I'm Thankful for Hell

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="477"]Randall Margraves being tackled by police in a Michigan courtroom, taken from news.sky.com.[/caption]

I just watched the video of Randall Margraves lunging at Larry Nassar in a Michigan courtroom.  Nassar, a disgraced doctor for the USA gymnastics national team, is accused of using his role as doctor to molest 250 girls often by penetrating them in front of their parents under the guise of medical treatment.  He's sentenced with up to 175 years in a Michigan prison.

Randall Margraves is the father of three of Nassar's female victims.  Given the opportunity to speak directly to Nassar in court, Margraves requested that the judge grant him 5 minutes in a locked room alone with Nassar.  The judge declined.  Margraves then asked for 1 minute.  The judge declined.  Margraves then lunged across the courtroom in what appeared to be an attempt to attack Nassar.  Law enforcement intervened, tackled him, and escorted him out of the court room to the sound of sobs, likely sobs of his daughters who watched.

There is something about that scene that seems so unjust.  Margraves attempted to unleash retribution upon a pedophile who abused his trust to molest his young daughters.  He was restrained by officers of the law and removed by force with handcuffs.  I felt for Margraves.  I sympathized with him, as a father.  He wanted to punish the pervert who violated his daughters, but the law restrained him.

I felt bad for the officers too.  The officers were doing their job.  They had to hold him back.  But I imagine, especially if any of them are fathers, they likely sympathized with Margraves even as they rightly tackled him to the floor.  Order must be upheld, and vigilante justice must be restrained.  The officers were right to intervene.

Full of sympathy for Margraves, I immediately thought about the Day of Judgement.  On that day Larry Nassar, should he remain unregenerate, will stand before Christ who will command his angels to hogtie him and cast him into the eternal torments of hell.  And Margraves will watch it happen.  So will I.  So will you.  While we might be disappointed with justice today, we who know Christ will rejoice that Day.

The Bible commands us not to take vengeance into our own hands.  Nassar is getting off way too easily with only the rest of his days in prison.  In reality, there is something terribly unjust about Randall Margraves paying taxes that go towards keeping Nassar alive and healthy in prison for the last decades of his life.  True justice would be perfect.  True justice will not seem unjust.  Nonetheless, true justice is not mine to mete out. Vengeance is the Lord's.

Restraining ourselves from vengeance or vigilante justice is actually an act of faith.  It is essentially saying, "I believe in God's hell."  The Apostle Paul wrote, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19).  Not acting vengefully is not merely a matter of self-restraint.  It is a matter of faith.  It is faith that God will carry out vengeance and punish the wicked in due time.  We restrain our own vengeance because we trust that vengeance is the Lord's, not ours.  He will repay.  He will repay perfectly.  Truly, Christians are comforted because wrath will come.  Amen.

So my sympathy for Randall Margraves, a father with cause to be angry, points me towards my heavenly Father's anger.  It points me to the day when God, as Judge, will unleash His unquenchable fury upon the wicked, not as a public observer in the courtroom, but as Judge of the court.

I'm thankful for God's hell.  Maranatha.