laying down

     My heart is troubled.  I first read about the man being held in Afghanistan in Christianity Today a few weeks ago, before the media got a hold of it.   I am sure you have caught wind of the situation by now; a man who converted to Christianity was turned in to police by his family.  The major concern of the media seemed to be that the Afghani police could lawfully kill him for his conversion.  
     While it grieves my heart that any Christian, any person at all really, should be killed for his religion; there is of course more sides to this story.  At least, I think there are.  
     One part I never heard mentioned was that the man was given the chance to renounce Christianity in order to live.  Obviously, he rejected that opportunity.  There is no doubt in my mind that the media had no idea how to handle that kind of information; to many I suspect the idea of living far outweighs a claim of any one religion.  I’ll touch on that again later.
     The other thing that troubles me is harder to put into words.  It seemed to me that the world went into an uproar, particularly the United States.  Calls went to the Afghani government in protest, letters were drafted, and the nightly news took up the cause.
     But what about the man in the jail cell?  He took up his cause too, didn’t he?  He became one in a long line of people to stand up for Jesus and refuse let Him go.  While the rest of the world was uprising for this man, what was he doing?  
     I want to stop a think for a moment about people in history who were willing to lay down their lives for the cause of Christ.  The first are biblical:  Paul, Steven, Peter, the apostles, to name a scant few.  Then we have the early Christians, the young woman at Columbine, and more.  
     I want to make it clear again that I do not wish the man, or anyone to have to die, but what troubles me is that no one seems to understand why he was willing to die.  The media was reporting it like it was a case of a hapless, confused man caught in a barbaric country where there is no religious freedom.  While I agree Christians in other countries have it far worse that we do, I never once got the feeling that they were supporting Christianity itself.  They never understood why he was willing to die.

What’s the point?

     Yesterday, the media reported that the Afghani government released their prisoner.  He was released on the grounds that he was mentally incompetent to understand his actions.  After all of the roaring, this news came in a thirty-second treatment by the newscaster.  I got the impression they agreed.
     I want so much for people to understand why someone would lay down their life for Jesus.  Not strapping on explosives and taking out a neighborhood, but voluntarily subjecting themselves to a solitary, passive death.  I want them to meet the Savior that I know.  I do not want Jesus to be caught up in politics, or morality, because it is too easy to lose sight of the truth there.  I want you to see what I see when I look at my Redeemer.  
     However, I do not want to use my words.  I have gone through some hard times since I have become a Christian, I will not deny that.  I have lost some friends and family, although I know that’s temporary.  I would rather use the words that Paul wrote in one of his letters of the Bible.  Paul spent most of his Christian life imprisoned, or at least more that a man should desire.  But he always kept his eyes focused on the One who saved him.  I think he says it best.  It might help give some insight to our Afghani brother.

     “All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah!  Father of all mercy!  God of all healing counsel!  He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.  We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort-we get a full measure of that too.
     We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us…It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it.  We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us.  As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened.  Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally-not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead!  And he did it, rescued us from certain doom.  And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing.”  2 Corinthians 1.3-5,8-11