April 5, 2007 Easter is here! A couple of weeks ago I shared the story of picking up a raving Meth addict at the corner of Peachtree Rd and Peachtree Industrial, just up from the new building. She had been trying unsuccessfully to wave down a ride to get her a few exits down to her part of town. She was frantic in a combination of frustration, anger, and being strung out. In the sermon I used her as an example of Jesus’ principle of the importance of the “one” in Matthew 18:3-14. As I’ve meditated on this bizarre occurrence there have been a lot more things that the Lord has been teaching me. The most significant for Easter is my identification with this woman. It is very easy to get an “us vs. them” attitude with people like this. They are truly horrifying to see and to smell. This woman, like most meth addicts, has blood red, open sores all over her face, arms, and hands. Her teeth are rotting out of her skull. She was so filthy that I had to take very shallow breaths to keep from breathng too deeply.
She was somewhat coherent, or at least coherent enough to get a ride closer to “home.” However, she spent most of the time in the car venting, freaking out, shaking, apologizing, crying, telling me how to drive, blessing me, and cursing everyone else. She never stopped talking, even as she reclined the seat back to “rest.” The car had barely stopped before she launched herself out of the car and shuffled-stumbled-ran away. I sat there a bit dazed wondering what in heaven’s name this was all about. I have two distinct impressions about the encounter. My first series of thoughts occurred while we were driving. I had one of those experiences where a multitude of Bible passages shuffles like a deck of cards through my imagination. I saw all the references to the poor, the afflicted, the demon possessed, and the prisoners. My mind caught on Jesus’ final public sermon in Matthew 24-25, specifically his sermon on the judgment in 25:31-46. It’s the one about the sheep and the goats where the sheep take care of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner but the goats do not. Jesus tells them that as they did (or did not) to the least of these they did (or did not) to him, to Jesus. So I’m thinking, Jesus is with me right now on Saturday afternoon needing a ride. It freaked me out because I didn’t start my day thinking, “I’m going to be Jesus’ chauffer today.” It blessed me, but it also disturbed me. It’s one thing to imagine the noble poor, the deserving prisoner, or the oppressed-but-righteous sufferer. It’s another thing to see Jesus with a smelly zombie. My second distinct reality check from this encounter was to see myself. While I have never been a methamphetamine addict, I have been eaten alive by the venereal disease of sin. I have had open, weeping sores infecting my soul while I screamed at a world that just seemed to be driving by oblivious to my plight and my pain. In fact, the only real difference between me and this woman is that she was polite in her sin. I was a rebellious, defiant, smoldering ingrate. The scriptures tell us that we all were to some extent. This Easter I see Jesus from a very distinct vantage point. I see his mocking, his beatings, and his torments not for “Noble Tim”, but for “Meth Tim”. I see my very deserved judgment taken up willingly and lovingly by the Son at the Father’s command. He took all that was due for my sin and paid it in full. I see that where this addict left my car still an addict, that when Jesus opened the door and brought me in that I was healed. He embraced me stink and all, and when he took his arms from around me I was clean, dressed in white. From what vantage point are you looking at Easter? Whatever it is I pray that it is a heart-deep reminder of the extent of your sin and the greatness of his love. I pray that you will be renewed and remade again in the grace of the God that claims all of us sin-zombies as his own, and gives us a pure, holy, eternal life as his beloved child. All glory, thanksgiving, and praise to him alone.
