Where did the closest, most informative encounter between us and our God take place? What did we learn from it?
THE TREASURE OF CHRISTIANITY
Tracing the Route that the Treasure of Christianity Takes from God to Us
The Autobiography of God
The Bombshell of Revelation exploded when Jesus and the evil we did to him met in a violent collision on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection
The bombshell of revelation exploded when Jesus and the evil that we did to him met in violent collision on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The incandescence of the explosion illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany. We saw our God take part in a demonstration of divinity. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, our God forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Wow! We thought our God was like us. “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,” (Exodus 21:24) was our expectation for the evil that we did to him. We expected that his answer to the evil that we did to him would be revenge, retaliation and retribution. However, his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8). There is a difference between creatures and creator - a radical difference. The asymmetry between us and our God is breathtaking. The brutality of the Crucifixion makes the intransigence of his love for us extraordinarily amazing. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him (Psalm 8:4-4)?
Forgiveness is the vehicle by which Jesus revealed the nature of God to us
"Who are you, Jesus? Identify yourself! Friend or foe?" Jesus answered our question (Luke 23:34) on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. Our God is the God who forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Wow! The brutality of the Crucifixion makes the intransigence of his love for us extraordinary.
Punctuation Marks: Turning Question marks into Exclamation marks
His bloody wounds are the punctuation marks that our evil opened in his body. Before we knew what his answer would be to the evil that we did to him, his bloody wounds were question marks. After, they became exclamation points. There was a change in punctuation. The change in punctuation is the good knews of great joy - very good news for us.
More and Better Theology
More and better theology is discovered on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 1:17) than in the head of every apologist, theologian, Doctor of the Church, monk, abbot, mystic, priest, monsignor, bishop, Cardinal, Pope, hermit and saint who has ever lived or will ever live.
The bombshell of revelation exploded when Jesus and the evil we did to him met in violent collision on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The payload of the revelation was a high fidelity representation of the reality of God. The incandescence of the violent collision illuminated darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany.