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
|
