With all the TV and internet buzz about Syria, many people are asking questions about whether we can stand by and watch innocent people suffer when we are in a position to do something about it. In today's post I'd like to discuss suffering and death generally, rather than talk about the rights and wrongs of military intervention, which I leave to wiser heads than mine.
First of all, let me say that suffering in all its forms is felt by God. He is not absent and aloof from His creation, as some would have us believe. The Lord grieves when He sees what sin has brought about in this world; He grieves when He sees people suffer. When He became a man, He felt suffering just as we do. Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus (John 11:32-36). He wept not only at the loss of His friend, but also at seeing Lazarus' sister weighed down by grief.
Similarly, He wept over Jerusalem when He arrived there on Palm Sunday, because He knew that in rejecting Him, her leaders were rejecting Peace (Shalom). He knew the day would come when the Romans would destroy the city, slaying and enslaving her inhabitants (Luke 19:41-44).
He suffered physical pain when He was scourged by the Romans and nailed to the Cross (Matthew 27:26-35). I'd like you, dear reader, to pause on this for a moment. Those of us who have had happy families and no problems with the law or criminals have little knowledge of what it is like to be physically and verbally abused in this fashion. While we may have experienced physical pain from accident, illness, or exertion, we do not know what it is like to be scourged in this way. It was a truly horrific event in Christ's life. Many did not survive this process - small wonder that He stumbled and could not carry His Cross all the way to Golgotha afterwards.
But terrible as this was, the worst was yet to come. On the Cross, Jesus, quoting David's words from Psalm 22, cried out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34.) Jesus, being sinless, could not and would not lie. He meant what He said; it was true. At that moment, God the Father turned His face away from God the Son.
He did this because God cannot look at sin and our sin Jesus took upon Himself. As Isaiah said, 'the LORD has laid on him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all' (Isaiah 53:6, NIV). This pain that Jesus felt none of us will truly understand, because we aren't God. We cannot know what it is like to eternally and perfectly love someone and then forsake them because they have accepted the punishment for sins incurred by others. But it is the beauty, the humility, and the glory of God that He did this for us, that He identified with us sinners who also cry out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'
Isaiah described Jesus as, 'a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief' (Isaiah 53:3, NKJV). This has to be one of the most touching, beautiful, and understated lines in the Bible. God knows personally and experientially what it is to watch someone suffer and what it is to be the one suffering.
So, where does this leave you, dear reader? Firstly, don't turn away from God. If you are experiencing sorrow, share it with Him. As the Apostle Peter said, 'casting all your care [sorrow/anxiety] upon Him, for He cares for you' (1 Peter 5:7, NKJV). Scream at Him, cry before Him, lean on Him; but don't turn away from Him: He wants to help you. Secondly, don't harden your heart. Jesus took into His soul the suffering of the world. If you would follow Him, you must do likewise. Pray for those who are in sorrow and let God lead you in this. As Paul said, 'weep with those who weep' (Romans 12:15, NKJV). Practically, there are steps you can take, and I would advise you to seek God's will in this. Just because the UK will not be involved militarily in Syria doesn't mean you can't bless the people of the Syria, wherever they may be.
God bless.
Saturday 31 August 2013
Wednesday 7 August 2013
Pairs
Today's post is about disorder; the title refers to pairing virtues with vices. Christians believe that when Lucifer/Satan and Adam 'fell', sin and disorder entered into God's creation, and that the creation was 'subjected to futility' until the time when Christ ushers in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
This point is important for both Christians and non-Christians. A classic example is sex. Christians are often charged with being prudish and hating sex. The proper Christian doctrine is that sex is good. God created Adam and Eve (that is, Man and Woman) to procreate by sexual means. He intended sex to be an expression of love and unity between a husband and his wife, and the children that come from it are the fruit of that love. The point of difficulty lies in misuse of sex. Such misuse is confusing to our emotions: on the one hand, attraction is a very natural thing and sex is an expression of love; on the other hand, since the Fall, we have become very disordered in our being. There are so many factors that influence our feelings and decision-making: culture, experience, conscience, logic, physical circumstances.
The reason this is important to both Christians and non-Christians is that it helps Christians to be mature and sensitive in how they make decisions and relate to other people. They realize that 'the Flesh' - the sinful disorder in our being - is drawing us in one direction, while the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, wants us to go in another direction.
For the non-Christian, this information is important in helping them to make an informed decision about Christianity. Many of us, myself included, before we became Christians, thought that becoming a Christian meant giving up many things without having anything to replace them; we thought that what it meant was a kind of emptiness. In reality, what Christ's life means is a kind of reordering and restoration of mankind and the universe. We must get away from the notion that the body is inherently evil, right from its creation. Rather, this body is sin-riddled and in need of discipline until its redemption. When the Saints are resurrected they will be given new, 'heavenly' bodies - they will not float around like Ghosts - but these bodies will be free of the sinful disorder that now characterizes human life.
For this reason, I think it can be useful to realize the links between virtues and vices. This is not a fool-proof system that covers all aspects of life, but I think it helps one to avoid extremes and the naivety of separating things that are actually related - vice is, in fact, often a distorted version of virtue.
Below is a short list of some examples. They are given to provoke thought, not as legalistic, binding ideas to be blindly accepted.
-Passion & Obsession
-Imagination & Fantasy
-Authority/Command & Manipulation/Control
-Love & Lust/Greed
-Self-control & Self-deprivation
The list could go on, and the difficulties of language make the task of reflection on these matters harder. People tend to have associations with words and images and they are often graded positively or negatively. To one person the word 'father' means a source of strength and comfort; to another, it means 'Victorian hypocrisy' and a troubled home.
As the ancient Greeks said, 'μηδεν αγαν' - 'nothing in excess'.
God bless.
This point is important for both Christians and non-Christians. A classic example is sex. Christians are often charged with being prudish and hating sex. The proper Christian doctrine is that sex is good. God created Adam and Eve (that is, Man and Woman) to procreate by sexual means. He intended sex to be an expression of love and unity between a husband and his wife, and the children that come from it are the fruit of that love. The point of difficulty lies in misuse of sex. Such misuse is confusing to our emotions: on the one hand, attraction is a very natural thing and sex is an expression of love; on the other hand, since the Fall, we have become very disordered in our being. There are so many factors that influence our feelings and decision-making: culture, experience, conscience, logic, physical circumstances.
The reason this is important to both Christians and non-Christians is that it helps Christians to be mature and sensitive in how they make decisions and relate to other people. They realize that 'the Flesh' - the sinful disorder in our being - is drawing us in one direction, while the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, wants us to go in another direction.
For the non-Christian, this information is important in helping them to make an informed decision about Christianity. Many of us, myself included, before we became Christians, thought that becoming a Christian meant giving up many things without having anything to replace them; we thought that what it meant was a kind of emptiness. In reality, what Christ's life means is a kind of reordering and restoration of mankind and the universe. We must get away from the notion that the body is inherently evil, right from its creation. Rather, this body is sin-riddled and in need of discipline until its redemption. When the Saints are resurrected they will be given new, 'heavenly' bodies - they will not float around like Ghosts - but these bodies will be free of the sinful disorder that now characterizes human life.
For this reason, I think it can be useful to realize the links between virtues and vices. This is not a fool-proof system that covers all aspects of life, but I think it helps one to avoid extremes and the naivety of separating things that are actually related - vice is, in fact, often a distorted version of virtue.
Below is a short list of some examples. They are given to provoke thought, not as legalistic, binding ideas to be blindly accepted.
-Passion & Obsession
-Imagination & Fantasy
-Authority/Command & Manipulation/Control
-Love & Lust/Greed
-Self-control & Self-deprivation
The list could go on, and the difficulties of language make the task of reflection on these matters harder. People tend to have associations with words and images and they are often graded positively or negatively. To one person the word 'father' means a source of strength and comfort; to another, it means 'Victorian hypocrisy' and a troubled home.
As the ancient Greeks said, 'μηδεν αγαν' - 'nothing in excess'.
God bless.
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