Imagine a scene in heaven in which a little girl walks up to Jesus, sees the scars on His hands and feet and asks, “Who hurt You?” What do you think Jesus would say?
He could say that it was the Roman government who ruled Israel. He could say that it was Judas who betrayed Him. He could even say that it was Peter who denied even knowing Him. He could say that it was Eve when she believed the serpent over God and Adam when he took the forbidden fruit from Eve and ate it.
He could say, “Little girl, it was you.”
Kind of shocking, right? But technically correct. I believe Jesus would say, “I chose to let them do it because I love you so much and wanted to meet you in person.”
I graduated in a class of 83 students from an Adventist boarding academy. This was during a time when the emphasis by most adults around us was that we needed to do the right things and act the right way. Ellen White and the Bible were used to hammer home how wrong we were and what we needed to do to be right in order to get to heaven. It was more transactional than relational.
I would guess that more than two-thirds of my classmates no longer follow God. We were all looking for something beyond the transactions. Some of us persisted and were able to find the relationship with God that we needed. We understood and accepted the plan of salvation. We accepted God’s supreme love for us.
Some of us grew up with Adventist parents who were very rule-bound. There were a lot more “don'ts” than “do's.” I think the best way to handle that is to forgive. I've come to understand that our parents were doing the best that they could with the information and relationships they had. Not to excuse, but to realize that most parents really had no idea how to teach their children how to follow God, how to accept Jesus as their Savior.
Special Sabbath School classes for new believers usually went over the beliefs of the church, not necessarily how to incorporate their relationship with Jesus into the entire family.
In my conversations now, I like to ask the question, “Who hurt you?” And follow it up with, “How did you handle it?”
We have a choice on how we react. We can’t control someone else’s behavior; we can only control our own. If your parents’ or other adults’ relationships with Jesus don’t seem right to you, you can study to determine how you want your relationship with Jesus to be. And there is always grace — grace to be given to the parents and other adults in your life who were flawed in their own relationship with Jesus.
When Paul asked God to remove the thorn in his side in 2 Cor 12:9, God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” If God’s grace is sufficient for Paul, shouldn’t it be sufficient for me or you?
In chapter five of The Story of Redemption, Ellen White wrote what she had seen in her vision. She said, “I saw the lovely Jesus and held an expression of sympathy and sorrow upon His countenance. Soon I saw Him approach the exceeding bright light which enshrouded the Father. Said my accompanying angel, ‘He is in close converse with His Father.’ ... Three times He was shut in by the glorious light about the Father, and the third time He came out from the Father.”
Then Jesus told the angels that a way to escape death had been made for the lost man. The way was for Jesus to die in their place.
The way that Jesus responded to the question, “Who hurt You?” was with love — unconditional, unimaginable love.
Regardless of who hurt you, Jesus loves you completely. Don’t let someone else’s flaws keep you from the relationship with Jesus that He wants to have with you.
