With great thanks to my reader, I have given the inclusion of that phrase from Jesus' imagined dialog in yesterday's blog a great deal of thought. I appreciate the fact that it may have appeared to be a sinful, humanistic expression. The more I have examined it, the more I understand that those imagined words represent an outcry acknowledging all that was and is wrong with us. Jesus knew that despite His death on the cross, human kind would continue along a self-destructive path.
His disciples knew Him with an intimacy we can only imagine. For three years they ate, slept, and travelled with Him but in the end, their human, sinful natures won out. Greed, fear, and even shame caused them to betray and abandon Him in His hour of need.
Throughout His life, Jesus walked with the broken and the maimed. He healed, He taught, He loved on humanity like no one else ever had. It must have grieved Him that there is so much need. My pastor shared about the physical and emotional drain of a Sunday. Jesus is the Rabbi of the world.
His Father also despaired of human kind on more than one occasion. So much so, at one point He wiped everyone off the face of the earth with a great flood. Except for a chosen few. He destroyed Sodom because of the debauchery and sin within the city walls. A chosen few were spared thanks to Abraham who prayed for them. There was one, however, who looked back as they fled for their lives and turned into a pillar of salt. (I wonder what she was thinking.)
That imagined question? "What's the point?" was more of a request for the Lord to fill His Son with sufficient hope for the human race despite its wicked ways so He could do His Father's will. This time, however, we have all been chosen and given second and third and forth and fifty-five chances to learn of Jesus and the love He has for us. Those same chances give us the opportunity to lose our aptitude for sin and the power sin has over us. Jesus gives us the strength to not look back.
Maybe God answered Jesus like this, "The point is they are my children and I love them so much it hurts."
"Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Gen 18:25
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Boundary Study Part 2
"Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God--truly righteous and holy...
My friend - you do know that Jesus was the Son of God. When you know the Father you know Him. He and the Father are One. That while we were still sinners, He loved us. Jesus was committed to those the Father gave Him, so much so that He gave them to the Father to care about while He was on the cross and under the weight of our sin. And do rejoice in the sovereignty of God. Nothing man does takes Him by surprise. He does not pace the halls of heaven and wring His hands. Do you feel that the Father needs to give the Hope of the World hope? Did His disciples let Him down? Did they not understand? Sure. Yet everything, everything happens how and when God wants it to. We can rest in that. I am amazed as I read your blog how you are so open and teachable. You are an example to me. Keep it up!!
ReplyDeleteNone of us can know exactly what Jesus said, thought, or felt while He was on earth. But, when we use our imaginations, the Holy Spirit can give each of us what I, as an individual, need to hear from God right now. Ultimately, we need to know that God understands what we are going through, and that He accepts us as we are. The scriptures assure us of this, but allowing our imagination to "see" it, brings this knowledge from head to heart. Susan, you had a moment in which the Holy Spirit demonstrated to you that Jesus understands your episodes of hopelessness. That moment was given to you, because He knows you need it.
ReplyDeleteWe are told in the Gospels that on the cross Jesus cried out to God, "Why have you forsaken me?". Here we have God experiencing an absence of God. It's hard to get your head around that one!
I just want to take it back to the original scripture that began this two day journey. "I am sorrowful, even unto death." to quickly paraphrase. If ever there was a statement that affirmed Jesus' human side, this is it. So yes, the amazing, holy, without sin Son of God needed His Father to fill Him with hope and strength to do what needed to be done on the cross. He had nothing left.
ReplyDeleteI want to add that this affirms for the rest of us that when we have nothing left, we only need to lean into our Father. He will provide more than sufficient to do His will. Jesus said so.
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