When The Battle Isn't Yours

I witnessed recently, a small child wrongly accused by another child's parent of breaking in line at a public event. I'd seen the entire situation play out and knew the child was innocent. I watched them try to defend their self only to have the adult cut them off with a harsh, "oh yes, you did..." I spoke up once and quickly let it go, deciding it wasn't worth the confrontation that was about to play out. I winked at the child, gave a quick side hug and said "it's ok. Let it go." I could tell it was hard for the child to just take it, to be wrongly accused of such an offense. It's a big deal to cut in line at that age. A bigger deal to be accused of doing such a thing when you actually didn't.

It's difficult when we have to take the heat for things we didn't actually do, isn't it?

Maybe you've been there. Perhaps you've been the victim of an ugly rumor, maybe your spoken words were received in a way other than how you intended, shoot maybe it's a simple case of "the smeller's the feller." Whatever the situation, when innocent, bearing the undue shame is never easy. Suffering the consequences you don't deserve is even harder.

I've suspected recently that I myself, may be in a similar situation. Though evidence is scarce, I sense that my name has been slandered by an acquaintance for reasons I don't understand. I could be way off, but I don't think I am. Regardless, it's hard to wonder and not know. The sin-natured human in me wants to clear my name, to put all the cards on the table and expose my assumed perpetrator.

But I've sensed God just telling me to be still. Even if it causes a shift in another relationship, even if untrue things have left one person's mouth and entered another person's ear, even when I want so badly to clear my name. He whispers, just wait. Be still. Remember who I am. Let me fight for you. It's a sharp contrast to the justice my flesh wants to seek.

My thoughts wander to the moments before Jesus death. Here we find the ultimate false accusation, uncontested and accepted as His own. Punished to the death for crimes He didn't commit. Blood sweat for heinous words and actions that were never His. Adultery, gossip, false idols, theft, malice, murder, treason, drunkenness, rage. The One who knew no sin, became sin in order that we might become righteous through faith in Him. Shameless and pure.

God himself, bearing the undue shame of ungodliness. Shame that wasn't His. Consequences deserving of you and I.

And he took it. All of it, uncontested and accepted it as His own. He didn't clear his name. Surely He could have. He was God in flesh. Instead, trusting in a plan that included his own earthly downfall as it appeared to men, he knew he must suffer in order to show God's glory through Him.

God's plan was greater and it didn't end with the shame. He took it to the cross and left it there. He laid it down and rose again. Victory overcomes. Could it be that He calls us to do the same? Take it to the cross, all of it, our own wrongdoings as well as any weight we've been asked to bear that wasn't our own and lay it down.

There, we rise again.

Whatever you are facing, however big it may seem, God is bigger. He has already fought and won this battle. You need only be still.

"The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still." Exodus 14:14




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