Justice… Eventually

Thanks, Tom. I love that we were just like planning a new church plant in the middle of our announcements. That's a really great thing. So if anybody's interested, I'm actually, I'm excited to get that ball rolling. I don't know what Midtown in a 500 square foot state looks like. Like, I don't know where Midtown would be located, but I'm down. I'm down to help.

Yeah. Stephen Alta. Yeah, that's right. That's amen. Amen. Yeah, guys. So grateful for Stephen Alta. Yeah, it is a bittersweet day, but yeah, glad we get to celebrate you all.

Friends, back in 2011, there's a psychologist named Daniel Kahneman who wrote a book called Thinking Fast and Slow. And in the book, he tells the story of a family who lived on the frontier in China back in the feudal ages. And they lived a peaceful and contented life together. They had this small village around them with a tight -knit community, and they worked their own farmland. It was this really idyllic setting.

And the son in the family lived a peaceful and contented life together. They had this small village around them with one special and prized possession, his horse. The horse was this beautiful mare. She was fast and regal, and the son cared for her well. But one day, a group of nomads broke into the family's farm and stole the son's prized horse.

And all their neighbors came around the family and consoled the son. They said, what an unfortunate stroke of unluck for you. But the son's father gave a different response. He said, what makes you so sure this is a curse and not a blessing? And the son dismissed his father, as sons tend to do. He's like, this is obviously a curse. We've lost my horse. How could this turn out to be a blessing?

But a few months later, inexplicably, the horse returned on its own, and it brought with it a strong stallion as well. And so again, the neighbors gathered around the family and said, what a blessing, what a stroke of luck. And the father paused and said, what makes you so sure this is a blessing and not a curse? Again, the son dismissed him. This new horse was strong. It helped the family in their work. This was definitely good luck.

And the new horse quickly became the son's favorite to ride. It was strong and powerful, and he'd ride it through the town, and everyone would praise him. But one day, the horse got spooked and kicked the son off of its back. He broke his hip. And all of the neighbors again gathered around him and said, what a tragedy, what an unlucky turn for you. And the father said, again, what makes you so sure this is a curse and not a blessing?

A few months later, the same nomads who had stolen their horse earlier crossed the border again, this time wreaking havoc all over the village. And every able -bodied man was asked to come and fight. But these are farmers, and they were dominated by these nomads. A multitude of men were lost, but not the father and son. The father was able to stay at home because his son was injured, and he helped nurse him back to health.

On and on and on, the story goes with a clear message. What appears to be blessing and triumph can often turn out to be terrible. And what appears to be terrible can often be transformed. Into something remarkably good. As it turns out, there might be a great reversal coming around the corner that we have no way of seeing at the current moment.

And the takeaway from that story isn't to stoically, like, distance ourselves from the emotions of tragedy or blessing. We should feel those. We should name those. Those are important. And it's also not meant to make us passive or, like, deny that anything good is really good out of cynicism. It's teaching us faithful humility. Teaching us that there is a story being told and written that transcends whatever is happening right in front of us at a given moment.

Friends, the truth is that the way we show up in the world, the way we respond to all the events and occurrences that happen around us is entirely dependent on the story we believe we're a part of and where we think that story is headed. What you believe about the future determines how you show up now. And we live in a world right now that is constantly handing us a story about where things are headed.

Like the village neighbors of the man and his son, our culture loves reading. Defining the tea leaves. Defining what is a blessing and what is a curse in the moment and then attaching massive, alarmist, existential language and weight to everything. Just look at the headlines. These are a few recent ones. AI poses risk of human extinction, experts warn. 2024 election decides the fate of democracy everywhere. On Mars, too? Like, everywhere? North Korea's nuclear power reaches threatening levels. China, deployment of nuclear weapons, imposes a weaponized army of DUCKS to guard its border. That's a real thing that happened. The world is falling apart, friends. DUCKS at the border.

And I don't mean to minimize any of these things. It's important that we consider how to respond well to what's going on, especially DUCKS at the border. But when we're constantly surrounded by messaging that makes every moment and every event and everything that happens determinative of where everything is headed, it's gonna shape how we show up in the world. It does something. It's gonna to us, when we're surrounded by that language all the time, we become paralyzed by anxiety.

Doom scrolling is just our favorite hobby. We jump from social media to blogs to headlines to podcasts until we're convinced it's all going to burn next Tuesday at 3 PM. Or if we're not anxious, we're polarized and self -righteous. We become convinced that the world and all of its problems is, well, someone else's fault. It's that party. It's that side. We start to see that they are the ones who really need to be condemned or pushed away or blamed. We use violent language and sometimes action.

Or, like many of us in this room, we just kind of numb through this. We distract ourselves. We choose to live naively and not engage because the weight of the world is just too much. And the result is that many of us live with kind of this low -grade perpetual despair in our lives. We feel ill -equipped to respond to the things we go through, the things out there in the world, because it doesn't seem like, based on the story we're being handed, that any of it makes a difference. Just look at the results. Ducks at the border. What are we going to do?

But friends, I think it's important for us to ask some questions when we hit those moments in our lives. Questions like, what's the story that you're listening to about yourself? Or about God, or about where the world's headed? Where are you hearing that story? Who's handing it to you? And how is it defining the way that you show up at work, in your relationships, in your budget? What's it doing to your character?

Is it producing things like love and joy and peace? Patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self -control? Or is it leading you to other things like fear? Or worry? Or defensiveness or suspicion or shame or scarcity thinking or anger or hopelessness? Friends, the story you believe makes you who you are. And in speaking with so many of you in this room, I know we are longing for a better story. A better story than the one we're being handed.

Our hearts long to see our own messiness and the messiness in the world resolved. We want a better country and a better leader and a better voice and a better vision of what the good really is and a better humanity and better relationships and a better future and a better now. And you guys, if I have one purpose in my life, in my few short years, it's to proclaim to you that the better story we're longing for is the true story of the world. There is a great reversal that has been underway long before any of us ever showed up.

And every day we're being told, we're being invited into that story. If we'll have eyes enough to see it and ears enough to hear it and trust enough to live in it. It's the story of a divine hand that is bringing redemption and restoration to all things through the cross and the resurrection. The renewal of all things. It's a story as sweet as honey when we speak about things like forgiveness, grace, joy, peace, justice, rest, love. it's that story, that great reversal, that can shape us into people who actually learn to navigate those headlines well. Who learn to show up well in the world.

That's actually the great calling for each and every one of us. I like how theologian N .T. Wright puts it. He says, The nature of faith is to live constantly out of tune with the world as it is presently and constantly in tune with the way God intends it to be. This week we get to wrap up this amazing story from the book of Esther. It's this remarkable text of a young Jewish orphan girl who even though she was counted as little to nothing in her patriarchal and oppressive culture, she found herself caught up in a story of great reversal.

She became an agent of justice in her own time precisely because she caught a glimpse of that story and knew how she could show up in her little part. And this week we come to the culmination of her story where all of a sudden this reversal has started to happen. Where all the things that have built up that have brought her pain, where all the headlines that have seemed too overwhelming suddenly start to change.

So friends, if you have a Bible, open it with me. It's the book of Esther. It's right in the middle of your Bible, so if you're flipping there, we're going to start in Esther chapter 7, verse 1, and then we're going to read through chapter 8, verse 8. If you don't have a Bible, by the way, that's okay. The words are going to be behind me on the screen, so you can follow along there. Esther chapter 7, starting in verse 1.

So the king and Haman went in... Jordan is remembered. Haman's the bad guy. If you don't know the story, he's the bad guy. That's why we get a boo for him. You'll find out more in a second. So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom it shall be fulfilled.

Then Queen Esther answered, If I've won your favor, okay, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me. That is my petition. And the lives of my people, that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace. But no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.

And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, Who is he and where is he who is presumed to do this? And Esther said, A foe, an enemy, this wicked Haman. Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him.

When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself onto the couch where Esther was reclining. And the king said, Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house? As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. And then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high. And the king said, Hang him on that. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

On that day, King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther and the house of Haman the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And so Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

Then Esther spoke again to Haman, and said to the king, She fell at his feet, weeping and pleading with him to avert the evil design of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. The king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king. She said, If it pleases the king, if I have won his favor, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I have his approval, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, son of Hamadatha the Agagite, which he wrote concerning orders, giving orders to destroy the Jews. Who are in all the provinces of the king. For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming on my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?

Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to the Jew Mordecai, See, I have given Esther the house of Haman. And they have hanged him on the gallows, because he plotted to lay hands on the Jews. You may write as you please with regard to the Jews in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring. For an edict written in the name of the king, and sealed with the king's ring, cannot be revoked. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

My friends, did you know that the original McDonald's employee health page warned of health risks for eating McDonald's? Did you know that the Nobel Peace Prize is named after Alfred Nobel, who was most famous for inventing dynamite? Did you know that Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look -alike contest, and came in 20th place? Did you know that the most shoplifted book in the U .S. is the Bible? Maybe it's the English nerd in me, but I love some good irony, friends. Those moments when things turn out exactly the opposite of what we planned or would expect.

And we've arrived at the point in the Esther story where irony has completely taken things over, in some remarkable ways. Remember how we've gotten here. Haman, one of the primary advisors to King Ahasuerus, told the king about a serious money -making opportunity he noticed. He said, Hey, King, we've got all these Jews with Jewish exiles kind of scattered around, and they're kind of rebellious, and I feel like they could be a problem down the road, but I've got a solution for you. If you sign an edict ordering people to eliminate their Jewish neighbors, we can actually plunder all their goods and make up for some of the poor military choices you've made in recent years that have cost us a lot of money. And the king said, That's a great idea. So he gave Haman his signet ring to sign this edict to kill all the Jewish people.

And what the king didn't realize is that Haman had a very personal reason for this. There was one Jew named Mordecai, who's actually Esther's cousin, who had, because of his faith in God, refused to bow to Haman, to lend him the respect that Haman felt he deserved. And Haman's agenda is really one of revenge on Mordecai. We talked last week about how pride can take us over in little ways and then in big ways. Now, Haman is this perfect representation of the ugliness of pride in us.

But there's one factor that Haman didn't count on, one flaw in his plans. Queen Esther. Because she herself is Jewish. She doesn't know this. And she's been hiding her identity. She won the king's twisted beauty pageant, Bachelor in Persia, to determine this new queen. And she learns about this plot from her cousin Mordecai to kill all the Jews. And she makes a bold and profoundly risky choice to put her life on the line to save her people.

She goes to the king unannounced with a request. In Persian culture, that was something that could get people killed. And she uses her position in the palace, her role in culture, in exactly the opposite way as Haman. He used it for himself, and she puts her life on the line. She gives up her safety, her security, her well -being, her self -elevation, so that others who are on the margins might be cared for. So that harm might not come to them.

And then here, in chapter 7 and 8, we've arrived at the pinnacle of her plan. And all of the roles in the story are about to be ironically reversed. That's actually the whole point of this story. It's to show us that God's work in and through the broken world is often hidden under a bunch of things that we wouldn't notice when they happened. But then, after a while, we start

to see, oh, there's been this great reversal going on the whole time. The dark is being made light, the crooked is being made straight, the broken is being made whole, the prideful are being brought low, and the humble are being elevated. That's the story that God is writing. There's a few different things I think we see that point us to truths about this great reversal in this passage. Three things, I think. Esther's part in the great reversal, what it looks like to be a part of it. Christ's completion of the great reversal, the story points to that. And then how we can really experience the great reversal in our lives and in the world. So first, Esther's part in the great reversal. In many ways, the story of the book of Esther is one of parties, which makes it a really fun read. You may remember, the book started with a couple parties that the king threw that lasted more than six months because the king wanted to show off all of his wealth. And here, Esther throws two more parties to change what the king had done at the beginning. And in the ancient world, especially, still in our time to some degree, to have someone over for a meal to have them sit around a table with you was an extension of relationship. It was a way of saying, I care about you. I want to have a relationship with you. I want to build trust and regard for you. And so that's what Esther does. She doesn't storm into the king and demand he changes things. She says, I need to build trust and relationship with him to get this to change. And so she throws him a party. They have a great meal together. And then he asks her, my queen, what is your request? I will give you whatever you like. And she says, actually, this was a really fun night. Let's do this again and I'll give you my request tomorrow. So again, more relationship building, more trust building. She invites him to another party. He asks her again, what's her request? And now she finally gives it. She puts her plan into action. And there's three things that's a notice right at the beginning of chapter seven in her plan. Three things she does. As salespeople and lawyers in the room, I think we'll appreciate her strategy. It starts with a petition, or with a premise. If I have your favor, she says. She's reminding, hey, remember, you chose me as queen. Remember who we are to one another. Remember our relationship. you really love me, if you really care about me, if you want to see our relationship continue. That's a great premise to start things off. It's a great way to draw the king in to who he really does love, who he really has chosen. He's also had a few things to drink, so he's got those, like, cartoon heart eyes going on looking at her right now. And then second, she gives a petition. She says, if you love me, you'll save my life, which sounds kind of obvious. Like, of course, I love you. I will save your life. She says, the plan has been set in motion to destroy my people. And she puts it in the passive. That's an important note. This has been set in motion. She doesn't mention who set it in motion. We'll get to that in a sec. the king immediately responds. He starts, he says, who, what, where? I will make them wish they were never born. I will take care of whoever assumes that they can do this. And remember, an assault on the queen would also be an assault on the king himself. He has his own identity wrapped up into this. And the fact that Esther doesn't give the king the reminder of who set this plan into motion right away is important. Who did in the story? It's the king. The king is the whole reason she's in danger. He's the one who gave his signet ring. He's the one who signed the edict. What she's doing is giving him an opportunity to become the hero. She's giving him an opportunity to say, you can save me. She doesn't blame it on him right away because she knows he has the power to reverse things. And then finally, she gives her proclamation. She says, it is this foe and enemy Haman. And think about the shock in Haman's face at this point. He has no idea that she's Jewish. So he's building that connection. And now he also realizes, crap, this one foe. What did research and development miss here? Like how did this happen? So he comes to Esther in terror in the story. The king storms out and Haman is left terrified. Has no idea. He's at his wit's end. It's important to note too why the king steps out here. Think about what he's going through. First, he's noticing that he was gullible enough to be tricked by his advisor. It doesn't bear well for him. It's not a good public look for a king who can just be manipulated like this. And even if he punishes Haman for this act, he's punishing someone for something he signed off on. If he does that, it means he'll have to acknowledge his own weakness, his own gullibility. He'll lose face. And not only that, since he's the one who signed the edict, he's not only mad at Haman, he's also wondering, how can I reverse an edict that I said was permanent from the get -go? So in a rage, he's storming out. He's trying to think through what he can do to respond. And Haman, as the king leaves, throws himself onto the couch that Esther is reclining on. A couple important notes there. First, no male in ancient Persia was allowed in the room alone with any of the king's wives or concubines. It was illegal. There's actually Persian law we have record of that said you couldn't get within seven steps of the queen. So he is doing something utterly unthinkable here out of desperation. What he should have done is follow the king out of the room and not have been alone with Esther. But he sees the king is salty. I cannot follow him. He wants to destroy me. He's desperate. And he throws himself on the couch. The reason it's a couch, he would have reclined around tables back in the ancient world. That's what Esther is doing here, reclining on the table. And so now he is horizontal with Esther on a couch when the king comes back in. And remember what the king's thinking. How can I punish Haman without losing face myself? How can I keep my reputation and also punish Haman? And Haman has delivered the means right in front of He says, oh, how convenient. Haman, are you assaulting my queen? Whether or not the king actually thinks he is, it's clear Haman is not. He's desperate. But now Haman, the very thing that Haman did to try to save himself is the thing that seals his fate. And so the king has Haman's face wrapped up. You know it's never going to end well from there, friends. If your face is ever wrapped up, it's not good. It's not a good thing. But I pray you never are in that situation. And then hilariously, it's a funny note, Harbona, one of the other king's advisors, sees a moment of opportunity to kind of slide in and get on the king's side. He says, hey, you know, I was walking to work this morning, just kind of cruising into the palace, and I noticed, just happened, there's a seven -story tall stake that Haman set up for Mordecai. Just thought you might like to know that, king. Just carry on. Whatever you need to do. And the king, without hesitation, like a good mob boss, says, a stake, huh?

Ice him.

And so the very device that Haman was wanting to use to destroy Mordecai becomes the device that destroys him. And then chapter eight deals with the decree. Even though it couldn't be undone, the king elevates Mordecai to Haman's position, and he and Esther sign a new counter -decree that says that Jews can defend themselves if Persians come to attack them, which actually does happen in a really violent story. And the Jews end up out of self -defense protecting themselves. And so now the irony is complete. Just think back through this story as we've gone over it. I've got kind of a graphic here that shows you the irony that's existed. Back in chapter three, verse two, a Jew, Mordecai, refused to bow to Haman. Now in chapter seven, Haman bows before Esther, who is a Jew. In chapter three, verse 10, the king gives Haman his ring. In chapter eight, verse two, the king gives Mordecai his ring. In chapter three, verse 12, Haman summons scribes to sign the edict. In chapter eight, verse nine, Mordecai summons scribes to sign the edict.

Haman are said to be killed in the edict. In eight, 11 Jewish enemies are to be killed. And then finally, in chapter five, verse 14, Haman built a pole to impale Mordecai and elevate himself. And now in seven, Haman is impaled on the pole and Mordecai is elevated. Over and over again, this great reversal has been at work. The point of the story is clear, that Esther, by refusing to seek her own safety and her own position and putting her life on the line for the sake

of God, she becomes an agent of the reversal of God. And Haman, by seeking power and his own position and his own pleasure and his own elevation, he finds himself on the wrong side of that reversal. Esther becomes an important reminder for us. Friends, in spite of the headlines, there is a reversal happening and we play a part. God is writing a story of healing and life and justice and peace and restoration. And we are a part of it when we do what Esther did. In two main ways. First, we have to lose our life for the sake of that story. We have to acknowledge that a life of self -pursuit, a life of prioritizing us is the problem not the solution. It is precisely because all of us in our own ways have turned our lives inward on ourselves that the world is the way that it is. That's what the Bible means by sin. It means being turned inward on ourselves in such a way that we have rejected relationship with God, harmed our neighbors and harmed creation. And so being a part of God's reversal means choosing to give up our self -pursuit, dying to our position, our security and our comfort as our primary aim in life. And when we do, we find a true life, a true peace working itself out. That's the first thing we learn from Esther. The second thing we learn is that we need to learn how to side with those on the margins. That's the revolutionary part of God's reversal. It prioritizes the last, the least and the lost. It elevates the weak and the humble and brings down the prideful. It gives grace to those who acknowledge and express, expresses to those who think they have all figured out that they've got it wrong. It goes to those who know they're sick and is missed by those who see themselves as healthy. And so our part is to prioritize care for the weak. In our thoughts, in our actions, in our money, we work alongside God in this endeavor. And this oftentimes is something that we can forget as the church. It's happened throughout history. I was reading this week from a guy named Dietrich Bonhoeffer who in his own time saw the church fail well, abandoned the weak and the vulnerable. This is what he had to say about it. He said, Christianity stands or falls by its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power, and by its witness for the weak. I feel that Christianity is doing too little in making these points rather than doing too much. Christianity has adjusted itself much too easily to the worship of power. It should give much more offense, more shock to the world than it's doing. Christianity should take a much more serious stand for the weak than for the potential moral right of the strong.

That's how Esther plays a role in God's Great Reversal, friends. That's how we can play our part as well. But there's also tragedy in this story because the peace and rest that Esther brings here doesn't last. Soon after this, there's another empire that takes over the Jews and persecutes them, Rome. And so all of the amazing social justice that she has brought about, as important and central as it is to God's work, it cannot on its own bring complete reversal. That's actually the story of so much of the Old Testament in the Hebrew Scriptures. Rest and peace come on for a little while. Humans bring it in little pockets and then it, well, goes away. Moses brought peace and rest for a while. Joshua brought it for a while. David, Solomon, Esther all bring it for a while. They're the heroes. They're sort of Messiah figures in the Old Testament. But they're always temporary. The peace never lasts. And that's why the Hebrew prophets, when they write about what God is going to do, they prophesied that a future Messiah, a divine and human son of man, as Daniel refers to him, would come and bring lasting peace. True peace. This final reversal once and for all. That's what they say to look forward to. And so this story, it gives us a glimpse of the great reversal that comes in the person of Christ. You see, when Jesus showed up, the term he used most to describe himself was the son of man. Same term that Daniel used. He said, that he was this long awaited Messiah who would bring God's ultimate reversal to all things. Which is why many of his disciples, looking at some of the Old Testament examples, were like, yes, our enemies are going to be crushed. Jesus is going to go and overtake Rome. That's what's going to happen here. In fact, they have a debate about this. In Luke chapter 9, his disciples have a specific debate with Jesus about what to do with their enemies. They encounter some of them and they say to Jesus, all right, Messiah, this is it, right? What do you want us to do? You want us to take them out, right? We've got it all. Swords, guns, elections, Facebook posts, Reddit threads, picket signs, what do you need? We will destroy our enemies for your sake. But Jesus rebukes them. And the more Jesus speaks, the more confused they get because he says stuff like love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Forgive 70 times 7, which means

this is the Messiah, right? What's he talking about? This is completely impractical. You can't destroy evil by letting evil run. Everyone knows that the only way to get rid of an enemy is to destroy them, right? And then near the very end when their enemies come to the garden to get Jesus, the disciples again think this is our moment. One of them takes up a sword, he cuts off the ear of one of the soldiers and Jesus says, no, put your sword away. He heals the soldier, he goes with the Romans and dies at their hands forgiving them.

That's not how evil gets destroyed according to humans. Here's what's going on, you guys. Christ is practicing the ultimate warfare on evil. The ultimate judgment of evil. It's funny, we sometimes like to drive these dichotomies between God as we see him in the Hebrew scriptures as a God of judgment or justice and then Jesus as a God of love. Jesus talked about judgment all the time. He talked about how he had come to bring judgment to evil but it's how he did it that's so radically

He didn't just show up to destroy this or that enemy. He showed up to destroy enmity. That posture in our hearts that sets us against one another. He didn't come to side with this or that nation. He didn't come to side with this or that party or this or that person. He came to do away once and for all with that internal disease of enmity that rots away at the world he loves the people he loves. That's the real problem we need to have solved. It's not the enemy. It's the enmity that we harbor in our hearts. That natural disposition that our world hands us to respond to harm with harm. Punch back and if you punch hard enough you will do away with evil. That's what we think. But there's a problem to that. If you punch back it doesn't get rid of the enmity it just gets rid of one enemy which actually makes the enemy worse. When you fight evil with evil you don't beat evil because you allow evil to continue in two major ways. First, it hardens your heart. It makes you cold. It makes you self -righteous. You start to say they're the problem out there. We need to get rid of them. It ignores the truth that I participate in just as much harm as anyone else. But then secondly when you destroy an enemy what that often means is that the kids of that enemy or the nation surrounding that enemy well they get angrier at you and they're ready to punch back. Violence begets more and more violence. Think about it this way. If Jesus had just done away with the Romans he would have brought reversal and destroyed a single enemy. But in doing so he would have perpetuated the same violence against them that they were perpetuating against the Jewish people. He would have put one enemy to death but the enmity would continue. Violence begets more violence. What we need friends in our lives is not a God to come and destroy a single enemy and justify us. What we need is for God to reverse enmity in us and in the world

and for that reversal to happen. And that's what the cross and resurrection is all about. It is God taking on all the spiritual and emotional and physical violence that we have done to others that we've had done to us. It's God letting our enmity destroy him so it doesn't destroy us. It's God's judgment once and for all on enmity. And then in his resurrection he opens the pathway for that great reversal to start to radiate through our lives. Because we can start to see ourselves as forgiven people. People who don't have to bring judgment God has already brought it. We start to see ourselves and our enemies not so differently. We don't need to live captive and ashamed of the harm we've done because God has forgiven. And when that happens enmity withers. There's a new sort of violence that Jesus brings. It's the violence of grace. It puts enmity to death once and for all.

There's a great piece of literature written by a guy named Victor Hugo years ago that I think describes perfectly what this experience does and how violent it can be in a good way on our hearts. The story is called Les Miserables. They've made a couple movies about it. The musical and other things. You probably are fans. There are some fans in the room. Les Mis, one of the main characters is a guy named Jean Valjean. At the beginning of the story he's a criminal. But his criminality is really just his way of dealing with the harm that's been done to him. He's returning harm with harm because he doesn't know what else to do. He's been unjustly treated and eventually he goes to jail because he stole bread in an effort

to protect his family. And then when he's released this bishop sees him, takes pity on him and welcomes him in. He says, I'll give you a meal and a place to sleep tonight. And that night while the bishop is sleeping Jean Valjean steals his valuable silverware and silver plates. He can't seem to overcome this part of his heart that just responds with harm. He thinks, I have to take for myself at everyone else's expense. And so he goes on the run and eventually the police catch him. They drag him back to the bishop with all of that silver in order to get them back to the rightful owner. They throw Jean Valjean out of the room here's the thief. And the priest sees the man who has harmed him and he says, my dear brother, Jean Valjean, I'm glad you took the silver I gave you but you forgot the candlesticks. And then he goes and grabs more silver. He gives them to Jean Valjean and he says, go in peace. And the police have no idea what to do. They're scratching their heads like, what? This guy? And the bishop looks Jean Valjean in the eyes and he says this, Jean Valjean,

I don't want to die from you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and a spirit of perdition and I give it to God. And Jean Valjean goes away and this is his response. I want to read it to you guys because it's powerful. It's really beautifully written. He says, when Jean Valjean left the bishop's house, he was indistinctly conscious that the pardon of this priest was the greatest assault and most formidable attack which had moved him yet. He knew that his hardness of heart would be complete if he resisted this mercy. He knew that this time he must conquer and that a struggle, a colossal and final struggle had begun between his viciousness and the goodness of that priest. There was no longer a middle course for him. If he were not henceforth the best of men, he would be the worst. He would have to mount higher than the bishop or fall lower than the convict. If he would become good, he knew he'd become an angel and if he would remain evil, he knew he'd become a monster. Jean Valjean wept for a long time. He wept burning tears with more fright than a child and as he wept, a light penetrated more and more clearly into his soul. An extraordinary light at once ravishing and terrible. He examined his life and soul they seemed horrible and frightful to him. And in the meantime, a gentle light rested over this light and soul. It seemed to him that he beheld Satan from the light of paradise. How many hours did he weep? What did he do after he wept? Where did he go? No one ever knew. The only thing which seems to be authenticated is that same night the stage driver which drove the bishop's route at about 3 in the morning saw a man kneeling on the pavement in the shadow in front of the bishop's house.

Friends, that is the great reversal. That is the thing that rids enmity is the violence of grace. It forced him to make a decision. It forced him to sink lower or to continue to abuse the forgiveness to utterly change his life. That's how we can experience the great reversal, friends. It's not through crushing our enemies. It's through trusting that Jesus has crushed enmity. When we look upon what he has done for us, when we've realized that he has died the death of all the harm we've done to others in the world, it reverses things. And because it reverses us, it starts to reverse the world. We go out into the world as people of reconciliation, as people who mend and don't divide. Suddenly, all our enemies are our friends. Suddenly, we see every person as one in need of love. We can heed the words of the great poet Robert Hayden who put it this way.

We must go on into accepting evil as deliverance from evil. We must go on struggling to be human, though monsters of abstraction police and threaten us. Reclaim now. Now renew the vision of a human world where godliness is possible, where man is permitted to be man.

Friends, Esther played her part. Christ completed it. And now we experience what Christ has done for us. And we can start to play our part today. Let's go into the world

together.