A Melted Bible in the Wreckage of 9/11 (Sermon Illustration)

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, photographer, Joel Meyerowitz, spent nine months at Ground Zero, documenting the recovery and the wreckage.

On March 30, 2002, Joel was taking photos inside the area of the south tower, when a fireman called to him and handed him the remains of a Bible that he had found in the debris.

The front of the Bible was obliterated. So the remaining fragments of pages sat open-faced, melted onto a piece of heart-shaped steel. While most of the Bible had been destroyed, the little more than half of a page on top was miraculously preserved.

Of all the pages and all the verses, the melted King James Bible was open to Matthew 5. And the first thing Joel noticed was under the heading “Retaliation” in Mathew 5:38-39 where Jesus says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, you turn the other to him also.”

Joel was stunned. How remarkable is it that of all the fragile pages that survived, it was this passage in the midst of such an unspeakable act of evil?

So Joel wrapped the fragile page of Bible melted on steel in a scarf and held on to the Bible for a number of years, until he decided to donate it in 2010 to the September 11 Memorial Museum.

A photo of the Bible on display in the museum was published in a New York Times article titled, “At 9/11 Memorial, an Enduring Message of Forgiveness”. In the article, Joel is quoted saying, “My astonishment at seeing the page that the Bible was open to made me realize that the Bible’s message survives throughout time, and in every era we interpret its teachings freshly, as the occasion demands.”

Indeed Jesus’ message of forgiveness endures today. No matter what we’ve been through or what has been done to us, it still applies to our situation.

Christ still calls us to forgive today, just as he has forgiven us.

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Source: the New York Times and the History Channel

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