I brought this question to my students!
A father and his, one and only, son love each other very much. The two are nearly inseparable. One day, the son asks his father if he can join him at the bridge. The bridge is where his father works as an operator - raising a drawbridge when a boat must pass and lowering it when the train arrives.
On the one day that his son joins his father at work, a train arrives early and the bridge is up. His son tries to alert his father the train is coming, but his father cannot hear him. So, the boy rushes to the base of the bridge to throw the switch manually, enabling the drawbridge to drop and let the train safely pass. But, as he tries, he falls into the drawbridge wheel and pulley mechanism. At that moment, from the tower, his father sees his son fall and the train coming toward the bridge at full steam. He has only a moment to decide. He must do one of two things .
a. Save his son and let the train wreck with hundreds of passengers on board (who will surely die when it plunges hundreds of feet into the icy waters below).
OR
b. Save the train by pulling the lever at the tower that will lower the bridge, but will cause his son to be crushed.
1. You're the father, what would you do if those were your only two options?
My girls thought the knew the "right" answer. I had to convince them that was no "right" answer. I try to get them to think outside the christian box. The "right" answer would be to save the people on the train and let your son die because that would segway nicely into the crucifiction comparison. I brought it in a little different direction. I asked my girls to ponder what they would really do. I don't have kids yet so i can't know for sure what I would do, but I so have friends that have kids. If it was my best friend's daugher, Kariana or one of my friend Chrissy's kids I dont think i would even hesitate. I have known these kids since they were born. They aren't my children but I would risk my life for these kids. Would watching Kariana die be worth saving 100 people that i don't know...I don't think it would be.
I know if I would be willing to save someone else's child that I would definetly save my own. When God looked down at his son dieing for all of us he could have stopped it but he didn't. God had all the power in the world to stop the crucifiction but he loved us so much that he let his son die. Aren't you glad that God isn't like us. Knowing that I couldnt watch my child die makes what God did so much more special. I can't even imagine how hard it must of have been for God to watch his son die.
I had my girls read John 3:16 and think about what that really meant. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son so that who ever believed in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
2. What if you were the son? How would you feel?
Would you understand what your father was doing or would you be thinking about self-preservation? Even Jesus asked God to change his mind about what was going to happen to him, but he was willing to do God's will. He understood why he had to die.
On the one day that his son joins his father at work, a train arrives early and the bridge is up. His son tries to alert his father the train is coming, but his father cannot hear him. So, the boy rushes to the base of the bridge to throw the switch manually, enabling the drawbridge to drop and let the train safely pass. But, as he tries, he falls into the drawbridge wheel and pulley mechanism. At that moment, from the tower, his father sees his son fall and the train coming toward the bridge at full steam. He has only a moment to decide. He must do one of two things .
a. Save his son and let the train wreck with hundreds of passengers on board (who will surely die when it plunges hundreds of feet into the icy waters below).
OR
b. Save the train by pulling the lever at the tower that will lower the bridge, but will cause his son to be crushed.
1. You're the father, what would you do if those were your only two options?
My girls thought the knew the "right" answer. I had to convince them that was no "right" answer. I try to get them to think outside the christian box. The "right" answer would be to save the people on the train and let your son die because that would segway nicely into the crucifiction comparison. I brought it in a little different direction. I asked my girls to ponder what they would really do. I don't have kids yet so i can't know for sure what I would do, but I so have friends that have kids. If it was my best friend's daugher, Kariana or one of my friend Chrissy's kids I dont think i would even hesitate. I have known these kids since they were born. They aren't my children but I would risk my life for these kids. Would watching Kariana die be worth saving 100 people that i don't know...I don't think it would be.
I know if I would be willing to save someone else's child that I would definetly save my own. When God looked down at his son dieing for all of us he could have stopped it but he didn't. God had all the power in the world to stop the crucifiction but he loved us so much that he let his son die. Aren't you glad that God isn't like us. Knowing that I couldnt watch my child die makes what God did so much more special. I can't even imagine how hard it must of have been for God to watch his son die.
I had my girls read John 3:16 and think about what that really meant. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son so that who ever believed in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
2. What if you were the son? How would you feel?
Would you understand what your father was doing or would you be thinking about self-preservation? Even Jesus asked God to change his mind about what was going to happen to him, but he was willing to do God's will. He understood why he had to die.
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