The Lenten Journey Day 42

Today’s essay comes from preacher and activist Dale Aukerman. He takes the suffering of Christ to mean that Christ suffers with every human being, specifically those victims of nuclear warfare. Aukerman attempts to build the case for recognizing that when bombs are dropped that Jesus should be seen as one of the casualties. I am not totally convinced that his equation of an unjust crucifixion with the dropping of the atom bomb is completely accurate, but it is thought provoking and pointed.

One point that Aukerman makes that I find intriguing and informing comes back to the incarnation. He says that God “narrowed himself down into Jesus.” He is talking, of course, about the earthly form of Jesus who in reality has always existed. The narrowing down is the coming to earth. But paired with Christ’s divinity is his humanity. Aukerman says, “He was formed that our vision might rest not only on this focal expression of the invisible God but also on this singular image of the neighbors we have been too nearsighted to see and of the myriad of human beings we have no sight to see.” We speak, and rightly so, of seeking Christ but we think of that usually in terms of the divinity. But He calls us to seek Him and His kingdom which has and will always include people. When we fail to see the people suffering, mistreated, and alone we also fail to see Christ. Let us seek Him.

The Lenten Journey Day 41

Today’s reading is a combined effort of writings from Christian reformer Toyohiko Kagawa and missionary from India named Sadhu Sundar Singh. Both write about the blood of Jesus. Kagawa from the comparative perspective of blood’s restorative work in the human body and the restorative work of Christ’s blood shed on the cross. Singh speaks more directly about the spiritual blood and it’s complete work not just in the forgiveness of sins, but the restoration of the full, righteous life for which we were intended.

I’ve always been a bit squeamish about talking about the blood of Jesus. I am turned off by horror movies and sensationalized tales of the blood rituals and sacrificial ceremonies. When I accepted Christ, had I had to be a part of anything with real blood present I am quite sure that I would not have participated in the least.

Christ’s blood was really given, his earthly life was brought to an abrupt and excruciating end. The purpose in His pain was to unleash His love to all humanity and as both writers say to offer redemption for what is lost. So, the invitation is not to a bloody ceremony but a surrender to love unleashed and life given. This cannot be fully accepted in a stroll down the sanctuary aisle. It is a lifetime walk out of sin into life. As Sing writes, “Indeed, he came to us for this very purpose.”

The Lenten Journey Day 40

In his essay, Brennan Manning, sets out to illustrate the “great affection” of Jesus. He does so in three forms. The first is a relayed story of an old man by the Ganges river. The second is a personal experience that Manning had with an Amish family in the Mid-1980s. The final picture is from a play written by an East German pastor entitled The Sign of Jonah. Each one is a compelling picture of love coming from the source of Jesus not out of obligation but out His nature.

For whatever reason I am drawn to the first picture, the old man at the Ganges river. The old man sees a scorpion floating by helplessly in the river. He attempts to rescue the creature and is fiercely bitten twice with the second causing swelling in his hand and a great deal of pain. A passerby chides the old man for attempting to save something that is not only ungrateful but is inflicting suffering upon the man trying to save it. The old man responds, “My friend, just because it is the scorpion’s nature to sting, that does not change my nature to save.”

The correlation between this simple story and the story of Christ on the cross is perhaps predictable and maybe trite on some level. But the scorpions nature to sting reminds me of my human propensity to hurt even that which helps me the most. Thanks be to God that His nature to save is not effected by my nature to sting. We are saved by His affection, His nature.

The Lenten Journey Day 39

In today’s essay John Stott succinctly points out the struggle with the cross. Stott states simply that our human problem with Christ on the cross is our human pride. Stott gets at the heart with where our pride really comes in to play. It is not that we would deny our own sin, it is that we would deny that it required and received the sacrifice of God as atonement. From Stott’s own words,

“We cannot stand the humiliation of acknowledging our bankruptcy and allowing somebody else to pay for us. The notion that this somebody else should be God himself is just too much to take. We would rather perish than repent, rather lose ourselves than humble ourselves.”

A lot is said and made about our human tendency to categorize sin. It is Biblically true that different sins carry different consequences and it is also Biblically true that any and all sin separate us from God. What is overarchingly true is that Christ is the only remedy for any and all sin. I end with where Stott begins his essay, “The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.”

The Lenten Journey Day 38

The distance that Simon Weil speaks of in his essay with the same title is the expansive gap between humanity and God. Weil answers that the gap is filled by God’s initiating love that He has created and that He supplies. That love is seen most clearly in the disturbing suffering of the cross.

Weil contributes to the Lenten conversation by emphasizing some already observed themes. It is the theme of how Christ’s suffering informs our own suffering, the necessity of the cross, and the depth of evil that has been overcome. What Weil brings out so brilliantly is the breadth of love, to quote the hymn, “it reaches to the highest mountain, it flows to the lowest valley.” Weil sums it up with this, “It is thus the soul, starting from the opposite end, makes the same journey that God made toward it. And that is the cross” What a blessed reassurance that God, possessor and creator of supreme love, brought that love to us. Choosing not to hoard His love and make us come get it, but to bring His love toward us in its fullest extent. To quote another hymn, “O, love that will not let me go.”