The Vindication You Want … Available Now?

There’s a scene in a parable that has inspired believers for centuries.

Jesus shares the story during Passion Week as he prepares his followers for his crucifixion, a most unlikely fate from their perspective but part of the plan from his.

That’s why his teaching that week goes beyond his death to what life will look like after the resurrection, something completely unforeseeable to the disciples. He warns that he will go away for a season but then eventually return to claim his rightful position as King of kings and Lord of lords.

So he offers the parable of the talents, in which a master entrusts three servants with varying amounts of gold that they are to invest profitably. (You can read the story in Matthew 25.) Though one buries the treasure out of fear, the other two are wildly successful, doubling the initial investment. To both the master gives the same commendation.

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

These are the words we long to hear when we come to the end of our lives.

“Well done, my daughter,” we imagine the Father saying. “Well done, my son. You invested what I gave you into what really matters—other people—and have served me well. Come and enjoy what I have prepared for you!”

To know and feel and hear the Father’s acceptance!

What would it be like to have it now? Is it possible for us to hear God say to us today, “Well done”?

The psalmist believed it is.

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In Psalm 41 the author makes a startling claim.

“I know,” he affirms, “that you are pleased with me.”

Wow.

I know that you are pleased with me?

How can he be so sure?

He tells us in the very next line: “I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me.”

In other words, the proof that God is pleased with him is that God vindicates him. His enemy mistreats the psalmist, the psalmist cries out to God for justice, and God vindicates the psalmist.

Therefore, the psalmist concludes, I know that God is pleased with me.

Now rationally that makes sense to me. I concur with his line of thinking and agree that his conclusion is valid.

But existentially I find two problems with his argument.

First, what if my cries for justice have gone unanswered? What if I’m still awaiting vindication?

This is the problem of patience. If God hasn’t answered me yet, how do I know that my cries for justice are, in fact, just? Maybe he hasn’t answered my cry because my plea is not worthy of divine intervention. At minimum this creates doubt as to whether God is pleased with me.

But this leads to the second problem, one raised in the very next verse: “Because of my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever.”

This is the problem of righteousness. If my vindication rests on my integrity, ultimately the whole argument falls to the ground, and with it any sense that God is pleased with me. Because I am not perfect. I am not without sin. I am not just.

It makes me wonder how the psalmist could pen these words in the first place. At one level I’m sure he’s talking about a particular instance in which he had done nothing wrong. But at another level the psalmist knew his own guilt, knew that he was a transgressor, knew that he was guilty of injustice. How then could he write it?

Who can even pray this psalm with a straight face and without a hint of self-righteousness?

There is One.

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On the eve of his crucifixion Jesus quoted this psalm with reference to himself. As he prepared the Twelve for Judas’ betrayal later that night, he said, “This is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me'” (John 13:18, a quotation of Psalm 41:9).

Jesus is the only One who can argue before God for full vindication on the basis of his integrity. He is the Just One, the Sinless One, the Righteous One.

And though he would suffer death at the hands of his enemies, though it seemed his cries for vindication would go unanswered, God delivered in the most astonishing of ways.

He raised Jesus from the dead.

“I know that you are pleased with me,” we hear Jesus pray, “for my enemy has not triumphed over me.”

And his vindication is your vindication and mine.

God is not pleased with you today because of your integrity.

God is pleased with you because of his.

We stand in Jesus, inseparably tied to his person and work. He lived the life we should have lived. He died the death we should have died. And he rose again from the dead to give us new life and to usher in the renewal of all creation.

His vindication is ours.

His life, death, and resurrection answers the problem of righteousness.

As for the problem of patience, the empty tomb gives us the final word. Enemies may triumph over us for a time, maybe for a long time, maybe until the end of our days. But make no mistake: death does not have the final say.

Jesus lives, and so shall I.

The resurrection of Jesus means that he has been vindicated, and with him all who are in him.

We don’t need another vindicating act. We don’t need more evidence of God’s favor on us over our enemies. We don’t need to prove our impeccable integrity.

We already know vindication is ours.

The Father smiles over you.

God looks at you today in Christ and says, “Well done.”

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What difference does it make for you right now to know that God delights in you? I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below.