If you were not out this morning and you turned on your TV, you would probably see a bunch a shiny buildings, with a happy message of prosperity. Many of the most popular places today will tell you that God wants you to be happy, wealthy and healthy, and if you are not, then you fail. It’s the message that you will see on TV by and large and the basis of many of the most popular books, from the prayer of Jabez to the book by the best-selling author, featured on Oprah, of the book entitled The Secret. Purported to be “the secret” to making more money, losing weight, finding the love of your life, and achieving job success. In it’s essence it is Idolatry: in elevating gifts above the giver.
What is your greatest difficulty? It is not your spouse, your job, your government or any suffering that you may have. Your greatest problem is sin. It is the root of the problems in your marriage, being the employee God intends you to be, the citizen He intends you to be and the reason we suffer in this world. I am not saying that you committed a specific sin that caused your particular suffering, but it is the existence and problem of sin in this world that causes suffering. It is your personal sin, that is your greatest problem.
In our greatest of errors in life, we downplay our own sinfulness and the essential problem of sin. From self-help books, to self-will salvation, the problem is claimed to be bad thinking. This clouds our real need, for a Saviour, a Substitute, a sacrifice. The atonement for sin is the reason Jesus came into the world.
In our study of First Peter we have seen recently the commands of Submission to Government and in the workplace. We can so easily move to a works based moralism, taking our eyes off and our understanding away from the only one who helps us understand submission and the reason for obedience. Before he shows us how submission works itself out in other spheres of life, Peter here puts front and center, Christ, who shows us how to live but more importantly why we have life through submission even in the hardest of obedience, in pattern of suffering.
This concluding passage of 1 Peter 2 presents the suffering Messiah and reveals three aspects of His suffering: He was 1) Believers’ perfect standard for suffering, 2) their perfect substitute in suffering, and 3) became their perfect shepherd through suffering.
1) BELIEVERS’ PERFECT STANDARD FOR SUFFERING
1 Peter 2:21-23 [21]For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. [22]He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. [23]When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. (ESV)
Christians have been called to persecution and suffering, whether in society, the workplace or any other realm of life (2:20–21a). In all forms of suffering, we must look to Christ as our standard, their example. For Him, the path to glory was the path of suffering (Luke 24:25–26), and the pattern is the same for His followers.
-Do you see that v. 21 says that this is why we were called. This is why we are saved. This is one reason why the prosperity Gospel is a false one. It is a bait and switch. It is what Satan does. The lie is that sin will satisfy. The result, is that sin delivers greater pain and suffering.
-Why don’t we tell people that God is a cosmic Santa Clause that exists to make them happy, healthy and wealthy? It is the message that people think they want to hear. It is the message that will sell the most books and fill the greatest stadiums.
-Because those who are called unto salvation will encounter persecution and trials. When it happens, what do we say? When the greatest bait and switch in the universe is revealed, people are left without hope, without anything. The lie will not sustain at this point, but Christ will, so we proclaim Christ and Him crucified.
Peter’s phrase that Christ also suffered for you certainly recalls the reality of His efficacious, substitutionary, sin-bearing death—His redemptive suffering. His redemptive suffering as the one sacrifice for sin has no parallel in His followers’ sufferings. But there are features of His suffering that do provide an example for them to follow in their own sufferings.
-For instance, in a complete breach of justice and goodness, He was crucified as a criminal (Isa. 53:12; Matt. 27:38) even though He committed no crime (1:19; cf. Isa. 53:9; John 8:46; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26).
-He was perfectly sinless. Life in this world has always been filled with such unjust treatment of God’s faithful (cf. 2 Tim. 3:12). His execution demonstrates that one may be absolutely faithful to God’s will and still experience unjust suffering. So Christ’s attitude in His death on the cross provides believers with the ultimate example of how to respond to unmerited persecution and punishment (cf. Heb. 12:3–4).
That is clearly Peter’s point, because he adds the words leaving you an example. Believers will never suffer for others’ salvation, including their own. But they will suffer for Christ’s sake, and His example is their standard for a God-honoring response. The word translated example is hupogrammon, which literally means “writing under” and refers to a pattern placed under a sheet of tracing paper so the original images could be duplicated. In ancient times, children learning to write traced over the letters of the alphabet to facilitate their learning to write them. Christ is the example or pattern on which believers trace their lives. As a Child traces letters on a page, so the Christian traces the path of Christ.
In so doing, we are following in His steps. Ichnesin (steps) means “footprints” or “tracks.” For believers as for Him, the footprints through this world are often along paths of unjust suffering.
There can be confusion on the nature of this example. We are to be like Jesus, but this example is not the end but result of what Jesus did.
Quote: The Christian is able to sing the words of Charles H. Gabriel:
More like the Master I would ever be,
More of His meekness, more humility;
More zeal to labor, more courage to be true,
More consecration for work He bids me do.
In view of the suffering Christians were enduring (1:6–7; 2:20; 3:14, 17; 4:12–19; 5:9) and would yet endure, Peter wanted his readers to look closely at how their Lord responded to His suffering. Since Christ endured unequalled suffering when He went to the Cross, Peter, to set forth the example, focused on that event as the ultimate experience. The apostle Peter examined Jesus’ response to intense suffering through the prophetic words of Isaiah 53, the most significant Old Testament chapter on Messiah’s suffering.
Peter first borrowed from Isaiah 53:9 to describe Christ’s reaction to unjust treatment. The phrase in:
1 Peter 2:22b who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth is a close parallel to the prophet’s words in the second half of that verse,
Isaiah 53:9 [9]And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah used “violence” not in the sense of a single act of violence, but to signify sin, all of which is violence against God and His law. The prophet indicated that the Suffering Servant (the Christ to come) would never violate God’s law. The Septuagint translators understood this and used “lawlessness” rather than “violence” to translate the term. Peter chose the word sin because under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration he knew that was Isaiah’s meaning.
Peter further drew from Isaiah, affirming Christ’s sinlessness by declaring that there was no deceit found in His mouth. The heart of man expresses sin most easily and often through the mouth, as the prophet made clear even in documenting his own experience: “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5; cf. Matt. 15:18–19; Luke 6:45; James 1:26; 3:2–12). Jesus’ mouth could never utter anything sinful, since there was no sin in Him (Luke 23:41; John 8:46; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 1 John 3:5).
Deceit is from dolos, which here is used as a general term for sinful corruption.
Peter then describes Christ’s exemplary response to such unjust torture by saying that:
1 Peter 2:23a when he as reviled, He did not revile in return, again echoing the prediction of:
Isaiah 53:7 [7]He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
During the cruel hours preceding His actual crucifixion, Jesus suffered under repeated provocations from His accusers (Matt. 26:57–68; 27:11–14, 26–31; John 18:28–19:11). They tried to push Him to the breaking point with their severe mockery and physical torture but could not (Mark 14:65; Luke 22:63–65). He did not get angry at or retaliate against His accusers (Matt. 26:64; John 18:34–37).
Being reviled is a present participle (loidoroumenos) that means to use abusive, vile language over and over against someone, or “to pile abuse on someone.” It described an extremely harsh kind of verbal abuse that could be more aggravating than physical abuse. But Jesus patiently and humbly accepted all the verbal abuse hurled at Him (Matt. 26:59–63; 27:12–14; Luke 23:6–10) and did not return abuse to His tormentors. That He did not revile in return is all the more remarkable when one considers the just, righteous, powerful, and legitimate threats He could have issued in response (cf. Matt. 26:53). As the sovereign, omnipotent Son of God and the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Jesus could have blasted His cruel, unbelieving enemies into eternal hell with one word from His mouth (cf. Luke 12:5; Heb. 10:29–31). Eventually, those who never repented and believed in Him would be sent to hell; but for this time He endured with no retaliation—to set an example for believers.
When he suffered, he did not threaten; instead of giving back threats for the repeated, unjust abuse, He chose to accept the suffering and even ask His Father to forgive those who abused Him (Luke 23:34).
This is the crux of the message. This is the whole point in the ability that Jesus had and the ultimate message for us. Jesus drew the strength for that amazing response from His complete trust in His Father’s ultimate purpose to accomplish justice on His behalf, and against His hateful rejecters.
He continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. The verb for entrusting (paredidou) means “to commit,” or “hand over” and is in the imperfect tense signifying repeated past action. With each new wave of abuse, as it came again and again, Jesus was always “handing Himself over” to God for safekeeping. Luke records how that pattern continued until the very end:
Luke 23:46 [46]Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last. (ESV)
Undergirding Jesus’ peaceful, resolute acceptance of suffering was an unshakeable confidence in the perfectly righteous plan of Him who judges justly/righteously (cf. John 4:34; 15:10; 17:25). He is believers’ perfect example of submission, in suffering for righteousness’ sake and sets the standard for them to entrust themselves to God as their righteous Judge (cf. Job 36:3; Pss. 11:7; 31:1; 98:9; 119:172; Jer. 9:24).
Paul wrote:
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 [17]For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, [18]as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (ESV);
cf. Rom. 8:18; 2 Tim. 2:12; Heb. 2:10; James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:6–7)
The apostle suggests that the intense but comparatively trifling amount of suffering believers experience in this life will result in an infinitely greater weight (lit., a “heavy mass”) of glory in the life to come.
The WWJD craze of the 90’s originated with Charles M. Sheldon in 1896 with his widely successful book: “In His Steps: What would Jesus do”. In meaning well in alienating poverty we miss the greater need that Peter addresses.
Illustration: Jesus, as an example
D. M. Stearns was preaching in Philadelphia. At the close of the service a stranger came up to him and said, “I don’t like the way you spoke about the cross. I think that instead of emphasizing the death of Christ, it would be far better to preach Jesus, the teacher and example.”
Stearns replied, “If I presented Christ in that way, would you be willing to follow Him?” “I certainly would,” said the stranger without hesitation. “All right then,” said the preacher, “let’s take the first step. He did no sin. Can you claim that for yourself?”
The man looked confused and somewhat surprised. “Why, no,” he said. “I acknowledge that I do sin.”
Stearns replied, “Then your greatest need is to have a Savior, not an example!
(Galaxie Software: 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press, 2002; 2002)
Christ is 1) Believers’ perfect standard for suffering and
2) BELIEVERS’ PERFECT SUBSTITUTE IN SUFFERING
1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (ESV)
Peter then moves to the essential reality in the Lord’s suffering—His substitutionary death (Mark 10:45; Rom. 5:8; Eph. 5:2; cf. Heb. 2:17).
Quote: Problems of Christianity
Michael Ruse, professor of philosophy and zoology at the University of Guelph said: Some of the problems of Christianity strike me as being so blatantly rational-belief-destroying that there is almost a sense of farce in seeing its devotees trying to wriggle from under them. Chief among these is the problem of explaining how somebody’s death two thousand years ago can wash away my sins. When you combine this with the doctrine of the Trinity and the implication that the sacrificial lamb is God Himself (or Itself) and that this therefore makes things all right with this self-same God, the rational mind boggles.
(Michael Ruse, professor of philosophy and zoology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, who was raised a Quaker, in “From Belief to Unbelief and Halfway Back, Zygon, Vol 29, March 1994, p. 31)
Quote: Joe Wall said: One might ask, “How could one man pay the penalty of eternal condemnation for so many sins by so many people in just a few hours on the cross?” He could do it for two reasons. Jesus was infinitely valuable and could take the place of an infinite number of people. And because He was infinitely righteous, He could pay the penalty for an infinite number of sins. (Joe Wall, Going For The Gold, Moody, p. 29).
Paul, like Peter, placed supreme importance on Christ’s substitutionary atonement. To the Galatians he wrote:
Gal. 3:13 [13]Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"-- (ESV);
cf. 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18).
Peter explained Christ’s sacrifice in believers’ behalf with additional allusions to Isaiah’s familiar description of Messiah’s death (Isa. 53:4–5, 11). He Himself (hos … autos) is an emphatic personalization and stresses that the Son of God voluntarily and without coercion (John 10:15, 17–18) died as the only sufficient sacrifice for the sins of all who would ever believe (cf. John 1:29; 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:5–6; 4:10; Heb. 2:9, 17).
The very name Jesus indicated that He would “save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
Bore is from anapherô and means here to carry the massive, heavy weight of sin. That weight of sin is so heavy that Romans 8:22 says:
Romans 8:22
[22]For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (ESV).
Only Jesus could remove such a massive weight from the elect (cf. Heb. 9:28).
That Jesus bore believers’ sins means that He suffered the penalty for all the sins of all who would ever be forgiven. In receiving the wrath of God against sin, Christ endured not only death in His body on the cross (John 19:30–37), but the more horrific separation from the Father for a time (Matt. 27:46). Christ took the full punishment for saints’ sins, thus satisfying divine justice and freeing God to forgive those who repent and believe (Rom. 3:24–26; 4:3–8; 5:9; 1 Thess. 1:10).
Explicit in the pronoun our is the specific provision, the actual atonement on behalf of all who would ever believe. Christ’s death is efficacious only for the sins of those who believe, who are God’s chosen (cf. Matt. 1:21; 20:28; 26:28; John 10:11, 14–18, 24–29; Rev. 5:9).
Please turn to Romans 6
The result of Christ being our example and dying for us should mean something to us and result in a particular action. First Peter has always linked doctrine with practice that that is how God wants us to take what we learn from him. Doctrine without practice is cold dead orthodoxy, practice without doctrine is a pietistic guess, works without biblical faith, a work without a message or purpose.
When Christ died, He died so that believers:
1 Peter 2:24b might die to sin and live to righteousness. This is Peter’s way of saying what the apostle Paul says in Romans 6:3–11,
Romans 6:3-11 [3]Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4]We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. [5]For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6]We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. [7]For one who has died has been set free from sin. [8]Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9]We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. [10]For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. [11]So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (ESV)
Union with Christ in His death and resurrection does not change only believers’ standing before God (who declares them righteous, since their sins have been paid for and removed from them), but it also changes their nature—they are not only justified but sanctified, transformed from sinners into saints (2 Cor. 5:17; Titus 3:5; James 1:18).
Apogenomenoi (might die) is not the normal word for “die” and is used only here in the New Testament. It means “to be away from, depart, be missing, or cease existing.” Christ died for believers to separate them from sin’s penalty, so it can never condemn them.
The record of their sins, the indictment of guilt that had them headed for hell, was “nailed to the cross” (Col. 2:12–14).
Jesus paid their debt to God in full. In that sense, all Christians are freed from sin’s penalty. They are also delivered from its dominating power and made able to live to righteousness (cf. Rom. 6:16–22).
Peter describes this death to sin and becoming alive to righteousness as a healing: By his wounds you have been healed. This too is borrowed from the Old Testament prophet when he wrote:
Isaiah 53:5 [5]But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
Wounds is a better usage than “scourging” since the latter may give the impression that the beating of Jesus produced salvation. Both Isaiah and Peter meant the wounds of Jesus that were part of the execution process. Wounds is a general reference—a synonym for all the suffering that brought Him to death. And the healing here is spiritual, not physical. Neither Isaiah nor Peter intended physical healing as the result in these references to Christ’s sufferings. Physical healing for all who believe does result from Christ’s atoning work, but such healing awaits a future realization in the perfections of heaven. In resurrection glory, believers will experience no sickness, pain, suffering, or death (Rev. 21:1–4; 22:1–3).
Quote: One Hanging on a Tree
John Newton, 1725–1807 said:
In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopp’d my wild career:
I saw One hanging on a Tree
In agonies and blood,
Who fix’d His languid eyes on me.
As near His Cross I stood.
Sure never till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look:
It seem’d to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke:
My conscience felt and own’d the guilt,
And plunged me in despair:
I saw my sins His Blood had spilt,
And help’d to nail Him there.
Alas! I knew not what I did!
But now my tears are vain:
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!
A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou may’st live.”
Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.
With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,
My spirit now if fill’d,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I kill’d!
(Galaxie Software: 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press, 2002; 2002)
Christ is 1) Believers’ perfect standard for suffering 2) BELIEVERS’ PERFECT SUBSTITUTE IN SUFFERING AND
3) BELIEVERS’ PERFECT SHEPHERD THROUGH SUFFERING
1 Peter 2:25 [25]For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (ESV)
As he concluded this passage, Peter once more alluded to Isaiah 53:
Isaiah 53:6 [6]All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
If God had not determined that all believers’ sins should fall on Jesus, there would be no shepherd to bring God’s flock into the fold.
The phrase were (continually) straying like sheep describes by analogy the wayward, purposeless, dangerous, and helpless wandering of lost sinners, whom Jesus described as “sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). The verb rendered have now returned (epestraphçte) carries the connotation of repentance, a turning from sin and in faith a turning toward Jesus Christ. But Peter’s readers had trusted in Christ’s substitutionary death and turned to Him for salvation. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32, they had turned away from the misery of their former sinful life (cf. Eph. 2:1–7; 4:17–24; Col. 3:1–7; 1 Thess. 1:2–10) and received new life in Christ (cf. Eph. 5:15–21; Col. 3:8–17; 1 Thess. 2:13–14). All who are saved come under the perfect care, provision, and protection of the Shepherd and Overseer/Guardian of your souls.
The analogy of God as shepherd is a familiar and rich theme in Scripture (cf. 5:4; Ps. 23:1; Ezek. 34:23–24; 37:24). Jesus identified Himself as God when He took the divine title and named Himself the “good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14). Shepherd is an apt title for the Savior since it conveys His role as feeder, leader, protector, cleanser, and restorer of His flock.
And believers as sheep is defenseless (they have no natural defensive capabilities). When separated from the shepherd, they do not have the directional ability or sense to return. They must be sought out and physically returned by the shepherd.
The term Overseer/Guardian (episkopos) serves as a synonym, another term describing Jesus’ care for His flock. It also describes the responsibilities of the pastor or elder (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–9).
By His death and resurrection for His flock, the Lord has become the Shepherd and Overseer of their eternal souls. In suffering, He became their example, their substitute, and their shepherd.
Illustration: My Son Died, Don’t You Care
An Unknown author wrote this story:
The day is over, you are driving home. You tune in your radio. You hear a little blurb about a little village in India where some villagers have died suddenly, strangely, of a flu that has never been seen before.
It’s not influenza, but three or four fellows are dead, and it’s kind of interesting. They’re sending some doctors over there to investigate it. You don’t think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from church, you hear another radio spot. Only they say it’s not three villagers, it’s 30,000 villagers in the back hills of this particular area of India, and it’s on TV that night.
CNN runs a little blurb; people are heading there from the CDC disease center in Atlanta because this disease strain has never been seen before.
By Monday morning when you get up, it’s the lead story. For it’s not just India; it’s Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and before you know it, you’re hearing this story everywhere and they have coined it now as “the mystery flu.” Everyone is wondering, “How are we going to contain it?” That’s when the President of France makes an announcement that shocks Europe. He is closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or any of the countries where this thing has been seen.
That night you are watching a little bit of CNN before going to bed. Your jaw hits your chest, when a weeping woman is translated from a French news program into English: “There’s a man lying in a hospital in Paris dying of the mystery flu. It has come to Europe.”
Panic strikes.
As best they can tell, once you get it, you have it for a week and you don’t know it. Then you have four days of unbelievable symptoms. Then you die.
Britain closes it’s borders, but it’s too late. Southampton, Liverpool, Northhampton, and it’s Tuesday morning when the President of the United States makes the following announcement: “Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia have been canceled. If your loved ones are overseas, I’m sorry. They cannot come back until we find a cure for this thing. Within four days our nation has been plunged into an unbelievable fear.
People are selling little masks for your face. Some are talking about what if it comes to this country, and preachers on Tuesday are saying, “It’s the scourge of God.” It’s Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when somebody runs in from the parking lot and says, “Turn on a radio, turn on a radio.” While the church listens to a little transistor radio with a microphone stuck up to it, the announcement is made, “Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu.” Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country.
People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is working. California, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts. It’s as though it’s just sweeping in from the borders.
Then, all of a sudden the news comes out. The code has been broken. A cure can be found. A vaccine can be made. It’s going to take the blood of somebody who hasn’t been infected, and so, sure enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of emergency broadcasting, everyone is asked to do one simple thing: “Go to your downtown hospital and have your blood type taken. That’s all we ask of you. When you hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals.”
Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that Friday night, there is a long line, and they’ve got nurses and doctors coming out and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it.
Your spouse and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and they say, “Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be dismissed and go home.”
You stand around scared with your neighbors, wondering what in the world is going on, and that this is the end of the world. Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He’s yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your son tugs on your jacket and says with a grin, “Daddy, that’s me.”
Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy. “Wait a minute, hold it!” And they say, “It’s okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want to make sure he doesn’t have the disease. We think he has got the right type.”
Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying and hugging one another - some are even laughing. It’s the first time you have seen anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and says, “Thank you, sir. Your son’s blood type is perfect. It’s clean, it is pure, and we can make the vaccine.”
As the word begins to spread all across that parking lot full of folks, people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying. But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and your wife aside and says, “May we see you for a moment?
We didn’t realize that the donor would be a minor and we need . . . we need you to sign a consent form.”
You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken is empty. “H-h-h-how many pints?,” you ask. And that is when the old doctor’s smile fades and he says, “We had no idea it would be a little child. We weren’t prepared. We need it all!”
“But -but...” “You don’t understand. We are talking about the world here. Please sign. We - we need it all -we need it all!”
“But can’t you give him a transfusion?”
“If we had clean blood we would. Can you sign? Would you sign?”
In numb silence you do. Then they say, “Would you like to have a moment with your son?” You go into that room where he sits on a table saying, “Daddy? Mommy? What’s going on?”
Can you take his hands and say, “Son, we love you, and we would never ever let anything happen to you that didn’t just have to be. Do you understand that?”
When that old doctor comes back in and says, “I’m sorry, we’ve -we’ve got to get started. People all over the world are dying.” Can you leave? Can you walk out while he is saying, “Dad? Mom? Why - why have you forsaken me?”
And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honor your son, some folks sleep through it, and some folks don’t even come because they go to the lake, and some folks come with a pretentious attitude.
“MY SON DIED! DON’T YOU CARE?”
Is that what God may be saying? “MY SON DIED. DON’T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?”
“Father, seeing it from your eyes breaks our hearts. Maybe now we can begin to comprehend the great love you have for us. Amen “
(Galaxie Software: 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press, 2002; 2002)
