The pain of our human condition is all around us. It is next to impossible to turn on a television and not see someone, some culture, some country struggling under severe oppression or pain. In all of this suffering you may be asking the question where is God? You may even be asking God, “Where are you in my suffering?”
I think we long for a world where justice and fairness prevail; a world where children are spared the horrors of war, starvation, death, divorce, dissertation and illness. We long for peace and harmony. Unfortunately, we live under a worlds system whose primary concern is its’ own preservation. Preserving the system is paramount to preserving people. The Bible calls this system of selfish preservation “sin”. Sin does not care about fairness or justice. Sin has no interest in the highest standards, the moral path, and sacrifice for the common good. Self only has one goal, to preserve itself at all costs.
The pain that is part of the human condition is a direct result of this driving desire for self preservation. Our world gives token assent to the issues of justice, human rights, and ecology, all of which can be sacrificed in a moments notice if they were to interfere with our personal peace and affluence, and if we thought we could get away with it.
Into this world of deteriorating values came Jesus the Christ. The Christian account of his life says he was sinless. That means he never thought or behaved from a position of self interest. He only acted from a position of love and obedience to His father. Jesus came into this world to redeem humanity from its self. He came to bring order to the chaos. He came to be with us in our pain, to transform our pain for his good. He did this by accepting our sin, our selfishness and the pain we experience living in a narcissistic world, as his own. He then accepted our pain and crucified it (killed it,made it of no consequence) in his body when he died on the cross.
Then, three days later he raised himself from the dead and boldly proclaimed to the world that death is not the end, and pain is not the final condition of humanity.
And now he invites you to join him in this great mission of restoring our earth and the inhabitants in it. He asks to be invited in to our pain so he can transform it. He asks to be invited in to our death so he can defeat it. He asks to be invited into our selfishness so he can impregnate it with his love and there by redeem all of humanity.
He asks…and continues to ask each generation, if we will be the ones to let HIM make a difference in the world, through them.
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