“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Cor.15:19)
It is already 1:40 AM on the 30th August, 2022. It is late in the night (or rather too early in the morning) and most people must probably be fast asleep in their beds and dreaming away. But for me, as I sit in front of my laptop, the sight of the little girl that I saw today in front of the Deep Mart store in Nerul, her face contoured with fear and worry, is still as clear as day in my mind. She was dressed in a dirty, dark coloured flowing dress and a big drum was hanging from her back. I believe that she must have been performing with her drum somewhere to earn some money for the coming festivities. She walked past me with a worried look, moving her little legs as fast as she could to her waiting mother who was gesturing furiously from the other side of the road. At first sight, it was obvious that her mother was angry with her. I suspect that she must have strayed away for sometime. From a distance, I saw her mother berating her as she stood with her head bowed, quivering in fear and wiping away tears. I saw the mother raise her hand at least twice as if to slap her. And then she turned and slowly moved away with the little girl following behind her.
Needless to say, I felt deeply for the little girl. I wanted to help her. I wanted to comfort her. I wanted to help her live a better life. But there’s so little I could do at that moment. They had moved away and are lost in the midst of the busy and narrow street. I started my car and drove in their direction, took a right turn at the nearby bus station and parked my car by the side of the road. I waited to see if they come my way but they didn’t. They must have taken another turn. And fortunately or unfortunately, there’s a possibility that we might never get to cross paths again in a country as wide and as densely populated as India.
Of all the little girls I met across the city, why did this particular girl pull a string in my heart? It is because I see the injustice of the world with my own two eyes in her. She must have wanted to eat McDonalds when she passed by one. She must have wanted a better dress. She must have wanted to go to school in a school bus like so many kids her age. She must have even wanted richer parents. She must have dreamt of living a better life than entertaining random people at random places by beating drums and getting to eat half-baked rotis with the little coins people threw at her. She must have wanted a better house during the Mumbai monsoon. But she is what she is and where she is because of the cruel stroke of fate and the injustices that plaque our world. She has no power in her hand and legs to break away from the system that shackled her.
Then my mind wandered off to the uncountable victims of injustice, not even to speak of the world but those in our very own backyard. The little child who could not continue to study because her parents could not afford to send her to school anymore, the many children in villages who would get no education because someone powerful had pocketed the funds for their school building and no teachers would turn up to teach them. The orphaned child who silently and defenselessly endured physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her most trusted relatives, the employee who was fired for her honesty, the righteous whistleblower no one believed, the widow whose property was forcefully and illegally taken away, the mourning father who was silenced with threats by the powerful for his son’s murder; the righteous man who has no money for his wife’s desperately needed surgery while the wicked and corrupt live in mansions and line their garages with BMWs and Lamborginis; the list is endless. How have we come to this? When justice seems to exist only for the rich and powerful, is there any hope for the poor, marginalized and abused; the people who are taken for granted in the society? Will the corrupt ever face justice? Or will the defenseless ever have justice delivered for them? If no, what then is the point of life? Or have the dead escaped justice or has justice eluded the dead? Can we hope for justice at all?
In Judges 19, we read about the brutal and gruesome account of the gangrape and brutalization of the Levite’s concubine by the men of Gibeah. She and her husband had taken shelter at an old man’s house at sundown on their way from Jerusalem to Ephraim. As darkness set in, the men of the village tried to forcefully violate the Levite. To save the Levite from such brutality, his concubine was handed over to the lustful crowd who abused and raped her throughout the night. The Levite found her dead in the doorway as he prepared to leave in the morning. He put her on a donkey and took her back to his home country. He then cut her up into twelve pieces and send the pieces to all the tribes of Israel. The revulsion people felt at this evil incident led to a war between the Benjamin tribe against the rest of the tribes of Israel in which the tribe of Benjamin were almost wiped out. This account of the Levite and the fate of his concubine must easily be one of the most gruesome story in the whole Bible, if not the most. It is so to such an extent that some liberal commentators had openly criticized its inclusion in the Bible. Critics of the Bible often used this account to attack the God of the Bible and the message of Christianity. How can an injustice of such magnitude take place among the people of God? The answer can be found in the opening line of the chapter: “In those days, when there was no king in Israel,…”
In our present context, there are many innocent men, women and children who suffer injustice like the Levite’s concubine. There seem to be no sight and hope of justice for them. The world does not offer them any hope and promise. It is survival of the fittest as we know it, whether we like it or not. No respite seems to be forthcoming for those who suffer injustice as if they should just resign themselves to their awful fate.
And this is where the Christian message comes in to the rescue. Even as the world behaves as they wish as if there is no king on the throne, it will not always be so. The King is on the throne and His kingdom is soon to come. Rule of law and justice WILL be established. Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot will face justice. Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Hawking will face their Maker. The unknown serial killer, the child abuser, the corrupt will face justice. The Holocaust victims, innocent victims of abuse and murder, Graham Stains and his sons will have justice delivered for them. The silenced innocents will find their voice. The insignificant will have a patient listener. The little girl near Deep Mart, Nerul will find the justice she deserved, in this life or the next. Wet eyes will be wiped dry. Dry eyes will set tears. God will wipe the smirk off the face of the wicked. In God’s economy, justice delayed is not justice denied. At a time not of our choosing but of God’s, justice will be delivered. It will be delivered.
This is the unique hope that Christianity has to offer to the world that suffers injustice every step of the way.
“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
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