I grew up for a few years in East Austin. All my friends in the neighborhood were either African American or Hispanic. It was a tough neighborhood and we were all poor and struggling. The only way for me to survive was to act tough and crazy, so I was called the “crazy white boy.” One of my best friends was African American and we were at a park playing one day. A group of boys decided that this “crazy white boy” needed to be beat up. I stood with my friend ready to fight until I saw that he turned on me and sided with the group. I was disappointed and hurt. It seemed that at every corner of my young life was meant to be alone.
I have experienced more profound tragedies in my life with the loss of family and friends. No doubt so have you. There was a time in my Christian life that I wondered why God had allowed my sufferings. I have seen others suffer and was lost for words. Yet, as I continue to grow in Christ I have found that part of our Christian message is that God has not turned away from our plight nor does He miraculously deliver us from all of our sufferings. In Luke 23:26-32, Jesus is led away to the cross, Simon of Cyrene is made to carry the cross, women mourned, Jesus laments for the Daughters of Jerusalem and their children. God did not prevent Jesus from suffering, nor did He deliver Him from it. Jesus not only suffers on the cross, but here in our text He knows He could not stop the judgment that Israel and humanity had caused. The suffering of the innocent—the death of Jesus and the suffering of the women and the children—is an indictment of the institutions and means of human cruelty and a call to turn from our sinful inclinations and accept the cross and God’s mercy as the answer. Otherwise, “if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:31).