Sin is a Two Edged Sword
Sin is the instrument that the devil uses to try to extinguish God's love for us. Sin is the instrument that God uses to demonstrate that his love for us is intransigent. The greater the sin, the more remarkable is the intransigence of God's love for us.
“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Investing in Our Potential to Become Sons and Daughters of God
Rejoice and be glad! We are worth much to our God! He would not have paid an exorbitant price to publish the autobiography of God here on earth if we were not worth it. Moreover, he payed the exorbitant price while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8) - while we were still unworthy of his love - while we did not deserve it. The payment was not an expense but an investment. He invested not in our status as sinners but in our potential to become saints. Our potential to become saints is hidden under our status as sinners. He looked beyond our status as sinners. Our God, who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands, put himself into the hands of the mud to demonstrate to the mud its potential to become sons and daughters of God.
Sin is the clog in the pipe through which God's love for us flows into our souls. Repentance is the "Drano®" that unclogs the pipe.
We can build the edifice of our understanding of Christianity around sin or we can build it around suffering. When we build it around suffering, we get a better understanding of Christianity.
The Two Tables
At which of the two tables do you sup? At one table is Jesus, the Son of God with the most nutritious spread - life in abundance . Prayer is one of the dishes on the table of the Lord. So is the most Holy Eucharist. So is feeding the hungry and caring for the sick.
At the other table is nothing but junk food. The junk food is enticing. It tastes great. But Jesus is not at the junk food table. Moreover, a diet of junk food will make you sick and, eventually, kill you. At which table do you sup? The wise sup at the table of our Lord. Fools partake in the junk food.
Why did he pay us a visit knowing that the Dogs and Swine would turn and Tear Him to Pieces?
When he paid us a visit at and about the city of Jerusalem in a part of our world we call the Middle East more than two thousand years ago, he did not come empty-handed. He is not that kind of guest. He brought gifts for us.
Remarkably, he brought the gifts even though we did not deserve them - even though we were still sinners . He did not wait for us to transform ourselves by dint of our own power into saints.
He gave what was holy to dogs and threw pearls before swine even though he knew the dogs and the swine would trample the gifts under their feet, and turn and tear him to pieces. Why? Unlike Humpty Dumpty , he would emerge from the pieces still alive and still in love with us to illuminate the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany. Important truths about God would emerge from the pieces with him. From the pieces, the sweetness of paradise would be revealed to us.
Our ugliness highlights and emphasizes and intensifies and magnifies and amplifies and accentuates His beauty - the beauty that emerged from our ugliness. Our ugliness was displayed in the Crucifixion. His beauty was displayed in the Resurrection.