When You Realize that You’re the Villain

And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”  2 Chronicles 23:13

Most of us have an innate sense of justice – or at least our version of justice. When wronged, we cry out, That’s not fair, and we demand that justice be done. The criminal in jail is no different. He just often sees things differently. It’s not that he believes he’s done wrong and desires that wrong to be done. He doesn’t seek injustice. Rather, he often believes that he’s been unjustly incarcerated and he’s seeking his version of justice. It’s quite common to hear that an inmate is going to file a habeas corpus petition, which challenges the legality of his detention. Less than 3% of these petitions are successful, resulting in the release of an inmate, but that doesn’t stop most inmates from believing that they’re unjustly confined.

I’m not that different. When involved in some conflict, I almost always believe myself to be right and for the other party to be wrong. The other party, however, believes the same thing. When on opposite sides of an issue though, we can’t both be right. It’s incredibly difficult however, to be objective and admit fault, when it’s personal.

This seems to be what happened in today’s passage, which tells of the aftermath of King Ahaziah’s death. At the time of his death, Ahaziah’s son, Joash, was an infant, unable to take the throne. In this power vacuum, Ahaziah’s mother, Athaliah, assumed the throne and subsequently had all other possible claimants put to death. This would have included her own grandson, Joash, if someone hadn’t hidden him away. A few years later, when Joash was only seven, Jehoida the priest, led a rebellion that crowned him as the rightful king. When Athaliah learned of the coronation of Joash, she rushed in, crying, Treason! Treason! She appealed to the law, demanding justice. And justice is what she got, as she was put to death, for she was actually the villain in the story.

I doubt that Athaliah ever recognized that she was the bad guy, but she should have. I’ve been there. I’ve been in conflicts in which I’ve had no choice but to accept that I was the villain – the one who’d done wrong. It’s a terribly painful place to be, but if I have any hope of being right again, I must first admit my sin, confess it, and then repent, doing whatever it takes to turn around. If not, I’ll be like Athaliah, going to my grave, deluded into thinking that wrong is right.