As some of our saints have said in different ways, Jesus is not loyal to groups,
to countries, to battles, to teams. Jesus is loyal only to suffering. He is as present
to the suffering Iraqi soldier as he is to the wounded American soldier, as caring
for the disillusioned Nazi warrior as for the discouraged British soldier bleeding
to death in the field. As Isaiah shockingly puts it, “to him nations count as
nothingness and emptiness” (40:17). The Jesus Nation crosses all boundaries and
frontiers, and is occupied by only the wisdom and freedom of those who have
suffered and come out the other side—not destroyed, but larger and stronger
and wiser. The Gospel is simply the wisdom of those who agree to carry their
part of the infinite suffering of God. Ironically, many non-Christians—I think of
Anne Frank, Simone Weil, and Etty Hillesum, who were all Jewish—seemed to
fully accept this vocation with greater freedom than many Christians.
singke
(singke)
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