Why me?

The question is often a lament. Surrounded by worries or personal challenges, one may tilt back their head and ask, "Why me?"

When the world doesn't seem fair or when health is on the skids, "Why me?"

There isn't an easy answer.  We don't exactly know why some people prosper and others face a hard scrabbled life.  There isn't a mathematical equation to explain why one person is born with a silver spoon while another has a disability or must battle prejudice or poverty.

It can't just be luck or the lack of it.

Luck assumes there is no answer to the "why" questions.  Life is an accident without reason, without design, and without purpose.  The only thing that exists is the luck of the draw and pure coincidence.  It explains how some in life may catch a few aces, but in the end you're screwed.  End of story.  Luck runs out.

When I said before there is no easy answer to the question why, I didn't mean there is no answer at all.  I just meant there is no cheap answer or instantaneous way to decipher the mystery of life.  We still need to ask why.  We must ask why. 

Intuitively we know there must be some explanation, rationalization, or justification for the circumstances of our life.

Look at the created world.  Even those who reject the existence of God can't easily discard evidence that this universe has incredible design.  The intricate patterns in nature, the configuration of the stars, the sophistication of anatomy, and the laws of nature almost boring in their predictability, all testify to superb design.

But where is the nexus of this creation?  Where does the sense of all history reside?  Why are all things as they are?  Why me?  St. Paul gave this answer to the Colossians, "[Jesus] is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." (Col. 1:17)

Jesus is the key.  Jesus is the transom through which we see the answer to "Why me?"

Many times I've told a story about Steven Feinauer who, in my opinion, gave the most brilliant answer I ever heard from a catechism student.  One day we were spinning our wheels over the questions: Why the Bible?"  Why deal with God?  Why am I here?   Why me? 

We were looking for the key.  So I asked, "What is a key?"

And Steven answered, "The stuff inside."

We all looked at him blankly, and it took a minute before I realized just how special his brief answer was.  He said it better than I ever could. "A key is the stuff inside." 

A key, you understand, is not just a device to open a door.  A key is not merely a cheap piece of metal to unlock a latch.  A key is not just some chance, accidental abracadabra.

A key, Steven said, is "the stuff inside!"

Let me explain.  Suppose there is a great treasure, a fortune of riches beyond measure locked away from the view and understanding of anyone.  It is marvelous but impenetrable.  Imagine the treasure is eternal life, the wealth and wonder of a new and perfect world.  Suppose the fortune is nothing less than forgiveness for your sins, union with God, and every good and perfect thing.

Suppose now that you were given the key to this treasure.  The key may look like an inferior thing.  It may seem little more than a cheap utensil or handy gizmo.

But no!  It is far more than that.  The key is equivalent to the treasure.  Indeed, the key IS the treasure!  For if you have the key, you have the treasure!

The Key to the kingdom of heaven is not luck or a token answer.  The Key to eternal life is Jesus Christ.  The Key to joy, forgiveness, and freedom, and the Key that unlocks the answer to "Why me?" is Jesus Christ. 

Christ is not merely a key; He is the Stuff Inside!  He is the Treasure!

Jesus is the Way and the truth and the life.  He is the substance of things hoped for and the body of the new and living way.

The Word of God says there definitely IS an answer to your "why" questions.  Life is no accident.  Your life in Christ is not by chance or blind fate.  There is divine reason, design, and purpose to human life as God gives it through His Son.  There is beauty and stability, value and intention in your life.  Christ is your life. 

Jesus Christ has taken upon himself your upsetting realities, your personal challenges, your grievances and injuries, your skidding health, heartbreaks, frustrations, and regrets.  Most of all He bore your shame, sin, and death. 

And why did He do this?  Why?  So that we may be justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.... and so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  (Rom. 3:24, 26)

Why?  "God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him."  (1 John 4:9)

Why?  "So that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:7)

That's why! 

Being given the Key and Crown of Christ may not explain exactly why a particular hardship or heartache occurs, but it re-frames the question.

Now "Why me?" is not a lament but a laud.  Rather than bemoaning our fate by asking it, we celebrate our faith. 

"Why me?" now expresses the marvel of being so loved and blessed by God through Christ.  "Why me?" utters the Christian's astonishment that God should be so infinitely gracious that He would grant to me, yes me, the saving benefit of His Son.  "Why me?" acknowledges my own confounded inferiority and His unmistakable mercy.

"Why me?" confesses that all I receive is a gift.  There is no cause or quality in me that can answer why I am so abundantly favored with God's pardon and kindness.  His goodness is such that even being chastened is good and the privations one may endure in life are gifts because these things train and exercise our faith.

"Why me?" is a question fitting for the Lenten season we enter again this coming month.  Ask, "Why me?"  Why should I be so thoroughly favored, loved so completely, and served so exhaustively? 

The answer is Christ, the Key to it all. 

The Christian can say:  Christ is the redemption in my disgrace.  He is the providence in my emptiness.  He is the light in my darkness and the calm inside my storm.  He is the laughter in my sorrow and God's honor for my shame.  He is the gladness in my doubting and the new birth in my dying.  He is the Friend that fills my loneliness who defends against my foes.  He is my strength despite my weakness and my song despite my fears.  He is my Savior and God's answer to "Why me?" and "Why here?"

The Key to Lent is Jesus too.  The holy season we soon again observe begins in ashes and culminates at the cross.  But what you will not hear in Lent is any lament from Jesus, "Why me?" 

What you will see is the scale of His sacrifice and the greatness of his passion.  And what you will hear from Cana to Calvary and from Jordan to the cross will be your answer to "Why me?"