Is this offensive to you? The entire notion was certainly offensive to the person who posted the graphic on an atheist Internet community.
And I get it. We grow up learning concepts like “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”. As kids we often hotly tell our parents “that’s not fair!!”. And as parents, we endlessly, sometimes obsessively, strive to treat our children with fairness.
So when people hear about others who seem to get away with murder, they rightfully scream and holler in protest. Like I said, I get that.
But consider the approach of Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God. In one of the four original-source accounts of His life on earth, He says this to anyone willing to listen:
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, don’t fight back against someone who wants to do harm to you. If they hit you on the right cheek, let them hit the other cheek, too.
This is radical. This is upside down to how our culture thinks. In fact, for some people (such as the person who posted the graphic above), this is downright ludicrous.
Is it really?
If you believe there is a Heaven, don’t you want it to be far, FAR better than this world? Don’t you want it to be free of anger, resentment, jealousy, rage, greed, violence and ignorance?
If you do, then what about forgiveness? Don’t you want Heaven to be saturated — heck, OVERFLOWING — with forgiveness?
If you’re still with me, then a Heaven that is free of our human weaknesses and welcoming to all will absolutely include killers and their victims. In both cases, these people will have repented of their sins (however big or small we might consider them to be) and been utterly, utterly transformed through faith in what Jesus did for them.
What did He do? For those who have sincerely accepted the gift of Jesus, He allowed Himself to be sacrificed on a cross to make up for all (and I mean ALL) the bad things we’ve done and the good things we’ve failed to do.
For those who seriously accepted the gift of Jesus, God looks at us and DOESN’T see murder or greed or theft or fraud or lying or betrayal or self-centredness. He sees only the perfection of His Son.
So when the murder victims depicted in the graphic above get to Heaven and are directed to the person who shot them, they will ABSOLUTELY go over and do more than say “Hi”. They’ll hug that person with overflowing love.
And that person, utterly transformed by following Jesus, will absolutely hug those people right back. It will be a time of joy, of tears, of praise for their creator who wiped away every moment of fear, anguish, pain and sadness and replaced them with praise and gratefulness.
That’s a place I want to go. That’s a place I want YOU to go, so we can hug, high-five each other and spend eternity with our creator. Are you in? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Frank's Cottage 