So here we in Part 2
which, as I alluded to in the last post, is all about some of the
loftier claims that Christians make for Jesus. What the story of
Jesus can't do, I'm afraid, is give up a nice 'Be positive and
everything will be ok' approach to the world because, well, it
doesn't portray the world in that way at all. What the story of Jesus
doesn't do is make any promises to you that life is going to be ok,
that you will have all the things you hope for or even that it will
be that comfortable. I'm really selling this aren't I?
Because the story of
Jesus, though it begins with and is suffused with such joy and hope,
ends in death and a pretty violent one at that. It seems to me that
we do a pretty good job in our culture of living as if we never die.
As I become more and more acquainted with death in my work life I am
fast becoming one of those people no on wants at a dinner party,
chatting away about whether burial or cremation is more preferable.
At which point my companions are like 'Errr....calm down and pass the peas...'
But death is a reality,
darkness is a reality. Some people are born into such excruciating
poverty that any worldview which has nothing to say to that has very
little to offer in my view. Jesus' story is one that says, in his own
words, you are blessed when you mourn and you will be comforted, the
weak will become strong, there is hope in this world that can be so
desperate at times. It recognised evil and it recognises good in a
dramatic and in you face kind of way but that is really what I like
about it.
And what of this hope I
mention? This perhaps the more radical thing to justify given how the
world is. Well it stems from that rather bold claim I dropped in at
the end of the last post - that Jesus is God come to be with us.
Taking our on our human life so that we can see the way to live, yes,
but also to reconcile this broken and hurting world to the source of
all goodness, light, health and healing which is God.
For the Christian what we are missing in this world is God. Because where God is there is no darkness, there is only light; there is no death, there is only life. God is the source of life, the creator and sustainer of all that is beautiful and true and good in this world and the point of Jesus' life and death is to bring us into that life of God, so close that it infuses our whole life, everything we are and everything we will be. This transforms life right here, right now and gives us hope whatever the darkness around us.
But yes, this comes through death. Perhaps it might help to think of it like this. In dying on the cross God experiences death. Imagine that, the source of all life experiencing death, just imagine that for a moment. This unthinkable possibility is real, we say, because of God's deep and unwavering love for humanity which is so vast that he would go to these lengths to overcomes death and to bring us into life, fully restored, again.
In this way comes a major
building block of the way I see the world me. Yes, death and pain and
suffering is 100% real, not to be ignored and impossible to avoid,
but also that love overcomes all of these things and that love is the
greatest power there is. Marcus Braybrooke puts
it like this 'Love which through suffering absorbs evil and is
completely vulnerable is of its very nature indestructible. Such love
cannot be defeated by evil and death, whereas enmity eventually
exhausts itself.'
I don't have all the answers to why the universe is
as it is, why the world is so desperately unfair. But in the story of
Jesus I see God's intervention, that he can't stand it either and has
stepped in to change it. And I also see something which I know to be
true. That in life there is that golden thread of goodness and of
light as well as that darkness and death. And that golden thread of
goodness and light is so glorious that I can quite easily believe
that, after all, love really does win.
So there we go, bit more than you bargained for with your morning brew eh? Don't worry, next time we will be exploring the completely uncontroversial topic of the Bible! ;)
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