The crowd is restive. The building is full. It is hot, the light is not very good and everyone is sweaty and uncomfortable. A series of speakers have previously mounted the stage and warmed up the crowd. Great men stood and proclaimed great hope for the future and woe to the crowd for its behavior. One notable man, Jeremiah, quoted THE LORD, “I am sick of your sacrifices, your burnt offerings; why are you not caring for the poor, freeing the captives and honoring the stranger in your land? Circumcise your heart to me lest my wrath go forth like fire!”
He had hardly finished speaking when a voice shouted from the other side of the hall, “Thou art my King and my God who ordained victories for Jacob, through you we push down our foes, for in our own strength we cannot trust and we continually give thanks to you; yet you have cast us off and abased us, made us a laughingstock among the peoples of the world. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our oppression? Rise up and come to our help in the name of your steadfast love!”
Then another voice from the rear of the auditorium shouted back, “Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not get burned? Wise men lay up knowledge, but the babbling fool brings ruin near.”
After the final speaker harangues the crowd, many faces among them are red with anger and frustration. Shaking fists are raised. The ring of shouts of “Blasphemy! Blasphemy!” rain about this final speaker, the insane one named Ezekiel, as he steps down from the stage towards his seat in the front row.
Now, as the crowd’s shouting diminishes suddenly a deafening sound from nowhere and everywhere as if it were a whirlwind proclaims, “I thought I would pour out my wrath upon you and spend my anger against you in the wilderness. But, I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that I would not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I brought you out. Moreover, I gave you statutes that were not good and ordinances by which you could not live; and I defiled you through your own gifts by demanding you offer to the fire all your first born so I might horrify you, so you will know I AM THE LORD.”
The organizers panic. They try to keep control of the proceedings by hurrying the announcer of the fight onto the stage with microphone in hand. He begins, "Ladies and Gentlemen, in one corner we will have The Innocent standing in for the goodness and kindness of God and human virtue. In the other corner we will have his Adversary standing in defense of the Psalms (especially the 44th), and wisdom of Proverbs. The noise of the crowd increases. Out in the seats a heckler with “King Lear” written across the front of his baseball hat sputters at this spectacle and shouts in a strong bass voice, “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport."
In the wings off stage-right, The One called God smiles with a self-satisfied knowledge and casts his gamble with The Adversary who is standing on stage-left. The Innocent, who in actuality is a stranger from another land, has learned of this God and has come to love and honor Him more greatly than the people in this audience. The Innocent stands on the street at the entrance to the auditorium listening to the noise and hurrah within but is not quite able to make out what is said. He enters and stands at the top of the central aisle that leads down to the stage. One of the organizers recognizes the man and bids his fellows to drag him to the stage, now converted to a ring for the fight.
Satan considers his wager, ”Of what value is faith if practiced only for reward?” He leaves the building, smiling with a self-satisfied knowledge.
Thirty-seven (24) rounds later the Innocent is no more an innocent but a beaten, defeated man who still fights to deny his newly found knowledge that there can be no assurance of reward for the loyal servant; that this God can do ill to a good man. Yet he still clings to his faith in God, even with the knowledge that the crowd has splayed and killed his family and burnt his home and possessions at God’s instigation by a wager with…can it be Himself? Cowering and fearful, the Innocent clings to that Faith in Him even though his Adversary has broken his body.
Now carried by the organizers from the ring into the wings, he lies bloodied and diseased. He has only shouted to God that this cannot be without cause and demands of the Adversary to explain what ill the Innocent has done to merit this defeat.
Unaware a nearby microphone is still turned on, The Gambler still stands in the wings of stage-right, stunned that he has allowed this horribly cruel and capricious thing of his Own to unfold. A tear rolls down the cheek of The Gambler as the Innocent demands this explanation; but as fast as the tear forms, an impulse of unbounded fury rises in his chest. He shouts,” It is so because I wanted it so!”
This final fury cows the Innocent. He is too terrified and too devastated to speak boldly hearing that this ill-made reward for goodness only results from capriciousness. He is determined however to dare a very quietly and a very carefully crafted acknowledgement, “I now see You for who You are and can only fear for us all.”
The crowd staring at the empty stage is stunned and staggered by this argument coming from the PA system. People stand up uneasily. Finally those towards the rear begin to file out. As they leave, a woman turns to her husband and whispers, “This can’t be it. It can’t be all there is, can it? Is this it?” The husband struggles for words, finally muttering under his breath, “No, it can’t be. There must be hope for reward.” Another fellow in the departing crowd who hears the man’s reply to his wife says, “Hey, don’t be too zealous, or too rowdy, find the middle ground. Don’t rock the boat or you’ll get stepped on.”
There in the wings the Innocent struggles to his feet and the Gambler stands in silence. Both are too uncomfortable to look at each other, for their misery is great. Both are devastated by what has unfolded. They squirm in the pain of self-acknowledgement, the Gambler in recognition of who He is, the Innocent in submissive recognition of who God is. Finally The Gambler turns to leave. As He passes the Innocent Man, he speaks tenderly, “I stand by my Word. I will not restore your family but I remember Second Isaiah’s words, today you shall receive double compensation for My sin. Now, I must go away to think of what we have done here today.” He bows his head and his anger is kindled against the words of the crowd, but he repents.
He will be heard no more for 500 years, when at last he will decide finally enough is enough. He will come to say, “I do love these people as I love Myself. I do forgive and I do repent for you are a part of me.”
Amen
Henry Paris, copyright October 6, 2006
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