Two million people. It is hard to imagine how so many could have been killed in Cambodia from 1975-1979. It is even harder to understand why they were killed. In a bid to create an agrarian communist utopia, all professionals, intellectuals, artists, writers, ethnic minorities and religious adherents of any kind were arbitrarily tortured and executed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge). How anyone could justify the deaths of so many is a mystery. How does one come to the point where the killing of two million people is just another obstacle to be removed in a plan? This week four Cambodians will go on trial for their part in Pol Pot’s failed social experiment. There are not many survivors of that time left to see justice done, but one wonders if those in the dock will realise the gravity of the crimes they are being charged with.
While there is much we can say about the dangers of making the ends justify the means, or the awful consequences of forgetting the value of human life, we instead want to focus on the strange mercy of God. God shows compassion in many different ways. As Christians, we believe that in sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, God opened the way for a lost humanity to find their way back to Him (Romans 3:22-24). But God also shows mercy by confronting us with our sin so that we can recognise how far we have fallen from His standard and return back to Him. In other words, coming to grips with our own deficiencies, weaknesses and rebellion against God (or having others reveal them to us) is a good thing. Without being convicted of our shortcomings, we cannot ask for forgiveness and seek to change the way we live.
True, being confronted with one’s weaknesses is a painful and embarrassing exercise, but it is an antidote to the problem of pride. It is always good to be reminded that all of us have a long way to go in our Christian walk and that can stop us from developing an attitude of superiority over other believers (and non-believers as well).
No comments:
Post a Comment