“Playing God”?

THURS., MAR. 27, 1997, 6:20 AM
FARM, STUDY

Yesterday you viewed, twice, the Picket Fences story of the heart transplant, with the desire of Howard, the father, to give his heart to his son, Kevin. It raised the issue of assisted suicide for quite a special purpose, and I liked your linking it with the Easter crucifixion story. There is a similarity.

This is Maunday Thursday, the remembrance of My Last Supper with My disciples, as Jesus, followed by the arrest and the trial. Yes, by today’s blunt legal standards I was engaged in a form of assisted suicide. It was not for organ transplantation, of course. It was for “spiritual transplantation”… the continuation of the life of spirit when the body dies. It had to be dramatic, say I, the Triune God. Why? Because that was the way it was to be.

It was the sacrifice of a well-functioning human life for a special benefit that many humans after that could enjoy. As Jesus I was, of course, “from the beginning, am now, and ever shall Be”, but that was a special time in My total “life” – those 33 years as a Jewish baby developing into a flesh and blood man who preached, taught, healed, did a few miracles, and admitted He was the promised Messiah for the Jews.

It now has been almost 2,000 years since that all happened, here in the earth. You Christians celebrated My birth just over 3 months ago. Now you shall remember My last full day on earth, as Jesus, rereading, yet again, the discourse with My disciples in the Gospel of John.

In one way I didn’t want to die, and the Gospel accounts tell of this. Yet it was to be a sacrifice for the good of humankind, and the value of sacrifice has been blunted in your culture. Your medical system is dominated by the principle that every life should be prolonged, almost no matter what the quality of that life is. Your legal system brands any taking of a human life as a crime, including one’s own. And, in general, such a “sacrifice” is seen as selfish and unwarranted.

Suppose that standard had applied in Jerusalem these many years ago. I would have been well-represented in court, and perhaps I would have had to serve some jail time, but I would not have been executed for the charges against Me. And you Christians would have no Easter, as you celebrate it now. Oh, it could have occurred in another way, of course, but that was how it was to be.

Howard wanted to give his still well-functioning heart to his son, Kevin, whose heart would soon fail. But this would mean that Howard would die. The court said the medical establishment could not “play God” and determine which lived and which died. Yet the court, the judge, “played God”, ruling that the “natural” must prevail, even, in this case, it being that the young man would die, leaving children without parents, while the old, mentally deteriorating man must live on.

The assumption was, paradoxically, that I, as God, wanted it this way. I wanted it to be “natural” that the young would die and the old would live on… that My basic desire is “survival of the fittest”. And yet you also assume that I am in favor of your medical system that can save and prolong lives, including by organ transplants. Am I schizophrenic… or just in favor of both/and?

You said to the class that you, being Howard’s age, would sacrifice the rest of your life, now mostly lived, to insure the life of one of your sons. That is as it should be. Live life fully, as I did, as Jesus… but give it up if there is a reason beyond just your survival. “Greater love hath no man that this… that he lay down his life for a friend”… and certainly a son.