As a minister, there is one day a year that I want to ignore the gospel. Forget about resurrection. Turn a blind eye to grace.That day is today.
Today marks the death of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. It marks the day that He died in order to carry the weighty sins of our darkened world.
That's no light matter. No light matter at all. Nevertheless we Christians love to talk about Easter and immediately jump to reborn life, saying everything is quite alright.
As if our sins had no consequences. As if there was no price. As if it is all simply a nice story with which we enjoy comforting ourselves. It's a dangerous position to hold, especially in light of all of us out there who know quite well the effect that evil has upon ourselves, our world, and the lives of those it comes into contact with.
Failing to really think about death in our everyday lives is bad enough. It blinds us to reality and gives us a woefully false sense of security.
But failing to think about death on this day? Well, that's a travesty and does a great dishonor to our God.
For it was on this day almost two thousand years ago that God Himself was beaten. Was bled dry. Was totally and utterly spent...and not so Mel Gibson could make a movie. It was on this day the Creator of the universe came face to face with the enemy of all life and had His own taken from Him. Though he drank of His own free will, the cup he took was still one of utter destruction.
For it was on this day almost two thousand years ago that God Himself was beaten. Was bled dry. Was totally and utterly spent...and not so Mel Gibson could make a movie. It was on this day the Creator of the universe came face to face with the enemy of all life and had His own taken from Him. Though he drank of His own free will, the cup he took was still one of utter destruction.
You see, on this day God is dead.
4 comments:
That's a good question. Sad to think that either way the message of it all is just lost.
It's good to hear from you, Mr. Good!!!
I miss you.
...But...but...God Himself did not die. Jesus died in his earthly form, but GOD wasn't dead.
I understand the drama of the moment, but immersing oneself in the tragedy of something that was not, is not, true, seems to me to be melodrama.
But then I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the Jesus was God, rather than Jesus was the Son of God, anyway.
I'm not so sure that God didn't die that day. We know that's not the end of the story...but isn't the whole power of the story in the fact that God was willing to do this for His creation?
"...isn't the whole power of the story in the fact that God was willing to do this for His creation?"
Please do not be offended; I'm asking...
What did He do?
His Son suffered terrible pain and lost his earthly life. Earthly life is not supposed to be all that important in the Grand Scheme anyway.
What else?
I know that somehow that is translated to a sacrifice on behalf of us all so that we would not go to Hell for our sins.
That's the part I don't get.
Can you explain it to me?
And again...I'm not being a jerk. I'm really in the dark here.
Post a Comment