You might want to hear me out completely before responding (if you so choose to do so)...
A few lines in the conversation between the “Big Ghost” and a spirit (the redeemed murderer) in The Great Divorce caught my attention:
"I will tell you one thing to begin with. Murdering old Jack wasn’t the worst thing I did. That was the work of a moment and I was half mad when I did it. But I murdered you in my heart, deliberately, for years. I used to lie awake at night thinking what I’d do to you if I ever got the chance. That is why I have been sent to you now: to ask your forgiveness and to be your servant as long as you need one, and longer if it pleases you.[1]"
I am wrestling with the idea of asking forgiveness and offering servant hood to another human being in order to justify our sin against them in Heaven. I am not questioning whether forgiveness and servant hood have a place in Heaven. I don’t believe Heaven would be Heaven without forgiveness or service. Nor do I feel that all that is said and done here on earth will be totally forgotten in Heaven.
My only fear is that this idea (of Heavenly service justifying sin) has the potential of downplaying Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Or does it? If Christ’s salvation is sufficient for us, why must we be “sent” to offer ourselves in service as a means of retribution or redemption? And why does this sound a bit like slavery? Does an eternity of service justify (or over-justify) a finite amount of sin? Perhaps, the words “I have been sent to you now” bother me most. If the spirit “sent” himself, or volunteered, or better yet if it were his own original idea, this would be an entirely different situation.
Why would God “send” one human being to another with this agenda? That is, assuming that God has done the sending. But who else could? When we sin, are we sinning against God or man? Or is it both? Is Christ’s sacrifice only meant to reconcile our relationship with God, not our relationships with other humans? Christ has done what we cannot (make a relationship with a Holy God possible); is the rest (our broken relationships with each other) left for us to redeem? Are we even capable of truly reconciling our relationships with each other in Heaven or on earth? I have never entertained this idea before.
The spirit continues in saying, “I was the worst. But all the men who worked under you felt the same. You made it hard for us, you know. And you made it hard for your wife too and for your children” [2] I feel it is crucial to understand that The Big Ghost and the spirit have both sinned against each other. There is a mutual need for each one to ask forgiveness from and to serve the other. Perhaps this idea becomes more fluid when one remembers that sin is often mutually exchanged in human relationships. Mutual service is not slavery. It is community.
[1] Lewis, C.S., The Great Divorce. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001 (pg 29-30).
[2] Lewis, The Great Divorce (pg. 30).
A few lines in the conversation between the “Big Ghost” and a spirit (the redeemed murderer) in The Great Divorce caught my attention:
"I will tell you one thing to begin with. Murdering old Jack wasn’t the worst thing I did. That was the work of a moment and I was half mad when I did it. But I murdered you in my heart, deliberately, for years. I used to lie awake at night thinking what I’d do to you if I ever got the chance. That is why I have been sent to you now: to ask your forgiveness and to be your servant as long as you need one, and longer if it pleases you.[1]"
I am wrestling with the idea of asking forgiveness and offering servant hood to another human being in order to justify our sin against them in Heaven. I am not questioning whether forgiveness and servant hood have a place in Heaven. I don’t believe Heaven would be Heaven without forgiveness or service. Nor do I feel that all that is said and done here on earth will be totally forgotten in Heaven.
My only fear is that this idea (of Heavenly service justifying sin) has the potential of downplaying Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Or does it? If Christ’s salvation is sufficient for us, why must we be “sent” to offer ourselves in service as a means of retribution or redemption? And why does this sound a bit like slavery? Does an eternity of service justify (or over-justify) a finite amount of sin? Perhaps, the words “I have been sent to you now” bother me most. If the spirit “sent” himself, or volunteered, or better yet if it were his own original idea, this would be an entirely different situation.
Why would God “send” one human being to another with this agenda? That is, assuming that God has done the sending. But who else could? When we sin, are we sinning against God or man? Or is it both? Is Christ’s sacrifice only meant to reconcile our relationship with God, not our relationships with other humans? Christ has done what we cannot (make a relationship with a Holy God possible); is the rest (our broken relationships with each other) left for us to redeem? Are we even capable of truly reconciling our relationships with each other in Heaven or on earth? I have never entertained this idea before.
The spirit continues in saying, “I was the worst. But all the men who worked under you felt the same. You made it hard for us, you know. And you made it hard for your wife too and for your children” [2] I feel it is crucial to understand that The Big Ghost and the spirit have both sinned against each other. There is a mutual need for each one to ask forgiveness from and to serve the other. Perhaps this idea becomes more fluid when one remembers that sin is often mutually exchanged in human relationships. Mutual service is not slavery. It is community.
[1] Lewis, C.S., The Great Divorce. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001 (pg 29-30).
[2] Lewis, The Great Divorce (pg. 30).
posted by yogeert at 1:43 PM
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