One of the earliest things we cry out as children is, "That's not fair!" Interestingly, we do this when we feel that we got the short end of the stick - when we've been slighted or mistreated. We don't do this when the unfairness is to our advantage and to someone else's disadvantage. Imagine the scene; two brothers age 6 and 8 are getting served pieces of cake. The 6 year old is Billy and the 8 year old is Robert. The cake is cut, then served on plates and Robert gets a larger piece than Billy....imagine Robert yelling out, "That's not fair - my piece is too big - Billy didn't get enough cake!" It would be virtually unthinkable that it would happen that way. Robert would have to be a boy of remarkable character and sensitivity to handle this sibling moment this way.
When Jesus was crucified - everything about it was wrong. There was so much injustice, as jealous and small men put the one who is truth, on trial. How bizarre - sinful and false men, acting as the judges of the one who will judge everything and everyone. Falseness is putting (the one who is) truth, on trial.
It was a kangaroo court, his friends deserted him, the accusations were manipulated, his torture was horrible. Everything about it was "unfair." Of course it was far worse than that, "unfair" is too mild a word. It was wrong, evil, dark, tragic, unconscionable.... And what did he do? He never yelled out "This isn't fair!" No, the bible says he let them do it, like a sheep letting her shearers work. What it was, was an unfairness of the grandest proportions - and all to our benefit. Fair would be that we would receive all of this, the due payout of sin, the experience that he experienced. Instead, God takes that death and torture and gives us the gift of forgiveness. And then he says on the cross, about the people who are doing this to him, "Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing." Remarkable. Breathtaking.
At the crucifixion, every Christian in the world ought to be passionately crying out "That's not fair - I deserve what Jesus is getting!" If we really understood what was happening, we'd be passionate about this injustice, we'd feel it in our guts and yell it out loudly - protesting and screaming about it. To whom would we yell all of this? To Pilate? To the soldiers whipping him? To the High Priest? Maybe like children, we should be yelling out to our father, our heavenly father, in protest - "That's not fair!" Jesus doesn't deserve this, I do!" But very, very few of us would have that strong a feeling of the injustice of it, of the unfairness of it. Very, very few of us would feel the injustice of it in our guts. Why? Because we are the beneficiaries of the injustice.
Randy Alcorn remarks about all of this and says, "The next time you want to cry out to God, "Why did you do this to me?" look at the cross and cry out, "Why did you do that for me?"
