Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everybody thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking the

question who gets a pardon and as you

might have guessed we're talking about

President Joe Biden's recent pardon of

his son Hunter if you haven't heard of

this story well first of all you must

have been living under a rock but if you

haven't heard let me catch you up

President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden

was convicted of multiple felonies

within the last year tax charges gun

charges uh and seems to have been on a

run of pretty unseemly Behavior

involving drugs and selling access to

his father whether that access was real

or just simply something he capitalized

on he was convicted by a jury and

sentenced to multiple years in prison

President Biden now at the end of his

presidency used his presidential powers

to issue a full pardon to Hunter meaning

he will uh be set free from his charges

and will serve no jail time for any of

the crimes that he committed now as you

might expect this has kicked up the

usual political fervor uh Republicans

are calling it a miscarriage of Justice

and abuse of Presidential Power uh even

Democrats to be honest with you are

having a hard time with it I read a

quote by one Democratic Congressman in

Arizona who said that this was a

miscarriage of Justice Hunter Biden

committed multiple felonies he was

convicted by a jury of his peers he

should serve his time that's coming from

President Biden's own political party uh

what's interesting though is that as

though Republicans are now saying it's

an abuse of power uh it they're also

noting that the language President Biden

uses in his press release about the

pardon is similar language that

President Trump uh has used about those

he has or is promising to Pardon in the

future meaning a lot of similarities and

by the way President Biden is not the

first president to Pardon a family

member Bill Clinton pardoned his half

brother Roger Clinton president Trump

pardoned his daughter's father-in law

Charles Kushner at the end of his first

presidency uh look all these things are

relevant and meaningful these

conversations about Justice and abuse of

power and uh but they're also political

and legal and I'm not a politician or a

lawyer so I want to look at this from a

spiritual angle because I think actually

what President Biden did and then the

way the country is responding is pretty

instructive of a spiritual reality and

that is that because we are sinners our

temptation is to want and expect a

pardon for ourselves and to want and

expect judgment for everybody else or

you might say to want and expect a

pardon for those we care about and

judgment for those that we don't I

experienced this almost every time I do

a funeral and the person who died no one

really knows where they were spiritually

they never really talked about their

faith didn't seem to have a vibrant

relationship with Jesus in that

situation almost always the people who

love that person will do everything in

their power to try to convince me even

though I'm not asking that that person

was a Christian they'll say things like

well he was very kind or or very

generous or he was kind of a private

person so he probably had Faith but he

didn't talk about it and I understand

why they're doing that they want a

pardon they want a pardon for the person

they love they want a pardon for

themselves but isn't it interesting that

as hard as might work to explain and

justify our actions as hard as we might

work to explain why we deserve

forgiveness why we deserve a pardon

we're so eager to withhold it from

everybody else so President Biden says

hey I'm a father I'm a president I I

have the power so of course I'm going to

spare my son but in six months when

President Trump uses his presidential

power to Pardon someone he loves or

cares about or considers a friend

President Biden will vilify that because

what he means is what we all mean

pardons for us judgment for you this is

what Jesus was talking about when he

told the story of the unforgiving

servant a man who goes to the king and

can't possibly pay his debt and begs for

a pardon and receives it and celebrates

by going out in the hall and grabbing

the throat of a guy who owes him money

and expecting judgment for him listen in

all this fervor about Pardons and

judgment who deserves them who doesn't

recognize this theme running through our

human hearts the truth is we are all

sinners needing Grace deserving of

judgment that our first instinct should

be to identify not with the need for a

pardon but with to identify with the

righteousness of a God who would judge

us listen I'm not a politician I'm not a

lawyer probably neither are you but I am

a sinick sinner in need of Grace so

grateful for what God has done and my

prayer in response to this story is God

make me someone who preaches Grace to

other people make me someone who desires

Grace for other people even and

especially my enemies because I once was

just like them who gets to Pardon anyone

who looks to Jesus and we should

celebrate that for all people all time

hey thanks so much for watching this

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