009 - Good News

Last week, I was rear-ended.

It’s not the first time I’ve been in a minor car accident, so it wasn’t too traumatizing. That is, until the car who hit me simply … drove away.

After I hung up with the 911 operator, I sat alone in my car, waiting for the police to arrive. No one else had stopped to make sure I was okay. The person who hit me was long gone. And the operator had told me that the police would likely search for the other vehicle before coming to me.

I was all alone.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst part came when I was talking with my insurance agent. The worst part came when she told me that I’d have to pay the collision deductible before my insurance would kick in, because they didn’t have the other driver’s insurance to get that money from.

I was so angry. I ranted about it to anyone who would listen. I wrote unpleasant emails to this agent who was supposed to be on MY side. I googled anything that would help me.

I just didn’t see why I needed to pay when I did nothing wrong. I didn’t understand why the other person got to drive away with no consequences. And I didn’t understand how I could do everything right - driving safely, calling the police, waiting all alone at the scene, telling the truth about what happened - and still be punished for it.

And then, I thought about Jesus.

That in one of the worst moments of His life, everyone left Him. He was alone.

That He paid the price for MY sin - the debt that I owed - even though He did nothing wrong.

That He not only made a way for me to walk away from the consequences that waited for me, but He went one step further and made a way for me to have a good, loving, meaningful relationship with God.

That He did everything right, without complaint, without anger or resentment or bitterness, even when He was alone and mocked and beaten. In fact, the Bible says He did it all with joy (Hebrews 12:2), because He knew that it was the only way for me to have the life that God desires for me to have.

And maybe for the first time, I understood The Gospel in a really personal and applicable way. Because suddenly, I was in a situation that, on a much, much smaller scale, looked a lot like the situation Jesus found Himself in. And yet when I chose to look for a way out of the unfairness of it all, Jesus carried His cross right into the middle of it.

That is the Good News I want you to hear today. Maybe you’ve heard it a thousand times, maybe this is the very first time. What I want you to know - scratch that, what Jesus wants you to know is that when faced with a really, really unfair situation, Jesus didn’t do what you and I would probably have done (or what I did do in this car insurance situation). He didn’t name all the reasons He was better than us or shouldn’t have had to pay for our mistakes. He didn’t get angry with us, He doesn’t resent us. He didn’t walk away and leave us to figure it out on our own when He absolutely could have.

Instead, He looked at you and at me. And He looked at the cost He would have to pay to save us. And He decided that it was worth it to pay that price if it meant life and hope for us. He decided that the value of our lives was greater than the cost of being abandoned and beaten and killed. Because He loves us, and He’s for us and He wants good for us.

To be honest, all of this doesn’t really make me feel better about having to pay that deductible. I’m still angry and resentful about that. But after seeing my own response to this drive, it does make me more grateful for Jesus and the way He responds to me. And maybe one day, I’ll respond to other people the way He does: with love and grace and empathy.

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Published in the 009 - July 28 issue of TuesdayTribe

Written by Hannah Hladek

Photo by takahiro taguchi on Unsplash