Following several high-profile cases of child abduction, rape and murder in the UK a few years ago, there was a media campaign to name known peadophiles. Vigilante mobs of outraged parents scoured the streets looking for them. A lady doctor, advertising as a paediatrician, had bricks thrown through her windows becasue the mob confused peadiatrician and peadophile.
Now, strange as this request may be, place yourslef in the mind of the paedophile. He cowers in his home, hearing the angry mob outside and seeing bricks come crashing in. and understand that this man - foul though he is - represents you. Yes his sins are more identifiable than yours, but sin is sin. And the mob outside is an embodyment of God's own outrage at the sins of the paedophile. (Not that God is a vigilante - he acts within the law - it's just the sense of justified outrage that I'm trying to picture)
So there we have it - the sinner confronted with the anger his sin has caused.
At this moment, in my picture, Christ appears in the house. he takes on the appearence of the peadophile, opens the door, and walks out. The shrill roar of the crowd reaches a crescendo, and christ is enveloped in a flurry of beating hands, kicking feet, spit, sticks, bricks - until his lifeless body is dragged away.
This illustration has many serious theological flaws eg having a wild mob to represent God's wrath, and it plays to the Girardian atonement concept that I have criticised before, and doesn't mention resurrection - but the picture of Christ taking my deserved punishment has been powerful for me these last few days.
Thank you, Lord Jesus!
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