Playing Dice While God Dies

One

The Soldiers

Picture the scene: Three men are hanging on pieces of wood, great metal spikes driven through their wrists and feet. Blood is everywhere. The men go limp, and then, when they can’t breathe, they gasp and cry out as they try to leverage the holes in their limbs to pull themselves up to take a breath. Women are crying, among them the most beautiful woman the world has ever seen. Some men are hurling hateful taunts to the man in the middle, the same man the beautiful woman is closest to. And every now and then, that Man being tortured to death in the most grisly way imaginable, every now and then He speaks words of love, words of forgiveness, and sometimes words so full of pain that they cut you like a knife.

It’s the strangest sight the world has ever seen. The beauty and the brutality, the love and the hatred. Who could not be astonished? Who could not be mesmerized by the horrible, but profound event?

But no, look, there in the middle of the whole thing are a couple of men, crouched on the ground, ignoring everything around them. What are they looking at? What could be so absorbing, so fascinating, that it’s more interesting than what’s happening all around them? Get closer. What are they doing? Peek over their heads, and see. No, it can’t be! How is it possible?

God is dying. It’s the hour of darkness, the ultimate blasphemy. It’s the triumph of goodness, the ultimate victory of love. It’s the supreme moment in all space and time. And these men are missing it all because they’re playing a little game of chance, as they cast lots for a piece of clothing.

Two

What Was Wrong with Them?

So many people knew something big was happening, up there at Calvary on Good Friday. People had a sense, even people who’d never known Jesus before. People like the Centurian who recognized that this was the Son of God. Or people like Dismas, the good thief, who begged for Christ’s mercy.

The whole feel of the event, it wasn’t just an ordinary execution. People saw it. They felt it.

But not the soldiers who played a little game there in the dirt. They couldn’t feel it. They couldn’t see it. And sitting right there, right in the midst of the most cosmic event in all history, they completely missed it. Why? Why did they miss it? What was wrong with them?

Three

The Work-Entertainment Binary

We don’t know much about those soldiers. But we do know that they liked to switch instantly from work to entertaining themselves. We know that up on the hill of Golgotha, as soon as they’d completed their hideous work of crucifixion, they looked for a way to fritter away the time while the men asphyxiated on their crosses.

We can imagine that if those Roman soldiers had lived today, instead of playing dice for a cloak, they would have all had their cell-phones out, texting and looking at news sites and sports stats. Maybe doing a little online gambling. And this work/entertainment binary, this blinded them to the spiritual world.

Because to recognize the things of the spirit, you have to be able to sit quiet and still and contemplate. You have to train your mind to meditate. You have to be comfortable with not getting anything practical done, and you have to be comfortable with not being constantly amused. You have to be able to be still, and quiet, and consider the meaning of life, and the reality of other people, and the workings of providence.

That attitude will allow you to be open to the things of God. Without that attitude, you will miss the most crucial things of life. Even if they’re right in front of you. 

Four

Lost Innocence

The other thing we can probably guess about those Roman soldiers is that they had gotten used to seeing people die horribly. In other words, they’d been overexposed to so much disorder, so much cruelty and violence and hatred, that they couldn’t really be surprised by much anymore. To put it simply, they’d lost their innocence.

Now a lot of times, people think innocence means naiveté, a kind of cluelessness. But actually, innocence isn’t ignorance. It’s not a lack of knowledge, in fact, it’s just the opposite.

Innocence is a kind of clarity, a clear-sightedness. Just like you can see reality most clearly through a window that hasn’t been smudged. So you can see the world most clearly through a mind that hasn’t been polluted with filth and twistedness. Those soldiers had polluted their minds with cruelty and torture, and who knows what else. The eye of their mind had been blurred to the point of blindness.

So what are we exposing ourselves to? Are we keeping our intellectual, mental, and spiritual innocence? Or are we flooding our senses and our minds with perverse sexual or violent imagery, angry reports, malicious gossip? If so, don’t expect to be able to see the things of God when they present themselves. If you willingly blind yourself through corruption, the Lord will visit you, but you won’t be able to see Him.

Five

Playing Dice as We Die

The soldiers played dice as God died. The time of repentance, of faith, was at hand, and they missed it. And now we are dying. Each second, each hour, and each day brings each one of us inexorably closer to death.

This is the time of repentance, of faith, for us. Will we lose ourselves in entertainment, in filling our heads with distracting and disordered thoughts and images? Or will we recognize our Savior when He comes?

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.

• This week, avoid multitasking. Put your phone down when you’re with others or when you’re watching something else. Put your work away at home. Eat dinner without something playing in the background. Practice focusing on one thing at a time.

• What are you becoming desensitized to? Cut out graphic media and relearn innocence. Intentionally avoid violent and vulgar images this week.