“He's a man”

Today I'm going to begin by telling a story. It's something I read many years ago...

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   Today's post is in*"Sunday Sermonette" form. 

*This is a private blog, and does not necessarily always reflect the views of the Lehigh Valley Project 9/12 Tea Party Group. For more about the nature of this blog please read "What is this?"

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...in a small tract, from InterVarsity Press I believe. I can't find it anywhere so I've had to recount it from memory.   

   It's about a Jewish survivor of the holocaust who was liberated from a concentration camp at the end of the war and had the opportunity to attend the war crime trial of the Nazi who was responsible for the hell on earth that he had endured. It was a very anxious time for him, he had never before laid eyes on the man that he grew to hate as he watched his family and friends perish. He was surrounded by friends as the defendant was ushered into the courtroom.

   What happened next was unexpected by everyone. Our survivor, upon seeing his tormentor for the first time, left out a loud gasp and then began crying, sobbing uncontrollably. “What is wrong?” asked his friends. “Are you frightened? You don't have to be scared, we are here with you and he can't hurt you”. “No, it's not that” was the reply between sobs. “Then what is it?” said his friends. “HE”S A MAN” was the answer. Everyone looked at each other, “What does that mean?” “HE”S A MAN” was the only answer he could give, repeating it over and over into almost a wail as the tears and sobs continued and his entire body convulsed. He was inconsolable and it wasn't till later that he could explain himself.

   You see, during all that time spent in the concentration camp he had an image in his mind of the monster responsible for his daily waking nightmare. You see, it wasn't a man he was expecting, but a monster. But what came into the courtroom was a man, shackled in chains and dressed in ill fitting prison garb. A man trying to look defiant and proud, but in reality had only the hangman's gallows to look forward to. “So he was a man” said his friends, “why would that make you cry as you did?” “You don't understand” he replied, “I AM A MAN ALSO... in him I saw myself, I saw all of mankind and what horrible evil we are ALL capable of.” And then the tears returned...

   Our survivor was granted a view of reality, the reality of sin and the fallen nature of man, that most do not receive. And as he received it in an instant, it was almost too much to bear. It is as if he had lived out the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, beginning as one who was indifferent to the sin in his own heart, but fixated on the monsters imagined around him. Only to have that come crashing down when he saw that the monster was a man. From self-righteous Pharisee to self-loathing publican in the twinkling of an eye.

   Last month Pastor's sermon presented us with a unique view of Matthew Chapter 2, a story of another “monster”. For those who weren't here, Pastor gave an account of King Herod the Great's slaughter of the children in Bethlehem from Herod's point of view. The King is informed by the Magi that the future King has recently been born, his own court confirms this and says that it would have happened in Bethlehem, as foretold by the prophet. Herod's children or grandchildren do not fit the description, so in his mind this is literally the equivalent of a palace coup! What is a good father to do but protect that which is rightfully his family's inheritance?

   You see, if a monster is a man, he thinks as a man. He thinks like you or I could think. The monster has a reason for his actions, it is what he sees as the appropriate response. It's protecting our family, it's killing the scapegoat, it's whatever we find important above anything else.

   There's a proverb that the philosopher holds to that dates back to antiquity. “Know Thyself” was one of the sayings inscribed in Apollo's temple at Delphi. Socrates is quoted to have said that, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I contend that these high sounding words in themselves would not have prevented our monsters from doing monstrous things even if they abided by them. By what measure do you examine yourself? If you hold to none, or if you're “open-minded”, you're really only holding yourself to a standard of your own making. Another saying, a bit more modern and humorous says this:

“The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to 

choose from.”

The Christian has one standard. Later this morning we will participate in The Lord's Table and pastor will read these words of the Apostle Paul.

“But
let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and
drink of that cup.”

   To know why His body had to be broken, why His blood had to be shed, to know all this first... is to begin to be able to truly examine oneself.