Today's Reading
I have heard some people complain that if Jesus was
God as well as man, then His sufferings and death lose all value in
their eyes, ‘because it must have been so easy for Him’. Others may
(very rightly) rebuke the ingratitude and ungraciousness of this
objection;
[what staggers me] is the misunderstanding () it betrays.
In one
sense, of course, [those //who make it] are right.
They have even
understated their own case.
The perfect submission, the perfect
suffering, the perfect death were not only easier to Jesus because He
was God,
but were possible only because He was God.
But surely that is a
very odd reason /for not accepting them?
The teacher is able to form the
letters for the child /because the teacher is grown-up and knows how to
write.
That, of course, makes it easier for the teacher; and only
because it is easier for him can he help the child.
If it rejected him
because ‘it’s easy for grown-ups’ and waited to learn writing from
another child //who could not write itself (and so had no ‘unfair’
advantage), it would not get on very quickly.
If I am drowning in a
rapid river, [a man //who still has one foot on the bank] may give me a hand
//which saves my life.
Ought I to shout back (between my gasps) ‘No, it’s
not fair! You have an advantage! You’re keeping one foot on the bank’?
That advantage—call it ‘unfair’ if you like—is the only reason //why he
can be of any use to me.
To what will you look for help /if you will not
look /to that which is stronger than yourself?
From Mere Christianity
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity.
Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S.
Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of
HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.