Clint Charles

“But why…?”

My wife Kim and I have been attending St. Alban's for three years. I've been involved with Sunday morning and Recharge music productions, as well and guest vocal performances for the Ukulele Ensemble. I am currently serving on the Advisory Board and am coordinator for the  Building and Grounds committee.

"Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” –- John 8:56-58

Click here to read the appointed scripture for Thursday in the Fifth Week of Lent.

Devotional

This passage of scripture intrigues me on so many levels, and my imagination takes over and suddenly I’m in the temple with Jesus and the hostile Jewish leaders. I can only imagine the frustration Jesus must have been feeling under those circumstances. The self- righteous indignation of the “scholars” and probably all those around, who only cared about discrediting Jesus and His prophecies of Abraham.

They asked, how at Jesus’ age could He possibly have seen Abraham…Jesus must be demonic! They mocked Him, they scorned Him only because their feeble minds could not comprehend God’s plan for all mankind. In reading these words I found myself getting anxious and feeling a need to protect Jesus, to lash out at those wicked leaders, screaming “Can’t you see this is your salvation you are condemning! 

But who am I kidding…I probably would have been one of the them. God’s plan is so complex, yet so simple…perfectly laid out for all to receive. What those Jewish leaders called demonic, was God’s plan from the beginning….God allows free will, doubt and selfishness all along waiting for our eyes and hearts to open for His will for us to be realized.

As a young boy, my mother was constantly answering my favorite question…. ”But why…?”. In this scripture, I found my “why” kicking into overdrive. Why did God’s plan have to include the harassment, public scrutiny, attempts at physical harm and so many other public degradations of Jesus’ character and message? Why would God not intervene? When those same leaders picked up stones to injure, torture, or attempt to kill Jesus, why would God His Father not wave His hand and turn those stones to dust, along with the entire temple? Why did Jesus choose to run away from the temple? It must have been God’s plan for the salvation of believers…after all, why must our faith come from grand gestures for us to truly believe. 

There was but one path that Jesus must follow, perfectly planned by God the Father, through Father Abraham…so we will never taste death. The mere stoning of Jesus for being perceived as “demonic” was never in God’s plan…only the pain and suffering that would come to pass for Jesus would pay for our multitude of sins. That base plan had to include the crowds that spat upon Jesus. God needed that carpenter to construct not one, but three crosses that would stand on that hill. God needed a great stone mason to carve a stone so large that no man or crowds could have moved it from the opening of that die where Jesus would lay. God needed those Roman soldiers to pierce Jesus’ side with their spears. God needed two others to die next Jesus…one mocking Jesus and one humbly asking Jesus to remember him in heaven.  A magnificently perfect plan of God’s love for each of us, in giving His son Jesus to die for our redemption.

I am reminded of a song by The Gaither Vocal Band that I sang as a young boy in church, with my mother at the piano….