The Cross
From “Jesus Christ, Superstar!”
“What about your death?
Was that a mistake? Or
did you know your messy death
would be a record breaker?”
Back in the day, when I was much younger and barely still a Roman Catholic I had a conversation with a young Jew, about the Messiah.
I was Biblically literate enough at that time to bring up Isaiah 53.
3 He was despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 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.
His response to these verses was that I couldn’t use quotes from the New Testament to prove my point. Our argument continued.
“So you admit that these verses are talking about Jesus and His crucifixion?”
“Yes, of course, but Jews don’t believe the New Testament is scripture, that’s the whole point.”
“The point is, these verses are from the book of Isaiah, a Jewish prophet I believe.”
Our conversation concluded with his decision to go home and read the book of Isaiah in his “Bible”. I don’t know where he went from there.
A few years later, when I was about as far away from being a Christian as one could get, someone tried to explain to me that the Bible had been written cover to cover sometime in the early 1100’s. The reason why prophecies seemed to have come true is that they were written by one author, in an attempt to deceive and control. This of course is nonsense, easily disproved. But it did make me wonder about the Old Testament and New Testament. I mean, how old were our oldest manuscripts? How could we know when these things were actually written. Before or after the fact?
But oh, the wonderful book of Isaiah, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
We have scientific proof that Isaiah 53, all of Isaiah, the Christmas prophecy, the Crucifixion prophecy, was written at least 400 years before the birth of Jesus. Biblical scholars date is much earlier, but the copy we have, the Dead Sea Scrolls, is at least that old.
As I decided to meditate on and write on the Cross of Jesus, I started at
Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
I read on to Isaiah 55:6
“Seek the Lord while He may be found”
And I paused.
And now I am thinking of other things. How diligently I was seeking for
enlightenment back in the 70’s, only to discover that Jesus, the same Jesus
I prayed to as a child, was the Way, the Truth, and the LIGHT! I’m thinking
of how messed up some peoples’ theologies seem to be, and how
complicated. And how good some of it sounds - good but not necessarily
true.
This makes sense.
That doesn’t make sense.
I can see what you mean, but…
I see where you’re going, but…
But, what about the cross? See, it’s all about the Cross. That is the record
breaker, the tie breaker, the deciding factor.
Jesus died on the cross.
And what is love?
I will end this session with this from Philippians.
Phi 2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
Phi 2:2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
Phi 2:3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Phi 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Phi 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Phi 2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Phi 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Phi 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
2 comments:
While I agree with you that there are a lot of theologies out there that don't make sense, I must disagree with the negative connotation you give the complication of some of them. We ourselves are complex organisms. Do you not think God is also complicated?
My biggest concern about many churches is their oversimplification. Focusing on one or two bullet points at the sacrifice of the rest of the lessons and teachings. If you make it easy enough for a child to understand, that is good. But as we grow we have to look past the bylines at the actual message.
oh yes, God is complicated, in the human sense of the word at least, so much MORE that any of us could ever understand completely.
i guess it starts to seem complicated to me when I read a verse, like John 12:32, the words of Jesus...and then some commentary or theologian or Bible teacher says, "of course Jesus didn't mean all..."
Or one of my favoirte sections, Genesis 6:5-8, which to me clearly shows God didn't expect that every choice man made would be evil, and some commentary or theologian or Bible teachers says, "of course God wasn't really sorry He had made man..."
I hear people spout "Sola Scriptura" which means we are to look to the Bible alone. And I too believe, that all we are to know or understand about God has been revealed to us in the Scriptures, yet these same people seem to cringe at any hint of inconsistancey or contradiction, quick to say, "well what that really means is..." when it contradicts their pet theology. The "bylines" of their faith as you put it wanderer. I believe those verses exist to get us to dig deeper, or as C.S.Lewis said, higher up and deeper in. Some people seem really reluctant to dig, and quick to judge the diggers. Some people dig with blinders on. And some people dig and find stuff totally different that what I found when I dug.That's what makes me tilt my head and sigh. And at that point Jesus points me back again to the cross. It's hard to look at. But it contains the answer, it is the deciding factor. Truth hung on that cross, and Truth rose from the dead in three days. The old testament points to it, the new testament is because of it. So this week, Spring Break, I will continue to meditate on it.
Post a Comment