A Story for Easter

I can't believe my ears.  "You're joking, right?" I said to Manuel.

"No," he said.  He sounded more serious than I could ever remember.

"Noemia called and you have to be at the Dondo courthouse in 10 minutes."

I am in my car ironically just passing the courthouse on my way to the Macharote Bible study. Only in the country for a week, I was anxious to be reunited with the people in Project Life.  It seemed insane that I should drop everything and answer to the courts.  Manuel insisted that he meet me at the courthouse.  He is our best translator and what I would be facing required his expert communication skills.

Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound Him and brought him first to Annas...

The police  accused me of not paying a traffic violation from two years prior.  My "crime" had been to drive a vehicle with dark windows.  The day in question had been my first time to drive the CRI van. It was all I could do to dodge people, carts, bikes and vehicles and navigate on the left side of the road let alone be attentive to an obscure law against add-on dark windows.  After confiscating my keys and the van, the police sent me to Beira to pay the fine.  Then they charged me for "parking" the van at their police station.  I could hardly believe this nightmare was starting all over again.

"If I said something wrong," Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong.  But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?"

The man at the courthouse explained that I needed to produce the receipt to prove I paid the fine If I couldn't I would have to pay 6x's the original fine or face a free trip to jail.  Really? Two years later? My sense of justice was rising up and I realized humility was not my middle name. I muttered my discontent in English. Manuel explained to him that there had been three witnesses the day I paid the fine and he was one of them. It didn't matter. We needed the original receipt...period.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

As a missionary, all my receipts were stored in the United States for IRS purposes. It never crossed my mind I would need them here. In spite of their lack of Portuguese, my son and his wife sifted through all our receipts in the U.S. for the illusive paperwork.  They found the paid parking ticket but not the traffic fine. To add to the confusion, the date marked on the court's current paperwork for the traffic fine was incorrect. The parking ticket showed it had really happened two weeks earlier!

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

Three trips later to Beira, Manuel and I sat opposite the man who held my exoneration in his hands.  The day before we had taken a copy of the original carbon copy to the courts in Dondo with an official stamp by the Beira police.  Even after that effort, it was not accepted by the Dondo court. They accused us of having a friend in the Beira police department that stamped the copy. They wanted the original. They even told Manuel we should just give up and pay the fine. Yet in front of us now sat the original receipt book, in the hands of the original man to whom I paid the fine.  I wanted to grab it and run all the way to Dondo.  He told us to return the next day.  He would write a letter on my behalf and attach it to the copy of the original carbon copy of the fine.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.  The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head,.  They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" and they struck him in the face.....his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness...

The next day the man in Beira was not in his office so Manuel patiently returned the following day.  He was handed another receipt to give the police in Dondo. This time the Dondo court had no other choice but to accept it.  Manuel, Phil and Simone brought my "freedom" papers to me with huge grins on their faces.  By the grace of God my name had finally been cleared.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Note: This incident happened these last two weeks before Easter.  By no means am I comparing my small suffering to what Jesus suffered for all of us but rather the incredible awareness that He was God, perfectly without sin, suffering unimaginably, yet never fought the wrong but forgave His accusers. Through this whole incident, God kept acutely reminding me of this and leaving me once again, in awe of my Savior. It was obvious God was with me in all of this.  The paper my son had found gave us the date that was the key to finding the right carbon copy book in Beira.  Nothing is computerized so books and books of receipts are stacked in their offices.  Only by the right date they could have found what we needed.  God never promises we won't go through trials, He just promises to go through them with us.  Have a very blessed Easter - we have so much to rejoice about!