On 5/16/2011 David Brooks began his New York Times column: “The story of evolution, we have been told,
is the story of the survival of the fittest. The strong eat the weak. The
creatures that adapt to the environment pass on their selfish genes. Those that
do not become extinct.” Is this, in fact, how we find reality in human life in
days gone by and today? Is existence on earth just “Nature, red in tooth and
claw” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam A.H.H.” 1849)? Biblically, we know
that this is, at best, a half truth for humanity.
Man, in the first place, is created in the image of God (Genesis
1:26-27) and, therefore, has the attribute of kindness. In all our human
interactions, we all carry this image and likeness. And, in the second place,
the first humans, by choice, rebelled against their Creator, plunging the human
race into selfishness, alienation, shame, and cruelty (Genesis 3). “For all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Yes, we are also
too aware of the human attribute of cruelty, since it is so often reported in
the media and protested by the Old Testament prophets. “Thus says the Lord God:
Enough, O princes of Israel!
Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease
your evictions of my people, declares the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 45:9)
Is there a comprehensive solution? “But God shows his love
for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Christ
– God in the flesh – came into the world to redeem us from our sin and cruelty
and to restore us increasingly in the image of God, which includes kindness. At
a public religious feast in Jerusalem,
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him
who sent me has eternal life. This person does not come into judgment, but has
passed from death to life” (John 5:24).
Consider that word picture for a moment. On the one side of
a divide there is sin, death, and divine judgment. On the other side there is
eternal life. How do we sinners get across that chasm? “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). With firmly relying faith, trust in
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Such a life of repentance from sin and genuine
faith in Christ leads to changed life. The people transformed by Christ do tiny
acts of kindness that are often only seen by the recipient and by God who sees
in secret.
• On which bridge are you?
On display at an art gallery near my home is the pic above, “Bridge Well
Traveled.” Thinking of the bridge as a metaphor, we could envision the bridge
as the path of one human being’s cruelty against his fellow. It happens in
subtleties every day as well as in mass acts of cruelty displaying man’s
inhumanity to man. That is one bridge and it is well traveled. Let us be honest
enough to admit that we, too, travel that bridge.
There is a second bridge. At Easter, we celebrate the
enormous kindness of God through Christ by the Holy Spirit coming into the
world to die for our sins as God’s Passover lamb (especially remembered on Good
Friday) and to rise again on the third day as a triumph over his having suffered the
penalty of sin for us and now as the life-giving Savior (especially remembered on Easter).
How do people react to the events of Good Friday and Easter?
Frankly, you will never think your way to God. That is not how human beings are
made. We may argue articulately with much reasoning, high sounding logic and
great learning. But we are not primarily defined by what we think, know, or
believe. It is deeper. At our core, we human beings are defined by what we love
and worship. What is worship and love supremely for you? Is it self? Is it money? Is it sex? Is it family? Is
it philosophy or self-help or morality or religion or education? Is it fame or
fortune or adventure or a myriad of other allegiances? Is it an attempt to
escape the hurts, pains, and sufferings of this world? I challenge you today, my friend. Who or what
do you worship supremely? Who or what do you love supremely? Who except Jesus
Christ has the words of eternal life? What can bridge the gap between human
sinfulness and divine purity except the dying and rising of the Lord Jesus
Christ?
There is, first, the well-travelled bridge of human cruelty.
Then there is a second bridge. “Your iniquities have separated you from your
God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear” (Isaiah
59:2). That separation between humanity and God has been bridged by what Jesus
Christ did for us. We could not do it ourselves. I invite you to believe in
Christ and make your way across that bridge right now. If so, there will be a third bridge,
the bridge of daily taking up your cross and following Christ in the way of
kindness.
• On which bridge was Derwin Gray?
Growing up on the west side of San Antonio, Derwin Gray looked for a way out
of an early life of poverty, violence, addiction, abuse, and chaos. And he
found it [1]:
Football functioned as my savior.
It gave me love: If I played well, I was loved by fans. It gave me an identity:
I was Derwin, the football player. It gave me significance: I was somebody
because I was a great player. And football gave me a mission. My mission was
this: Derwin, you can go to college and
make something of your life.
The grandmother who raised him was a Jehovah’s Witness and
he played high school football under a Texas Hall of Fame coach. He went to
college at the Mormon school, Brigham
Young University,
and was elected to their football’s All American Dream Team. There, in his
freshman year, he met a javelin thrower on the track team and married her
during his senior year on May 23, 1992. On April 25, 1993, he was drafted by the
pro football’s Indianapolis Colts. His god – his supreme object of love and
worship – had come through for him every step of the way.
Then he was confronted by linebacker Steve Grant. After
practices and games, Grant would take a shower, dry off, wrap a towel around
his waist, pick up his Bible, and ask those in the locker room, “Do you
know Jesus?” Derwin Gray asked the veterans on the team about him. They said, “Don’t
pay attention to him. That’s the Naked Preacher.” So Derwin would turn his back
and ignore him.
One time at Derwin’s locker, the linebacker asked, “Rookie
D. Gray, do you know Jesus?” Derwin answered, “I’m a good person.” He explained
to Steve that he was one of the only men in his family who had not been to
jail, who did not have a substance abuse problem, who had graduated from high
school and college, and who did not have a child outside of marriage.
The Naked Preacher opened up his Bible and shared two verses:
“And Jesus said to him, ’Why do you call me good? No one is good except God
alone’” (Mark 10:18) and “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God” (Rom. 3:23). He explained that according to the Bible, only God is good;
he is the standard of goodness and righteousness. Everyone else has sinned and
falls short. This disturbed Derwin. The linebacker continued, “You can’t do
anything to reach a perfect God. But Jesus has done everything for the perfect God
to come down and reach you.”
Derwin sat in silence and needed time to think. Over the
next five years, he watched Steve Grant live out the gospel. When teammates
needed advice, they were at the Naked Preacher’s locker. Steve was involved in
the greater Indianapolis
community. Steve displayed Jesus in the way he loved his wife and children.
Steve preached through his words and actions. In Derwin’s words:
As the Naked
Preacher preached, God’s love crushed me. I had achieved the American dream,
only to realize it could not empower me to love my wife or forgive my father.
My fame and money could not erase my sin, shame, guilt, fear, and insecurity.
Then, between 1995
and 1997, I started getting injured on the field. When a professional athlete’s
body starts to fail, he knows his career is coming to an end. I was letting my
god—football—down. I was unable to serve it. My body was how I made my living.
As it began to give out, I was stripped of everything I thought gave me
meaning. I was left with nothing, even though I seemingly had everything.
On August 2, 1997,
after lunch at training camp for my fifth season with the Indianapolis Colts, I
walked to my dorm room at Anderson University in central Indiana. As I walked, I sensed an emptiness
and brokenness like I had never experienced. When I got to my room, I
immediately picked up the phone and called my wife. “I want to be more
committed to you,” I said. “And I want to be committed to Jesus.”
At that moment I realized
that God loved me. Not because I could run fast or jump high or because I was
good, or even for what I could give him. I realized that as Jesus hung on the
cross, I was forever loved and accepted by God. I realized my sin had been
erased by Jesus’ blood. It was as if I could see for the first time. That day I
got infected with a “virus” called grace [God’s kindness through Jesus Christ].
The symptoms are now full-blown.
[Pic: Andrew Debus, “Bridge
Well Traveled” on public display at Lakeland Gallery, Kirtland, Ohio,
April 6-20, 2015.]
[1] Derwin Gray, “Pro
Football Was My God,” Christianity Today,
March 2014, Vol. 58, No. 2, p 80.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/march/pro-football-was-my-god-derwin-gray.html?start=2
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