The question I am most often asked as a criminal defense attorney is: “How can you defend someone when you know they are guilty?”
For me, the answer is easy:
I believe in condemning the act, not the person (John 8:11).
This is consistent with my faith. In Matt. 9:12, Jesus essentially answers the same question by saying, “It’s not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick. I desire mercy, not sacrifice…” Because of this, I unapologetically enjoy helping someone who is otherwise shunned and condemned by others.
Ironically, I’m often asked how I can defend the guilty by those who are the most vocal when one of their own family members gets arrested. Isn’t it interesting that people want “mercy” when they are in trouble, and want “justice” for everyone else who stands accused?
We’re not called to be judgmental; we’re called to help people, regardless of guilt. Jesus was very clear when He admonished all of us to refrain from judging others, telling those of us without sin to cast the first stone (John 8:7). He warned us that by the same measure we judge others, we too will be judged (Matthew 7:2). He defends all of us, knowing of our guilt. We are commanded to remove the plank from our own eye before we look at the speck of sawdust in our brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5). My faith is entirely consistent with my professional approach to helping people in trouble with the law. I feel I’m doing the right thing by extending grace to the unforgiven, today’s “leper.”
A Passion for Helping People, Regardless of their Faith
My passion for helping others is of the same degree of commitment, regardless of whether or not the accused shares my Faith. I have the same interest in helping my Jewish brothers and sisters, believers and unbelievers alike, or anyone else of any other Faith who is suffering and in need of help.
It is not that I excuse the crime or have any less empathy for the victim, or minimize the conduct which gave rise to the arrest – it is simply a matter of fact that the conduct or incident is already in the past. There is nothing I can do to change what happened yesterday. I like this little poetic saying which was sent to me in a card by my brother:
“yesterday is history;
tomorrow is a mystery;
today is a gift …that’s why we call it the present”.
That’s right, we can only do something about today, with the hope of affecting tomorrow.
How can you defend people you know are guilty?
(crucified between two criminals)
The questioner really doesn’t want to know the ‘how to’ in this visual, but instead, is making a rhetorical statement that they cannot imagine how a Christian can represent a person who the believer knows, as a matter of fact, is guilty of the crime.) The question is too often asked by believers, who apparently have a temporary lapse in memory as to the fundamental precepts of our Faith. What they mean to say, though they try to say it nicely in the form of a question, is: “I could never defend someone I knew was guilty.” Thank God, for their sake, that their very own Messiah didn’t feel that way! If He had, they’d be toast. Once reminded of the fact that we’re all guilty and that “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners,” they finally “get it” and quit with their pious and pharisaical judgmentalism.
This question is essentially the exact same question asked of the disciples at the dinner party recorded in the ninth (9th) chapter of Matthew. The Pharisees asked His disciples, “Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” They didn’t have the courage or integrity to ask Jesus Himself, as He was present then at the table eating with the tax collectors and other sinners. Being omniscient, however, He heard them and decided to personally answer their question to His disciples. Jesus responded, “It is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick. I desire mercy not sacrifice. I’ve come not to call the righteous to salvation, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12) Their question had been accusatory, essentially asking, “How can your master (Jesus) defend or represent those who He knows are guilty?” It’s the same question that the Pharisees are still asking today. “How can you defend someone you know is guilty?” They still don’t get it, do they? It is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick. It’s not the folks without trouble who are in need of help, but those who are hurting and in trouble.
How could Jesus defend the guilty criminal who was crucified next to Him? He knew that the crucified criminal was guilty, and yet He knowingly defended him. He didn’t just defend him; He promised that criminal the promise of all promises, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) Jesus didn’t ask that criminal, “Are you really guilty? Are you a good person, doing good things and being obedient? Have you been attending church weekly? Paying your tithes? No, He considered the man’s heart and recognized the criminal’s repentant spirit, and He rewarded the man’s public profession of faith. “Jesus remember me when you come into your Kingdom,” was all that the criminal said. The repentant criminal only had to ask once for the Savior’s help, and there He was, Jesus the Messiah, his advocate and his representative. You cannot imagine a better advocate and representative on your behalf, when you’re guilty; and yet, you don’t hear today’s Pharisees asking, “How could Jesus defend that criminal who He knew was guilty?” You can hear them saying they want justice, though, when it’s the next man who stands accused; justice is the last thing they want, however, when it’s themselves or their own loved ones who stand accused. They then want mercy, not justice. God forbid they get justice. The same believers who ask me, “How can you defend someone you know is guilty?” are quick to tell me a week or so later that the police never read the required Miranda warnings to their little Tommy after he was arrested. They don’t get hung up on the whole ‘guilt thing’ when it’s one of their own in a jam, And for their sake, Thank God that Jesus didn’t get hung up on this issue. He was hung up for our hang-ups, not for our good deeds. We don’t deserve any acquittal on the cross. We deserve hell, and yet He acquitted us anyway.
That crucified criminal apparently must have known intuitively what God had earlier commanded, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, Luke 12:32, “Do not be afraid … for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom.” Recall, the repentant criminal even referenced the Savior’s “Kingdom” when he cried out, “Jesus remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” Our Father is pleased to give us the Kingdom? Are you kidding me? You and I, the reprobates we are, recipients of such a gift, and He’s even “pleased” to give it to us? Why would He do that? There is no other explanation aside from unadulterated love.
God is love
“God is love,” according to 1 John 4:8. Why would Jesus or the Father want that crucified criminal to be with Him forever in paradise? It’s the same with any loving Father, isn’t it? Why would I still want my kids to be with me forever, when they’ve been repeatedly disobedient? There is no other reason except that I love them. There is nothing they can do to make me love them more, and there is nothing they can do to make me love them less. It’s the same way with our Heavenly Daddy. And, the beauty is, as we struggle to live as obedient kids, He takes all the pressure off of us, and puts it on Himself! Can you imagine the emotional, mental and spiritual relief felt by that crucified criminal when Christ promised him the promise of all promises, even as he was tortured on other levels by the physical pain of the crucifixion? This is all very consistent with God’s other promise as recorded in 2 Chron. 20:15: “Be not afraid or dismayed by reason of this, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” Now if that’s not good news, then nothing is.
It’s not your fight!
It’s God’s fight, not mine? That takes a lot of the pressure, guilt, shame and condemnation off of me, whenever I’m still struggling too much in the fight. And the fight can be about almost anything, you name the sin. We’ve committed some sins so often that they’ve become habitual and even addictive. A sinful act that has become addictive is referred to in the faith community as a stronghold or besetting sin, something you cannot seem to stop doing. It seems that no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot resist the temptation. The reason? Because you’re trying to do it in your own power, instead of giving it to your higher power, God!
Don’t ever forget 2 Chron. 20:15, and just keep reminding yourself of God’s very personal promise, “Be not afraid or dismayed because of this, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” Those 12 step folks are right, “let go and let God!” That crucified criminal knew enough to do this. Do you? You cannot do it on your own, in your own strength, but He can! He, in you, can beat this thing, whatever it is. If you try to do it on your own, without His help, you’ll lose every time. The proof that He meant what He said, when He said that the battle was His, and not ours, is the fact that He went to the cross, not us! He took the fight all the way to the cross, for us, and there He defeated the enemy and death, once and for all. He loves us that much. I’m reminded of this love when I recall His words, “No greater love hath this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.” Jesus did just that, for the criminal on the cross next to Him, and He also did it for you and for me.
Again, that crucified, guilty criminal didn’t attend church every week and pay tithes and do all the other obedient things you might imagine a ‘deserving’ person would do, and yet Jesus reassured him, “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43 KJV) Why? Why that criminal? Was he really guilty, you might ask, or perhaps Jesus thought he was falsely accused, or somehow innocent on some other level? No! We know for a certainty from the scriptures that the criminal was, in fact, guilty. We know this because the criminal himself publicly admitted that he was guilty, as he was rebuking the other crucified criminal.
Jesus, remember me
Recall, Christ was crucified between two criminals, fulfilling the messianic prophecy recorded in Isaiah 53:12, “He was numbered with His transgressors.” Which one of these two criminals are you? The repentant criminal, or the scoffer, the unrepentant criminal? Recall, one of those transgressors was still unrepentant as he hung there on the cross next to Jesus, mocking the Savior by scoffing, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself – and us, too, while you’re at it!” The repentant criminal then rebuked the scoffing, unrepentant criminal, saying “Don’t you fear God even when you are dying? We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” (Luke 23:40 NLT) There’s the admission to his own guilt, which we soon learn didn’t keep him out of Heaven. But, then, the repentant criminal went further, by turning to Jesus and asking his Messiah, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” (Luke 23:42 NLT) There it was, the public acknowledgement by the repentant, though guilty criminal, that Jesus was who He had said He was, the Messiah; and, then came the criminal’s personal request for the Savior’s help.
We must all mimic the final words and actions of the repentant criminal, each and every one of us, if we want the same response and promise from the Savior, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43 NLT) That criminal was modeling for all of us. He knew and publicly proclaimed that Christ was the very King who would soon come into His Kingdom. He publicly acknowledged the Messiahship of Christ. His public display of repentance and his personal request of the Savior for salvation in eternity, was then rewarded by Jesus, who then gifted him with the promise of all promises, the gift of our assurance of salvation. Each and every one of us are longing in our hearts to hear the same promise of promises from Jesus. In order to receive that gift, we must simply do as the guilty criminal did in his final dying moments.
It’s just like Jesus, isn’t it
It’s just like Jesus, isn’t it, to choose a guilty criminal to speak to the self-righteousness in all of us. He chose a stable for His first moments of birth, and a borrowed tomb for His few moments of death; He chose an obscure 15 year old virgin girl to be his mother, and a humble young carpenter to be His earthly stepfather; He chose rag tag fishermen as disciples, and not religious leaders; He chose low life shepherds in that day to announce His own birth, not dignitaries; He chose women (who were not even allowed to testify in court back then), instead of men or notables, to announce His resurrection from the tomb; He chose recovering prostitutes and tax collectors to personify His examples of grace, mercy, forgiveness and redemption; He chose lepers and not the loveable, to demonstrate the kind of selfless love He expects all of us to share; and, therefore, is it any wonder that He chose a guilty criminal to teach us the very simple requirement for eternal salvation! He chose this same crucified criminal to demonstrate for each and every one of us, His amazing capacity for grace, forgiveness and redemption, for even the most undeserving among us.
The real “battle” – our thought life
The moment by moment “battle” that He’s talking about in 2 Chron. 20:15, I believe, begins with, and is often won or lost in, our ‘thought life.’ I’m reminded of Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Those criminals didn’t just happen to arrive metaphysically on those two crosses. They thought about something long enough and hard enough, before they did whatever they did to get there. Isn’t it true, that every act begins first with a thought? If we think about something long enough and often enough, we visualize ourselves doing it, and then it won’t be long before we’re actually doing the very thing we’ve been thinking about. Then, before too long, we will be there right alongside those two crucified criminals, and then the only thing left to wonder about, will be, “Which criminal will we be, the repentant criminal, or the scoffing criminal?” It only makes sense that if I see what I’m not supposed to see, and I hear what I’m not supposed to hear, and I say what I’m not supposed to say, I’m going to do what I’m not supposed to do. I overheard Gil Fernandez, now a prison inmate, counseling and teaching these same ‘thought life realities’ to the young son of a fellow prison inmate. We were all together in the visiting area of Florida’s “Union Correctional Institute,” the maximum-security prison known also as “Raiford” or “the Rock.” Gil was telling the inmate’s young son, “Every time I give in to the enemy, sin, he took me further than I wanted to go, he kept me longer than I wanted to stay, and I paid more than I wanted to pay.”
How do we stop coveting that sinful thought? O.S. Hawkins, the renowned preacher and my personal pastor and spiritual father in the faith, often went to lunch with me when I was first struggling in the faith. I was then worried that I couldn’t control my thought life and keep from sinning. He patiently counseled me with real life, relevant analogies which helped me to get a grip on my thought life. As an example, O.S. told me to imagine that my mind was like a motel, and as the manager, I had some control over who would get beyond the lobby. Though I couldn’t stop the prostitute from coming into the lobby, I didn’t have to give her a room. We cannot stop the thought (i.e. the prostitute) from coming into our mind (i.e. the lobby), but we don’t have to give it (her) a room, or allow it to rent space and take up residence in our head! That simple analogy over lunch back in 1991 helped me tremendously, and it still helps me today.
The farmer will reap from the harvest whatever crops he has grown, but the harvest depends first on which seeds the farmer earlier sowed. In much the same way, we too will reap the fruit of whatever deeds we’ve committed, growing out of what seeds we’ve planted and then watered in our mind. The seeds we plant or allow to be planted in our mind, will eventually take root and bear fruit, if we water them and attend to them too much! We’ve often heard the biblical saying, “a man reaps what he sows.” He says it even stronger in Proverbs 22:8, “He who sows iniquity in his heart will reap sorrow.”
Call my office if we can help in any way. May God bless you and your family.
