The cross has always held offence to some who have not
embraced it. Typical objections hold it to be bloodthirsty, medieval or filled
with too much "Old Testament" wrath.These attitudes are often
contradictory though.
Imagine the situation. A small squad of soldiers are pinned
down in a small stone building. Shots are being exchanged with enemy troops
through the small Windows. There is no escape out the door at the moment
because it is currently in the sights of an enemy sniper. Reinforcements have
arrived, but there is no way out until they have pushed the enemy back.
Suddenly there is a clatter against the wall and floor. Someone has crept close
enough and thrown a hand grenade through the window. In a few seconds it will explode
in the confined space of the room. Immediately one of the soldiers throw
himself onto the grenade and it explodes beneath him. Maybe he is killed,
certainly he is seriously injured.
This particular story is fiction. But there have been
versions of it played out for real by soldiers from many nations in wars around
the world. If you search the archives, or even Google, there is probably a
soldier from your nation who has risked our given his life in a similar way.
How are they remembered our welcomed home? Do people talk about them as
abusers. Do they say "What a horrific person. How could they do that to
themselves?" Surely even those who are committed pacifists, or who just
don't believe in that particular war, would recognise the heroism of the soldier
in that action.
Suppose a scientist invented a machine to rid the world of
cancer. The only drawback was that it would put the cancer into the operator of
the machine. The scientist decides that there is no other way so he operates
the.machine. The rest of the world is freed from cancer but the scientist dies
as he receives every form of it himself.
This is a science fiction tale. But what would your reaction
be? Would you say "How selfish of that scientist?" You might ask if
the wasn't another way, but you wouldn't rail against him as if he was some
sort of a child abuser. Yet this is the objection some raise against God for
throwing himself onto the cross and for taking the cancer of sin upon himself
and suffering the results instead of us. They focus on God giving His son to
die and either miss the fact, or choose to ignore it, that the Father and the
Son are the same being (See John 10: 30-33 for example.). God did not pick
someone at random, nor did he have a separate, independent child (Remember that
Jesus had lived thirty three years on the earth. Just because he was a son
doesn't mean he was still a child.) just to be a sacrifice "to make
himself happy because he loves the sight of blood and pain" as some like
to mischaracterise him. He Himself became a human being so that he could "take
the bullet for us." The real offense of this is that it hits at our pride.
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