“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.” Luke 12:57-59
We will all one day stand before “The” magistrate—-God Almighty. Better to be reconciled now (i.e. “on the the way”) than to stand before God guilty. Or adversary is Satan himself and he would love to see us stand before God guilty as charged, after all, “misery enjoys company”.
And that’s the good news about Easter. We can be reconciled before we meet the Judge. Christ is our Defender; He has gone before us and has already made restitution for our crimes, sins, errors and even our corrupted nature. We stand before God innocent because of the blood of Jesus!
There is an old story of a king and his clown or “jester” who sometimes said very foolish things.
One day the jester had said something so foolish that the king handing him a staff, said to him: “Take this, and keep it till you find a bigger fool than yourself.”
“Some years later, the king lay on his deathbed. His courtiers were called: his family and his servants also stood round his bedside. The king, addressing them, said, “I am about to leave you. I am going on a very long journey and I shall not return again to this place: so I have called you all to say goodbye.”
Then his jester stepped forward and addressing the king said “Your Majesty, may I ask a question? When you have journeyed abroad visiting your people or paying diplomatic visits to other courts your heralds and servants have always gone before you, making preparations for you. May I ask what preparations, your Majesty has made for this long journey that he is about to take?”
“Alas!” replied the king, “I have made no preparations.”“Then,” said the jester, “Take this staff with you, for now I have found a bigger fool than myself.”
Am I smart enough to realize that I need to be reconciled with God before I stand before Him on that journey I too must take one day…. or am I a fool?” Friend, stupid as I am, I am smart enough to know that my goodness and my feeble attempts to make things right before a perfect Creator is not enough to put the scales of justice in my favor! My sins and shortcomings are colossal and have placed in an untenable situation with the Judge. My case is hopeless unless someone can reconcile my sins for me. I have therefore made preparations and I have been reconciled with God through Jesus Christ! Have you? Are you able to stand before the ultimate Magistrate one day with no fear and no apprehension about the outcome?
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