Who Do You Say HE Is?
Read: Mark 8:27-30, John 11:35
The big question that we were constantly asked in seminary was, “Who do You Say HE (Jesus) Is?” During my Senior year I was even required to write a 15 page paper that answered this question. No I have not inserted my paper as this day's devotion, but this John text was the text that most radically changed and formed my understanding of Jesus.
When I read this text for the first time, I was not in a Bible class nor was I in a worship service. But instead, I was searching – searching for difficult answers. You see, for two years I served as a chaplain at Dayton's Children's Medical Center. As you can imagined I was exposed to many children with various degrees of trauma in their lives; from broken arms to AIDS, premature births to cancer, colds to sexual abuse, Shaken Baby Syndrome to SIDS.
During my first case at the hospital emergency room, a mother asked me, “How can God be so uncaring? How could God allow this to happen to my child? Why did my child have to die?” I do not remember exactly how I answered these questions that first night, but they lead me on a search. I needed to discover what the Bible said about such issues, and how Jesus responded to such situations. This is when I found the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.”
When I read these words, it was as if Jesus was made “real” to me for the first time. John described a Jesus that was compassionate, loving, caring, and genuinely affected by others. After I read about this account where Jesus cried, I had a better understanding of who Jesus is, which enabled me to better answer parents' questions. I could never make everything all better nor could I explain things that only God knew the answers to; but I could tell them that I knew that God did not cause bad things to happen to their beautiful children, and that Jesus was weeping because of their loss. I was amazed at the powerful impact that these words had on people and on myself.
And these are powerful words for us all to hear and to take to heart. We all live in a world where bad things happen to really good people all the time. But we must never feel that God is punishing us or that God purposely makes evil things happen in our lives. In fact, I believe that when we hurt, God hurts and even cries with us. The good news is that out of all evil – no matter how evil – God is always able to bring good things. And is always there to love us.
Gracious God, Thank you for sending us Jesus, God in flesh. Open our hearts and our eyes when we are in crisis situations, so that we may feel your love and support. You are a great God and we thank you for never leaving us alone. Amen
Rev. Mary McInnes
No comments:
Post a Comment