered by God and will be accounted for in the world to come.

The cross and resurrection of Jesus marks a great change in the Bible’s attitude toward suffering. In the Old Testament, God’s people railed against their torments. Even God’s prophets like Jeremiah, Job, and Jonah complained. The Psalms express shock and anguish over the unfairness of life. They speak our unspoken thoughts. But after the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s people accept suffering and actually seem to glory in it. There is a new understanding for us who are in Christ about the redemptive quality of suffering...and there is an assurance in the resurrection that God has not forgotten and God is not powerless. All will be made right. God’s justice will prevail. That is good news that can fill our lives with hope and promise and set us free to follow wherever God leads.

It has certainly helped me to know that in my career as an interim pastor. Like most people, I have an intense desire to be liked. That’s not always an easy thing for interim pastors. We are called to tell the truth....sometimes the hard truth...in the midst of the congregations we have been chosen to serve. My first interim was in a very difficult congregation filled with intense conflict. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be another faction plotting and scheming for power. I worked hard to lower the level of conflict to the point where we could begin talking with one another. I thought we were making progress. Then I heard some rumblings. The story was that Session clerk and few of his cronies were planning to fire me. There were all sorts of whispers about me that weren’t true...but were whispered none-the-less. I was shattered. I had worked hard. I had given much to this congregation.

I cried out to God. I moaned and complained and fretted and stewed.

And I prayed. And I remembered Jesus and his suffering. And I realized I didn’t have it so bad. Those people could make my life miserable, but they couldn’t fire me without the consent of the presbytery. (Did you know that”)

And so I went back to work. We continued to talk, to study the scriptures, to pray, to laugh and cry together. And God found a way to bring goodness out of the pain.

That congregation grew stronger. People who had been bullied into silence began to stand up to the injustice that was being perpetrated against THEIR pastor. Quiet people found voices. My suffering helped bring redemption to a congregation. They are stronger and more peaceful and more faithful than they had been in years. It wasn’t exactly a crucifixion...but it felt like one. And out of that small experience of death, God has brought life.

God does not forget. God will not let injustice stand forever.

God declared the unfairness of the crucifixion by breaking the power of death and raising Jesus to new life.

God’s promise is that God will restore all of creation to the purity of Eden when the kingdom is realized in its fullness.

Easter is a taste of what is to come. And this hope brings joy to our celebration.