I only spent a few hours there, but I did indeed go to jail last Saturday evening. I didn’t get arrested. I was just visiting. It was an experience I won’t soon forget.
I never knew that being the wife of an elder and a preacher would require me to do some of the things I have had to do. This was a real eye-opener!
On Saturday evening, my husband and I took a lady to visit her husband in the county jail. We sat with her in a long line of “interesting” ladies as they waited for over an hour and a half to be assigned to a room to visit their loved one. There were so many women there that they had to turn a number of them away. One woman had driven over an hour to get there, and she had to return home without seeing her husband.
We were placed in a tiny room with one stool and a window through which we talked with the prisoner. For an hour, we stood behind her as they talked, often with tears steaming down their faces. It was one of the saddest scenes I have witnessed in quite a while.
We took this lady home to a small, dirty, bug infested duplex. There is little that can be done for their situation until we can involve some state agencies. It is a complicated situation.
This morning, my husband and I took this same lady to court for her husband’s hearing. We sat in a room with a hundred or so people who were waiting to appear before the general session judge on a variety of charges. We were given very specific instructions about cell phones and how to address the judge.
One by one their names were called. Some were not present, and the judge immediately issued warrants for their arrest. Some were given time to retain an attorney. At one point, the judge stopped reading names and explained that he was not going to be tolerant of those that failed to appear. His words were, “Get the word out in the community that this court will not put up with failure to appear.”
What really struck me was that as this woman’s husband stood before the judge, there was no chance for excuses. There was no chance to say, “I’m sorry, or I won’t do it again.” The judge was in control. The man could say nothing but, “yes, sir” and “no, sir.” He stood in handcuffs and leg irons. There was no escape.
You can guess where I am going with this. There is no way I could avoid the scene Jesus painted of the judgment. The Son of man is going to come one day along with His angels. He will sit on the throne of glory. This will be the scene:
“And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” Matthew 25:31-33 KJV
For the righteous, the King will say:
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Matthew 35:34-36 ESV
The righteous are going to ask when they saw the King in these situations, and He will say that when they did this to one of the least of these His brothers, they did it to Him.
This is the part that makes me shuttered. To those on His left He will say:
“Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Matthew 25:41-43
This condemnation is for those that saw a need and did nothing. After judgment, verse 46 says He will send these into eternal punishment and the righteous into eternal life.
The apostle John said speaking of the judgment:
“And I saw the dead, great and small standing before the throne, and the books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:12-15
Is your name written there?
Sandra Oliver