How many of us, having suffered for something we didn’t do or subjected to a gross mistreatment we didn’t deserve, have ever said “It’s just not fair?” I confess that I have thought or said it more than once in my life. When I was passed over for a promotion for which I thought I was well qualified, I didn’t say those words out loud. I’m not the type to share my hurt feelings with another.  Rather, I thought them to myself. 

      When I was in the army, I spent a night in jail for what other GI’s in the same car did to a car with two girls in it (threw raw eggs). I didn’t throw any! But there I was in undeserved confinement. How could that be happening to me? It’s so unfair.
       These obviously biased actions against us can happen as a child or an adult. It’s the feeling of being punished for something we didn’t deserve. Why was this happening to me?
        As children many of us were taught the difference between right and wrong and told always to do what’s right. With all this parental programming, we may have thought that doing the right thing would always give us a reward or at least freedom from any feelings of guilt. So when you or I were punished while doing what we believed was the right thing to do, it likely caused stress. “Wait I minute. I did what was right and now I’m being punished for it?!” This goes against any thought of fairness in life. I’ve heard it said many times “life is not fair and the sooner I realize this, the better off I’ll be.” I find it, however, almost impossible to accept. 

       Persons doing what’s right should be rewarded and wrongdoers always must be punished. 
For the past month or so, I have been wondering why Jesus apparently never said (or even thought) “It’s just not fair.” He was treated horribly and the Bible mentions He was without sin. The Apostle Paul in his second letter to the Christians in Corinth, Greece wrote: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV).  Why should someone who had never done any wrong be made to bear the weight of every wrong?” 

         If we stop and consider this, I think we have to conclude if anyone had the right to scream “It just not fair!” Jesus did. Yet, he did not. For me, His most memorable words while hanging on that cross were “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
How could He have acted that way? If we believe He actually felt pain, how could He have forgiven those who’d tortured Him? How could He have interceded for those who pounded his hands and legs to a cross leaving him there to die? You or I might have screamed obscenities or possibly taunted the mob and the Roman soldiers for their wrongful punishment of you, an innocent person.  Maybe we would have been absolutely quiet, not wanting to give those in the wrong any satisfaction for the wrong they were doing.

       The writer of the Hebrews Epistle gives us an answer to the question of how Jesus was able to respond the way He did on the cross: Hebrews 12:2 (ESV) “…for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame…” 

       Unfortunately, the answer needs a further answer. What joy could Jesus have been experiencing in looking forward to and then experiencing the cross?

 
       Can we find examples of persons sacrificing their lives or going through difficulties for the sake of others. We call such actions honorable (worthy of high respect and great esteem) or noble (having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals).  There are such people who have put aside all thoughts of personal safety for the sake of others.

       Auschwitz was the first German concentration camp to become an extermination camp. The gas chambers were in constant use. But because of the great influx of new prisoners daily, the Nazis began to use firing squads as well. One day, the commandant selected 10 men from one barracks to be executed by the firing squad. One of those selected was the father of a large family. When he was pulled from his place in line, he fell to the ground, begging the commandant to spare his life. The commandant was unresponsive until the man standing next to the fallen one, a Catholic priest named Maximilian Colby, stepped forward to offer his life in exchange for the man on his knees. Surprisingly, the commandant agreed to such an arrangement. 

     But, instead of being led away to the firing squad, Father Maximilian was thrown into a tiny damp cell where he suffered the agonizing death of starvation. Today, Maximilian Colby is honored by millions of people because he died in the place of one man. He managed to look to a higher purpose than his own self-preservation. Possibly he looked to the example of Jesus who, 0ut of obedience to the Heavenly Father and for the sake of everyone who needed salvation, willingly went up His hill of execution.

       Those who look to a high calling when hurt will act in surprisingly self-sacrificing ways. They help us begin to grasp the higher power that allowed Jesus to endure the cross on Calvary as one of the noblest acts someone can do.

       What happened to Jesus might seem “not fair,” to us but it was God’s (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) way to show how great He is, how resolute Jesus was, and how powerfully helpful the Holy Spirit is. We too can respond to unfairness just as Jesus did. We can ask God to forgive them because they really did not know what they were doing. They didn’t know or care about our innocence. Our forgiveness of them then can transform what happened into something positive.

Rich