Prayer for Illumination
Let us feel the wounds of the world, Lord God, that we might
glimpse the wounds you bear for all creation.
Mark 15:6-11
Now at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom
they requested. The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the
insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection. The crowd went
up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them.
Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you
the King of the Jews?” For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him
over because of envy.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release
Barabbas for them instead. NASB
Habakkuk 1:2-4
How long, O LORD, will I call for help,
And You will not hear?
I cry out to You, “Violence!”
Yet You do not save.
Why do You make me see iniquity,
And cause me to look on wickedness?
Yes, destruction and violence are before me;
Strife exists and contention arises.
Therefore the law is ignored
And justice is never upheld.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore justice comes out perverted. NASB
Injustice mounts—where is the resolution? Barabbas instead? So it
has been throughout human history—”I cry to You, ‘Violence!’, yet You do not
save!” What kind of God are You, when Barabbas goes free? When oppression
continues? Will you yet hear?
“See the hundreds and thousands of us that are thrown into the
seas by Christians, and murdered by them in other ways. They cram us into their
vessel holds in chains and in hand-cuffs—men, women and children, all together!
O! save us, we pray thee, thou God of Heaven and of earth, from the devouring
hands of the white Christians!
Oh! thou Alpha and Omega!
The beginning and the end,
Enthroned thou art, in Heaven above,
Surrounded by Angels there.
From whence thou seest the miseries
To which we are subject;
The whites have murdered us, O God!
And kept us ignorant of thee.
Not satisfied with this, my Lord!
They throw us in the seas:
Be pleased, we pray, for Jesus’ sake,
To save us from their grasp.
We believe that, for thy glory’s sake,
Thou wilt deliver us;
But that thou may’st effect these things,
Thy glory must be sought.
—David Walker (1796?-1830), Appeal, article IV
Barabbas was set free by a man
“We are set free by the King of the Jews”
Posted by: William Whiting | March 26, 2009 at 08:35 AM