Tuesday, September
19, 2017
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!
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