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Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. I thirst. Only John's Gospel records these words. They were uttered by Jesus, we're told, not as a guttural physical response, but with intention. Knowing that all was now finished, Jesus said, I thirst in order to fulfill the Scriptures. And yet we ought not think these words are manufactured or insincere either. You see, earlier in his ministry, Jesus had, on the last great day of the feast of Tabernac, stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Now, on the cross, he who said these words was himself thirsty. Now, why are we told this? Why is the fact that Jesus thirsted important? Well, the world changed on All Saints Day. In 1755 in Lisbon, Portugal, a 10 minute earthquake followed by a tsunami and fires killed an estimated 60,000 people, many crushed by collapsing churches where they had gathered to celebrate that Christian holy day. According to moral philosopher Susan Niemann, for many Western intellectuals, this incident of natural evil proved that God could no longer be trusted. The French philosopher Voltaire offered scathing words in a poem. Are you then sure, he wrote, the power which would create the universe and fix the laws of fate could not have found for man a proper place. But earthquakes must destroy the human race. And so in the modern era, trust moved from God to man, and it seemed to work. The next few centuries were marked by technological advances, scientific progress and scholarly criticism of the Bible. However, the peak of modernism was the 20th century, which revealed that trust in man was badly misplaced. The mechanized slaughter of millions in two world wars, communism, Auschwitz, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. So where do we turn now if we can't trust God or man? The cross directly addresses this world of moral and natural evil, as the prophet Isaiah foretold. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. The cross proves that God is not aloof from human suffering, as Voltaire had imagined, nor will human evil have the final say. Our God once thirsted like we do. He bled as we do. In this existence of fallen people and a fallen world in Christ, God entered the world of human suffering suffered himself defeated suffering, and now has has the scars to prove it. Nearly two centuries after Voltaire, theologian Edward Shalito offered a poem with a very different take on the suffering we experience. Here are two stanzas of that poem. If we have never sought, we seek thee now Thine eyes burn through the dark Our only stars we must have sight of thorn pricks on thy brow we must have thee, O Jesus of the scars. The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak. They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne and to our wounds only God's wounds can speak, and not a God has wounds, but thou alone. Today on Good Friday we remember, we worship and proclaim this God Jesus of the scars. To him be all glory and praise forever and ever. Amen. For Breakpoint, I'm John Stonestreet. Christians are people of hope.
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We might not feel like we have
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hope, but there is hope. There's hope for the story of the world.
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As Christians, our hope isn't simply wishful thinking. Our hope is rooted in Christ himself. The study is a free study and explores the four truths that ground authentic hope. Christ is risen. Christ is Lord. Christ is making all things new, and he has placed us here for this time and place. Take the next step in understanding hope that is anchored in Christ. Sign up for Truth the study@colsoncenter.org study that's colsoncenter.org study.