“It Ain’t Easy”

October 31, 2010

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 Luke 19:1-10 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Josh Kezer was 17 years old when he was arrested for shooting a Southeastern Missouri State University
student three times. He was prosecuted in Scott County and served 16 years in state prison. Then in a second
trial, it was found that the prosecution in the original case had withheld key evidence from defense attorneys
and embellished details in their closing arguments. Conflicting testimony and three jail inmates who had
claimed Kezer confessed to the killing later acknowledged they lied in hopes of getting reduced sentences.
The judge later said that the prosecution didn’t care about the truth and that Kezer should never have been
arrested.

Former high school science teacher Dennis Fritz was convicted in the sexual assault and murder of a 21-year-
old woman who was found strangled in December 1982 in Ada, Okla. In 1988, he was convicted, partially
because of microscopic hair comparisons done as part of a scientific testing method. Unfortunately, in the
years since his conviction this method of comparison has been largely discredited. Fritz and a codefendant
were also convicted based on testimony by witness Glen Gore, an informant later shown by DNA testing to
have been the real killer. Gore was later convicted of rape and murder. Both Fritz and his co-defendant
served 11 years in prison for a crime that they did not commit.

When we hear stories like these, and there are, sadly, many of them, something within us wants to cry out
that these things aren’t fair, that somehow if God is good, the innocent should be protected and not convicted
unjustly. We cry out at their unfairness and we should do whatever we can to prevent such things from
happening, but we all know that we live in an imperfect world that that many things in it are unfair and
unjust. As with many things, our moral dilemma is not new. The entire book of Habakkuk is a dialog of
sorts. In it the prophet Habakkuk argues with God over the condition of his home in the nation of Judah.
Habakkuk complains that wickedness, and oppression were everywhere and God seemed to do nothing. For
Habakkuk, the ways of God were impossible to understand or were simply unfair and unjust. God’s reply
was that he would use the hands of Judah’s worst enemy, Babylon, to destroy the entire nation and this seems
even more unfair. After all, not everyone was evil. Would God punish the good alongside the evil? Where
is the justice in that? Eventually, Habakkuk learns that Babylon too would be destroyed and Israel and Judah
would be restored. Even so, for those who lived through the destruction of their nation and were hauled off
into captivity, it was pretty hard to see the big picture. (Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4)
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The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk's Complaint
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How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?
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Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
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Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

2:1-4
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I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

The LORD's Answer

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Then the LORD replied:
"Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald may run with it.
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For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
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"See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright—
but the righteous will live by his faith

There are many stories of injustice in scripture but today I would like to consider a different view of a story
we have all heard more than once. (Luke 19:1-10)
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Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief
tax collector and was wealthy. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not,
because of the crowd. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming
that way.
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When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must
stay at your house today." 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
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All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "
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But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to
the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
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Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
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For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

Zaccheaus was a chief tax collector and a man of considerable wealth. Being a tax collector paid well
because it meant that the Roman government had given that person a license to collect the required Roman
taxes plus the right to collect a fee for collecting it. As agents of the Roman government, tax collectors were
almost above the law and often used their authority to abuse their countrymen. Just working for the hated
occupying Romans was enough to condemn you as a turncoat or a traitor or worse. As Jesus approaches this
man so much desires to hear him, that he climbs a tree so that he won’t have to fight the crowd. Our
scripture text indicates that Zaccheaus climbed the tree because he was short but it is also quite possible that
climbing a tree also protected Zaccheaus from the hostility of his countrymen.
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Much of Zaccheaus’ life wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that the Roman’s occupied Israel. It wasn’t fair that tax
collectors were hated by their neighbors and countrymen. Zaccheaus probably felt that it wasn’t fair that he
was short. Despite his wealth, the hatred of his neighbors had to make his life difficult and often unpleasant.
The crown disapproved of Jesus even stooping to visit in his home because good people simply didn’t
associate with scum like that. We don’t know if he says so before Jesus’ visit to his home or after but either
way we know that Zaccheaus publicly proclaims that he will give half of his possessions to the poor and
offers to pay back many times what the law required if he had cheated them. If he had cheated very many
people at all, paying back four times the amount would have quickly bankrupted him. For me, this indicates
that Zaccheaus was not regularly in the habit of cheating people but generally dealt fairly with people. It
didn’t matter. Regardless of his relative honesty, people still judged Zaccheaus because he was a tax
collector. Jesus proclaims that salvation has come to Zaccheaus’ house but chances are good that Zaccheaus
had the same problems with his neighbors afterwards and the people in town still hated him. It wasn’t fair,
but more than likely, that’s just the way things were.

So what do we do when we see unfairness and injustice? At least a part of the answer can be found in 2
Thessalonians 1:1-12…
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Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
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Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and
more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. 4Therefore, among God's churches we
boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
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All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom
of God, for which you are suffering. 6God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7and
give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from
heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey
the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the
presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy
people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed
our testimony to you.
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With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that
by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 12We pray this
so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our
God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The church and the people in Thessalonica were experiencing trials and persecutions. We do not believe that
they did anything wrong other than to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, to worship him, and to grow in
love and in faith. Clearly their trials and persecutions, in our understanding, were unfair and unjust but God
allowed them to happen. We learn, however from Paul’s reaction to this unfairness. First, Paul tells other
people about what the church is experiencing in Thessalonica and he boasts about how well they are
persevering. Next, Paul believes that their perseverance is evidence that God was right when he granted
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them salvation in Jesus Christ. Paul, like Habakkuk, also recognizes that there is an endgame, that there is a
big picture and in that view God’s master plan is sensible, plain and just, but in the short term it is hard to
make sense of unfairness and injustice. Finally, Paul and those around him pray continuously for those who
are being tried and who are being persecuted. Paul does not pray that the persecution would be lifted, but
that the church and the people would be given the strength to stand up against it so that God’s will might be
accomplished. Paul and his friends pray that through their trials, the name of Jesus would be glorified.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time on this planet has realized that good does not always win out over
evil and that life isn’t always fair or just. It doesn’t take us long to realize that God doesn’t always rush in to
fix things and make them the way we think that they ought to be. In that situation, it isn’t our job to run out
and tell everyone that God is going to make everything okay. The church doesn’t preach the message that
God will protect Christians from unfairness and injustice because, clearly, that would be a lie. Instead, our
calling is to remember a different part of the story. Our calling is to remember that Jesus was accused of
being unfair because he was willing to forgive a tax collector. Our calling is to remember that God’s grace
and God’s mercy are bigger than any prejudice, hatred, injustice or unfairness that may happen during our
lives. Our calling is to remember that even when we can’t see how it’s all going to work out, that God has a
plan where there will, eventually, be justice. Our calling is to tell the world when we see wrongdoing and to
reveal the truth about injustice and persecution. Our calling is to pray continuously for those who are
suffering and to do what we can to help them. Do you think that Jesus doesn’t understand injustice? Our
calling is to remember that if God were completely fair and completely just, we would all be convicted and
condemned to die for our offenses against God. Instead, Jesus, in a completely unfair and completely
unjust trial, was convicted of crimes that he did not commit and he died on a cross to pay the penalty of sin
that we owed for our crimes against God.

In this world, life ain’t easy.

In this world, being a Christian isn’t always easy… nobody ever said it would be.

Instead, the evidence of scripture tells us that we must pray for those who suffer.

We must hold on to the knowledge that God is in control and we must trust in his infinite mercy and grace.

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