Power Point - October 31, 2005

October 31, 2005

 

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

                             --Matthew 5:3

 

Chuck Colson, in a brilliant essay that he wrote several years ago, spoke of watching Sixty Minutes and a Mike Wallace interview with a survivor of Auschwitz death camp named Yehiel DeNur. He was a principle witness at the Nuremberg trials in 1961 in which the war criminals were judged.

 

As Wallace was interviewing DeNur, film clips and footage were displayed of the Nuremberg trials. At one point, Adolph Eichmann, the menacing mastermind under Hitler who facilitated the death and destruction of the Jews in Nazi Germany, came face to face with DeNur. The footage showed DeNur as he began to sob uncontrollably to the point that he collapsed and fainted.

 

Wallace asked DeNur, “Why did you collapse and cry so violently? Was it fear? Was it the terrible memories of the past? Was it your bitter hatred for Eichmann?”

 

DeNur said, “No, none of that at all. When I saw him, I saw myself. I realized that this man was just an ordinary man like me. And when I looked into his face after all those years, I realized that I am just as capable of this kind of crime!”

 

At the conclusion of the program, Wallace summarized by saying, “Adolf Eichmann is in all of us.” What a vivid portrayal of human nature apart from Jesus Christ. Why is it that it seems this part of mankind is so seldom addressed today? As a matter of fact, many preachers in many pulpits never even bring up the subject of sin. Why is it that we’re afraid to face our sins? Could it be that we don’t want to see ourselves in our sinful human nature?

 

We’re also living in a society of the vanishing conscience in which the ultimate expression of personhood is to get over guilt and never feel it again. When we realize our poverty and brokenness, then and only then can the grace of God deliver us from our guilt and sin.

 

WITHOUT GOD WE ARE HOPELESSLY LOST AND CONDEMNED IN OUR SIN—DESPITE PAST HISTORY, FAMILY BACKGROUND, OR LIFE’S MISTAKES.