Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Radiation Retrospect - Part 3

Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God.  Mark 11:22(NLT)
Yesterday we considered the issue of collateral damage.  In the case of my radiation treatment, there is the fact that some healthy tissue was sacrificed as collateral damage.  This was necessary so as to make sure the doctor got the entire cancer tumor in my throat.  It’s a small price to pay in order to continue living.
We see Jesus’ version of this idea in Mark’s Gospel as he employs the collateral damage concept of sacrificing the physical body part (representing our natural desire to sin) in favor of the real target for humanity:  restored relationship with God for eternity:
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands.  Mark 9:43-44(NLT)
This makes perfect sense in many ways.
·       Diet – say “no” to the éclair; avoid all those despicable me thoughts later
·       Driving – there’s a bunny on the left and a human on the right; you choose to run over the bunny rather than the person
·       Your buddy wants you to play golf, but you’d miss your son’s birthday party…
We call it doing the right thing, this collateral damage stuff.  And it’s pretty easy to recognize, but there is always a cost.
My question this morning is:  Are WE in the crosshairs of God’s collateral damage
Is it ever a reality that God gets pushed into some cosmic corner with all that goes on, so that, in order to accomplish His divine will God must do harm to an innocent person, in order to bring about the most good for the largest number of people?  Does God ever employ the end justifies the means in His conduct of the universe?   
In order to answer that question you’ve got to make a decision about the character and ability of God as opposed to the character and worth of humans. 
If God is utilitarian – just the God who gets things done like a business person working the art of the deal – then collateral damage is just an acceptable cost of doing business.  A deeper question would then be:  how can a God who claims to know/love us infinitely, and care for us immeasurably, be so cold?  Is He a business man doing a deal, and some of us are just collateral damage?  Or is He the God who is love?
But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  1 John 4:8(NLT)
Sometimes, when it seems like you are the collateral damage in God’s plan to save someone else, the question of God’s love may come into view.  You begin to pit all the good stuff you’ve ever done against this unjust suffering you must go through.  And you begin to ask/whine the why me question…almost as a demand that God step up with a justification for not keeping up His end of the bargain.
Where was God when your marriage ended, or your child died?  Where was God when bankruptcy was the only option left?  Where was God when your world crashed-down around you?  Where was the loving God then?  That’s the question of the sufferer. 
And then that cross thing shows up again to answer our question:  Where was God
·       He was in the same place He was that Friday afternoon when His child died. 
·       He was in the same place when His bride left home. 
·       He was in the same place when His prodigals woke up in the far country’s pigpen, having spent their inheritance. 
His heart was busy being broken as the collateral damage for all our sinful choices. 

For You Today

If God really is love, and His Word really is true, then we are the target of that love…and you can never be collateral when you’re right in the center of the target!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!


[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth (own work)

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