Here Come Da Judge

We quietly milled around the outside of the courtroom like cattle about to enter the slaughterhouse. Call me naïve, but I was kinda hoping that I was going to walk in for the appointment noted on my ticket, plead my case, and walk out.

Wrong.

Adding to my anxiety was the fact that I had parked in a one hour spot a block away. One hour.

We were led into a large room with rows upon rows of chairs. The room was pretty plain except for the wood paneling on the far wall behind where the judge would take his seat, which he did. A parade of humanity came before him. Some dressed in suits, others came with humbler wardrobes. Some had counsel, others had translators; all had offenses. Reckless driving, jaywalking, driving without a license, felony drug charges, following too closely: and me with an expired inspection sticker.

I’m not into the whole court scene so I wondered how I was going to plead guilty but request the charges to be dropped. There was a person who ran a stop sign. The judge stated his fine without blinking an eye.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the following person’s offense. Expired inspection sticker! I leaned in to make sure I saw how to proceed. The judge looked over the facts and asked why she came today. Was she expecting to get it dismissed just because they got an inspection? While my sticker had expired only two weeks before getting stopped, hers had expired a few months prior. The judge had mercy on her.

My name was called next. With renewed hope, I succeeded in making my way out of the row without tripping and walked up to the podium.

“You should thank the officer here for stopping you so soon,” he said. I turned to the officer and thanked him. The charges were dismissed and I was free once more.

It feels great to be forgiven. This morning, this VERY morning, I was reading the twentieth chapter in the last book of the Bible, Revelations. Here’s what I read:

And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

What struck me this morning was the fact that EVERY person will be judged. All of us, no matter how noble or how twisted we’ve lived … and yet, there’s hope that the charges will be dismissed. This Book of Life is not some document bearing the names of those who are good enough. It is the testimony of those who have passed from death to life. Jesus came, died, and rose from the dead to give us this hope. It is a pity that more people who profess to believe this don’t live it out in their lives.

The next few weeks we’ll be talking about good news. More importantly, we’ll be discussing how this good news, this belief that the Kingdom of God is near, should impact our lives and those around us.

What is the best news you have ever heard? What does forgiveness feel like? When something special happens to you, how do you share it?

I quickly walked back to my car; it was approximately an hour since I had left it there.

No ticket!