After I twittered that question yesterday, and continued to read about the failed bailout plan in Washington, I discovered that quite a few people were asking themselves the same question. Thanks for the emails – let’s think it through and feel free to write your perspective in the comments section. Here’s mine:Jesus is a redeemer. Actually, He is The Redeemer. I wholeheartedly believe that He longs to save (or post bail for) humankind, and in many ways He already has. God is a God of restoration, of repairing what is broken, of healing the diseased person and/or system.
But….
Even though God longs to repair the broken, He outlined the plan for peace and community long ago, a plan that we have voted against for centuries. Being healed requires a commitment to His ways, His philosophies, His life of self-sacrifice.
I strongly suspect that He loves us far too much to bail us out. There are more significant and healthy things for us to learn from our suffering – a suffering that we all created by living in excess, by refusing to share, by looking to our own interests instead of the interests of others, by valuing the wrong sorts of things and accomplishments in our culture, and dare I say, by insisting that our nationalism is righteous instead of understanding our place in God's global perspective. Why would He bail out a system that violates His very heart? He never intended for people to be cared for by trickle down. He intended for people to be loved by His people bending down.
No, I don’t think Jesus will bail us out, and I refused to ask Him to. Instead, I will first repent, then ask Him to give me the courage to live with far less and continue to give in spite of my fear.
We're not forsaken. As a matter of fact, we are currently saturated in grace.
3 comments:
He is my personal redeemer, the head of His church, the God of nations and the creator of the world. I agree with you on all four levels: individually, churchwide, nationally and worldwide. He loves us too much to interfere. He is a jealous God and I have always believed that there is nothing He wouldn't take away from us if it will draw us closer to Him.
I agree that Jesus wouldn’t bail us out, as in make it all go away without consequences. I would guess that the overwhelming majority of prayers are requests to take away our circumstances, often circumstances that are consequences of our own bad decisions. Ironically, it’s those circumstances that draw us closer to God. They teach us to love him more. They force us to surrender after we’ve repeatedly chosen not to. Jesus would allow the consequences to come because, as you said, he loves us that much.
But what would He do next? He would “bend down” and help us back up, and possibly do a miracle here and there. There is nothing our government can do to “bail us out.” The consequences of our bad decisions are going to be bad, regardless of what Washington does. But hopefully, we can learn a lesson and our government can help us back up.
The market did fall 777 points... OBVIOUSLY God's hand was on the situation! ;)
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