Power
There was a little boy in a village in northern Ghana, West Africa. He was wearing the only piece of clothing he owned, a scruffy pair of cotton underwear. They were dirty, at least the part that remained of them was dirty. The back end of them was just a ragged hole. His little bottom was visible for all the world to see. Only the world didn’t see, because the world doesn’t go to a remote village in northern Ghana.
“How cute,” one of the young women with us smiled.
Our trip photographer said, “I need a picture of that,” and he snapped away.
Several of us noticed the boy, and a couple of the college students in our group began digging through the clothing we were handing out, trying to find a pair of shorts or underwear for the child.
As a country, we often brag that we are the greatest, most powerful nation the world has ever seen. We speak of our military might and how we can keep the peace and change the world. Yet, as we stop to think about it, we are almost constantly at war. The Revolution, the Spanish-American, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now in the Ukraine a proxy war with Russia. Tens of thousands of lives have been sacrificed in the search for power and peace and yet…
Sadly, it is our misunderstanding of power and its true use that keeps us filled with rage and killing one another, all in the name of peace.
If you remember your history classes, Herbert Morrison, as he watched in horror as the Hindenberg went up in flames, cried out, “Oh, the humanity!” He was expressing his horror, as he watched person after person jump from the burning Zeppelin, some thirty of them dying. “Oh, the humanity.”
The thing is, as we look at each other, we believe we are looking at humanity, but the truth is we are all less than human. If we believe the Bible, we understand that we were created in the image of God, lived in a wonderful garden home, enjoying the blessings of the good earth our Father created for us and even walked with God in the cool of the afternoons. Life was wonderful, until we decided that we knew better than God. We became idolaters. We worshipped and served the created things instead of the Creator. We were broken and the earth was cursed. All that was whole and very good, was now much less than it was ever meant to be. And true humanity vanished.
The time came, however, when a truly human, human being was born. As He grew, reaching adulthood, He began showing us what true humanity was. He was all powerful and in being that he showed us the true use of power. He fed, He healed, He gave sight to the blind, He taught people and gave them hope. He rebuked, but not for the sake of His pride or position, but for the hope that those rebuked might change and have better lives. He submitted to authority. He even allowed those who had no true authority over Him (John 19:11) to arrest Him, beat Him and nail Him to a cross. True power and true humanity were demonstrated, not by a Nagasaki or Hiroshima experience, and certainly not by the Jewish leaders or Roman Prefect, but by a crown of thorns, a beaten and bloodied back, nails, and a cross. True humanity was expressed in the simple, almost whispered, words coming from the human being on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”
And again, true humanity was displayed when the students found that little boy a pair of shorts and some new underwear.
Josiah Tilton