In Prison

I spent Monday morning in prison...by design. I've helped my church start a Bible Study at a local prison facility. Monday was my first morning in the facility with the inmates, and it was awesome. The men there are so spiritually hungry and open. They've reached the end of a rope that few people on the outside understand. It is in those darkest valleys that we can best understand out need for a Savior.
I spoke with the men about the Crucifixion of Jesus. I tried, however, to take a little different tack than was expected. We spent most of our time discussing the Crucifixion by looking at Genesis and Psalm 22.
We started in Genesis and laid the groundwork for the story of redemption. We also looked at Genesis 15, God's covenant with Abraham. The most striking aspect of this passage is the nature of the curse component of the covenant. Typically in a covenant, it was ratified with the sacrifice of animals. The animals were split in two and the parties of the covenant would walk through the pieces of the sacrifice. The significance was that the one who violated the covenant would be treated like the animal that was sacrificed. The nature of this curse in Genesis 15 is that only God walked through the sacrifice. God ratified the covenant with Abram and promised that if Abram broke the covenant the curse would rest upon God, himself.
With this idea, we turn to Psalm 22 and looked a this great Psalm of lament. There are two parts to this psalm. The first half is a lament. The psalmist alternates between suffering and faithfulness of God to deliver us from suffering. The second half changes in tone from lament to joy because we begin to see God's plan for redemption, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. There is no distinction between rich or poor; near or far; born or unborn. All of God's children will come to him through the suffering of his servant.
The descriptions of the Crucifixion in Psalm 22 are amazing. The opening verse was quoted by Jesus in the Matthew and Mark accounts of the Crucifixion. We know that Jesus must have been meditating on this psalm as he hung on the cross. As he bore the full measure of God's righteous wrath on my behalf, he experienced the same lament the psalmist described. Jesus was not unaware or unsympathetic with our sufferings because he suffered the same things (Heb. 2). But Jesus also knew that this psalm turns to joy. There is joy because the Father is faithful. Jesus knew that God's wrath would be satisfied and we would be "delivered from the sword" (Ps 22:21). "The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord!" (Ps 22:26). As Jesus meditated on this psalm he knew His righteousness would be proclaimed to a generation yet unborn and they would know that because of His work IT IS FINISHED! (Ps. 22:31). And these are the very words that John records as Jesus' last words on the cross, "It is finished."
The inmates really connected with the idea of suffering. They knew that they have both caused suffering and are experiencing suffering. I was struck with the fact that I am no different from these men in prison coveralls. I too have experienced suffering...and caused much suffering. But God is not unaware or disconnected from our suffering. Even repentant criminals can know that the Creator of the Universe understands their suffering more intimately than they understand it themselves. And this same God bids us to come to him in faith and repentence. If this isn't Good News, then nothing is Good News!