One of the greatest tragedies in modern history has fascinated the minds of thousands, and inspired countless book based on the happenings. There are myriad opinion pieces, firsthand survival accounts, and prequels pointing to the event of the Jewish Holocaust in the 1940s. The picture proof of the survivors’ skin and bones and the hollow looks in their eyes speak volumes about the horrors they endured. The worst part? These atrocities were caused by human beings, and not some unexplainable plague or natural disaster.
As the allied forces liberated camps and brought relief, the natural instinct of the Allied GI’s was to give food to these poor souls. They were given chocolate bars, crackers and jam, and other rich foods that surely had shown up in the prisoners’ dreams during the years they had existed behind barbed wire. To the liberators’ horror, many of the survivors died not long after their first meal.
“It is estimated that 500 POWs from Auschwitz concentration camp and as many as 14,000 from the Belsen concentration camp—most famously known as the site where Anne Frank’s family died upon capture—died of refeeding syndrome.”[1]
What wasn’t understood at that time became a point of study for scientists and doctors over the next few decades. Simply put, the bodies of the survivors were not ready to eat food at such a high volume, as the chemistry of their bodies had changed to barely survive. They needed a slow introduction to food and water again, to give their systems a chance to reform back into a healthy metabolic process involving calories, fats, and electrolytes.
Jesus’ method never fails, but it does take patience.
It’s a process
Jesus stood in front of a victim to blindness and was asked if healing could be a possibility. Instead of just healing the man with a single touch as He had done on other similar occasions, Jesus touches the man twice while asking him questions, demonstrating a process in giving this man the gift of sight. Little did the disciples know, this was not the only blind man that needed saving from his condition that day.
The disciples are asked, “. . .But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him (Mark 8:29, 30, ESV).
The disciples may have known that the man standing in front of them was the Messiah, but they had a very different idea of what Messiahship entailed. Not only were they blinded to this, but most of Israel was as well, hence Jesus’ warning to not spread this accurate information far and wide.
As Seventh-day Adventists we have been blessed with so much truth from the Word of God. The spirit of living in God’s Word is the spirit that has kept our church out of many pitfalls and is something for which we should praise God. However, as Paul put it, there is time for the milk of the Word and the meat of the Word. Jesus demonstrated this concept with the blind men and the disciples in this chapter, as He allows truth and light to be revealed to them in a calculated method, building from a foundation. To me, that is a really hard thing to do, especially when I have so much life-changing information to give to my neighbors and friends.
God has given us an abundance of truth, but if my neighbor is asking for help with an alcohol problem, the present truth for him at that time is the freedom sobriety brings and not necessarily the Sabbath truth. Does this make the Sabbath less true or important? God forbid! It’s just not the truth that my neighbor needs now. But there will be a time that the healing truth of the Sabbath can be shared.
Too much information
This brings us back to refeeding syndrome. Jesus knew that too much information for the children of Israel would be too shocking, too much for their national pride to bear. He hadn’t come to conquer the Romans. He wasn’t that kind of a Messiah! Instead of boldly advertising Himself as such to the masses, He chose at this point in His ministry to show the fruits of the One who sent Him. He planted the seeds that would grow into a powerful early church, which would take place after He had left. He didn’t want to overwater the seed or give it too much fertilizer. It would choke out the plant!
Far too often, we as Christians become so overwhelmed with zeal to share the truth with others, that we ignore the intelligent example of Jesus in observing what truth is needed at that time, at that place, and for that individual who may possibly be open to heavenly wisdom.
May we also stop to consider that perhaps there is some unknown truth God is still waiting to teach us—not only as individuals, but as a church! This is the spirit and definition of present truth. “We must not think, ‘Well, we have all the truth.’. . .The truth is an advancing truth, and we must walk in the increasing light.”[2]
God has used this same method of teaching us as a people as well. This was apparent in the early stages of our church, as we came to understand the precious light that had been so darkened and cast by the wayside in times past that no one viewed them anymore.
Perhaps you recognize that God has been gentle with you as He has patiently molded your character, like a potter, not going too fast, making sure the product is a quality one.
Jesus is continuing to work on all of us, and from time to time, He uses us in the process of sharing truth with one another. Let’s remember the example of Jesus and be patient with those who God brings in our path. May we have enough social intelligence to ask questions, and discern where people are spiritually, looking for the topic to bridge the conversation into a heavenly one. Jesus’ method never fails, but it does take patience.
Will you let the spirit of present truth guide your interactions today?
[1] https://westcorkpeople.ie/columnists/the-history-corner-columnists/when-food-can-kill-a-lesson-from-wwii/
[2] Ellen G. White, Evangelism (Washington D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1946), p. 296