ME AND YOU TOO?

Time with Jesus - Sunday, 11 March 2012

Hi all,

What do we really know about God? Not very much! It’s a bit like asking fish what they think about water? They can’t answer because they have no voice. Even if they could speak, what could they tell us about the substance in which they live? In a way, it’s much like that with our knowledge of God. We know that in Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) But what do we really know about Him?

We know He is unknowable! It seems a contradiction. He dwells in a different dimension to us. It is timeless and changeless. We have no idea what this is like. The little we do know is what He has chosen to reveal.

But we know Jesus. At least we think we do. We have the account of His life recorded in the four Gospels. They show us something of His nature. He is revealed as very human. At the same time we are informed that He is God! As investigators we are inclined to say, “Which bit is man and which bit is God? Left eye, right eye; left ear, right ear. That seems logical. But logic is not always correct. We are taught that He was 100% man and 100% God. That sound’s like 200%. But it isn’t. In the early Church, this topic was discussed extensively. It was settled at the First Council of Nicaea  in 325 AD and adopted at the First Council of Constantinople in 381AD. Anglicans among us will remember the Nicene Creed from their prayer book.

Why is it important? Well, He had to be 100% man or He could not die for us. He had to be 100% God for His death to be efficacious for all of us. So we end up with this paradox.

To be 100% human meant that He was emotionally and physically just like us. I’m inclined to say 100% similar to us mentally, but think this is skating on thin ice.

The only person, who could take back from Satan what Adam had given him, had to be human. At least as human as Adam had been. He also had to be completely sinless. Jesus complied in every way. He was as human as you and me and as divine as His Father. Satan thought he could defeat Him. But no one can beat God.

Our meditation today looks at His humanity. It takes a glance at His Divinity. It concludes by asking who was responsible for the crucifixion. The answer I give is not my original idea. I read it in a book many years ago. I’m not sure of the author’s name. Never mind. The conclusion is as real today as it was when I first read it.

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Me and You Too?

Jesus’ humanity, is quite astonishing. We know He is the Son of God; that He made everything. We know He formed the mountains on which He came to preach. Before He barbecued the fish, he also made the beach! The earth and all upon it are here by His design. So how can someone human, be someone who’s Divine? I wish I had an answer. I only know it’s true. The one, who had created life, came here for me and you. He made the very minerals from which they forged the nails. He made the trees which made His cross. My comprehension fails! How could someone exalted, above the very sky, Come to earth to be with us and for us all to die? But He was also human. He came here as a man. Nothing of the Trinity was seen in His great plan. He came here as a nobody. Our God in overalls. He learned to suffer, felt our pain and heard our God-ward calls. We know He had emotions. We even saw Him weep. And He could get exhausted. So much, He needed sleep. The prophets told us of Him. They said He’d be despised. Rejected by His people. His Godhood was disguised! He learned by what He suffered, the same as you and I. He even let them whip Him, before they watched Him die. They mocked and spat upon Him. They pulled His beard out too. He prayed, “Father forgive them. They know not what they do!” They nailed a sign above His head. It said “King of the Jews”. But He was so much more than that. They didn’t get the news; The one that they had crucified and hanged upon that tree, Was truthfully the Son of God Who died for you and me! And as I think about it, it makes me cringe and wilt. I shake my head, acknowledging for me His blood was spilt. Because I know for certain, that I drove home those nails. I know for sure, I turned the lock that kept Him in their jail. The whip I used to flog Him was held within my hand. And every detail of the deed was done at my command. Could such a thing be possible that I should take the blame? I may as well have done it. For Him it was the same. To murder God Almighty, was no collective act. I must have been involved somewhere! I know that as a fact. For all the dreadful things I’d done. The murderer was me. And yet in spite of all of it, He said He’d set me free! That is the greatest miracle that I have ever seen The very one who did it all, by Him has been washed clean. So now what can I give Him? My heart and mind and soul; The very life inside of me is under His control! And there are many others who toiled with me that day. Perhaps you too are one of them?  My friend, what do you say? Jim Strickland – Written 11th March 2012