the narrow path

My friend bob blogged recently to answer the indictment that Christian people are simply looking for a "crutch" from their faith. Read it here.

I think his entry says it well. The more I read the gospels, the more i see that Jesus is not offering some sweet, consoling religion. He promises hardship and suffering for those who follow him. He promises that we will encounter the same kinds of obstacles that he did because we follow him. He tells us not be surprised if there are literal and figurative "crosses" in our own futures. He talks about having to break ranks with family and turn away from loved ones for the sake of following him.

Is there consolation in that? Actually there is, in an ultimate sense, that by clinging to him we will find something deeper and more lasting (though also harder) than anything this world can give. But it's not the mind-numbing "opiate" that some have talked about... those people have probably never read the words of Jesus.

So i put the question to all of you whether you are a Christ-follower or not, is your picture of this pilgrimage reflective of the actual words of Christ? To find out go ahead and read the book of Mark or Luke, see if it jives with the life you're living.

Theodicy

That is the theological/philosophical name given to what is called the "problem of evil." The old argument goes, "if God is all-powerful and all-loving then how can He allow evil?" I can't claim that this post will answer that age old question, but maybe i can reframe it.

Someone stuffed a copy of Biblical Archaeology Review in my office inbox and i saw a page tabbed over with an article about four Biblical Archaeolgists, two who had lost their faith and two who had not. After reading the article I wasn't convinced that any of them had a very substantial faith, still it was a very interesting read. It showed the inner workings of four brilliant minds and why they had problems with God. On the surface they all struggled with what they saw as light inconsistencies in the Bible, if taken in a strictly literal fashion. But those who had "lost faith" hadn't done so because the archaeological evidence spoke too loudly against the Biblical narrative. Instead, it was because they lost faith in the goodness of God.

I'm not sure why we pose the "theodicy" question as if it's an issue with God's character or his sovereignty. It seems that when we do that we ignore the most important issue in all of this. Namely, that God has chosen to enter into a relationship with broken humans. Being all loving and all powerful isn't a problem for God. The problem is that he's got to apply those attributes to flawed people like us and not crush us in the process.

Instead of God's love and power perhaps we should be talking about God's mercy and justice. Love and power assume God in isolation, mercy and justice (IMO) better take into consideration the fact that God has chosen to bind himself to broken people like us. And because of that reason, God now chooses to be mindful of us. In a strange sense, he is no longer free to act as he would if he were the only being in the universe (think of someone who is a bachelor, he is free to do whatever he pleases), because he's CHOSEN to wed himself to us. He now has to consider us (by an act of his own choosing).

And now as God deals with us he's driven by two different values, the first is a value for justice. When God sees the world and its evil it makes him outraged. When he sees children dying of disease it breaks his heart. When he sees people victimizing the weak and the helpless I'm sure it makes him want to come down and wipe us all out because he is JUST. Sometimes God will act according to his justice. The bible and human experience are clear that sometimes God does impart justice on those who are wicked. And the Bible teaches that God's Son, Jesus, will come again in judgment. Why will Jesus come to judge? Because God WILL NOT let evil go on forever, he is too just AND too loving to allow this defunct, broken, and sick world to go on like this forever. And that's why he says that this world is passing away, it needs to, it's totally corrupted.

But there is a complimentary part of God that is merciful. He won't annihilate evil because that would mean annihilating US. Maybe part of our problem is that we perceive evil as only a "force" out there in the world. But evil isn't as impersonal as all that, evil is really US.

Cars generally don't kill people in accidents...bad, distracted, or drunk drivers do (or auto-companies who do shoddy work in the attempt to maximize profits do). Diseases kill people-sure, but often humans are complicit in the start and the spread of disease. Not only that but humans (like those of us from the American brand) sit idly by in self-serving apathy while we could be doing things to stop disease. Maybe not every act of tragedy or evil has a direct human connection (some natural disasters, for instance), but a lot of them do. And the reason that God tolerates evil is because if he obliterated it, it would have to mean an end to us as well since we are evil to our core and most often the agents of evil in this world. Not a flattering picture, i know but it is TRUE.

But God has chosen to love us and be patient with us, in short he's chosen to be merciful as he interacts with us, wanting none of us to perish but come to eternal life. And yet he is just and he longs to re-create this world to be the place he created it to be in the first place. I don't know if this makes sense to you but when I look at these two together it makes the problem of evil less of a problem. Not only that, when i think about these things it highlights for me how Jesus, the Christ is really the healer of our broken and miserable human condition and the bridge where God's seemingly irreconcilable Mercy and Justice find their meeting place... all for our benefit.

why it had to be a cross

Thank God for the brilliant minds of the people in His Church. In sharing a message the other day on sexuality, a guy came up to me afterward and said, "you've answered a question for me that i've always struggled with" ...I was afraid of what he was going to say, given the topic of the weekend.

But then he said this, "i've always wondered, if God can do anything, why did he choose to send Jesus to a cross to die in order to reconcile us?"

I admit i've had that question too. I've heard a lot of answers given about why Jesus had to be a man, why he had to be the sacrifice, why it had to be on passover, etc. But all of this stuff makes it sound like the whole Bible is the nothing but an extravagant process of God painting himself into a corner and then thinking, "uh-oh how am i gonna get out of this one? oh, i know, i'll send my son!" That's always been weird for me. I don't think Jesus had to go to the cross and i don't think God had to send him, not in the way we often think about it at least because God is God he plays by his own rules. Besides all of the Old Testament sacrificial stuff, all the commandments, all of the standards that God sets and we fall short of, all of that stuff flows out of what Christ WOULD be/do rather than dictating what he had to do.... he's the thesis statement, they are the supporting points.

So at this point in the conversation, i'm riveted, because i didn't recall saying anything that would help answer this age-old question. And after a long and dramatic pause [maybe this guy should start speaking on weekends!] the man finished his statement, "God chose to go that way to show us what love really looks like."

I agree completely. God could've waved his hand and forgiven our sins, but that would not have let us see how serious God is about his love for us. It wouldn't let us see how destructive our sins are to our relationship with him. And it wouldn't give US the example of what real love looks like.

Real love is sacrifice, pouring yourself out for the sake of another, laying down your life. The cross is not the answer to some math problem that God struggled with for centuries, it's the stuff of Shakespeare or great poetry. It's a stunning display of God's over-the-top love that he had been building up to for centuries. It's also a very specific measuring-stick for any of us who desire to be lovers.

please, the next time you see a cross, don't think about all the intricacies of the atonement, not first at least. First, please think about how much God must love us to do something so cruel, yet beautiful.