Controlling the dog
In a recent letter to the President of Norway, Donald Trump stated that “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace” . I’m not going to comment on whether President Trump deserves the peace prize, but it is very clear that he thinks he does. It is also pretty clear that he’s very unhappy that he’s not going to get it.
It reminded me uncomfortably of an episode in any own life where I didn’t get what I deserved. I had been a leader in a church where I had worked incredibly hard. After some years I decided to step down. As often happens in these situations I was very unhappy at the way the new leadership was running the church and eventually told them I was leaving. Of course I was secretly hoping that they would beg me not to leave. After all I had been a key leader in the church and surely worthy of special treatment. You can imagine how I felt when far from asking me to stay they calmly waved me goodbye. Never had an ego been so brutally deflated! To my shame I seethed for about two weeks afterwards.
Contrast that with Jesus. When his ego was attacked the response was one of forgiveness rather than outrage. As he hung on the cross the religious leaders mocked him as did the general crowd. “Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God”, they cried along with other insults. His response? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. The very one who could have taken revenge instead offered forgiveness. Our egos are a bit like a wild dog. Safe when chained up, but causing chaos and pain when let off the leash. Jesus laid aside his ego so that he could complete God’s mission. A mission which involved him dying in our place so that our sins could be forgiven. In a way the religious leaders were right. He couldn’t come down from the cross. Our sin was keeping him there.