Interesting post at the connexions blog about the use by Christian preachers of this famous passage from Elie Wiesel’s Night in Easter sermons:
For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed.Behind me, I heard the same man asking: “Where is God now?”
And I heard a voice within me answer him:
“Where is He? Here He is – He is hanging here on the gallows….”
That night the soup tasted of corpses.
I don’t recall any of my pastors using that verse at Lent or Easter, but reading it again, I can certainly see why they would. But the post suggests that in seizing on illustrations like this, written by a Jew who survived the concentration camp, Christians are guilty of dealing too glibly with the horror of the Holocaust. The underlying critique is (I think) that when we take real-life examples of terrible evil and try to explain them away theologically, we are cheapening the experience of the victims. That something as terrible as the Holocaust is better left alone, untouched by pat theological explanations.
Any thoughts? Have you ever heard this (or a similar) passage used in a sermon, and did it strike you as glib or foolish to try and fit it into a theological narrative?
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January 30, 2008 at 21:32
Perhaps we should see in the opposite light. Perhaps we’ve made the death of Christ too glib and relating it to the horrors of the Holocaust makes the horror of the cross all the more real.
January 31, 2008 at 03:10
The suffering and devastation of the Holocaust lead to the reclaiming of the Jewish state of Israel. Out of brokenness, God remade vessels for righteous use.
The death of Christ was also cruel and undeserved. He paid a debt he didn’t owe for a debt we couldn’t hope to pay. His own people crucified Him.
January 31, 2008 at 12:56
I’ve never heard this used in a sermon. I don’t see a problem with it in theory, but the key point (noted by the linked post) is how this text is used. It is a moving image of the brokenness of our world (as is the whole book), and it is entirely appropriate to highlight this. But we truly must be careful not to treat it glibly.
Interstingly, at least one edition of Night (the one I read) is itself published with an introduction written by one of Elie Wiesel’s Christian friends, which explicity invokes the Jew who shared his people’s suffering, on the cross.
February 1, 2008 at 00:17
I agree with Matt. (#1) There is too much horror in the world and we have inured ourselves to most of it. (Especially in the U.S.) If using a passage like this will somehow connect us to the suffering Christ endured for us, and to the suffering in the world around us (pick your holocaust), then that is a good thing. Though, I sometimes think that if I could truly open my heart and conciousness to the suffering in the world, I would lose my mind.
February 1, 2008 at 18:16
Wow. That is an incredibly moving bit. I do agree that understanding mass murders could never be realized through a discussion of theology — but that does not mean it should never be used. No museum display can capture the emotion and the essence of the story, but that does not mean it should not be attempted.
February 3, 2008 at 20:10
I think we can be too glib without a doubt, especially if we allow these things and our ‘pat’ answers to become cliche’s. WE can more easily see Gods hand in things but not so non-believers. To use something to illustrate Gods active prescence needs to be done with wisdom and articulation so that the connection between God and tragedy for example, is clear and not just linked to try and make a point.
February 5, 2008 at 12:10
I think you should be taking this question to some Jews… why not ask what they think?
Being non-Jewish, I don’t think I am qualified to answer this kind of question, any more than a preacher is qualified to presume any insights on the Holocaust.
Christians, stop presuming that YOU know all the answers. It’s time to look outside the box of your church.