The Grand Inquisitor

I've just come back from a theatre production of 'The Grand Inquisitor' at the Nutfield theatre, which is located on the campus of University of Southampton. The Guardian's review of the play, when it ran at the Barbican in London, can be read here.

The play, which was really good, was a dramatization of the passage of the same name in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

What really hit we was the inquisitor's question/accusation to Christ:

"Or dost Thou care only for the tens of thousands of the great and strong, while the millions, numerous as the sands of the sea, who are weak but love Thee, must exist only for the sake of the great and strong?"

I really wrestle with the thought that God only is interested in the "great and strong", i.e. whose who are able follow Jesus in is love and suffering?

Although it might not be an answers to inquisitor's or my question, I find hope in looking at the disciples of Jesus. They were not "great and strong". The only thing special about them was that they, unlike the other disciples, didn't leave Jesus. They stayed close to the person who had the words of life.

So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." - John 6:67-68. New Revised Standard Version.