The year 2020 has been like no other, and the month of June was a dramatic and painful addition. I wonder how God sees it all. I know that the images are forever etched in my mind: Right here in Minneapolis, not far from WMPL headquarters, a black man with an officer’s knee on his neck desperately cries out for air. Protestors – black and white, and masked for virus protection – angrily march the streets after that man’s death. Flames rise into the night sky from local businesses burning to the ground. Looters, arms full, flow out of ransacked stores. National guard soldiers stand armed and ready. Sobbing mourners lay flowers at a streetside memorial. Bewildered citizens walk amongst the gutted ruins of their community. Tear gas canisters fly. Statues tumble. Politicians take podiums. Shockingly, such scenes have multiplied across our country and around the world.
In the midst of all this disaster and confusion we are encouraged, even pushed, to take sides: “Where do you stand?”
My friends, we are far, oh so far, from the garden. Here is what God sees: We live in a shamefully broken world where prejudice, hatred, racism, injustice, violence, and lawlessness are far too common. It is a world wherein a person’s life may be disregarded, or even extinguished, because of his or her color, ethnicity, immigration status, or still being within the womb.
In this broken world, where do the followers of Jesus stand? Perhaps we’d like to think that somehow we stand innocently above it all, or at least apart from it, but God knows better. He sees where we stand. We stand condemned.
The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Psalm 14:2,3 ESV
By our own acts and attitudes, we, too, stand condemned, each and every one of us. Contrary to the teaching of Scripture (Philippians 2:3), we also have blindly considered ourselves better, acting unjustly and disrespectfully toward others, and especially toward those unlike ourselves. We might rightly blame our culture, but there is a deeper root. We are all sinners. Our selfishness has exposed us to God’s holy anger, and by ourselves we have no defense. No one is righteous. None is better than the other. This is what God sees. He sees us condemned. On our own this is where we stand.
But God also sees this: We stand redeemed. Through no goodness of our own, but sheerly by God’s grace, we stand forgiven. We who were broken have been made whole. You see, when sin had exposed us to the just wrath of our Creator, God’s Son Jesus took a stand for us. He took on our humanity and entered our broken world. He stood in the breach and became our defense, taking our sin and shame upon himself.
Because of Jesus, our heavenly Father graciously claims us as his forgiven children, but in our world he continues to see detestable conditions like those in the days of the prophet Ezekiel:
Extortion is rife, robbery is epidemic, the poor and needy are abused, outsiders are kicked around at will, with no access to justice. I looked for someone to stand up for me against all this, to repair the defenses of the city, to take a stand for me and stand in the gap to protect this land so I wouldn’t have to destroy it. I couldn’t find anyone. Not one.
Ezekiel 22:29,30 MSG
Where will we stand in this world? God has chosen and redeemed us to stand with Jesus! Jesus stood in the gap for us, saving us from evil and from God’s punishment. He did not come to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:17).
God is looking for you and me to “stand in the gap.” By God’s choosing we stand commissioned! He calls us to be advocates for the marginalized and victimized, pleading to him on their behalf, that they would find peace and restoration. We pray also for the victimizers, that they would repent and be transformed. We pray that God’s Kingdom of mercy and justice would be realized among those who have known far too little of his goodness and far too much of the evil and hatred in this world. We petition God for our neighbors, for our cities, and for whole nations broken and in despair. We pray for those not like us, and also for ourselves, that we would know and follow Christ’s way of love for all.
Friends, let us not allow God to say of us, as he did in Ezekiel’s day, that he could find no one to cry out for the salvation of the city. As long as the brokenness remains, we cannot stand idly to the side as though the troubles we see have nothing to do with us. Let us all stand in the gap, hands raised toward God, commissioned and committed to advocate for our broken neighbors, our broken cities, our broken world. That is what God wants to see, and that is the image I want etched in my mind.
Wonderfully written, Paul. So much to read and digest.
These days are surely leading up to the end days, how soon is known only to God!
Thank you so much.
I’m thankful that it spoke to you, Geraldine. Thank you for your partnership in prayer for the nations! Indeed, until that last day comes, our task is to make Him known!