Submitting Calmly to Injustice

Flowers from the memoirs service of the Southwest 
Native American District. A place that has suffered
more loss from COVID, than most any other in the US. 

Scripture:

Luke 23:6   When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. ⁷ And when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. ⁸ When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform some sign. ⁹ He questioned him at some length, but Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. ¹¹ Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him; then he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate. ¹² That same day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other; before this they had been enemies.

Observation:

Pilate seems reticent to take upon himself the judgement of Jesus. He learns that Jesus is from Galilee, and by good fortune, Herod happens to be in Jerusalem for a visit. Self-promotion was very important to Herod, and appearing at the right place at the right time would have been a priority. Because of the predictability of his character, God was able to use him as an instrument in his plan. 

While Jesus had healed and ministered to the poor beggars on the roadside, he refused to perform on demand. Everything unfolding before him reeked of injustice. Here he was, the son of God, and he was expected to perform like a circus act. Getting no response, Herod began to question Jesus, who simply refused to answer. Jesus had nothing to say to this man, and in doing so, he fulfilled the prophecy of the suffering servant who “did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

Interestingly, Pilate and Herod had never liked one another. Suddenly, their mutual dislike for Jesus created an odd friendship. 

Application:

Jesus spoke up when the injustice involved others, but did not defend himself. There’s a lesson in his response. I am a person who greatly dislikes injustice. I will never forget a situation in Russia where we were in the midst of purchasing an apartment for the church. There was a required payment schedule, where you had to make cash payments for the new apartment, which had not yet been built. We asked them if the money could be wired into an account in Russia and they told us that it could. After getting all the details the money was wired to this account, only they hadn’t given us the correct routing numbers. We worked for days that stretched into weeks of trying to get the money to the right location. Over and over again they failed to give us the right information. Finally, the deadline was looming and we had to call back the wire transfer, fly someone to Switzerland, and they had to carry it over in cash. All of this meant that we submitted the first sum of money one day after the initial deadline — all because they were unable to give us the right information. The entire process was costing us a great deal of money, and that now included a round-trip ticket to Zurich, where the individual stayed long enough to collect the funds and get back on the same plane to return to Moscow. (In the early days of the former Soviet Union this was not unusual, and that flight was known for being a ‘cash runner’ for numerous organizations.)

The day we brought in the funds, they told us that we owed them a penalty for being a day late. I told them that we were late because they had continually given us the wrong information. They didn’t care, and they would take no responsibility for all that they had cost us, and now, we would need to be pay them several thousand dollars in “fines.” I was not happy, and I was there as the documents were being signed. The poor young lady handling the transaction had no control over the decision making — she had been told to extract more money from us. I asked to see a supervisor — they had all left the premises. Either we pay the “fine” or we would lose everything. I told her that at least I had to express my frustration at the “injustice.” I knew the word for justice well in Russian, as we experienced a lack of justice on a regular basis. I scribbled a note at the bottom of the contract that we were paying the “fine,” but that it was not just, because the delay had been their fault. 

There were many times during that season of life that I was met with injustice. I had to learn when to be silent, and when I could speak up. That fight against injustice wells up inside of me from time to time, even when living back in the US. I don’t face the same struggle on a daily basis that I did over there, and so I have to remind myself that I’m not in fight or flight situation every day! Jesus refused to speak up in this “no-win” situation. No amount of answer would have changed Herod’s mind. Sometimes the fight isn’t worth it, and it’s best to retain your dignity and simply keep quiet. That’s a lesson I’m still learning. 

Prayer:

Lord, I need your wisdom to discern when to speak up and when to be silent.