What is the Greatest, Most Important Conversation that Ever Took Place between Humanity and God?
What is the greatest, most important conversation that ever took place between humanity and God? What was our question? What was his answer? Hearken to the conversation.
The Relationship of Test and Result ties the Crucifixion and the Resurrection Together
The Crucifixion is not independent of the Resurrection. The Resurrection is not independent of the Crucifixion. Contemplating them in isolation individually leads to misunderstanding. It is like trying to figure out how the heart works by only studying its ventricles and not its atria. To understand them, they must be contemplated together. A relationship weaves its way through his bloody wounds that ties the Crucifixion and the Resurrection together. It is the relationship of test and result. The Crucifixion was the test. In the Resurrection, the results of the test were published for us. The results of the test are the good news of great joy. Given the difficulty of the test, the results are very good news for us indeed.
"Who are you?" We shouted our harsh question at him in the Crucifixion. "I am your God who comes to rescue you from your dire predicament in the valley of tears" he whispered his gentle answer to us in the Resurrection.
The conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurection is the greatest, most important conversation that humanity has ever had with God. Are you privy to the conversation? You cannot have your own conversation with God unless and until you listen to this conversation.
The segment of the narrative of salvation that passed from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection is an integral, coherent whole - a conversation. The Crucifixion and the Resurrection are not independent of each other. There is a connection that unifies them. The connection is the relationship between question and answer. Only connected together do they convey the message that God desired to communicate to us. When the connection between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is severed, the message gets garbled - indecipherably garbled
Until we see the connection between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, we cannot see the disconnection between the evil we did to him and his love for us. The connection reveals the disconnection. The Crucifixion and the Resurrection are not independent of each. However, the evil we did to him and his love for us are independent of each other.
The conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection was a breakthrough in our understanding of God - an earthquake of epiphany - a riot of revelation.
We made war on him. He made love to us.
The Conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection
In the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Ressurection, the evil that we did to him opened bloody wounds in the body of the Son of God while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth so the Son of God could speak to us through them. The Crucifixion is one side of a conversation that we had with God. The Resurrection is the others side of the conversation. The entire conversation revolved around his bloody wounds. Pay attention to the traffic through his bloody wounds - to what was said and, more subtly, to what was not said. The vocabulary that passed through his bloody wounds consisted of just three words: 1) his blood, 2) his life and 3) his love for us. Anyone can understand a vocabulary of just three words. We shouted our harsh question at him in the Crucifixion and he whispered his gentle answer to us in the Resurrection. His gentle answer to our harsh question completed the most important conversation that humanity has ever had with God.
'Who are you?' we asked him in the Crucifixion. "Identify yourself!" the sentries of humanity challenged him as he approached our picket line. "Friend or foe?"
The Crucifixion was our brutal interrogation of the Son of God. We shouted our harsh question at him with lash, thorns, nails and spear. Our lash, thorns, nails and spear opened bloody wounds in his body. Buckets of blood spilled through them. His very life itself followed his blood through his wounds out of his body. "Tell us who you are" we demanded an answer from him in the Crucifixion.
And he answered our question.
He whispered his answer to our harsh question . He whispered his answer to us without words.
Not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us followed his blood and his life through his wounds out of his body. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. He clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go despite the evil we did to him. He clung to his love for us with the iron grip of the drowning man who clings to a life preserver when he is tossed overboard into the stormy sea after his ship is sunk.
We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. He emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. That he emerged from the dead still alive is the proof of the power of Jesus. No one emerges from the dead. He did. That he emerged from the dead still in love with us is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is more than power. Divinity is also love. Both power and love survived the evil we did to him. Jesus is the union of power and love - perfect, infinite and absolute. This was revealed when Jesus spoke to us about himself through his bloody wounds in the language of suffering.
The Hard Question -
the Crucifixion
We asked him a hard question when we launched a freight train of evil against him. It was filled with torture and death. It came barrelling down the tracks at him. It accelerated as it went. The question sought to unmask the mystery that hid from us the identity of Jesus. What was his answer?
He could have gotten out of the way. He could have avoided his fate. Instead, he met it head-on. He freely and willingly entered into the collision. The collision was explosive. It was bigger than the big bang. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. And, out of the collision, the truth began to radiate like the dawn of a new day to illuminate the darkness that hid the nature of Jesus from us, to wit, the components of his divinity.
In the Crucifixion, we put Jesus to the test. In the Resurrection, the results of the test were published for us. What were the results of the tests? The results of the test are the good news of great joy. Given the difficulty of the test, the results are very good news for us indeed.
The Gentle Answer -
the Resurrection
His gentle answer to the evil we did to him was to continue to love us nonetheless. Our God continues to love us nonetheless despite the bloody wounds we opened in his body - despite the fact that we tortured and killed him. Jesus and his love for us survived the collision with the freight train of evil that we launched against him. He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is the proof of the power of Jesus. Nobody emerges alive from the dead. He did. That he did not stop loving us, however, is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is more than power. Divinity is also love. The two components of divinity are power and love. Jesus is the union of power and love - perfect, infinite and absolute. Love gives power a godly purpose. Power without love is diabolical. Power is the source of pride.
Love is the source of humility .
Power demands respect. But, love demands love. His power built paradise. However, his love for us makes paradise sweet. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise. It is irrational to do otherwise.
Is there no limit to the power and the love of God ?
P.S.: Therefore, shatter the illusions that hide from us the sweetness of paradise and the sourness of godlessness. Shatter them with the sledgehammer of truth as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. When the illusions are shattered, rational creatures will ask for directions, 'How do we get there from here - from the sourness of godlessness to the sweetness of paradise?" Then and only then when we ask for directions is the moment ripe for the Church to say, "We have the map and know the way".
Wait until the fruit is ripe before you harvest it. The fruit only becomes ripe after the illusions that hide from us the sweetness of paradise and the sourness of godlessness are shattered. Ripeness occurs when the fruit start asking for directions from here to there - from godlessness to paradise.
The Most Important Conversation
in the History of Humanity
The most important conversation in the history of humanity is a conversation that we had with Jesus. It took place at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of our planet called the Middle East more than two thousand years ago. Are you privy to the conversation? It was not a secret. The conversation occured in public. Furthermore, the conversation was well-witnessed, recorded in the history books and accounts of it were disseminated from then and there across time and space to us here and now. Not only did we ask Jesus a question; we asked Lesus the toughest of questions. Indeed, we put him through the cruelest of interrogations. We put him through the wringer. Our question chewed him up, swallowed him and transported him into the belly of the beast in its effort to get an answer. Our question was filled with evil. It dripped with evil. But, only an answer straight from the horse's mouth would satisfy us.
Incredibly, Jesus answered the question. He did not dodge it. He did not sidestep it. The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud for the very purpose of answering our question. Despite the presumptuousness of the question and the extreme difficulty of the answer, Jesus freely and willingly answered it. Our question was the Crucifixion. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. The evil we did to him in the Crucifixion was the question we asked Jesus.
What was Jesus's answer to the evil we did to him? Did he answer us in kind - with the same bitter cruelty as our question ? How did Jesus respond to our cruel inquiry?
His answer gave us a deep insight into the nature of God. It opened a window through which we beheld God face-to-face. His answer was the Resurrection. It was a gentle answer without any of the severity of the question. Given the severity of the question, we did not deserve such a gentle answer . Yet, he was gentle with us anyway. His answer to the evil we did to him was to continue to love us nonetheless.
We launched a freight train of evil against him. It came barrelling down the tracks at him. It was filled with torture and death. It came barrelling down the tracks at him. It accelerated as it went. He could have gotten out of the way. He could have avoided his fate. Instead, he met it head-on. He freely and willingly entered into the collision. The collision was bigger than the Big Bang. In the collision we tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. And, out of the collision, the truth began to radiate like the dawn of a new day to illuminate the darkness that hid the nature of God from us. The truth that emerged from the collision was that both he and his love for us survived the evil we did to him.
He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is the proof of the power of Jesus. Nobody emerges alive from the dead. He did. That he did not stop loving us, however, is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is more than power. Divinity is also love. In fact, Divinity is head over heels in love with us.
We get a sense of the magnitude of his love for us by the magnitude of the price he paid out of his own pocket to produce the Crucifixion. He paid the price not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the price from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else!
We get a sense of the duration of his love for us from its indestructibility. His love for us ought to have faded as we tortured him and ought to have died when we killed him . But it did not. It survived. Its survival is the proof that the duration of his love for us is forever.
His love for us did not just survive a walk in the park or a day at the beach. His love for us survived a much more gruesome ordeal. His love for us survived the evil baptism into which we immersed him while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth. Jesus emerged from the dead with his most sacred heart still filled to the brim with love for the very sinners who tortured and killed him
.
Even though we tortured and killed him, he clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go. He clung to his love for us with the iron grip of the drowning man who clings to a life preserver when he is tossed overboard into the stormy sea after his ship is sunk.
Buckets of blood spilled from his body through the wounds we opened in it but not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us.
Would you continue to love me if I tortured you? Would you continue to love me if I killed you? Jesus continued to love us nonetheless even though we tortured and killed him . Is there no limit to the mercy of our God ?
Wow!
What effect does the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection have on us? Why did God decide to reveal to us that he is the union of power and love - perfect, infinite and absolute - in such a dramatic, unambiguous and definitive fashion? Does the reading and understanding of the conversation not strengthen our faith and give us reason to hope? Is not the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection a game-changer? Does the conversation not shift the paradigm? Does it not alter the trajectory through life of anyone who listens to it and understands it? Wow! What a God is our God! Our God is the God with the bloody wounds who continued to love us even though we tortured and killed him! Again, wow!
P.S. We exercised our power not our love. He exercised his love not his power. He practiced what he preached . That Jesus did not exercise his power against us in response to our excercise of power against him tells us which aspect of divinity is more important. God is the union of power and love for us - perfect, infinite and absolute. Both power and love are aspects of divinity. Love, however, is more important than power. The right move is to love. He filled the space he occupied with love. For the solution to the problem of evil look to love not to power. Why? That is where Jesus found the solution.
Kibitzing with God
What is surprising about the conversation was not the harshness of our question but the gentleness of his answer .
Are you privy to the conversation? The Crucifixion (our harsh question) and the Resurrection (his gentle answer) are the two sides of the greatest conversation between God and humanity in the history of salvation! The conversation was a breakthrough in our understanding of God - an earthquake of epiphany - a riot of revelation. What is surprising about the conversation was not the harshness of our question but the gentleness of his answer.
Given the harshness of the question, his gentle answer is breathtaking. His gentle answer is the good news of great joy. Given the harshness of our question, his gentle answer is very good news for us indeed.
We tried to set the tone of the conversation by asking him a harsh question. Our attempt failed. It did not work. He set the tone of the conversation with his gentle answer.
The very juxtaposition of our harsh question and his gentle answer conveyed meaning. The juxtaposition conveyed the identity of God himself.
Our harsh question amplifies his gentle answer - it highlights it.
In the conversation, we are presented
with a high fidelity representation of God. The conversation is the latest, most up-to-date version of our understanding of God. Are you privy to it?
The Eagle of Salvation is the Cross of Christ
The eagle of salvation is the Cross of Christ. It has two wings. It needs both of them to fly. One wing is called the Crucifixion. The other wing is called the Resurrection. The two wings do not flap independently of each other. They flap in unison with each other. They are connected by a backbone. The backbone is the relationship of question and answer. The Crucifixion is the harsh question that we asked Jesus. The Resurrection is his gentle answer. In the Crucifixion, we tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Our question to Jesus was both presumptuous and dramatic. His answer to the question was incredible - breathtaking. Jesus answered the evil we did to him in the Crucifixion 1) by rising from the dead and 2) by continuing to love us nonetheless. That he emerged from the dead still alive is the proof of the power of Jesus. No one emerges from the dead. He did. That he emerged from the dead still in love with us is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is more than power. Divinity is also love. Jesus is the union of power and love - perfect, infinite and absolute. Power demands respect. But, love demands love. His power built paradise. However, his love for us makes paradise sweet. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise. Therefore, mount the saddle of your faith upon the eagle of salvation and fly on it through the valley of tears from godlessness to paradise .
P.S. We cannot duplicate his power but we can duplicate his love. By duplicating his love, we maintain the resemblance we bear to God
. We refuse to let life's viscissitudes transmogrify us into the most hideous and miserable of loveless beasts. We achieve deification when he cling to love, hold tight and refuse to let go. We fail in our quest for deification when we seek power instead of love. Power unalloyed with love is diabolical.
What is the Starting Point for the Journey to an Understanding of God?
Where do we begin? What is the starting point for the journey to an understanding of God?
The starting point for the journey to an understanding of God is the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection - our harsh question and his gentle answer. In the course of the conversation, the love note and the invitation were rewritten in the ink of suffering to demonstrate their indestrucibility.
Are you privy to the conversation? It was a breakthrough in our understanding of God - an earthquake of epiphany - a riot of revelation. The conversation revealed the sweetness of paradise.
Always start there. Others will suggest other starting points. Don't be seduced to a different starting point. The conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is the anchor for our thinking about God. How do we get there from here - from ignorance to knowledge about God? The only way to get there from here is to start at the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Why start at the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection? Because it is the Autobiography of God. It is the truth straight from the horse's mouth. Listen first to what Jesus said about himself before you listen to what others have said about him. The narrative of salvation passed from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection. Pay close attention to this segment of the narrative of salvation. It is the most important part. It is the crux of Christianity. Everything else is obiter dictum.
..."There were several roads near by, but it did not take Dorothy long to find the one paved with yellow bricks. Within a short time she was walking briskly toward the Emerald City; her Silver Shoes tinkling merrily on the hard, yellow road-bed ". (An excerpt from the third chapter of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy sets off to see the Wizard)
The greatest conversation between humanity and God was not spoken in words but done in deeds and the deeds were connected together by the relationship of question and answer. The relationship of question and answer weaved its way through his bloody wounds to tie the deeds together. We asked God a harsh question (the Crucifixion). God responded to our harsh question with a gentle answer (the Resurrection). We shouted our question at him. He whispered his answer to us .
Are you privy to the conversation that took place between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection? Until you become privy to the greatest, most important conversation that ever took place between humanity and God, engaging in a conversation with God yourself would not be very enlightening. The conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is the giant on whose shoulders you must stand in order to continue to converse with God . The conversation was a breakthrough in our understanding of God - an earthquake of epiphany - a riot of revelation. We shouted our harsh question at him. He whispered his gentle answer to us. In the course of the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, God disclosed his identity to us - he took off the mask - he stepped in front of the mystery. Significant, meaty details were put on the bare-bones of 'I am who am' during the conversation. Don't jump into the middle of the conversation. Go back to the beginning of the conversation and get yourself up to speed. Catch up by listening to the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
Our Common Language - the Language of Suffering
Flesh is a tool of persuasion so he became man
God took flesh in order to speak to us in the only universal language that survived the confounding of language that took place at Babel , the language of suffering. The language of suffering is our native tongue. All of the children of Adam and Eve understand it. So there would be no misunderstanding of his message, the Son of God became man - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering.
As a man, he could do what he could not do as God.
As a man, he was able to communicate his message to us in the language of suffering. Only as a man was he able to communicate is message to us in the language of suffering.
The language of suffering does more than just communicate ideas. It is also a method of persuasion. It generates a high degree of confidence in the truth of the ideas it communicates. As a method of persuasion, the language of suffering is a simple language. Its persuasive ability is to distinguish the real from the counterfeit. What survives suffering is real. What doesn't survive is counterfeit. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. He emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. That he emerged from the dead still alive is the proof of the power of Jesus. No one emerges from the dead. He did. That he emerged from the dead still in love with us is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is more than power. Divinity is also love. Both power and love survived the evil we did to him. Jesus is the union of power and love - perfect, infinite and absolute. This was revealed to us when Jesus spoke to us about himself in the language of suffering.
He refused to let the evil we did to him to transmogrify him into the most hideous and miserable of loveless beasts. By clinging to love, holding tight and refusing to let go, he showed us what God looks like.
He resisted suffering with love. He did not let his Cross crush him under its oppresive weight. Instead, with love he picked it up and carried it.
The language of suffering is the backdoor that God built into our system of communication so God could speak to all of the children of Adam and Eve unambigously.
Gentleness is the Hallmark of God
In the Crucifixion, we asked Jesus a harsh question by torturing and killing him. In the Resurrection, Jesus gave us a gentle answer to our harsh question. We did not deserve a gentle answer but he gave it to us anyway. Even though we tortured and killed him, he continued to love us nonetheless. He did not stop loving us despite the evil we did to him. That he continues to love us nonetheless even though we tortured and killed him imbues his answer to our harsh question with gentleness. The survival of his love for us is the ingredient that makes his answer gentle. Wow! The relationship of question and answer weaves its way through his bloody wounds to tie the Crucifixion and the Resurrection together. It is important to articulate and highlight the details of the relationship between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection because the juxtaposition of our harsh question and his gentle answer is the very message that the Son of God desired to deliver to us. Leave out the relationship and garble the message. Giving gentle answers to harsh questions as Jesus did as we pass through the valley of tears makes us godlike. It deifies us. Gentleness is the hallmark of divinity.
11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
We Failed to Transform God from a Friend into an Enemy. We Tried but Failed. Ergo, His Friendship is Indestructible.
We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Try as we might, we failed to transform our God from a friend into an enemy . The evil that we did to him while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest here upon the earth did not work. His friendship did not fade as we tortured him and did not die when we killed him. His friendship survived the evil we did to him. The dial that controls his love for us is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. Not even our evil can turn it. To our harsh question (the Crucifixion), he gave us a gentle answer (the Resurrection). Oh, blessed failure! Oh, wonderful defeat! That his friendship survived the evil we did to him tells us unequivocably that his friendship is indestructible - his philantropy is steadfast. He put the proof into our hands so we could rely on his indestructible friendship. It is the immutable rock on which we can build our lives. It is the only stable foundation on which a Christian is built. A Christian is built upon the proven, indestructible friendship of God .
The indestructible friendship of God as proven by the passage of the narrative of salvation from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection is the crux of Christianity. Everything else is obiter dictum.
Evidence produces proof. The passage of the narrative of salvation from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection is the evidence from which the proof arises that God's friendship is indestructible - his philanthropy endures forever . [Note: the magnitude of the evil we did to him in the Crucifixion is the evidence of the magnitude of his love for us. We get a sense of the magnitude of his love for us by the magnitude of the price he paid out of his own pocket to produce the Crucifixion. He paid the price not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the price from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else !]
Reciprocity
Compare what we gave to him with what he gave to us. He gave us life; we gave him death. The evil we did to him gave him reason to hate us. Yet, he continues to love us nonetheless. The exchange was not equal. The consideration was not proportional. He is our Creator; we are his creatures. Yet, we gave him the shit end of the stick and he did not chastise us with it. Go figure. Thanks be to God!