April 15, 2022

Good Friday, Easter Week, in the year of our Lord 2022.

“Dilemma and Despair”

Reading the Passion Story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ last evening (from Matthew 26-28), I am struck by the poignancy of the passion of Christ set in juxtaposition to the horrible suffering in Ukraine.  There are many Christians in Ukraine, suffering now persecution even unto death in an attempt to save their democratically elected country from the naked aggression and madness of Vladimir Putin, authoritarian communist ruler of Russia, elected without democracy.

The suffering of the people of Ukraine is similar to the undeserved suffering of our Savior, who died for all our sins, including for those full of evil intent and lust for power.  Matthew records that Judas the betrayer repented of his sin of betraying the innocent Christ, throwing the thirty pieces of silver back at the feet of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who arranged the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ (in God’s holy plan).  One wonders if Putin can repent, even if he chose to do so.

The undeserved suffering of the Ukrainian people and their courage and the courage of their elected President Zelensky in the face of this military onslaught is a new passion drama playing out in the western world, reminding us that we are also guilty of the crucifixion of this democracy, since until now we have not fully stood up to the evil in order to liberate the people of Ukraine from their presumed fate.

We, including all of us, have not been willing to lay down our lives for these suffering people, as President Zelensky continues to remind us all, from the UN security council, which “provides no security”, to the Western democracies which will not risk a direct confrontation with Putin by closing the Ukrainian skies to Putin’s planes, even while these planes wreak untold destruction on thousands of God’s children.  It will, or course, mean World War III, which as President Zelensky says has “already begun.”  He is correct to say that Putin will not stop on the borders of Ukraine, as his intent is to rewrite the legacy of World War II and to try and permanently change how NATO, the USA and Europe interface the USSR.  Most telling are his warnings to Ukraine, Finland and Sweden not to join the NATO alliance.

If we understood that we are all threatened by the attempted takeover of Ukraine by Putin, we would not hesitate to go to war against him on February 24, 2022, when World War III began.  Our hesitancy and our cowardliness will cost us greatly in the longer term.  While we have angst about the price of oil and gasoline and the cost of food, we stand idly by (with the exception of proxy weapons and advice) and watch the senseless slaughter of an undeserving, suffering servant people, who represent the best of us all!  Putin understands only one thing, and that is power.  I am not sure he would risk annihilating his whole country and the world to achieve his objective of takeover of Ukraine.  It would be foolish at best and stupid, as what he wants is power.  Where is his power if his country is destroyed and he has no one left to rule?

If we are not willing to die for our democratic way of life then for what are we willing to die?  In this case, there is no pacification of this new Hitler on the world scene.  I advocate going to war against him for the sake of all our democracies.  If we are unwilling to risk everything, we have nothing worth saving!  This will entail countless suffering of us all.  But persons afraid to die are afraid to live.  We cannot sacrifice the innocent people of Ukraine for the maintenance of the current world order.  Let’s steel ourselves for war, go to war against Putin and complete what we say we believe.  Diplomacy has failed and will never succeed in this situation.  If Putin lost one city in Russia for every city he destroys in Ukraine, I think he might reconsider his aggression. This would mean a real war and not a proxy battle.  We would uphold the democratic ideals we say we espouse.  But do we have the courage to do it?  I suspect not.  We have grown too fat and too timid to risk giving up our own wealth and our economic well being to suffer for anything worth dying for.  We will muddle along while Putin destroys the world, our freedoms and our democratic way of life.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women] are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”   This we believe, or do we…

From the Christian perspective, the suffering and death of Ukraine is part of God’s plan for the coming of Jesus as Ruler of the world.  The 5^th seal of the Revelation of Christ (chapter 6, verses 9 -11) tells us that there are many who will be martyred for the faith of Jesus, in giving testimony to Christ’s suffering before the end of the world comes.  The world democracies will not go to war but will manage to accommodate evil both naked and fully clothed until the end comes, “the wheat and the tares growing together.”  Jesus has other plans, it seems, for us all. 

Should Christians wait in silence when our brothers, sisters and their children die?  I think not.  Whatever God has for the world in the ultimate plan of Jesus’s return, we are not required to wait in silence!  For God’s sake and in Jesus’s holy name, let us say and do something!   On this holy Easter week, on this good Friday, in remembrance of our Savior’s death, let us not keep silence!  Let us not go with gentleness into that good night, but fight on with the weapons of our warfare, doing good to those who de spitefully use us and stand in solidarity with the suffering people of Ukraine!  There is the silence of the grave, but thank God, this is not the last word to be said!  As it has been so eloquently said, “it’s Friday now, but Sunday is coming!” (Tony Campello)

Bill Wilson, MD