Saturday, January 22, 2011

HE HUMBLED HIMSELF

By Kwaku Gyamfi


              Charles Templeton, a beloved friend of Billy Graham, who abandoned his faith wrestling with doubt, skepticism and uncertainty at questions that objected the Christian faith asked: “Why is Jesus the only way to God? And, how could a loving God exist if there is evil and suffering in the world?” If we venture further, I believe we can find ourselves either to have asked a similar question or have had the opportunity to hear or read of one been asked. A man who lost his son to Cancer held his fist to the heavens in agony, with a grin of hatred toward God yelling, “Where was God when my son suffered and died? Where was He?” On one of the darkest days in American history, I found most Americans asking, “Where was God when terrorist regime flew planes into the towers on September 11, 2001? Similar question have been asked concerning the Jews, “Why did God allow six million Jews to die in the Holocaust?” Is there a God and if so, does He care?   
            These questions resonates with each one of us. However, the reading on the doctrine of God by Alister McGrath, I believe shed some light on the subject as he speaks concerning “a suffering God.” It made me wonder: does God suffer? Does He understand what it means to be weak, poor, destitute and hungry? Does the pain of Cancer, AIDS, and the like touch Him in His soul as it does us? On the subject of the crucified God, Jurgen Moltmann said it so well:
A God who cannot suffer is poorer than any human. For a God who is incapable of suffering is a being who cannot be involved. Suffering and injustice do not affect him. And because he is so completely insensitive, he cannot be affected or shaken by anything. He cannot weep, for he has no tears. But the one who cannot suffer cannot love either. So he is also a loveless being. [1]
Moltmann, I believe nails the subject right on the dot. When I ponder on the subject of association, my mind goes back to Paul’s letter to the Philippians on the humility of Christ. “And being found in a fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8 emphasis mine). Jesus, God incarnate, descended to the hole of the human condition and took upon Himself the form of a servant meaning His glory, majesty, power, fame and wealth were all compromised. He literally stripped off Himself His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience and became limited and finite. In coming down, He bypassed the castles, mansions, and houses and came to a barn. He was wrapped in milk rugs and laid in a manger. Until He poured out of Himself and took the form of a servant, when we prayed telling Him we were tired and needed sleep, He didn’t feel it—for God has never known fatigue and exhaustion—He never sleeps nor slumbers. When we told Him that we are tempted, He wasn’t touched. He just didn’t understand by experience. But when He became a man and was tested above and beyond even to death on the cross, now He could identify with us—now we could have better conversations. Because He humbled Himself, now He knew what it meant to loose a love one, be tired, hungry, sick, homeless, hated, mocked at, and betrayed. And that’s why he’s a better mediator because He Himself has endured those trials and know by experience how it feels. So when someone asked where is God in all of this? I tell them, “He’s right there in the midst of it.” He has never left nor forsaken us, and by His wisdom what the enemy meant for our demise, He'll use it to bring glory to His name as He ushers us into victory. We have hope, all because He became one of us by humbling Himself.    

            [1] McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology: An Introduction. 5th ed. (UK: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2011), 206.

No comments:

Post a Comment