Two criminals are in the headlines this week: Dylann Roof, the 21 year old who murdered 9 innocent people in my city, Charleston, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston bombers. These two individuals made hate-filled choices that took the lives of many and shattered the lives of many more, and now they are reaping the consequences of their actions.
One such consequence is how they are being talked about. Living here in Charleston, where there is so much media coverage, it’s hard to escape Dylann Roof conversation. His name is everywhere. Everything he’s said or done is plastered everywhere. Even his family members are being dragged through the mud. Online, there are hate-filled slurs and emotion-driven statements surrounding this young man, none of which are nice. The Boston bomber may have it even worse.
The thing about it is: these two men are reaping what they’ve sown. They committed heinous acts that have them locked away behind bars, and no amount of apology will take away the ramifications of these bad decisions. Still, all of these criminal conversations have got me thinking about the one Man, considered a criminal, who never deserved to be treated as such.
Seeing how the media portrays Roof and Tsarnaev gives me insight into how the chief priests and Pharisees must have portrayed Jesus. They had brain-washed and emboldened the crowd so much that they had people chanting for Him to be crucified — not simply killed, but given a criminal’s execution.
Jesus was the perfect Son of God. He had “committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth,” yet “they made His grave with the wicked.” They spat upon Him. They slapped Him in the face. They turned people against Him, blasphemed Him, and falsely accused Him. They turned His name into a curse. They berated and mocked and tortured His followers and friends. Still, “He opened not His mouth.”
The Creator, the Prince of Peace, the perfect Messiah, He was treated as a criminal. He was slaughtered and His death made a spectacle. He was tortured long before that, stripped of any basic human rights. There was no dignity in His death, for “He was numbered with the transgressors.” He was crucified between two criminals, the leaders displaying to a watching world that Jesus was no better than they were. Can you even imagine this scenario?! An innocent man being treated in such a way? But it wasn’t just that! It was Immanuel, GOD with us, being treated in this manner. Jesus the Christ, treated as a criminal, despised by those He came to save.
The events of both the Boston Bombing and the Charleston church shooting are tragic and terrible and deplorable. Still, our God can use bad things for His glory. So let Him be glorified in these events. Let our eyes be turned to His Son, who “when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten.” Let us imitate His actions. Let our hearts praise His name, though those in His day treated Him as a criminal. Let us never be ashamed of Him, but instead, let us always glorify Him in our decisions and attitudes and actions. Let us show others that He lives in us, that His mind is in us, and that the victory is ours through His great sacrifice on the cross.
Criminals reap what they’ve sown. Jesus reaped what we sowed. He suffered as a criminal for us so that we could be spared the wrath of God. Don’t let this week pass you by without thinking of what He suffered for you, and what your response should be to that great love.
*Scriptures taken from Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2
