For seventeen centuries his legend has graced the lips of faithful saints, the poor and downtrodden, and good little boy and girls across the globe. But no matter how great his legend, his legacy is greater still.

Bill Bennett, in a new Christmas book, The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matter to Christmas, has peered through the centuries of legend that has shrouded the historical Saint Nicholas and has painted a portrait of a man composed of flesh and blood. He has given us, almost as a gift, the man that has been lost amidst the tinsel, bows, and lights—the man hiding behind the white beard, red fur-lined suit, and round belly. Divided into three parts—Life of Nicholas, Legends of Nicholas, and Legacy of Nicholas—Bennett has written a compelling narrative of the Bishop of Myra, who, in the early history of the Christian Church, served his God and his people faithfully. As Bennett writes, Nicholas may have played an important role in the Council of Nicaea, which, among 318 bishops, developed a Creed affirming the divinity of Jesus and insisting that God had invaded human history in the birth of Jesus.

Included in Bennett’s history of Nicholas is the famous story of how he placed three bags of gold into the shoe or stocking of a poor family. This story, and others that spread throughout Asia Minor into Europe and Russia, became the foundation of many Christmas legends and traditions. Bennett treats the morphing of Saint Nicholas into Santa Claus quickly, but convincingly. In the conclusion Bennett writes, “At [Santa Claus’s] best, he stands for virtues that Saint Nicholas champions: compassion, service, selflessness, largeness of spirit. . . . So now you know something of who Saint Nicholas was, and of how Santa Claus came to be. Saint Nicholas’s bags of gold have become Santa’s sack of toys. It is a piece of history worth knowing, especially at Christmastime. May it help us remember the true spirit of Christmas and the message of loving one another brought to us by a babe in a manger so long ago.”¹

Bennett has done us a great service, not necessarily in explaining the twists and turns of how Saint Nicholas became Santa Claus, but in recapturing the real man of compassion, generosity, and largeness of soul. Whereas in our popular minds Santa Claus points to the commercialism of Christmas, Saint Nicholas points to the Christ of Christmas. Santa Claus may represent the best of Saint Nicholas, but the real Nicholas represented Christ during a time when darkness dominated the hearts and minds of men and women. What Nicholas knew, and what we should ever remember, is that Christmas isn’t for good little boys and girls, but for bad boys and girls—for that is the reason why the babe was born and the reason we celebrate His birth. The greatest gift was given more than 2,000 years ago. Saint Nicholas gladly accepted that gift—the gift of forgiveness and life eternal through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And that is the real story of Saint Nicholas, and of Christmas.

While it is nice and theologically acceptable to say “Merry Christmas” to everyone this time of the year, the actual phrase can lead otherwise innocent holiday celebrators into doctrinal heresy.

The problem with the phrase “Merry Christmas” is that it can lead people into believing that Jesus (the “Son”) was a different person than Jehovah (the “Father”). Or worse, people can make the mistake that Jesus was just a “man.”

The Prophets made no other prophecy than that it would be Jehovah Himself who would come into the world for humanity’s sake.

“Behold the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous offshoot, and He shall reign as king, and prosper, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:5,6; 33:15,16).

In other words, Jesus is Jehovah in the flesh!

I am aware that some Bible translations use “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,” which may lead some to doubt my premise, however, in the next verse (Jeremiah 23:7) Scripture makes it clear that the LORD refers to the God whom brought the Israelites out of Egypt.

Many Christian authorities would argue that there was some kind of mystical (hypostatic) union between the Son and the Father to tip-toe around the irksome and non-rational belief that Jesus and Jehovah are two different people but still ONE God. This divine dynamic is called a “mystery of faith” and Christians ought not give it any further thought other than to believe it, hook, line and sinker. But the purpose of all my blog posts is to make people think!

Further biblical evidence that it was Jehovah Himself who came into the world can be found in Malachi 3:1.

“Behold I send Mine angel who shall prepare the way before Me . . . “

This passage refers to the same angel who informed Mary that she would experience a miraculous birth. “Me” can only mean Jehovah God.

Salvation was not a matter of the Son suffering and dying on the Cross in order to appease an otherwise dejected Father. That’s doctrinal nonsense. The Lord’s great suffering, included more than making Himself the target of human hatred on planet earth. The LORD also suffered a full-blown attack from all hell’s power and fury coming out from the spiritual world.

God needed to acquire a human body (with all its inclinations to be tempted by the vanities and allurements of the world, as everyone else). This provided a medium allowing finite beings and evil spirits to effectively attack an Infinite Being. By resisting worldly temptations and values, and humbling Himself on the Cross (instead of hopping off and providing a show of force to get even with his torturers) the LORD made his “flesh” fully compliant with His Divine Essence of Infinite Love in heaven (the Father). This humility of taking his human nature to task is how the Son glorified the Father (His Divine nature) and the Father glorified the Son (His human nature). Flesh and the Holy became ONE—the Alpha and Omega. This is why there was an empty tomb.

That the LORD was victorious is our hope of peace on earth and eternal salvation. But we must also ask for God’s help in overcoming our own negative traits (no one can take on hell’s influence alone).

These biblical details about the LORD’S life can only be obtained by those who are willing to accept that God’s Holy Word contains deeper levels of meaning. It is these deeper levels that offer proof of the Bible’s inerrancy and authority.

This blog post may have put a dent in your current belief-system. Sorry about that! I am just trying to share with you the true meaning of the LORD’S Advent and life in the world.

http://www.provinggod.com

Barabbas. This man had to live everyday with the understanding he was guilty but freed, while the innocent Jesus was innocent but crucified. Barabbas knew the extreme penalty associated with scourging and crucifixion. Barabbas never felt the nails in his flesh, but he must of felt the weight of an innocent man taking his place. Do you?

phil

I find the rushing around at Christmas time, and all the decorations quite frustrating. A friend commented that she had not seen a single Nativity set so far this Advent.

I once wrote a rather irritated poem on the subject. I called it “Jangle bells” because the commercialisation of Christmas jars one’s senses.

C71     JANGLE BELLS 2000 — A DIALOGUE:    [20/12/2000

Jangle bells, jangle bells
To and from the banks

(Have all you forgotten
For what you should give thanks?)

Ho, Jangle bells, jangle bells
As we buy and sell

(Come on now, my children,
Get off the road to Hell)

Cash on the mirth
(But what about My Birth?)
Isn't it quite odd
That some would bring in God?

Ho —  Jangle bells, jangle bells
To and from the banks

(Have all you forgotten
For what you should give thanks?)

Ho, Jangle bells, jangle bells
As we buy and sell

(Come on now, my children,
Get off the road to Hell)

Caught up in the things
On these last few shopping days
You can't hear the angels sing
As they offer up My praise.

Ho —  Jangle bells, jangle bells
To and from the banks

(Have all you forgotten
For what you should give thanks?)

Ho, Jangle bells, jangle bells
As we buy and sell

(Come on now, my children,
Come, drink now from My Well.)

Nine years later  I see more clearly than ever that the birth in Bethlehem was the first step to the Cross and Resurrection. Bright Star, posted earlier this year does make the same point. That is why the traditional Carols And Nine Lessons services start with the Fall of Man. Hence the prophecies of the Messiah. Christmas without the Cross and Resurrection is as  meaningless as a fairy tale.

We also seldom think of Christmas as a time of suffering on God's part: "[Jesus] always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death— his death on the cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8). Jesus’s entire ministry was a sacrifice, from the moment of his birth.

A time of peace: “But now, in union with Christ Jesus you, who used to be far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies.” (Eph 2:13-14) Our peace, forgiveness and reconciliation have been bought by the Blood of Jesus as an act of mercy and grace.

On your Christmas tree let the star be the (six pointed) Star of David and you can easily see where the superimposed Cross should fit.

The Real Christmas Tree

[C138 SV52]

The real Christmas tree
Is not a green isosceles triangle
Decked out with tinsel and candles
And kitschy flashing lights.

The real Christmas tree
Is not in a shopping mall
In an ambience of tinny carols,
Fake joy and credit cards,
Nor in a lounge, with neatly wrapped
Presents underneath, which might just last a year.

The Real Christmas tree
No longer stands
On a hill alongside a dusty road
Surrounded by sobbing, jeering,
Unwrapped, crude and lacking dignity
And dripping
The blood
That has freed me

In school we are being taught about the history of our nation & the history of the continent we live in & the history of the world. We daily hear/watch news about the leaders of the countries taking certain decisions, events taking place in different parts of the world, wars, good news or bad news. This all seems so “real”, since it is outward, you can actually see it and even feel it. This is the human history as we see it, know it, are being taught or make it. But behind the human history, hidden in the events that take place or we don’t know that take place, God has a history – the divine history. Within the human history there is the divine history. God’s plan, His purpose, is being carried out and accomplished within – secretly – the human history, even without the news being known/spread about! Empires and countries are raised up – and they also fall; civil wars and genocides take place; un-ending wars are going on in many countries – all these things, though so “real” and known by everyone, are not the “real history”. Although it is easy for us to see physically what is going on – the “shell” of the human history – we need to have some intrinsic sight, even spiritual eyes, to see what is going on within this human history, what is God doing on the earth today – the “kernel” of the divine history within the human history.

In God’s economy, according to which He operates and does everything, God desires to work Himself into man to be one with man – even to be man’s life, his life supply, and his everything – so that man, in a corporate way, would become His expression. This is what is on His heart, and this corporate expression constituted with Himself is what He’s working on – in His divine history that goes on within the human history.

The first step of the divine history, after God Himself & His economy, is His incarnation. God became a man, and lived a perfect human life for 33 1/2 years. Then, He was crucified – He died on the cross to accomplish redemption – an all-inclusive death which terminated the old creation&solved all the problems! His death ushered Him into His resurrection, where millions of people were regenerated with His divine life to become the members of His Body, His corporate expression. This is the church, His heart’s desire in this age, of which the Body of Christ is the reality. This is the age we are in right now – and this age is about to be finished/to end. At the end of this age, Christ will come with His overcomers and defeat Antichrist & his armies – the 1000 years kingdom of God(as a reward to the overcoming believers) will take place. Eventually, the kingdom age will consummate into the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of God’s economy, the ultimate finalization of His purpose – here His heart’s desire is accomplished for eternity! – this is what is going on right now, what God is doing behind the scenes, in a spiritual way – arranging the world situation for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. Lord, grant us eyes to see the divine history within the human history!

The Daily Nudge stays on today from yesterday, because the topic ask about the Fellows’ best thought about Christ and because they were too much absent yesterday. And I really, really want to hear what they have to say on this one.

This question belongs in much the same category as the one about choosing a favorite Bible book. Category of the hard, almost unfair questions. For who can single out one thing about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? So the question tends to serve more for a moment to register a recent thought that has been bouncing around in the brain, a recent verse or truth that appeared anew to brace the heart, a need that lately drove the soul to seek the Lord for specific resources or answers.

So shall I mention how the Lord drives out my fears and inspires faith to trust and follow when the winds blow hard and the waves burst high upon the breakers? Or might I try to measure the heights from which he came to take upon the status of a man? Or would I pass along to you today that single word, the divine yes, “I Will,” to show he cares and cures and loves and saves?

No, none of these. Today, at least. For, to single out a thought about the Lord, go I must to the Cross. To agony in its purest form, to pain borne not for one or two but for a race, to countless sins heaped up in hideous press upon an imploding heart. Yes, to Golgotha I go, that ugly place of death whose very name restricts the throat! To cries of terror at eternal loneliness compressed in a moment. To compassion in the midst of tears and tearing flesh, to whispered prayers for pardon for the hardened soldiers whose hammers nailed him to the tree and stiffnecked traditionalists who laughed at nakedness and called for proof by bursting free.

I’d turn away from such a sight of horrors, but love that would not give me up makes the Hill of Skulls, that gruesome slope of public torture, a holy ground where feet lose their shoes and souls shake off their sins.

That, today, is my best thought about Christ.

One of my favorite songs is Jesus Messiah by Chris Tomlin.  Particularly, I love the line, “He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become his righteousness.”  This is actually a direct quote from 2 Corinthians 5:21 which says:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

How much have you thought about those lyrics when you sing/hear the song?  Jesus came to earth and was tempted by all the same things that we face today (Hebrews 4:15), yet he remained blameless.  Then he died in one of the most painful ways designed by the Romans as a means of capital punishment; a crucifixion.  Only to come back to life on the third day defeating death and sin both.  He did this so that our sin can be taken away and WE may be the righteousness of God.

I love songs that speak scripture.  I love songs that make you think about the lyrics on a deeper level than ‘I love God, and God loves me.’  Well done Chris Tomlin.  Keep up the good work.

   This short video is intended to support the canonical view of N.T. eschatological expectation.  It is often thought by Preterists that the “imminence” of Christ’s return was largely exhausted by the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.  On the contrary, the imminence is based on the revealed fact that “we shall not all sleep” (1 Cor. 15: 51-52). 

    Since Christ’s physical death was substitutionary in nature, it is clear that Christians do not have to die.  Therefore, the church is always to wait for the second coming.  Paul places our expectation in the immediate foreview of the church (Phil. 3: 20-21).  That he was not concerned with any mere local application of the prophecy, is clear in that he relates it to saved Christians whose seat of government (Gr. politeuma) is in heaven (v. 20).  In light of Ephesians 1: 3; 2: 6, the apostle’s expectation therefore concerns “the church which is His body” (Eph. 1: 23).  How many soever generations the body may span, its calling and hope remain the same.

Hattip to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.  As someone who received an undergraduate degree in the teaching of social studies, I am never very surprised when a school administration decides to engage in an act of public stupidity, however, this incident is in a class all by itself.

A second grade student at the Maxham Elementary School in Taunton, People’s Republic of Massachusetts, was sent home from school after drawing a picture of Jesus on the cross.  The student made the drawing in response to a class assignment that the students draw something that reminded them of Christmas.  Apparently the student’s dullard teacher decided that the drawing of the cross was too violent.  The school administration, in a move which hearkens back to the old Soviet Union placing dissidents in psych wards, decreed that not only would the child be sent home, but that he would have to undergo a psych evaluation.

The story has a happy ending for the boy.  He is being allowed to transfer to another school.  I do pity the students who remain in an institution at best run by fools, at worst by those who harbor a hatred or fear of the Cross.  In future, if the administration is going to ban images of Christ on the Cross, they perhaps might be on the look out for some of these:

Update:  The school administration responds here.

At that moment, Peter looked up and met Jesus’ eyes. Soft and understanding, his gaze pierced to Peter’s core. The rooster had crowed and Peter was immediately stricken with grief that made his whole body tremble. Jesus turned his gaze back into the room where his accusers had taken him . Tears blurred Peter’s vision as he ran away from the crowd huddled around the fire and he began to sob without restraint in the street.

All of his emotions flooded his reason as he helplessly collapsed in an alley and wept. Memories of his friend and teacher taunted him endlessly as his face became numb. In confusion, Peter was dragged between anguish and anger, trying to decide what he had to do. Jesus had been acting so differently lately, why did the world feel like it was collapsing? He had denied his friendship at the time where Jesus probably needed him the most. After everything that Jesus had taught him and done for him, the best he could give was denial and he wished with all his being that he could turn back time.

Eventually, from physical exhaustion, Peter drifted into sleep in the dirt alley.

—

Peter was paralyzed. He sat cross-legged on the carpet slumped over with his eyes staring down. His cheeks were chapped and his lips were split because he had not been eating or drinking since his teacher had been brutally and unjustly murdered. Most of the others were stunned and deeply troubled as well, but Peter looked deathly pale and weak. He knew what Jesus had been saying just a few weeks before all of this was happening, but now none of it mattered. The people who hated Jesus had finally found a way to take his life and rid themselves of his trouble. Even if Peter wanted to avenge the death of his friend, he couldn’t. He was too frail.

The door of the place where they were spending time burst open and some of the women came in panting and out of breath. Peter raised his eyes without moving, waiting for them to explain their sudden intrusion. “Jesus-”, one of them tried to say, “Jesus- isn’t…in-the-tomb…”. Another started up, “Remember what he was saying…before he left…that he would be raised up…?”. The other men in the room shook their heads, irritated that the women would make something up like this and they began to bicker back and forth.

But Peter had heard all of this. He tried to wrap his head around it but his heart was beating too fast for him to think. Suddenly, that room was too small. It was too contained and the womens’ words were making his pulse rise so he jumped to his feet and sprinted out the open door.

His legs pushed him faster than he had ever run before. He forgot his sandals but he couldn’t feel the stones on his feet anyway as the thought of the empty tomb drove him to ignore his body’s threshold. He ran with all his might until he reached the tomb with his muscles cramping and short of breath. He stumbled past the stone that was rolled away from the entrance of where his friend had been placed. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness in the grave he couldn’t find the outline of Jesus’ body. He walked over to where the body had been placed and only saw the grave clothes folded neatly.

His hand rested on the place where the body would have been and the exhaustion, confusion, and disappointment began to settle back into his weary soul. He walked away, bewildered and frustrated.

—

Again, Peter sat amidst his friends, gazing into space when the door again burst open. Peter didn’t look up this time as two men began to spill out their story of how they met Jesus as they were walking home and how he went back to eat supper with them and disappeared as he initiated communion with them. Peter snuffed at their story, half acknowledging their account. Irritated, he tried to preoccupy himself with thinking about the empty tomb and what could have happened.

His mind hit a wall suddenly though. The voices of the men who had entered the room were silenced. As Peter looked up he saw everyone staring towards the door.

There, standing with tears in his eyes and hand still on the doorknob was his master. Peter’s head began to spin and his stomach tightened. His spine shivered and his eyes widened. No one spoke. Not a sound was heard.

In a choked up voice, Jesus spoke. “Peace be with you, friends.”

No one moved.

Jesus spoke again, noticing that they were all trembling and in shock. “Don’t be afraid,” he looked intently at each man, “it’s me.” He held up his hands so that they could all see the places where nails had been driven through his flesh. “Ghosts don’t have these.”

He looked over to where Peter was sitting.

Peter’s eyes had welled with the tears of a frightened child who’s father just came to save him. He sat trembling and vulnerable. Jesus walked over to where he sat while the rest looked on. He knelt beside Peter, put his hand behind his head and pulled Peter into his chest. Peter reached his arms around his Lord and after a moment of silence in the room, he let out a massive moan and began to weep with his entire being into Jesus’ chest. As he cradled his dear friend, Jesus too began to weep in the embrace, knowing full well the torment that Peter had been enduring.

—

This is a helpful comment for understanding the significance of the resurrection, especially as it relates to the atonement:

[T]he Gospels…all agree that when the question was put to Jesus, “Are you the Messiah?” he did not deny it.  It is in the context of those last days in Jerusalem that the royal title emerges publicly as a potential estimate of Jesus.  On the basis of such a possibility, Jesus was executed as a messianic pretender.  And for that reason his resurrection can be understood as God’s vindication of the crucified Messiah.

This from Donald Juel,  Messianic Exegesis: Christological Interpretation of the Old Testament in Early Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), 26.

See also 1 Corinthians 15 for more on the vindication theme.

As I sat in my prayer chair this morning I looked over at one of my Christmas decorations. It is a velvet Christmas stocking with a large cross stitched on it. The stark contrast suddenly struck me. As we celebrate His birth, there before me was a reminder of His death.

I think of new parents as they look upon their newborn child, the hopes, the dreams, the plans they have for their child. God looked upon His newborn Son and knew the plan for His life included His death on a cross.

Jesus, God’s Son, would die for our sins by being tortured, abused, and finally nailed to a cross. And God knew this as He looked upon a baby in a manger… His Son, Jesus.

And the angel answered and said unto her , The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35, KJV)

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7, KJV)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6, KJV)

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5, KJV)

“…it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” (John 11:50, NIV)

…after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified. (Matthew 27:26, NASB)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son… (John 3:16, KJV)

Prominent African American theologian James Cone has made the connection between crucifixions in the first century under the Roman Empire  and lynchings in post Civil War America. Both of these rugged trees were used to maintain control over a people group. Criminals, revolutionaries, and innocent men were hung up on these trees to not only kill the individual, but to also put fear in the eyes of those who saw these dead bodies hanging.  Around 70 A.D. over 6,000 Jews were crucified during the Jewish war. And there were over 5,000 blacks lynched after the civil war.

It is on the cross that Jesus, a Jew under Roman rule was crucified upon as well. The cross has become the primary symbol for the Christian faith. However, its historical significance has been lost in current American culture. As we proudly sport crosses around our necks and on top of our buildings, we also have lost the symbolic, cultural,  and social weight of the cross from a 1st century Palestine perspective.  The cross of Jesus must be understood in light of the Roman empire and the rulers that harshly ruled over the Jews.  In fact, for us to understand the cross we must  step up to the foot of the lynching tree. For it is there, in the harsh, ugly history of lynchings that we get a glimpse of the Cross.  And it is there on the Cross that Jesus defeats the dominant rulers and authorities of the world, while also defeating death itself.

“Colossians 2:15 Disarming the rulers and authorities, he (Jesus) has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

We have taken the list of the Top Money Makers of the Decade and we are doing the “Question Entertainment Lightning Round”
I hope you like it. Let us know your thoughts.

See them all at http://www.youtube.com/user/1ThessFIVE21and22#p/c/A4E6B15329949FF4

The Passion of the Christ

I’ve been asked the following questions in response to my recent posts on the cross of Christ:

Does it make any difference if God really abandoned Jesus on the cross or if Jesus experienced/felt/voiced abandonment?

The note goes on to reference Psalm 22, which is quoted by Jesus from the cross in Mark and Matthew. Scholars have long felt that Mark is the earliest gospel and that Matthew and Luke used Mark as a resource for their own gospel writings. To deal with this quote, then, it is important to understand why Mark included it originally, then to evaluate why Matthew included it, and lastly perhaps speculate why Luke excluded it.

The gospel of Mark is a tragedy. Jesus is drastically misunderstood by his disciples (see especially 4:13, for example), generally disliked by the local authorities, continually unnerved by the large crowds who might draw the attention of the angry authorities, and oddly secretive about his identity, constantly shushing the demons who recognize him. The highpoint of a glorious story seems to come at the beginning, when Mark declares, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (the son of God)” (1:1), blatantly playing on the commonly pronounced euaggelion of Caesar. It seems that part of Mark’s entire agenda is to show how drastically different Jesus’ Kingdom of God is from the current kingdom of Rome. Rome was high and mighty, flashy and strong. Jesus, on the other hand, comes with a more subtle kingdom, one that offers justice through mercy. Rome strong-arms the whole world, expanding its power through might. Jesus speaks in confusing parables, heals sickness, and drives out demon with hopes that his miraculous deeds will go unnoticed. Rome stands up to its opposition and puts down its enemies without mercy. Jesus stands up to the opposition of the kingdom and submits to its power, being overcome and put to death at the hands of those he marches against. The final abandonment of Jesus on the cross is an epic event, according to Mark; the temple curtain is torn completely from top to bottom, and the centurion cries out. It is in this ultimately pathetic death of a low-class insurrectionist that the local representative of God’s so-called son Caesar recognizes the authority, the power, and the wonder of God’s true son, Christ. But in keeping with the tragedy, there is no resurrection in Mark, and the reader is left to decide whether or not they buy it. The lingering question of Mark is this: Which “son of God” will you follow? And, referencing chapter 4 as a framework for the whole story, will you be the good soil? That being the case, the abandonment of Jesus on the cross is one aspect of the overarching tragedy of the story.

Matthew echoes this cry of Jesus and the epic consequences. As in Mark, the curtain is torn from top to bottom. But unlike Mark, Matthew adds an earthquake and several local resurrections. Interestingly, it is the earthquake that causes the centurion to cry out in Matthew, whereas in Mark, the death of Jesus itself is enough for this Roman soldier to recognize God’s son. To quote Psalm 22 is a way for a very Jewish Jesus to resonate with the oppressed, and given that Matthew does indeed include a resurrection, it is implied that Jesus also remembers the psalmist’s claims for vindication (Ps 22.22-24). It seems likely that Matthew found this story in Mark and added supernatural correlatives to make it seem less tragic. Perhaps here one could find justification for saying that God never actually abandoned Jesus, as was demonstrated by the divine reaction to his death.

So why would Luke choose to omit this section? I can think of two possible reasons. 1) In his research, Luke never found anything to corroborate this saying of Jesus, or 2) Luke’s Jesus resonates with the poor, the disenfranchised, and the powerless. In other words, Jesus was concerned with those people who were most likely to be marginalized, ostracized, or abused by society. This Jesus, who is the representative of God’s Kingdom, could never be abandoned by God in such a lowly and pathetic way. God, for Luke, is most immanent for those who are pushed aside by society. Luke’s Jesus is born in a manger, rejected and alone. For this Jesus to be abandoned would be the end of hope for those poor and pathetic that Luke is primarily concerned for.

All of this is to say that asking whether God actually abandoned Jesus on the cross is a theological question that has no singular answer, even if one relies solely on the texts. It is a much more complicated issue than can be actually understood. In fact, I would argue that all three of the Synoptics offer attempts to metaphorically speak of what matters most about the gospel. In other words, biblical theology is rarely, if ever, a literalist endeavor. So from the perspective of the gospels, does it make a difference if Jesus was literally abandoned by God or if it just seemed that way? I think we would be amiss to read back later trinitarian theology onto the text that assumes Jesus must have been God and was therefore incapable of being abandoned by God, for one. Mark’s gospel has no problems with a very human Jesus interacting in a very dark and dismal world. From that perspective, we would be projecting onto Mark rather than letting the story speak for itself. If Mark records a Jesus who seems abandoned, who are we to speculate that Jesus wasn’t really abandoned based on later theology? The same goes for Matthew and for Luke. It is interesting to note how the gospel writers deal with what Mark originally penned, and such observations do offer insights into the texts. But this should be done intertextually and not anachronistically (as if the escape of 2,000 of history, culture, and bias is possible).

Theologically (and therefore at least somewhat metaphorically) and personally, I find hope in a Jesus who was abandoned or at least who was entirely convinced himself that God had “forsaken” him. I feel totally alone and abandoned often. To know that Jesus, who represented and embodied God chose to endure the human condition is foundational for the gospel as I understand it. For me, this is the “death of God” that makes a continual life of faith possible. If God were the transcendent, high-and-mighty, up-and-out-there kind of God that could be mediated through law, then faith would be useless and hope nonexistent. But if that God chose to be crucified, humiliated, and abandoned by the idea of God, then hope is possible, faith is meaningful, and grace is the currency in a new divine economy.  However, and again, for me, if Jesus was not abandoned, but only seemed to be, then God is actually still the transcendent, high-and-mighty, up-and-out-there kind of God who has feigned concern and empathy for lowly, pathetic human beings.

So, it seems to me that the Mark has absolutely no problem with an abandoned Jesus, Matthew prefers a Jesus whose abandonment is linked to his coming vindication, and Luke suggests a Jesus who empathetically brings the hope of God to those who are already abandoned. All of these images of Jesus help to explain the theo-metaphorical act of Jesus on the cross that is salvific and powerful for those who follow the God who died.

In her comment to the previous blog entry: http://wp.me/pmBNc-67  my daughter,Kat, observed that the gentleman who was so concerned about my satanic and ‘unsufic’profile pic of Kali may have been raised with very rigid views about cultures other than his own and this could have effected his ability to see the Kali Ma art as anything other than ’satanic’.

Gorgeous Kali Ma

In fact, this concerned gentleman’s viewpoint is rather Fundamentalist, which is certainly far from the “Sufic” perspective of Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan who founded The Sufi Order in which both this gentleman and I are initiated, and whose Universal teaching descends from the Chisti lineage. (Again, see first blog entry: http://murshidava.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/why-fear-the-mother/ ).

In actuality, this gentleman’s observations about what isn’t ‘Sufic’ don’t make much sense, but fear rarely does and this is why I feel focusing on the gender issue, although I agree with Emine that it is salient, might potentially render the deeper issues moot. Fear, seems to me to be the salient issue, here, and those movements arising from fear which entrap our imaginal lives in a strangulating literalism, which are so destructive to vitality, to the human heart and soul– movements such as the Inquisition, the Crusades, the Crucifixion, modern Jewish interpretations of the meaning of the Holy Land as a literal place which we (I am a Jew, after all) have a right to kill fellow human beings in order to protect and never mind the Law, and current Islamic Fundamentalist interpretations of the Jihad, which was meant to be an inner war, and a path toward mastery of the Self, but never an edict for men, women, and children to strap bombs to their bodies and physically annihilate themselves and others.

So, yes, it is true that people conduct all sorts of sacrificial rights in the name of the Mother, Kali Ma. It is true that in India children are still being sacrificed and mutilated in the name of the Mother. However, that is what people do with religion, with the Message coming to us from the Infinite Source of Life- we turn it into things it is not. And, yet, even our foolishness and ignorance reveal the Message, for, how, ultimately is child sacrifice and mutilation different than the sacrifice of children in the Holy Land, in Iraq, in Afganistan, in Darfur, in the AIDS pandemic, and in any other place where we allow our fear and hatred to erupt into violence or neglect rather than active caring and compassionate concern?

Sufis often say that Allah is on All Sides. One can see that here so clearly: even when human interpretations become twisted by the darkness of ignorance and limited understanding, even then, truth will shine through, revealing ourselves to ourselves and conveying lessons and opportunities to grow beyond those limitations- all that is required is that we have, as a humanity, the courage to look in the mirror.

La illaha il Allah hu. If there is nothing but the One Being, what is not the One Being? What is not a reflection of Message? What is not an opportunity for Awakening? And yet, one does need to develop the capacity to see. The persistent disorder of seeing which makes it easier for many, still, to assign evil to the feminine face of God when She is depicted as a whole being rather than as a dismembered series of aspected ‘Shes’ or to see male depiction as somehow more real, valid or wholesome than female depiction…that is a subject for another day… for another blog entry.

Jesus tells His disciples, “You know the way to where I am going.” But Thomas challenges this, saying, “How can we know the way?” (John 14: 4, 5)

Jesus then tells Thomas, “I Am the way, and the truth, and the life.” And He adds, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Thomas expresses his own consternation, “Lord, we do not know where You are going.” (John 14: 5)

To where is Jesus going? He is going to the garden to pray for release from His mission and to submit to that mission as it is the will of His Father. He is then going to court, to bear jeers and beatings. Then He is going to the Cross, to suffer a physical death at the hands of men. Ultimately He is going to the Father to prepare a place for Thomas, to prepare a place for each of us who believe.

Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, where are You going?” (John 13: 36) Jesus tells Peter that he is unable to follow now, but only later will be able to follow Him. Peter protests. Jesus tells Peter a truth too horrid for Peter to grasp — that Peter will deny his Lord three times before a rooster crows twice.

In the next breath, Jesus tells His friends not to be troubled. “Believe in God; believe also in Me.” (John 14: 1)

Jesus says that we know the way — He is the way. He tells us we cannot follow Him, that we will deny Him at some point. He implies we will repent, and that once we have, He will use us to strengthen others.

He tells us not to be troubled — to trust that He goes to prepare a place for us; and that He will return for us. He tells us that the path is not easy, but that the burden is nevertheless light.

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I Am you may be also. And you know the way to where I Am going.” (John 14: 3 – 4)

The Passover Feast is one of the main Jewish holidays and a celebration in remembrance of when God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Remarkably, the slaying of the Passover lamb and the applying of blood to door posts of the houses in order for the death angel to “pass over” those people who are “covered by the blood” (Exodus 12:11-13) is an awesome picture of Jesus Christ and the power of his crucifixion.

Passover Events ///////////////////Crucifixion of Jesus

• Date: 14th of Nisan (Jewish calendar)      † Date: 14th of Nisan (Jewish calendar)

• Lamb selected: 10th of Nisan                      † Jesus selected: 10th of Nisan

• Lamb to be perfect, without blemish        † Jesus was perfect, without sin

• Blood of the lamb saves those using it      † Blood of Jesus saves those accepting it

• Lamb has no broken bones at slaughter   † Jesus had no bones broken

• The theme of the Jewish Passover is remembering the gift of salvation from slavery in Egypt. Those who were covered by the blood of the lamb were saved from the angel of death that killed the firstborn of everything living in Egypt.

† The hope of the crucifixion is God’s gift of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. Those who receive the gift are covered by the blood of the Lamb and saved from eternal separation from God.

Christ’s role as the Lamb of God is central to the New Testament scriptures. In fact, Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the many Passovers that had been observed before him.

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) 

In Revelation, which speaks of the end times, Jesus Christ is again referred to as the Lamb: 

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9-10)

Still thinking,

Randall Niles

12/8/2009

He’s got me thinking again about owls. They’ve come up fairly often over the past few years, starting with something that happened almost at the very beginning, when I knew he was “here”, but before we could communicate very well at all in words. At the time, I was even more clueless than I am now about what was happening. This is from a journal entry/blog post from about 2 1/2 years ago:

OWL
One night I went out to the pool house in the dark, because my son needed something from out there. Ordinarily I probably wouldn’t have done that—too spooky (imagine that!). As I got to the door of the pool house something flew at me from above the door. It startled the hell out of me, of course, but then I saw that it was a baby owl—fully feathered, but smaller (I think) than adult owls I’ve seen (now that I think of it, it’s possible that he was an adult, but I don’t think so). I have no idea how he could have gotten inside the screen of my mother’s lanai—an opening big enough for an owl would have let in millions of bugs, etc. He was beautiful, with huge, yellow, spooky eyes that stared at me with an intensity I’d never seen. He was also terrified. I wanted to catch him and let him out, but every time I got near him (he did let me come pretty close) he’d fly off and try to get through the screen. I tried for quite a while, but it wasn’t working, and I didn’t want to scare him to death or make him hurt himself, so eventually I just went to bed.

(I later read that owls can be symbols of death, among other things. A week or so later the man who lived next door to my mother—in the house closest to the pool house—suddenly died. Go figure.)

Much later, he started to call me “Kos” (kowc= “owl” in Hebrew) or “Kos Layil” (night-owl). Here’s an entry about that:

…he said, “Keb bas, Kos Layil.” He calls me “Kos”–owl–sometimes, and “Kos Layil” must mean “night owl”; Mary, he once told me, loved the darkness, and he referred to her in Hebrew once as something like, “Gatherer of the night.” But “Keb” means “fetters or bonds”, and “basar” means, “flesh”, or “body” in both Hebrew and Aramaic–so I guess he was saying that the body is a kind of fetter/prison.

Yesterday he kept using different Hebrew words for “messenger,” but I couldn’t figure out what he was getting at. Finally, in the evening, he said, “sirus kos.” “Tsiyr” is Hebrew for “messenger. Just out of curiosity, I Googled, “owl messenger,” and found a site called www.owlpages.com. It gave a listing of beliefs and superstitions (many of which don’t end well for the owls) about owls in various parts of the world. I already knew that owls are thought to be harbingers of death, or links between the world of the living and the spirit world. But I came to one entry about what people in Spain believe about owls, and it made me just stop and stare at it for quite a while and almost cry (I don’t think that he meant to “lead me there”, or that that is why he calls me “Kos”, but still, it’s so sadly near the truth…):

…legend has it that the Owl was once the sweetest of singers, until it saw Jesus crucified. Ever since it has shunned daylight and only repeats the words ‘cruz, cruz’ (‘cross, cross’)

From the Unfathomable Dodo.
Why did it get dark at the crucifixion?   It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, [Luke 23:44] (That would be from about noon till 3:00pm)

I am not a meteorologist or a astronomer, so I do not know HOW it got dark, but I know why it must be.  For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. [1Cor. 5:7b]  And as such must be partaken of at night. They shall eat the flesh that night, [Ex. 12:8a]   And it needs be the darkest of dark for the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the cosmos. [Rev. 13:8b] And before the cosmos there was no light, no nothing.  Although the crucifixion happened in time and space, in the first century Judea, at a place called Galgotha, it is timeless and outside of time.  
 
This is not the only place were we see that our God is not constrained by our limits in time and space.  For Jesus said to them,  “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” [John 8:58] The theologians call this Omnipresent, God is everywhere all the time.  Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?     “If I ascend to heaven, thou art there”  If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there! [Psa. 139:7,8]  We are so embedded in time and space that we forget that time is merely a way a measuring the speed of celestial orbs in relation to one another, that we then sequence our lives by.  
 
This leads us to the reason the dead in Christ raise first— they already have.  Upon death we step out of the constrains of time and are with the Omnipresent. 
“But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.  [1Th. 4:13-18]  
 
They have already heard the trumpet sound.   “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” [Matt. 22:32]  There is no soul sleep there is no waiting.  As long as you have partaken of the Lamb in the dark.  So Jesus said to them,  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;”  [John 6:53]
 
Now it is time to step into the Light.

C137 SV51     [24 November 2009

The mountains roll, unending, vast and blue,
Snow-capped, green-covered, with forests lush;
In deserts or where the rivers part:
These are the love song of Your Heart.

The rambling oceans heave and toss and shake;
Below teem fish and whales and forests of  kelp
And fiery colours, so vivid Your art:
These are the love song of Your Heart

Above, the eagles, hornbills, Egyptian geese;
Below,  moles and earthworms tunnel their way.
The pink sunset, the bright day’s start:
These are the love song of Your Heart.

Lifted up high before all, arms spread wide,
Forgiveness, blessing, commitment spoken,
Blood drips, the thorns on the brow smart:
This, this is the Love Song of Your Heart.