A suffering people and a suffering God

A few nights ago, we watched the film "Red Dust," which sets its story in the midst of a Truth and Reconciliation trial in South Africa.  The story is a difficult one to watch because it pulls no punches in revealing the evils of apartheid and the darkness of human sin.  After watching the film, I was struck with the enormity of the task of faith for kids growing up in that country.  These kids live in a world that was crushed by apartheid for decades.  And, as if that weren't enough, in the years before the nation celebrated its first free elections in 1994, the monster of AIDS began quietly claiming its first victims.  As I thought about this history, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed at just what a significant thing it is for these kids to believe in a God who loves them. "How can we," I thought, "enter this world and tell these kids that they are loved?"  How can those words not echo hollow when proclaimed beneath the dark shadow that is South Africa's history?  And then Eric said something very simple and yet profound: he reminded me that the message of God's love starts with the cross.

I don't know what these kids have experienced.  I can't fully understand the hurt and anger and loss that probably still scar the people of this country.  But the God we worship does.  He looks upon them through the bruised and bloody eyes of a man beaten and hung on a cross.  And only such a God can really say to his broken people, "I understand."  Only a God who faced evil and injustice in its greatest measure, and overcame it on our behalf - only that God - can rightfully and authentically say "I love you" in such a way that the words ring true.

As I reflect on this truth, I am humbled by the power of the cross.  In some small way, I've seen a glimpse of the gospel through the eyes of another, and now it's beauty comes across in even richer vividness.  

"But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor beacuse of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone" (Heb 2:9).