Facing the Fire

I watched the video last week of the burning alive of the Jordanian Pilot by the Islamic radicals. With no disrespect meant for the dead man, I must confess I found myself watching it several times. I don’t really recommend most people watch it; it is a brutal and horrifying thing. That being said the video I saw was, I thought, a very well produced video. Were it filmed purely as fiction and derived out of Hollywood it would have been in some circles highly touted. While many people are not fans of violent movies, we must admit we Americans like our violence. In America alone the movie series titled Saw and its subsequent sequels have earned over 400 million dollars. Apparently a whole bunch of us entertain ourselves by watching sick and perverted movies, me included.

But watching this was different; it was real. It was a human being who was not only killed, but was put through in excruciating time of terror in the execution of his death sentence. I watched it several times because I wondered what that man was thinking. He looked to be in complete and utter fear. He looked to be praying as he waited for the fire to get to him. He appeared to suffer greatly for a good while until the flames finally brought him to his death. I have seen many terrible things in my life. This may have been the worst.

I am a thinker; I like to mull things over in my mind and explore the possibilities of what occurs in life. Some say I think too much. I don’t know; it’s just what I do. So I spent the evening thinking about what I saw.

The question that kept popping up in my mind is this; In light of the world today how would I react if I faced a death as this man did? As a Christian I like to believe I will die before renouncing my faith in Jesus. As a husband will I die for my wife? Will I die for my children and grandchildren? It is easy to say I would. But I bet that Jordanian Pilot had training for handling himself in a POW scenario. I was merely a Missouri Army National Guard MP and I once went through a POW training program. I was young and cocky. I was afraid of nothing. I don’t know the pilot in the video so I do not wish to discredit or dishonor him in any way but most likely he was like me. But all that changed as he stood in that cell watching fire head towards him. Suffering and death are not easy things to face. How would I respond?

Being a Christian is about having faith. If there is one thing that we must understand though it is that we cannot have faith in ourselves. The Bible is filled with great stories of faith; stories of men who God led through some horrible things. But the real message of those stories is the weakness of the “great” men of faith. As we read our Bibles we must read the entire story. Abraham failed God many times. Noah went from being the only man righteous enough to be saved from the flood to being drunk and naked. How about Moses? He never entered the Promised Land because he wanted to add to God’s way instead of just following orders. David? Look at the mess he made of things. How about Peter? “I will never deny you Jesus”, he said. Oops. In his humanity Jesus prayed in the garden for another way if possible. He was so stressed out by the knowledge of what was coming that He actually sweated blood. But then hear His prayer from Matthew 26:39 “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

None of us know what the next hour may bring. Most likely we will not face death by fire. But we must be prepared to trust God in whatever comes our way. But the Bible is in many a ways a paradox. To live, we must die. To be strong we must be weak. This runs contrary to our proud nature. So my heart goes out to that man who suffered such a horrible death in the cage burned alive. But his death was not in vain for in it I am reminded of another man who died a horrible death. Jesus suffered terribly. But in it came victory over death. We need not fear it. Instead let us boldly proclaim our faith. Then let us boldly die to our own way and let us be weak so that in Christ we can find the strength to face the day. May God richly bless all who hear and obey Him.