“He saved others,” they said, “but He cannot save Himself!” Matthew 27:42
“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, including everything that seems to us piercingly inexplicable or incomprehensible. Nor must we forget that our greatest happiness and most authentic good are not always those which we dream of or long for.
It is difficult for us to see things in their true perspective; we can only take in a very small part of complete reality. We only see the tiny piece of reality that is here, in front of us. We are inclined to feel that earthly existence is the only real one and often consider our time on earth to be the period in which all our longings for perfect happiness ought to be fulfilled…
Our Lord did not change the laws of creation for His own benefit; He chose to be a man like us. He had the power to do away with suffering, but He never used that power for Himself. Although He worked miracles to feed the crowds, He Himself suffered hunger. He shared with us the experience of exhaustion or pain.
His soul tasted every bitterness: indifference, ingratitude, betrayal, slander, moral agony in its highest degree when He took upon Himself the sins of the world, the shameful death of the cross. His enemies were astonished by His incomprehensible behavior: He saved others – they said mockingly – He cannot save himself.”
Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 1 (London: Scepter, 1993) 254-255.
Brace yourself. Today’s post is inexplicable and incomprehensible.
In church history, today is known widely as “the feast of the holy innocents” which remembers the killing of all the young children in Bethlehem ordered by King Herod in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus, a horrible atrocity.
In reflection, Fernandez reminds us that God works on a bigger scale than we can see.
So that means, when someone says to you that they don’t believe in God because there is so much suffering in the world, you can remind them of this: suffering exists because of the sin of humankind.
And when God became flesh, He endured suffering to bring an end to sin and accomplish our salvation.
But it does not stop there. We too get to sacrifice. We too get to suffer. We too get to have people look at us and say, “He saved others. He cannot save Himself.” And please, let me explain what I mean by this.
Following Jesus is a call to the same inexplicable and incomprehensible way of living.
When we live, give, serve, and love sacrificially, there are benefits we forgo so that others might benefit. There are hunger pangs we feel so that others may experience satisfaction. This is Christian generosity in its purest form.
Next time someone celebrates a billionaire giving a few million or a millionaire giving a few thousand, just yawn.
That’s not the sacrificial, hold-nothing-back generosity that Jesus celebrates, but rather surplus giving. Encourage them to give it all away and experience hunger and tastes what happens next.
It was 15 years ago that Jenni and I shifted our treasures from earth to heaven. What a ride it has been since then.
We have experienced plenty and need, health and cancer, joy and hardship. We have seen God pay medical bills and then supply more than we ever imagined for enjoyment and sharing. We took hold of life when we shifted from surplus giving to practicing generosity.
In the former, you give from your means. In the latter you share what God supplies. It’s way better.
And you get to experienced hardships too, which humbles you, keeps you dependent on God, and reminds you of His faithfulness. Looking to 2025, join us in living the inexplicable and incomprehensible generous Christian life.
And bad things may happen, like the innocents of Bethlehem, but we trust in our inexplicable and incomprehensible God.
He might engage you in saving many people. And He might ask you to sacrifice yourself. Do it. Your gain in the kingdom will likewise be inexplicable and incomprehensible.
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9