The story is told of billions of people scattered on a great plain before Almighty God’s Throne.
Some of the groups near the front talked heatedly - not with cringing shame; but, with
belligerence. "How can God Judge us?" said one. "What does He know about suffering?"
snapped a brunette. She jerked back a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi
concentration camp. "We endured terror, beatings, torture, death!" In another group, a black
man lowered his collar "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn "lynched
for no crime but being black! We have suffocated in slave ships, been wrenched from loved
ones, toiled till death gave release." Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups.
Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He permitted in His world. How
lucky God was to live in Heaven where there was no weeping, no fear, no hunger, no hatred!
Indeed, "What did God know about what mankind - both men and women - had to endure in this
world? After all, God lives a sheltered life," they said.
So, each group sent out a leader, chosen because he or she had suffered the most. There was
a Jewish person, a black person, an untouchable from India, an illegitimate person, a victim of
Hiroshima; and one from a Siberian slave camp. In the center of the plain, they consulted with
each other. At last, they were ready to present their case. It was rather simple: before God
would be qualified to be their Judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision
was that God "should be sentenced to live on earth as a man!" But because He was God, they
set certain safeguards to be sure that He could not use His Divine Powers to help Himself!
Let Him be born a Jewish person - let the legitimacy of His birth be doubted, so that no one
would know who is really His father - let Him champion a cause so just; but, so radical, that it
brings down upon Him the hate, condemnation, and efforts of every major traditional and
established religious authority to eliminate Him - let Him try to describe what no man or woman
has ever seen, tasted, heard; or, smelled - let Him try to communicate God to mankind - both
male and female - let Him be betrayed by His dearest friends - let Him be indicted on false
charges, tried before a prejudiced jury; and, convicted by a cowardly judge - let Him see what it
is to be terribly alone and completely abandoned by every living thing - let Him be tortured and
let Him die! Let Him die the most humiliating death - with common thieves.
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from
the great throngs of people. But, when the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a
long silence. No one uttered another word. No one moved. For suddenly, all knew: God had
already served His sentence." From a sermon by George Dillahunty,
He was tried and tested in every way that we were but without sin.
Pastor,
Rev. Wayne Marcus
Some of the groups near the front talked heatedly - not with cringing shame; but, with
belligerence. "How can God Judge us?" said one. "What does He know about suffering?"
snapped a brunette. She jerked back a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi
concentration camp. "We endured terror, beatings, torture, death!" In another group, a black
man lowered his collar "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn "lynched
for no crime but being black! We have suffocated in slave ships, been wrenched from loved
ones, toiled till death gave release." Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups.
Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He permitted in His world. How
lucky God was to live in Heaven where there was no weeping, no fear, no hunger, no hatred!
Indeed, "What did God know about what mankind - both men and women - had to endure in this
world? After all, God lives a sheltered life," they said.
So, each group sent out a leader, chosen because he or she had suffered the most. There was
a Jewish person, a black person, an untouchable from India, an illegitimate person, a victim of
Hiroshima; and one from a Siberian slave camp. In the center of the plain, they consulted with
each other. At last, they were ready to present their case. It was rather simple: before God
would be qualified to be their Judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision
was that God "should be sentenced to live on earth as a man!" But because He was God, they
set certain safeguards to be sure that He could not use His Divine Powers to help Himself!
Let Him be born a Jewish person - let the legitimacy of His birth be doubted, so that no one
would know who is really His father - let Him champion a cause so just; but, so radical, that it
brings down upon Him the hate, condemnation, and efforts of every major traditional and
established religious authority to eliminate Him - let Him try to describe what no man or woman
has ever seen, tasted, heard; or, smelled - let Him try to communicate God to mankind - both
male and female - let Him be betrayed by His dearest friends - let Him be indicted on false
charges, tried before a prejudiced jury; and, convicted by a cowardly judge - let Him see what it
is to be terribly alone and completely abandoned by every living thing - let Him be tortured and
let Him die! Let Him die the most humiliating death - with common thieves.
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from
the great throngs of people. But, when the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a
long silence. No one uttered another word. No one moved. For suddenly, all knew: God had
already served His sentence." From a sermon by George Dillahunty,
He was tried and tested in every way that we were but without sin.
Pastor,
Rev. Wayne Marcus
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