Something to Snort About...

Last Friday, a good guy that we know took his own life. He leaves behind a wife and three kids... It is hard to find anything good in this situation. Every way you look at it - it's pretty crap. It makes you want to scream, cry, rant and rage against God, life, and the way things are in this broken and fractured world. One of the strong feelings I feel at the moment is one of disgust - disgust that we live in a world where this kind of thing happens and that this is what life can dish up for the people who are a part of it.

I was reflecting on my response to this tragedy and that feeling of disgust toward life I was feeling, and a passage from the Bible came to me. It was John 11- a story about Jesus going to the grave of his dead friend, Lazarus. Jesus goes there and the passage says that he was "deeply moved" and called for the stone across the doorway of the grave to be removed, so that he can go ahead and raise Lazarus from the dead. A very cool story in that sense. Jesus doing his thing...

Apparently, the original word that is translated into English as "deeply moved" is probably better translated into English as "a snort of the spirit". The kind of snort that a stallion might give, while rearing on his hind legs as it gets ready to charge into battle. (Thanks to Dave Andrews for this insight from his "Plan Be" book). I imagine it as a kind of snort of contempt from Jesus as he comes face to face with the tragic consequences of sin. I felt and still feel that feeling this week - a snort from my spirit as I wrestle with the contempt I feel for life at this bleak time.

The thing I like about this passage though is that Jesus' contempt for this life and its broken-ness did not stay at that point of despair and it did not remain at the place of hopelessness. He got the stone moved and raised Lazarus from the dead - and that is a pretty good response, although only temporarily good. Lazarus would die again one day in the future and the grief would come again. But from that place, he "set his face like a flint" towards Jerusalem, and went there to be arrested, tried, beaten and crucified. And of course the Bible teaches us that he rose again from the dead, to deal once and for all, with the sin and broken-ness of the world, so that the day will come when we won't have to put up with crap like this again.

Bring it on (or "Come Lord Jesus, Come" as they say in the Christian classics)...

God's Shalom to you all at time...