Life Isn't Fair

When I was a child and would protest to my parents regarding any number of disagreements, I would often receive a simple statement dropped with such finality in tone and definitiveness that it would frustrate me to no end. "Well, Vernon, life isn't fair."

I hated this statement, not just because it held a lot of truth, but because I refused to believe such a sweeping, general statement could be relevant anti-explanation to my every objection, from the largest offense to the most minute. Life had to be kind of fair, didn't it?

In reality, life is quite fair, quite just, despite all the examples we see of injustice ... from wars springing from sordid reasons, criminals acquitted thanks to the power of their money, innocent men and women convicted because of poor defense, misleading politicians, the trampling of the poor, the neglect of the sick and dying ... Despite all of this, life is more fair than we realize. The majority of people still get what they deserve, mainly because this is the way most of humanity functions. Karma reigns in many places throughout Asia, and in the West, our churches close the doors on homosexuals, liberals, homeless, and any poorly dressed people we think made their own bed and should therefore, quite fairly, lie in it.

The past few posts have taken me on a voyage of thought I have never truly felt comfortable with, and that not because I couldn't formulate a clear answer, but because I feared if I did formulate a clear answer it would subsequently contort me into a person who, to some group of people or another, turned a cold shoulder ... in the name of what is "true" and "just."

Today is Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of the season of Lent. Both are marked by repentance, penitence, and supplication. During this time, Christians scrape and strive to make sense of the ramifications of what it took for Christ to achieve atonement for all humanity, past and present. And gradually, I come to realize just how offensive, just how unfair, is the lot of the Savior. A good man - a man who experienced every chief emotion, temptation, and challenge we experience, yet resisted rebellion, remained untouched by the nature of Sin. When we come down to it, we find the most unjust of events taking place to accomplish the justice of God.

But still we make it our place to determine who will be with Christ in Heaven and who will "burn in Hell." Some Christians incorrectly defend their judgmentalness by quoting obscure verses in Scripture about the saints judging the nations. These are the same people who clutch their Bibles like a gavel. However, I think we might be surprised just who are revealed to be the true saints mentioned in Scripture. In a comment on my last post, my friend Meg quoted Richard John Neuhaus: "Jesus is not very fastidious about the company he keeps. A serious question is raised about whether we will be happy with those who are with us in paradise."

I believe that one day all our opinions and biases and misguided loyalties will be swallowed up in the stark image of the unjustly nail-scarred hands of a God who became a baby, who became a prophet, who became a Savior, who became a King. Today I think of a head pierced deep by thorns, blood pouring ... of splintered hands pinned to a tree ... of a ravaged side run through with a spear ... of dusty feet caked with blood.

It seems my parents were indeed right - perhaps more right than even they knew. Life ... true life ... isn't fair.