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A Christian
Thought for the Month - August 2014
Thoughts for believers & seekers
Thought for the Month -
Sacrifice
John 11:50 “You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
This month, on the evening of the 4th to be precise, the nation remembered the outbreak of World War One. It was not a celebration because you do not celebrate the outbreak of a period of unmitigated horror but you can remember it. My favourite quote worries me in this context. It is, “the one thing history teaches us is that history teaches us nothing.” There have been some rumblings in the papers that the period running up to 1914 had a lot of similarities to our present day. I hope not.
The remembrance times been held so far appear to be slightly awkward. It appears there is this slight awkwardness over how to deal with it appropriately. The Royal British Legion produced a good leaflet outlining the events of a hundred years ago to accompany their “Every Man Remembered” campaign. I have been reading Max Hastings’ book “Catastrophe - Europe Goes to War 1914” to try to remedy my ignorance of history. As a Christian I try to be a realist because we are called to face the truth. I struggle with what the truth was with both that war and all subsequent wars. I worry about the emotional hype that goes with warmongering that justifies going to war. I’m not sure our troops in recent conflicts are heroes in the traditional sense because there are big question marks over the validity of the various conflicts we have been involved with over the past twenty years.
How history will view them in a hundred years time might be very different from how some of us view them today. Long term history can afford an honesty that close up history often denies. But calling them heroes is how we cope with the awfulness of their deaths or their injuries or their post traumatic stress syndrome! They gave their lives because their country told them to - just like a hundred years ago. I believe the titles of Max Hastings recent books - ‘Catastrophe’ and ‘All Hell Let Lose” present a realism of what happened in World War 1 and World War 2 respectively, ‘Private Ryan’ tried to do the same.
I find certain Christian doctrines staggeringly accurate, particularly that one about ‘Sin’. It’s not a word that is used in common parlance but it means self-centred godlessness that leads to unrighteousness, and ‘unrighteousness’ refers to all wrong behaviour. Having recently finished “All Hell Let Loose” and having got about a quarter of the way through “Catastrophe” I believe both of them reveal the frightening reality of that thing called ‘Sin’ in the most incredible ways. With the former one the human race is stripped of any pretence at being noble; the vast majority of what went on - by whoever - was not noble. It might have been expedient on some sides, but it was not noble. It may have started as noble in the minds of those going to defend their country, but what followed often was not. There was heroism and bravery beyond our understanding but so often, if the accounts are half true, killing was rarely noble.
Which brings me to the words of our Bible quote at the top of this article. They were spoken about Jesus Christ and what is terrible about them is that they were spoken by the high priest, the top religious man of Israel at the time, a politically powerful and astute player in the affairs of the day. The quote comes in a conversation held in the ruling council and someone has just said about Jesus, “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
The high priest’s response was concerned with political expediency not with guilt or innocence. In the political world truth is so often the first casualty, and thereafter anything goes, it seems. But it only takes a few powerful people to lead millions of others into the grave, whether it be warlords of Austria-Hungry, or of Germany, or Russia, a hundred years ago, or a man named Adolf Hitler and his warlords seventy five years ago. It requires incredible wisdom to know whether to hold back or step up to the mark, and most of us are glad we didn’t have to make those decisions. On both occasions the option for holding back did not seem viable and a gigantic catastrophe took place a hundred years ago as far as the human race was concerned, and all hell broke loose seventy five years ago - because it seemed expedient.
You’re not sure about that word ‘expedient’? It means “suitable for the end in view, bringing particular (often selfish or material|) advantage, but one which is not right or just.” Isaac Azimov had one of his characters utter a dictum of his, “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." When you look behind the causes of the First World War it is awkward because so many of the players had dubious reasons for wanting to go to war. Violence was their way, as they saw it, of achieving their ends. That was also true of Hitler and thus on both occasions we felt we had no option but to go to war, and hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, died. In World War One we stepped up to the mark to protect Belgium’s neutrality and subsequently France and to stand alongside Russia. Just twenty one years later we entered the fray again for vaguely similar reasons, but what went on after that was not noble,
When the high priest had Jesus Christ crucified it was not noble; it was expedient as he saw it. God knew it would happen and in the bigger scheme of things it turned out that it was His way of allowing His Son to die in our place, to satisfy justice.
From a distance historians can apportion blame because, as we said, long term history can afford an honesty that close up history often denies. The closer we get to today, the more difficult it is for us to be honest about the causes of our actions and we present excuses to cover questionable behaviour. It is true of wars and it is true of our own individual behaviour, and that was why Jesus Christ had to die, not to keep the Romans off the backs of the Jews but to give us hope by taking our punishment.. We’re free today because men and women fought in the two wars. It was a sacrifice and that’s why we remember them. It’s also why Christians are told to take Communion, the Last Supper or whatever else you prefer to call it, to remember Jesus making the ultimate sacrifice for each one of us. For all these things, it’s a time to be grateful.
John 11:50 “You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
This month, on the evening of the 4th to be precise, the nation remembered the outbreak of World War One. It was not a celebration because you do not celebrate the outbreak of a period of unmitigated horror but you can remember it. My favourite quote worries me in this context. It is, “the one thing history teaches us is that history teaches us nothing.” There have been some rumblings in the papers that the period running up to 1914 had a lot of similarities to our present day. I hope not.
The remembrance times been held so far appear to be slightly awkward. It appears there is this slight awkwardness over how to deal with it appropriately. The Royal British Legion produced a good leaflet outlining the events of a hundred years ago to accompany their “Every Man Remembered” campaign. I have been reading Max Hastings’ book “Catastrophe -
How history will view them in a hundred years time might be very different from how some of us view them today. Long term history can afford an honesty that close up history often denies. But calling them heroes is how we cope with the awfulness of their deaths or their injuries or their post traumatic stress syndrome! They gave their lives because their country told them to -
I find certain Christian doctrines staggeringly accurate, particularly that one about ‘Sin’. It’s not a word that is used in common parlance but it means self-
Which brings me to the words of our Bible quote at the top of this article. They were spoken about Jesus Christ and what is terrible about them is that they were spoken by the high priest, the top religious man of Israel at the time, a politically powerful and astute player in the affairs of the day. The quote comes in a conversation held in the ruling council and someone has just said about Jesus, “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
The high priest’s response was concerned with political expediency not with guilt or innocence. In the political world truth is so often the first casualty, and thereafter anything goes, it seems. But it only takes a few powerful people to lead millions of others into the grave, whether it be warlords of Austria-
You’re not sure about that word ‘expedient’? It means “suitable for the end in view, bringing particular (often selfish or material|) advantage, but one which is not right or just.” Isaac Azimov had one of his characters utter a dictum of his, “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." When you look behind the causes of the First World War it is awkward because so many of the players had dubious reasons for wanting to go to war. Violence was their way, as they saw it, of achieving their ends. That was also true of Hitler and thus on both occasions we felt we had no option but to go to war, and hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, died. In World War One we stepped up to the mark to protect Belgium’s neutrality and subsequently France and to stand alongside Russia. Just twenty one years later we entered the fray again for vaguely similar reasons, but what went on after that was not noble,
When the high priest had Jesus Christ crucified it was not noble; it was expedient as he saw it. God knew it would happen and in the bigger scheme of things it turned out that it was His way of allowing His Son to die in our place, to satisfy justice.
From a distance historians can apportion blame because, as we said, long term history can afford an honesty that close up history often denies. The closer we get to today, the more difficult it is for us to be honest about the causes of our actions and we present excuses to cover questionable behaviour. It is true of wars and it is true of our own individual behaviour, and that was why Jesus Christ had to die, not to keep the Romans off the backs of the Jews but to give us hope by taking our punishment.. We’re free today because men and women fought in the two wars. It was a sacrifice and that’s why we remember them. It’s also why Christians are told to take Communion, the Last Supper or whatever else you prefer to call it, to remember Jesus making the ultimate sacrifice for each one of us. For all these things, it’s a time to be grateful.