CURE International is an organization that builds hospitals in impoverished areas of the world, offering needed surgeries and medical help, particularly to children with birth defects (who are usually being ostracized by their society). Tragically, one of their doctors was murdered last week, along with two others. From their CEO:
It is with deep sadness that I write today, mourning the loss of three lives that were taken by force at the CURE International Hospital compound in Kabul, Afghanistan.
One of these men, Dr. Jerry Umanos...had faithfully served the Afghan people as a pediatrician at the hospital for more than seven years, caring for the most vulnerable members of society—children and premature infants—and helping them survive the harsh realities of childbirth in Afghanistan....
The shooter was not an employee of CURE International, but rather a member of the Afghan police detail assigned to protect the hospital. The assailant shot himself after the attack and was taken into surgery by Jerry’s colleagues at the hospital before being transferred out of our facility into the custody of the government of Afghanistan [emphasis added].
Why did Christianity create a civilization where people seek to heal those lowest on the societal ladder, at great cost to themselves? Because “Jesus...although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.... He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” for us.
Because Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and said, “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
In humility Jesus served us; in humility we serve others.
Why did Christianity create a civilization where people heal their enemies? Because “while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Because “while we were enemies,” while we “were by nature children of wrath...God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.”
By grace God gave to us; by grace we give to others.
Do not take for granted that what Christianity has built will always be.