God Sees the Truths, but Waits by Leo Tolstoy is a short story about a man named Ivan Dmitritch Aksyonof who was falsely accused as a murderer, living in a jail cell for twenty six years, and confronted his enemy who really committed the crime he was accused. The title of this story delivers a message that God sees justice and the truth of the situation, but decides to wait for us to learn and experience the plan that God has set for us, whether it is laborious and troublesome. Tolstoy wants us to do our best at what is given to us and learn to cope with unfamiliar situations to be part of God’s plan.
The story starts out by Aksyonof’s wife’s dream she told when Aksyonof was leaving to the Nizhny Fair. She says, “all I know is that I had a bad dream. I dreamt you returned from the town and when you took off your cap I saw that your hair was quite gray.” This foreshadows the future of Aksyonof’s dilemma, where he is arrested and lives in Siberia for twenty six years without seeing his family. The bad dream is the reality and the white beard represents wisdom and an image of a sage. At the moment he was interrogated, the fear in his face has shown guilty to the guards: “…your face and manner betray you! Tell me how you killed him, and how much money you stole.” After he was captured, we was known as “Grandfather,” and “The Saint” to the prison authorities and other convicts because of his meekness. Although he was old, slow, and stoic, he put his faith in God and continuous prayed.
It wasn’t the jail that Aksyonof was trapped, but it was the world itself that he was in filled with suffering and conundrum. Personally, I believe that this was God’s plan to send Aksyonof to the convicts and the prison authorities so he could be an exemplar for them to follow and look upon in God’ image. This is a secular image of what Jesus was to us when he came down on Earth.
New convicts were introduced and one of them was later found out that he was the one who committed the murder Aksyonof was accused of. The convict was a wicked man who was drenched into his own sin and didn’t acknowledge his own indulgence. He even threatened Aksyonof not to tell the authorities about his scheme to escape and it was what Aksyonof exactly did even if he was questioned. Later, the convict wailed for Aksyonof’s forgiveness of his past and his crime. He says, “For the love of God, forgive me!” Finally, Aksyonof absolved the convict’s repentance and dies with levity in heart for he had no desires for anything and waited for the last moment to come.
New convicts were introduced and one of them was later found out that he was the one who committed the murder Aksyonof was accused of. The convict was a wicked man who was drenched into his own sin and didn’t acknowledge his own indulgence. He even threatened Aksyonof not to tell the authorities about his scheme to escape and it was what Aksyonof exactly did even if he was questioned. Later, the convict wailed for Aksyonof’s forgiveness of his past and his crime. He says, “For the love of God, forgive me!” Finally, Aksyonof absolved the convict’s repentance and dies with levity in heart for he had no desires for anything and waited for the last moment to come.
This story was based on a symbol of Jesus’ life on Earth: He entered the cell in the place of the real criminal and taught other convicts in the cell. Jesus entered Earth, where it was filled with filthy sins and desperation of the Jews for salvation, and spread his word all around the world and received a reputation of a teacher and a sage, which was the interpretation of the white beard. Also, the bloody knife symbolizes Jesus death on the cross and the blood he had shed in our placed and covered our sins even though he was innocent. Because of his death, we are forgiven but this can only happen if we are truly sorrowful of what we have done. The death of Aksyonof may delineate Jesus’ death, but it was an image of Tolstoy’s death of how he wanted to die. Ironically, it’s exactly how Tolstoy died in real life. How? He was free from the grudge he was holding against the world and felt inner peace in himself. There was nothing for him to fear or feel heavy inside because he found tranquility in God’s love and justice.
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