I
know from the beginning of this I am going to have a hard time describing the
way that I am feeling about something I witnessed today. So here it goes, I will do the best
that I can.
Tara
and I are walking back to our house from town, something that has become a
normal
everyday ritual, however, today was not like the rest. As we approach the split in the road
that takes us home we are passed by men running, men on motorcycles, and the
police mixed all in between. Not
knowing what is going on we decided to follow. We reach the point where the two roads meet again and we see
that the angry mob has surrounded a car.
At this point many people are yelling and screaming stuff in Spanish and
yelling to the police officers.
While this is going on, multiple people begin to hit and shake the car
from side to side. Amongst all the
chaos a ringleader raises his voice and at that moment they pull two guys from
the car.
When
this began to happen I was reminded of a story that a local pastor told us a
couple of weeks ago. There were a
group of men who were involved in kidnapping some children around
Panajachel. One man involved in
this crime was caught by a mob sometime in July and was burned in the middle of
the street as symbol to the others involved. Come to find out the men pulled from the car were the other
two men involved in the kidnapping.
The two men are pulled from the car and they begin to beat them and take
them down the street. When all of
a sudden part of the mob flips the car over onto its roof. I begin to look around and notice the
police are doing nothing but trying to direct traffic. It was a very odd site because it was
completely against my normal.
The
two men have been taken out of sight so Tara and I stay around a little longer
then we begin to walk back to the house when we hear some more yelling and
screaming coming from the direction of the main square. We walk to the main square and there
are hundreds of people surrounding these men beating them. The mob leader is standing on a car
asking the crowd “what should we do with these men?” The answer they screamed back was, “lynch them.” In that moment my heart began to beat
fast and I felt completely helpless.
All I could do was pray that God would intervene in some way. They ended up taking them in the town
hall where there are holding cells and I guess that is where they remain for
the time being.
While
this is all going on I am trapped with this thought of why is no one standing
up for these men. I understand
that they are criminals but I ask myself, “Is God’s grace not for them?” Did the death of Christ only cover my
sins and not theirs? There was a
part of me that did not want to understand the grace of God because it would
have made the situation so much easier.
It would have been easier to just watch like everybody else and truly
believe will all my heart that these guys are getting what they deserved. I wish it could have been that way
because then I would be able to sleep at night. I wish it could have been that way then I would be able to
sit in silence and not hear the sounds of them being beat. However, it is not that way. I am a no longer a slave to sin but I
am slave to righteousness and that makes me a slave to grace.
