The Blog of St. Mark

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In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.

The case made most local and national papers.  I think it’s safe to say that almost every paper in the world covered this case, or at least mentioned it.  You’ve read about it, I’m sure.  The murder of the young man sent shock waves through his community.  Cut down in the prime of life, just as he realized his potential, just as he started to make his mark.  He made a most sympathetic victim.

And his killer?  Well, let’s just say his killer is the poster-child for unsympathetic.  Bigoted.  Racist.  Arrogant.  Unrepentant.  You name it.  At the trial, he showed no remorse, not even for being caught.  He just sat there.  He admitted nothing.

The guilty verdict was a no-brainer.  So too the life sentence.  And years passed.  Most forgot.  New crimes washed away the stain of the old.  Of course the family didn’t forget.  Each year they commemorated the day of the son’s death.  It hit the father especially hard.  After all, it was his only son.

Every few years the murderer came up for parole.  By some fluke, he hadn’t been LWoPPed – life without the possibility of parole.  Apparently, the crime was not that egregious.  Since the case had made the papers, received a lot of publicity, and had been egregious, the district attorney who prosecuted the case and some of the family members came to argue against parole.  And, not surprisingly, the board denied it time and time again.  Why should this guy – still unrepentant – be released from prison, when the son remains dead?

Here’s where the story gets interesting.  One year, the murderer faced the parole board and noticed a new face in the audience.  The father.  The board went through its usual rigamarole.  The murderer did his thing.  The attorneys and family members spoke their peace.  And then the father spoke.  The convict didn’t even bother to listen.  He knew what was coming.

The hearing ended.  The murderer returned to his cell.  The parole board returned its verdict:  “Parole granted.”  The newspapers picked up the story again.  When a vicious murderer, an unrepentant murderer gets parole, that tends to inflame sensibilities.  All the usual suspects raised pickets and signed petitions and organized protests.  “Not in our community!”  “Where’s the justice?”  “Send him to hell!”

The day finally came for the murderer to begin his parole.  Free at last.  He walked out of the prison, ready to begin life on the outside.  The doors opened.  There were no slaps on the backs from guards wishing him well.  Light from the sun hit the murderer’s face – paroled murderer.  He soaked it in.  He had no plans.  A bus would take him to the city to live under the watchful eye of his parole officer.

He looked for the bus and saw the father of the man he’d killed.  The father approached his son’s killer.  The killer tensed.  He knew nothing bad could happen here under the watchful eye of the prison guards, but, hey, who knows!  He asked the father, “What do you want? What are you doing here?”

The father looked him in the eye and said, “You’re coming with me.”

“What are you talking about?  I’m not going anywhere with you!”

And then the father understood.  The man hadn’t listened.  “Didn’t you hear what I told the parole board?”

“Why would I listen to you damn me to hell for killing your son?”

“I didn’t.  I asked them to have mercy on you.  I asked them to release you and promised that I would take care of you.  Now come with me.”

Quite the story.  Almost worthy of a Hollywood film.  If you didn’t put together the pieces, I’m surprised.  Like I said, it’s been in all the papers.  People have written books about it.  Maybe it would have been easier to remember if I’d have said this: The kingdom of heaven is like… (Matthew 13:24).

I didn’t lie to you.  I didn’t make the story up.  I just clothed it in an earthly form.  The father is the Father.  The son is the Son.  And the killer, well, that’s you, and me, and the world.  It’s not a complex parable, I’ll admit.  But the situation isn’t all that complex.  God sent His Son into the world.  And we murdered His Son.  He came to His own and His own did not recognize Him.  They – we – brutalized Him.  Our weakness drove us to this.  Our unholiness justified it.  Our sin made it happen.  And Jesus wasn’t the first…or the last.  Think of prophet after prophet, teacher after teacher, assaulted, beaten, murdered.  Throughout the history of mankind, teachers of God’s truths have been hounded from their homes and their pulpits.  For speaking God’s Words.  Pastors speak the truth and are suddenly unwelcome in your home.  Your ears are closed.  Because they dared to tell you, “You’re wrong,” or they identified a situation that needed addressing.

Put yourself in the Father’s shoes.  What would you do?  I know the visceral response to the injustice of this situation, because I’ve felt it.  We’re so quick to judge.  “Heaven isn’t for that guy.  He deserves hell.”  I’ve seen the recoil when suggesting that some of the worst characters in history might just possibly be in heaven if the Holy Spirit brought them to faith.  Mass murderers, serial killers, pedophiles, rapists, drug dealers, dictators, tyrants – these men dare not darken the halls of heaven.  They’ll defile it.  Hitlers, Stalins, Judases, Pontius Pilates, Jeffrey Dahmers, heaven can’t be for them.  “I won’t allow it,” you say.  As if you’re better.

So, what would you do?  Your son has been murdered.  The killer rots in prison.  You can keep him there.  If we took a straw poll, I bet it would be something like 100% agreement – “He stays.”  The punishment MUST fit the crime.  Whoever sheds the blood of man…(Genesis 9:6).

There must be consequences for sins.  Punishment must follow crime.  I agree.  Yet, there’s another factor at play.  The failure to forgive.  “I just can’t let it go.”  “I’ll never forgive him for what he’s done to me.”  A sympathetic prisoner, a remorseful man, a good man unjustly imprisoned, these we fight for, these we argue for, these we absolve.  But a bad man.  An evil man.  A terrible man.  No mercy

So, what would you do?  Because, incredibly, the Father did both.  He spoke a word of mercy and He caused the release of prisoners.  He did it before the prisoners, before the sinners, even asked for forgiveness.  He did it before you asked for forgiveness.  Before you repented.  And He did it for the worst prisoners.  Not righteous men.  Not even good men, for whom some might dare to die.  He did it for the scum of the earth.  He did it for those who only after the fact admit, “My record of sins is too long.  Leave me in the pit.  I am the worst of sinners.”  He went where we so often refuse to go.  He entered the room filled with contagious disease.  He went to the country that no one cares about.  He died for someone we wouldn’t lift a finger to help.  He spoke mercy.  He did mercy.  He didn’t watch the house across the street burn down.  He put out the fire.  He didn’t let the prisoner rot in his cell.  He made reconciliation for the crime.

He sent the Son He knew we would murder.  So that He could be murdered.  His Son was put to death for your sins.  When you could do nothing about it.  He laid down His life for you.  And then took it up again.  All at just the right time.  In the nick of time, you could say.

What would you do?  What you’ve always done?  What the dark part of your heart tells you to do?  Choke the life out of the man who owes you a tiny debt?  Or graciously forgive the tiny debt of your brother because you know the unpayable debt that was yours, but that Christ removed?

What would you do?  How about what your Father did?  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:6-11). Amen.