The last few weeks have been filled with feeble attempts to make sense of the senseless violence and continued oppression of our black and brown brothers and sisters. Thankful for Fleming Rutledge’s directive towards scripture and it’s unwavering stance to side with the oppressed which is seen most clearly in the rescuing work of Jesus.
“If our blood does not boil at injustice, how can we be serving the God who said the following through his prophet Isaiah?
Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
To deprive the poor of their rights
And withhold justice from the oppressed of my people. – Isa. 10:1-2
Where is the outrage? It is God’s own; it is the wrath of God against all that stands against his redemptive purpose. It is not an emotion; it is God’s righteous activity in setting right what is wrong. It is God’s intervention on behalf of those who cannot help themselves. No one could have imagined, however, that he would ultimately intervene by interposing himself. By becoming one of the poor who was deprived of his rights, by dying as one of those robbed of justice, God’s Son submitted to the utmost extremity of humiliation, entering into total solidarity with those who are without help. He, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, voluntarily underwent the mockery of the multitudes, and in the time of greatest extremity, he could do nothing to help himself (Mark 15.31).”
– Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, p. 132.
Content: YouTube, The Spokesman Review
Leave a Reply