Remembering the Holocaust
Words cannot describe the horror of the Shoah. Film footage and Holocaust Museums come closer...but the truth is that evil was laid bare and no one will understand the horrors as much as those who endured them.
What are we to learn from the Holocaust? To phrase the question as if it happened for us to learn a lesson is to diminish the pain. But certainly we must learn something. The ultimate lesson we must come away with is that humanity is placed in a conspicuous location in the universe. The human sphere, our earth, is ground zero for the meeting of good and evil and we are cast into that battle whether we like it or not. In the same place where Jews were mercilessly killed, others, because they followed Yeshua with their lives and not just their words, gave their lives to try to save them. Many brought forth great evil by giving vent to senseless hatred, blindly following orders, or pretending that nothing was going on. A few brought forth great good by being willing to sacrifice it all.
Do we learn the awareness of good and evil so that another Holocaust won't happen? Although the savagery is less concentrated in time and space than it was in 1930's and 40's Europe, in a sense, the Holocaust is still happening. Suicide bombers blow themselves up in Israel, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Turkey. Islamists gun down innocent people in Europe and California. Girls are kidnapped from their schools in Africa and forced to convert to Islam. Christians the world over are experiencing some of the worst persecution since the early centuries of the church. Anti-Semitism is on the rise and only hidden by a thin veil of a lie called "anti-Zionism." We don't learn the lessons of the Holocaust so that it won't happen again, but so that we are aware that the battle of good verses evil continues to rage around us, and so that as the opportunities arise (and they arise every day), we choose the side of right. Do we show compassion or judgment? Do we defend Israel or just allow others to spout lies without an opposing voice? Do we stand up for Messiah, or do we allow others to beat us into a submissive silence? Do we watch another television show, or do we pray for the persecuted Christians? Do we spend our money on another fancy meal, or do we give to help feed the hungry? Do we vent our anger on family and friends because it makes us feel better, or do we learn to listen? Do we make ourselves vulnerable for the sake of reconciliation, or do we hold on to our grudges?
It's too much for you and me to stop another Holocaust, but it's not too much for us to be on the right side when good and evil clash in the world around us. But the world, really, is a macrocosm of that which goes on in our hearts. Can we say we'll stand up for good when the truth is that we rape with our minds and covet the blessings of others? Will we really be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice when our lives are consumed with self-pleasing thoughts and behaviors? Yeshua's message strikes at the heart of this...According to Him, it's not enough to not commit adultery, to not murder, to not steal; even your heart and thoughts must be pure (Matthew 5).
Paul wrestled with sin:
So I find the principle—that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts. Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin (Romans 7:21-25 TLV).
The Holocaust is a stark reminder of mankind's ability to bring about great evil or great good. Our natural proclivity, however, is towards the evil. We are fundamentally self-pleasing from birth. We have to learn compassion. Many learn an air of compassion, but our thoughts, the actions we do when no one is looking, what we spend our time and money on, reveal that when it really comes down to it, the battle for good in our souls is yet to be won. That's where Yeshua comes in. The one who demonstrated the most perfect love, the zenith of compassion and self-sacrifice when He died to pay the price for our sins on the cross, is the same one who rose from the dead and can help us die to that self-pleasing nature. But we must be willing to lay it down. We must be willing to live for a greater cause than self-gratification. We must follow the Spirit...even when He says pray and we want to sleep, or fast and we want to eat, or give and we want to hold back, or forgive as we've been forgiven, or bless when we want to curse, or speak out for the oppressed though we see no benefit for ourselves.
From all that we can observe of the universe, there is one place where the great battle of good and evil takes place, and that's where you and I live. There are times when I want to learn wilderness survival skills and escape to the mountains. I pray and give and witness and teach (and, yes, also fall), and there are times when I receive more judgment than praise. Many of you feel the same. We don't live in a world set up to praise biblical virtue. But we cannot escape the human geography - we are purposely placed where good and evil meet. Great evil must be met with a greater good. Woe to me if I do not fight the good fight. Woe to me if I do not allow Spirit of Messiah to win the battle for good in my own heart first by laying it all down before the cross.
Words cannot describe the horror of the Shoah. Film footage and Holocaust Museums come closer...but the truth is that evil was laid bare and no one will understand the horrors as much as those who endured them.
What are we to learn from the Holocaust? To phrase the question as if it happened for us to learn a lesson is to diminish the pain. But certainly we must learn something. The ultimate lesson we must come away with is that humanity is placed in a conspicuous location in the universe. The human sphere, our earth, is ground zero for the meeting of good and evil and we are cast into that battle whether we like it or not. In the same place where Jews were mercilessly killed, others, because they followed Yeshua with their lives and not just their words, gave their lives to try to save them. Many brought forth great evil by giving vent to senseless hatred, blindly following orders, or pretending that nothing was going on. A few brought forth great good by being willing to sacrifice it all.
Do we learn the awareness of good and evil so that another Holocaust won't happen? Although the savagery is less concentrated in time and space than it was in 1930's and 40's Europe, in a sense, the Holocaust is still happening. Suicide bombers blow themselves up in Israel, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Turkey. Islamists gun down innocent people in Europe and California. Girls are kidnapped from their schools in Africa and forced to convert to Islam. Christians the world over are experiencing some of the worst persecution since the early centuries of the church. Anti-Semitism is on the rise and only hidden by a thin veil of a lie called "anti-Zionism." We don't learn the lessons of the Holocaust so that it won't happen again, but so that we are aware that the battle of good verses evil continues to rage around us, and so that as the opportunities arise (and they arise every day), we choose the side of right. Do we show compassion or judgment? Do we defend Israel or just allow others to spout lies without an opposing voice? Do we stand up for Messiah, or do we allow others to beat us into a submissive silence? Do we watch another television show, or do we pray for the persecuted Christians? Do we spend our money on another fancy meal, or do we give to help feed the hungry? Do we vent our anger on family and friends because it makes us feel better, or do we learn to listen? Do we make ourselves vulnerable for the sake of reconciliation, or do we hold on to our grudges?
It's too much for you and me to stop another Holocaust, but it's not too much for us to be on the right side when good and evil clash in the world around us. But the world, really, is a macrocosm of that which goes on in our hearts. Can we say we'll stand up for good when the truth is that we rape with our minds and covet the blessings of others? Will we really be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice when our lives are consumed with self-pleasing thoughts and behaviors? Yeshua's message strikes at the heart of this...According to Him, it's not enough to not commit adultery, to not murder, to not steal; even your heart and thoughts must be pure (Matthew 5).
Paul wrestled with sin:
So I find the principle—that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts. Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin (Romans 7:21-25 TLV).
The Holocaust is a stark reminder of mankind's ability to bring about great evil or great good. Our natural proclivity, however, is towards the evil. We are fundamentally self-pleasing from birth. We have to learn compassion. Many learn an air of compassion, but our thoughts, the actions we do when no one is looking, what we spend our time and money on, reveal that when it really comes down to it, the battle for good in our souls is yet to be won. That's where Yeshua comes in. The one who demonstrated the most perfect love, the zenith of compassion and self-sacrifice when He died to pay the price for our sins on the cross, is the same one who rose from the dead and can help us die to that self-pleasing nature. But we must be willing to lay it down. We must be willing to live for a greater cause than self-gratification. We must follow the Spirit...even when He says pray and we want to sleep, or fast and we want to eat, or give and we want to hold back, or forgive as we've been forgiven, or bless when we want to curse, or speak out for the oppressed though we see no benefit for ourselves.
From all that we can observe of the universe, there is one place where the great battle of good and evil takes place, and that's where you and I live. There are times when I want to learn wilderness survival skills and escape to the mountains. I pray and give and witness and teach (and, yes, also fall), and there are times when I receive more judgment than praise. Many of you feel the same. We don't live in a world set up to praise biblical virtue. But we cannot escape the human geography - we are purposely placed where good and evil meet. Great evil must be met with a greater good. Woe to me if I do not fight the good fight. Woe to me if I do not allow Spirit of Messiah to win the battle for good in my own heart first by laying it all down before the cross.