Herein lies the problem with our small human minds: small thoughts on suffering are the result. I will not defend in this post mankind's technological progress nor it's scientific understanding of our world and the universe. The plain fact is that we just do not know everything. Blaise Pascal, the brilliant French mathematician and physicist, was quoted as saying, "Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, let us know a little bit about everything."
Dilemma, isn't it?
Fortuitously, mankind was given, as a gift, the answer. No, not as a scientific discovery or math equation, neither an excavation of an ancient civilization or newly created substance is the answer derived. The answer arrived apart from our doing, from the One who existed before time began.
For brevity's sake, the One is the Eternal, Triune God, three persons yet of one substance and not created. We owe our life to Him, whether we acknowledge or believe it to be true. "In him we live and move and have our being" reads Acts of the Apostles, chapter 17, verse 28, from the Sacred Scriptures, the Holy Bible.
"What is truth?" asked Pilate, ruler of Judea, responding to Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, not realizing that here in front of him stood the Truth . Relativism rules today, at least in our culture, and in our small minds. Yet, the Sovereign God rules over heaven and earth. Illusion rules otherwise.
Back to suffering...our view of the world determines how we understand suffering. Views vary, but the only one that makes sense, the one to which I return is God's revelation. He alone makes sense of suffering: a sin problem exists (God sets the boundaries - obey and flourish; disobey and die) and we, as mankind have rebelled against him. Suffering, as opposed to flourishing in life with God, is the end result.
It's our own doing, starting with Adam and Eve believing God was holding out on them, not giving them the best, rebelling, and continuing throughout history to today. The only way out of it, God says, is bloodshed, wrath and death. Because we could never give what God needs for the atoning of our sins, He provides the answer to our sin problem: He gives Himself.
The historical Jesus, the Christ, born to a virgin, living a sinless and righteous life (yes, he obeyed his earthly parents just as His Heavenly Father), suffering, being crucified and resurrected - God in the flesh. Fully human, fully God. How this can be is agreed upon through the centuries to be a mystery, yet God revealed this truth through His Word.
Even 500 to 600 years prior to Christ's crucifixion, the words of Isaiah (53:4-6) prophesied the brutal suffering of Christ and result for us.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.Again, for the sake of space, I'll cut to the end. Our sin and hostility to God were borne by Christ. He is the "he" and "him" in the quote from Isaiah above. Do you believe Christ atoned for your sins and there's nothing you can do to stay the wrath and judgment of God? If so, salvation, peace, eternal life and so much more are yours.
Suffering...unemployment, broken relationships with sisters and brothers, terminal disease, lifelong illness, unsaved family, homeless, abused...Christ suffered and He continues to suffer with us. Baffling. No other "god" makes this claim. In this context only is suffering and the ability to bear up under it made possible because the One who bore our sins continues to bear us, upholding us by His grace and mercy.
May you see with eyes of faith this Holy Week the One, the Christ, who alone takes away the sins of the world, and suffers today with His children.
-CFM
No comments:
Post a Comment