King of the Jews

Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC

BACK IN MY YOUTH, somewhere around age 9, the church my family attended put on a children’s play written after “A Pilgrim’s Progress.” We modernized it a bit, using a girl for the lead and adapting some of the songs to include local towns. The songs still stick with me, “We’re on an Enchanted Journey, 1-2-3, Go! We’re on an Enchanted Journey, you and me.” Years later, in my 40s, I thought I’d read the original book by John Bunyan but didn’t make it much past the first few pages. I’d come across the audio of our fun little performance and thought that had inspired me. Here's where I say something about life’s path having bumps and potholes and how sometimes we get off track and have to be pushed back onto the righteous road. But instead, what I’m remembering from the play was where the lead character, Chris, sang the saddest song when her friend-character died. She sang to encourage herself to keep going although she’d had such a great loss.

In Genesis 4, Cain kills Abel. It didn’t even take more than one generation for sin and death to cause murder. I wonder what Adam and Eve thought. I wonder if they fought their guilt. We fight ours. Or we should. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, some 6.6 million Jews died in World War II. In the population of Poland, 90% of the Jewish population was murdered. Our Savior is a Jew. King of the Jews. When He was born, King Herod had all the children under 2 years of age killed in order to snuff Him out. How many children was that? Guttmacher Institute estimates there was 930,160 abortions in the United States in 2020. Who mourns those?

Chris Christian sang her way down the road of progress toward the Celestial City, delayed by lying salesmen, pushed forward by her friend’s dying words, and one day she made it. Two hours later, the story ended. But for these, for the untold others I haven’t named, for those whose lives were snuffed out, our enchanted journey comes at a price. Jesus came to give life. He came because Our Father in heaven so loved the world and was willing to give His all to rescue it. He came because life is precious. Jesus knows the names of each of those children who died so He might live. He knows the names of every man, woman, and child who died in the Holocaust of World War II. He holds the children murdered year after year after year in His hands. Heaven is filled with them.

Love cost Him. Lack of love costs us. Every breath we breathe outside of God’s grace is no breath at all, and yet for all our feebleness, for all our struggles ahead, or our careless dancing on the road of progress without thought of those who have lost or haven’t lived, His gift remains. He forgave the thief. He forgave a Roman Pharisaical Jew, who wrote most of the New Testament. He’d rather forgive. His mercy is beyond our imagination. But the lives lost in our history, the lives which still live, demand our attention. We cannot sugar coat our flag of freedom nor sweep their stories under some well-decorated rug. Abel’s blood cried out at God from the ground. Rachel wept for her lost children that night in Israel. The faces of Jewish survivors stare back at us, preserved on paper. Wars and rumors of wars have come and gone. Hatred continues to stir up strife. And there is but one solution. Jesus.

He came. He lived. He loved. He died. He rose again. He continues on in us. We love because He did, because He does, because Jesus, a Jew, is.

“My love for you is just as free, complete and abundant as the Father’s love for me. And just as the Father’s love lives in me and flows through me to the world, so you must continue to let my love live in you and flow through you to others.” (John 15:9 Remedy)

“This is my prescription: Love one another.” (John 15:17 Remedy)

Image from Wikimedia Commons


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com