On Wednesday we gather again at 11:00am on the 11th day of the 11th month to remember those who have given their lives in the great wars and in many wars since. We remember the horror of the trenches, the war crimes, the holocaust, the release of atomic weapons and the suffering of the innocent. As the injustices in our world continue, we are tempted to shake our fist at heaven and wonder if God really cares about us at all? Here is a story to help you.
At the end of time billions of people were scattered on a great plain before God’s throne.
Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly – not with cringing shame, but with belligerence. ‘Can God judge us? How can he know about suffering?’ snapped a young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. ‘We endured terror… beatings… torture… death!’
In another group a young man lowered his collar. ‘What about this?’ he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. ‘Lynched… for no crime but being black!’
In another crowd, a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. ‘Why should I suffer?’ she murmured. ‘It wasn’t my fault.’
Far out across the plain there were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering in the world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.
So, each of these groups sent forth a leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a young black man, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the plain they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their complaint.
It was rather clever.
Before God could be qualified to be their judge, he must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a man. ‘Let him be born as a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a task so difficult even his family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let
him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by authorities too afraid to do the right thing. Let him be tortured. At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die. Let him die in a humiliating and painful way.
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the assembled throng. And when the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered another word. Nobody moved. For suddenly all knew that God had already served his sentence.
God’s answer to our suffering is Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son….” And his response to our present struggles is: ‘never will I leave you; never will I forsake you….’ He walks each mile with us, and suffers with us and he prepares for us a home with no more tears, or pain or death.
– Phil.
