Following Footprints

So, faith has that redemptive purpose. Anybody can be a Christian when it means that we are being treated fairly, when we’re being treated justly. But that’s not our calling. The footprints of Jesus are bloody. The footprints of Jesus are bloody. Selfless ones, ones that suffered the most unjustified of pain. Look at verse 22, "When they hurled their insults at him," and of course this speaks of His time on the cross, "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate." It’s interesting in Greek the same words are used, the root word of "hurled their insults" and "retaliate" is the same. In other words, when they talked trash to Him, He didn’t talk trash in return. When we talk about the crucifixion of Christ, it’s portrayed as He is way up there up about ten feet above the crowd. And He was up some, but many scholars believe that He was really pretty much right there and that you could walk right up to Him. And there He was imprisoned by nails, and say and do whatever you wanted. And they got up in His face and with spittle flying from their lips spoke trash to Him. He said nothing. "When he suffered, he made no threats." Let me tell you something, when Jesus makes threats, those aren’t threats. Those are promises. Can you imagine Jesus nailed up to the cross, they’re all coming into His face and saying all these things like, "If you’re the son of God, come on down here! Come on down here and show us what you’ve got!" Well, He could have come down and shown them what He had. But He didn’t. He stayed there and suffered that awful injustice. They were just loading it on, piling it on. Talk about kicking a guy while he’s down. "And he made no threats," why?, "Because he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."

Isn’t this the definition of faith? To accept everything, especially unjust suffering, as something that God can use. "Lord, I’m suffering this little experience at work where this one person has singled me out as the Christian he’s going to torment. And it’s taking place back in a corner, nobody else knows about it. Nobody else cares. It’s not going to make the front page. You’re not going to write a book of the Bible about it. It’s just me back here with this person who’s tormenting me. Why shouldn’t I just be able to give it back?" The reason is because God has a redemptive purpose. Look at verse 24 "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree." If Jesus had been unwilling to bear our sins and the awful injustice of that bearing, we would be going to hell. Don’t anyone doubt that. His suffering had massive redemptive results, massive. Millions of people, hundreds of millions of people have had their sins forgiven by this one act. Can I do that at that scale? No. I’m not, you’re not the Lamb of God. But, "To this you were called, because he left us an example that we should follow in his steps." And that example is to live believing that God can use our tiny acceptance of tiny injustice to accomplish the miracle of redemption.