Billions of people were gathered before the Throne of God. Some nearer the front grew belligerent and talked heatedly. “How can God judge us?!” they asked. God is in heaven where all is beauty and light. “Yes, what does He know about suffering?!” snapped a cynical woman, rolling back her sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. “We were tortured, humiliated, torn from loved ones, until only a cruel death gave us release.” “What about this!” said an angry black man, lynched for no other reason than for being black, “We were enslaved, beaten, wrenched from our families, until only death gave us freedom.” Across the plain there were millions who had similar complaints against God for the suffering they had experienced on earth. So they decided to form a committee of 10 people, each person carefully selected as ones who had suffered the most. The committee met in the middle of the plain, where they made a decision. They decided that God could not judge them until He himself had lived on earth as a man. They set certain safeguards so that in times of trouble He could not use his divine power to escape. Each of the 10 got up to pronounce their portion of the sentence:
The first said: “Let him be born a Jew.”
The second said: “Let his birth be so questionable that no one would know
who his father really is.”
The third said: “Let him try to communicate something no one has ever seen
or heard—let him try to communicate God.”
The fourth said: “Let him champion a cause so great that people will call him
mad or lunatic.”
The fifth said: “Let him be betrayed by one of his closest friends, and let him
be abandoned at his greatest time of need by those he loves most.”
The sixth said: “Let him be condemned by the religious leaders.”
The seventh said: “Let him be sentenced to die by a cowardly judge.”
The eighth said: “Let him be humiliated and tortured.”
The ninth said: “Let him die like a common criminal and be buried in a
borrowed grave.”
The tenth said: “Let his name live on forever so that in moments of rage men will use it
as a common curse word.”
Loud murmurs of approval came from the crowd when the first pronounced his portion of the sentence. As each succeeding ‘judge’ spoke, however, the masses grew more and more quiet. By the time the last had pronounced his sentence, this throng of untold billions was deathly silent. Through this process of anger, resentment, rage, bitterness, and self-focus, they came to this realization:
God had already served the sentence.
-Ricky