Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a man of huge contradictions. He was born into the wealthiest class in Russia in the 1800’s; and though he took advantage of all the benefits of his privileged life, he despised his wealth and was envious of the simple life of the poor. He is considered by many to be the greatest novelist the world has ever known; yet, he would grow tired of writing and would quit for years at a time, spending much of his time as a field hand. He struggled mightily with the words of Jesus and wrote powerful books on what it meant to really follow Jesus with all your heart and mind and soul, obeying him in absolutely everything. And when he wasn’t writing books on whole-hearted obedience to Christ, he was in bed with the female servants in the family’s huge mansion. He wrote books on the duties of the governing authorities before God, and would thunder on about God’s coming judgment on their disobedience, violence, and injustice. Those books influenced many world leaders, including Gandhi, who influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela; and so it might be said that Tolstoy did much for world peace. Yet, there was never any peace in his own home, as he could be so overbearing and miserable to his own wife and children that they could hardly stand to have him around. Leo Tolstoy was a very good man and he was a very bad man.
Tolstoy despised his wealth and felt he could live more like Jesus if he lived the simple life of the poor farm-hands who worked his fields. He wrote wonderful stories about value of physical labor, and about the dignity of the poor. At times, especially as a young man, he would attempt to live their life for a while, working along side of them in the fields, sharing their meager food, and sleeping in their primitive cottages. So Tolstoy was shocked one day when, in a friendly conversation, one of the poor workers told him, “We are not impressed, Leo, by your coming to live like us. You’ve always got your rich father to fall back on. You can leave this poverty any time it gets too rough for you, but we cannot. If it is a bad year in the fields, we won’t have enough to eat and some of us will die. But you won’t. You will go back to the big house with plenty of food. You’ve done it before and you’ll do it again. You aren’t one of us, Leo,” they said to him, “you just like to pretend you are one of us, until you get tired of it.”
The Gospel tells us that Jesus ‘took our place’ by dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. I began by telling you about Leo Tolstoy because what Tolstoy attempted was in fact, a very Christ-like thing to do. Tolstoy left his privileged position to live the life of the poor. Jesus left an infinitely more privileged position, the position of God in heaven, to come to earth and live the life of the people he created. The difference was that Jesus was playing for keeps. He came to earth to stay. He experienced all the joys of human life; a loving family, good friends, rewarding work, good food, and all the rest. But Jesus also experienced all the very worst that human life has to offer; poverty, danger, temptation, grief at the death of loved ones, rejection, betrayal, injustice, extreme pain and agony, death, and even hell. Unlike Tolstoy, Jesus lived an entire life, even unto life’s bitter end, without escaping to the comfort of his father’s house. The only thing Jesus had to fall back on was the same relief and comfort and strength that we are offered, that which comes from the promises of God’s Word, and from turning to the Heavenly Father in prayer. Jesus certainly did ‘take our place’ by becoming one of us in every way.
Then on the cross, Jesus took our place in an even deeper and more profound way. Jesus took upon himself the punishment for our sins that we deserved, dying for us and even going to hell for us, so that we might live with him in heaven. While we were helpless, sinners, and enemies of God, Christ died for us, said Paul, taking upon himself the curse that should have been ours.
The Bible describes a God of love who is, at the same time, a just God. In his infinite justice and wisdom, God could not simply overlook all the sins of all the world. “The wages of sin is death,” says the Bible. Right after the first sin, God told Adam and Eve they would return to the dust from which they were created. So, we were helpless, and there was nothing we could do to atone for our many sins. The only way such an infinite number of sins could be taken care of was by an infinite being taking upon himself the just punishment for all that sin. So on the cross Jesus forgave our sins by becoming our substitute. (continued tomorrow…)
