Author: Ryan Harbidge

Crabs are interesting creatures.

They have soft bodies which are protected by an exoskeleton—a hard outer shell.  As a crab grows, it becomes uncomfortable inside of its shell as the shell does not grow.  In order to keep growing—in order to become mature, the crab has to go through the process of removing its shell in order to grow a new one which will better accommodate its new larger size.  That time between shells is always a dangerous one as its soft body is vulnerable.  It is now exposed to predators without its layer of protection.  Once its new shell is is place it is much safer once again, but will continue to grow and will once again outgrow its shell.  It is a healthy, necessary and ongoing process.

Recent observations have shown us that the universe is not only expanding, but picking up speed in its expansion.  The universe and everything within it is geared for forward momentum—for growth.  If you are not growing, you are dying.  This is true of crabs. This is also true of your intellect.

I’m always amazed and perplexed by people who are resistant to new thoughts and ideas. Quite often, the resisted thoughts and ideas aren’t really even new.  Just new to them.  As humans, we seem to have this tendency to find comfort in certitude. We believe something because we learned whatever that is from someone we consider to be trusted and reliable and well…that’s good enough for me.  If you tell me something different, I’m just not going to believe you.  In fact, I might even consider your strange ideas to be dangerous. 

This is our intellectual shell. 

Our beliefs become our protective identity and we find great comfort in them.  The only problem is…we are designed to grow.  

Our shells do not grow with us.

If you are healthy and growing, it’s inevitable that you will start to find your shell to be tight and uncomfortable after awhile. 

I find that intellectually, scientists tend to be much more honest than most religious people.  Einstein, for most of his life, argued tooth and nail for Newtonian physics and against the emerging science of quantum physics.  Near the end of his life, Einstein admitted that even though the findings of quantum science were “spooky”, he grudgingly accepted them as possibility.  Einstein had to remove his shell as the Newtonian science he had always believed and taught became too restrictive.  He grew as a scientist.  

Most religious people that I know, which are in the Evangelical Christian camp of my upbringing are quite comfortable with what they have always believed.  They have lived in the same echo chamber of thought for most of their lives, having their same old thinking reinforced by the confirmation bias of their particular religious tribe (denomination).  The shells of their religious identity are quite comfortable and always have been.  For some of them, they have heard “new” ideas about God and have indeed grown and become uncomfortable in their shells. Unfortunately, they fear being vulnerable.  They fear being unprotected and naked in the uncomfortable position of having more questions than answers. After all, there are always the dangerous predators to fear.  And they generally end up being the members of our own religious tribe.  The empire of religion is always very interested in self preservation and is quite resistant to anything or anyone who might disrupt their business.  When one of its members resists the group-think, that person is seen as a threat to the system and subsequently removed from the tribe.

Its a scary place to be in.  Growing, but without a shell, without a tribe.  Predators who used to be your friends circling around you.

But, if you are not growing, you are dying.  For myself, I prefer to grow, to be truly alive—risks and all.  For that reason, I cannot embrace and participate in the intellectual complacency of my former tribe of “Evangelical” Christianity.  

If you are in the evangelical world, it may seem like a “new” or “scary” even a “heretical” idea to you that God is actually not an angry judge who punishes people forever for sinning and not believing in Him.  It might seem strange if I told you that Jesus is the perfect representation of who God is, what His nature is like—and that He contradicted what people thought God was like in the Old Testament.  Indeed, Jesus went about His earthly ministry, forgiving, healing and indiscriminately pouring out love to everyone who crossed His path.  There is no mention of smiting, genocide or really any other kinds of participation in violence of any kind.  In fact, the only people who He had stern words for were the representatives of the empires of politics and religion who indeed behaved like the common idea of who God was according to the Old Testament. The ones who sought to control and manipulate people through violence and threat of violence—keeping them from living as fully human. 

What if I told you that God’s concept of justice is all about restoring all people to perfect relationship with Himself as opposed to the human version of retributive punishment?   What if I told you that Jesus death on the cross for our sins had nothing to do with God punishing Jesus on our behalf, but rather God in Christ refusing to participate in our violence.  What if I told you that it was humans, our system of empire that punished Jesus and that Jesus showed us through this act that no matter what we did to Him, He still forgives us.  What if I told you that it is impossible for us to stop God from loving us, to make Him give up on us. 

Even in eternity. 

What if God is just like Jesus?  Imagine the implications of this!

These are not “new” thoughts.  Just perhaps new to you.  This is what the early church of the first 500 years had predominantly taught.  What changed?  A lawyer turned theologian by the name of Augustine of Hippo who had a background in Platonic philosophy and Gnosticism brought his pagan ideas of God into the western, Latin speaking stream of the church from which modern evangelicalism originates. And then…we have centuries of Christians who for the most part never questioned what they were taught. People comfortable in their shells of certitude. Not growing. Just dying. 

If you still believe that God is vengeful and violent and will punish people endlessly, perhaps you still believe in the anthropomorphic god of our creation who Jesus came to contradict.  Perhaps you need to grow. Yes, your shell will suddenly feel constrictive and you will need to shed it. It’s dangerous and yes, your tribe will not understand you.  They will likely even reject you, but you will find life.  You will become larger and healthier.  Don’t get comfortable for too long in whatever shell you find yourself.  Stay curious.  Keep growing.  

Be more crabby!

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  John 17:3

My favourite part of spring time is witnessing the awakening of life that has been dormant over a long cold winter. The wet smells of new foliage, the sounds of migratory birds returning to my back yard, the sight of bright green stretching to the horizon, the feel of warm sunshine on my melanin depleted skin.

This day was different though. Instead of the freshness of spring, there lingered, like an unwelcome guest, the pungent smell of sweat, fresh blood and fear. Angry, mocking voices shouting in discordant unity. Anguished shouts crying out in pain, sorrow and hopelessness. Ominous clouds building on the horizon, bringing the land into a surreal darkness that transcended the tangible.

The year was A.D. 33, and the Romans were doing what they did best…torturing and killing by crucifixion anyone who dared to defy Cesar. This was a regular occurrence in the Roman Empire with sometimes miles of roadway lined with the dead and dying crucified, just to remind would be rebels and zealots what their fate could be unless they submitted to the empire.

This execution was different somehow. Of the three being crucified on this particular afternoon, the man in the middle did not curse Rome, or himself, or anyone. He did not use what little breath He had as He hung there suffocating to blame others for His fate. Instead, rasping hoarsely, with blood dripping from cracked lips, He quotes the opening lines of Psalm 22. That’s all the words He can push out through shallow breaths. The crowd is familiar with this psalm of David. Indeed, they could quote the whole thing from memory. This psalm tells of how David felt at the moment of writing, like God had abandoned him…only to later realize that He never did. It speaks of exactly what Jesus is going through at the moment, and then ends in victory! God the Father never abandoned Jesus but was there all along as 2 Corinthians 5:19 later tells us. The whole of the Godhead is inseparable and thus suffered together in Jesus.

Right now did not feel like victory. It felt like punishment…and it was. You may hear from a well intentioned, albeit misinformed pastor this weekend that because of humanity’s sin, we had offended God the Father and He had to punish us. You may hear that because we could not endure the punishment, that Jesus stepped in between the Father and us and volunteered to take the punishment instead of us. You may hear that God punished Jesus on the cross.

But then, a strange thing happens. Something never before heard from a victim of a cross. At the precipice of death and defeat, Loves most powerful weapon was about to be unleashed upon the world. And He spoke it into being; “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

We know now that Jesus is God, made human and that He shares the same essence of self emptying love with the Father and the Spirit. We know that Jesus came to reveal what has always been in the Fathers heart, that Jesus is the perfect representation of who God is. What is this forgiveness anyway? What does it mean? To forgive simply means to let go of, to release, to take away guilt. It is the only thing that can possibly break the endless cycle of human violence and bring one-ness, or to use a biblical word—atonement.

What is the worst sin you can imagine? Most people would say murder, and I would have to agree. Murder seems even worse depending on who it is that is murdered. For example, we would see the murder of an innocent little two year old girl to be much more deplorable than the murder of some rapist who gets gunned down out of revenge for his crimes. How about the murder of God…the author of life itself? God didn’t punish Jesus. We did. We committed the worst sin possible.

Let’s now define sin, not as the legal model we are used to in our culture, but rather through the lens of how the Jewish people saw it. It means to “miss the mark”, specifically the goal of perfect relationship within the Godhead that we are created to enjoy. Sin is not a moral failure that requires punishment. Rather, it is a relational failure which leads to sickness and brokenness. To take the legal picture, saying that we owed a debt to the Father that we could not pay, and Jesus steps in and pays it for us is not a model of forgiveness. It is a picture of a complicated financial transaction in which God pays God so that we don’t have to pay because we have no money. It is essentially divine money laundering! True forgiveness is releasing the guilty party WITHOUT any payment received or expected. True forgiveness absorbs the blow without retaliation. True forgiveness has open arms welcoming reconciliation, and waits as long as it takes for you to respond. Forever, if need be.

Jesus absorbed the sin and death of humanity, taking it to the grave with Him and leaving it there. He didn’t come back empty handed either. No, He brought back with Him for us, the relationship that He shares with the Father.

In Mark 2:17, Jesus says, “And hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'”

At the cross and with the resurrection, Jesus showed us that God is not an angry judge, who has come to punish anyone. He showed us that He is the Great Physician who came into our brokenness and sickness who absorbed our disease, giving us healing and life in exchange. It is ours. All we must do is believe.

Remember this Easter weekend, Jesus did not come to change the Fathers mind about you, but rather came to change your mind about the Father. He came to show us who God really is. He came to show you how much He has always loved you and longed for relationship with you. His arms are open to you, waiting for you to fall into His embrace. This is life. Believe.

Happy Easter

Nikolas Cruz needs to face divine justice!

Recently, a friend of mine commented that, given a choice, he would rather experience God’s mercy than God’s justice. Seems like a no-brainer at first glance and I think that most people would agree with him. His comment reminded me of how there is a gaping chasm between how people understand justice and how God defines justice.

On Valentine’s Day, Nikolas Cruz went to his old school and in cold blood, shot to death 17 innocent people. If you were to create a poll on facebook proposing the question, “Should Nikolas Cruz receive, A: Divine Mercy, or B: Divine Justice?”, I guarantee that at least nine out of ten people would choose “Divine Justice.” If you were to ask me, I would say, “Yes”.

Here’s why:

Human justice revolves around retributive punishment. As humans, we have a strong drive for self preservation. From that, comes the proclivity towards being self centred. Instead of looking to what’s best for others around us, we take the very myopic approach of looking for what’s best for me…to the detriment of our society around us. We desire the catharsis of knowing that someone who has wronged us will experience the pain we have experienced. Like that somehow balances the scales. This is how we define justice. It has no purpose other than to bring us twisted satisfaction which feeds our collective narcissism and fuels the perpetuation of cyclical, societal violence.

We have projected this definition of justice upon God. This is called an anthropomorphism. As if God, who by all things exist and have being is concerned about self preservation. As if we who are the created are powerful enough to affect our Creators sense of honour and dignity. As a society, led by leaders of the western evangelical “Christian” religion have embraced this fallacy, we have forgotten what true justice is. The result of this has been catastrophic sociological regression. History tells us that every civilization which is built on the violence of retributive “justice” will inevitably collapse.

We have forgotten that Jesus, which scripture tells us is the perfect representation of God, came as the living contradiction to the anthropomorphic god of our creation. (That’s right, modern society isn’t the first group of people to push this false god) His very life not only reminded us of what Old Testament prophets told us about God’s justice, but is a practical demonstration of what divine justice looks like. Isaiah 55:8-9 talks about how “God’s ways are higher than our ways.” If you read the whole chapter, it talks about how God is merciful whereas humans are not.

Here’s some interesting trivia for you: In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament and the Koine Greek of the New Testament, the words, “righteous” and “Justice” are rendered from the same words, which means to set right, to put back into proper working order. Leviticus 19:35-36 for example says that “Just” scales are scales that are in proper order.

Here’s a small sampling of what divine justice looks like in scripture:

“ADMINISTER JUSTICE every morning BY RESCUE THE VICTIM of robbery from the hand of his oppressor”
Jeremiah 21:12

“Thus has the LORD of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and PRACTICE KINDNESS and COMPASSION each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’”
Zechariah 7:9-10

“HE WILL NOT CRUSH THE WEAKEST reed OR PUT OUT A flickering CANDLE. By doing this he will cause justice to be victorious.”
Matthew 12:18

“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to PREACH GOOD NEWS TO the POOR. He has sent Me to PROCLAIM DELIVERANCE TO the CAPTIVES and RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO the BLIND, to RELEASE THE the OPPRESSED,”
Luke 4:18

And my personal favourite, “the Lord is waiting to SHOW you MERCY, and is rising up to SHOW you COMPASSION, because the LORD is a just God”
Isaiah 30:18

Do you see any mention of retributive punishment mentioned here? It just simply isn’t there because that is NOT God’s idea of justice. God’s justice is ALWAYS restorative. Not always pleasant. God does work to correct us…and let’s face it. No one really enjoys the process of correction. He does indeed allow us to experience the brokenness that comes from our sin (relational failure). Our own sin is our punisher. God simply isn’t interested in punishing anyone and if you see God as a divine judge who is waiting eagerly to smite evildoers with no restorative intent, you simply do not know Him.

Do I hope that Nikolas Cruz will face divine justice.

YES!

I want to face divine justice too! For God’s justice flows from His mercy and leads to healing (salvation) and restoration of relationships. Like the rest of us, Nikolas Cruz has experienced brokenness and his resulting sins are rooted in being treated unjustly and then passing on injustice instead of mercy and forgiveness. His sins have simply had a larger and more dramatic effect than what our sins have had.

Our world needs change. It needs justice. Divine justice. Let’s embrace the forgiveness that we already have in Christ and stop injustice in its tracks by choosing to forgive, by choosing to not punish others with no restorative intent. Let’s go beyond that by actually reaching out to those who are victims of injustice and loving them, helping them, participating with God in bringing healing and true justice wherever we happen to be, to whomever our lives happen to touch.

This is what it means to be a Christ follower…a Christian. This is how it looks to be truly human.

My family and I just arrived back at our friends home where we are staying for a few days while on vacation. We were spending precious time visiting with relatives—beautiful people who we see far too little. Oh, you probably think that this is just another day in the privileged country of Canada where I live. Did I forget to mention that we are currently in the heart of a supposed shithole country? That’s right. As I write this, we are in the centre of Port Au Prince, and these friends of ours whose place we are staying at run a preschool for underprivileged Haitian children. They are amazing people who have also been going the extra mile in partnering with us, looking after my adopted daughters siblings who still live in Haiti. The relatives who we were just visiting are the birth parents, brothers, sister, grandmother, uncle and aunt, not to mention various cousins of my Haitian born daughters.

We fell in love with this country and its people fifteen years ago when we first came here to meet the first of two little girls we would adopt as our own. As we (my wife and I with our daughters, the birth parents, and sister) travelled via tap-tap (it’s Haiti’s public transportation—basically we rode in the back of a small pickup) to the home of the uncle and aunt while the boys were in school, I couldn’t help but to observe the vibrant life of the city that we travelled through. Every building is painted in bright colours and the sound of the traffic and street vendors are inescapable.

This trip marks our seventh time to Haiti. I have been from Jeremie in the south end of the island, all the way to Labadee in the north. Two things that stand out to me every time I come here, as I observe the people struggling to make a living any way they can against all odds: This is the home of a proud and strong people who exude dignity and determination. Also, this is a very picturesque country with majestic mountains, lush tree canopies and beautiful beaches.

There are six family’s who control Haiti’s entire economy. They are the extremely wealthy elite in this country who control most of the wealth and are also responsible for directing the political power—in their favour of course. In short, the people of Haiti are for the most part trapped under the thumb of the very rich, very powerful and very corrupt. Looking at the history of Haiti, you realize that the people here have always really been living under an extreme disadvantage. From the get-go, they were brought here as slaves from west Africa and sold to Europeans by fellow countrymen who wielded power over them. They have never had a fighting chance to escape the cycle of poverty which has entrapped them for generations.

In talking to Haitians in the streets of Port Au Prince, I have discovered that Donald Trump with his disparaging remarks is not a very popular person here. You see, if you are overweight and unhealthy, and are kept that way by being fed a poor diet and locked in a small room where you cannot exercise, it is completely unhelpful for someone to look through your window and call you a fat, lazy slob.

The population of Haiti (minus the rich, powerful and corrupt elite) want change. They don’t enjoy having to scrape by in a country that lacks potable water with 80% unemployment, poor healthcare, no social assistance, a poor education system, and scant evidence of governmental regulation. (There’s actually a much larger list of grievances than this. Consider this a small sampling). The people here want—and deserve change. And they are powerless to do anything about it as a repressed people.

It is not helpful to trample the dignity of a beautiful and strong people by calling their home a “shithole country”. They are well aware of what they lack compared to developed nations.

It’s easy for us in North America to sit back in our comfortable living rooms at the end of a day of working at a job that we take for granted and criticize those who don’t enjoy the success we have. it’s easy to assume it’s their fault and they are just too lazy to do anything about it, while we smugly pat ourselves on our collective back and go back to whatever vapid means of diversion that was entertaining us.

Put yourself in their shoes. Better yet, bring your shoes down here (with your feet in them) and get to know the people here. Spend time in their country, spend your money here, find a reputable organization that is here long term and making a difference and support them financially.

If you, in your comfortable position of being the elite worldwide economic minority, which we all are as North Americans, sit there and call the country of Haiti a “shithole country”, you are part of the problem. Whatever you do, don’t insult a downtrodden people. Don’t project a false identity of worthlessness onto them.

God Bless Haiti!

Here are some reputable long term organizations who I trust and support, and I would encourage you to also support in an effort to make life better for these beautiful people:

Home

http://mcmhaiti.org/
http://heartlineministries.org/
https://www.compassion.ca/

 

 

It was a heady view for miles in all directions. We were hundreds of feet up in the air. We had reached the top, something most of the poor schmucks at the bottom likely never would do. We were fairly proud of our status, though we would always feign humility. We were set apart from the rest of the common, unenlightened rabble. The large platform had a safety railing around it, except for one part. There was a gap in which there was a long, steep water slide that emptied into a large pool at the bottom. I cautiously edged over to get a closer look. Grasping the railing for dear life, I looked over. My heart started pounding. The slide was so steep, I couldn’t even see the whole thing from the platform.

A sharp voice barked behind me, making me jump.
“Get away from there you fool! Stay over here with us where it is safe. We have all worked hard to get here. There were many stairs to climb and now that we are here we need to enjoy our position. You don’t want to risk that dangerous slide back to being like all of those fools down there. We need to be where they can see us, what they could become with much discipline, hard work and perseverance…all given to us by God’s grace of course.”

I blinked incredulously, slowly breaking eye contact with that smug, self righteous face. I turned and looked over the railing to the people below. There was a vast crowd. Many were on the beach. Some looked miserable and lost. Others were laughing, talking, eating and drinking. They, for the most part looked to be enjoying themselves.

And then there were the ones in the pool. They seemed to be the most alive of anyone. Not just alive, but astonishingly alive. In fact, looking around the beach, you could tell just who had been in the pool—by their aliveness.

And then there was us. We were a stoic crowd, all by ourselves, separated from everyone else. We would sing and tell stories to each other about how we have made the right choice to be on this platform, far above everyone else. Encouraging each other to stick it out here no matter how hard it got. We would also shout encouragement to those we saw climbing the long staircase to the top where we were.

“Come on! Keep walking! Trust in the Lord! We are praying for you! Don’t give up, there’s great reward where you are going!”

Some would keep trudging upward and onward, some would turn back in discouragement. After all it was a tiring climb. If we were honest, we would have admitted that the climb had worn us out as well.

Once in a while, someone from our group would go down the slide. Oh, what a ruckus that would cause! We would tell each other, very piously, that the slider was weak, didn’t have enough faith to stick it out with us at the top. “Don’t be like that person”, we would whisper. We would show outward disgust and distain all while secretly wondering what the ride was like.

What was it like to have freedom like that?

I kept looking at the slide, at the pool, at the people in it, and I was drawn. The more I watched them, the more I realized that life up here on the high platform wasn’t what I thought it would be. It just seemed empty and lonely, like I was missing out on something important. It felt like being the only one to miss out on a friends birthday party because you have the flu, and you’re at home all by yourself while everyone else is having fun.

I slowly moved toward the slide, trying to look inconspicuous. Trying to avoid being seen by the pretentious eyes of those who would often take me aside and caution me against getting too close to that slide…with loving concern of course.

Finally, I could no longer think of anything else but the slide and the pool at the bottom. With my heart pounding in my chest, I stepped into the water at the top of the slide. I heard the gasps of horror from those behind me who happened to notice my new position. I lay down, crossed my arms over my chest, took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

I let the water take me.

Down.

The decent was at the same time terrifying and exhilarating. I’ve never felt that out of control in my life and I’ve never felt that much peace about being out of control either. There was only one way to go on this slide of grace. And that was into the pool of self emptying, unconditional love.

I hit the water fast and skipped on top of the surface like a flat stone briefly before sinking in. The water was wonderfully warm and smelled like fresh rainfall. I went under and could not surface. There was a tremendous weight making me sink that I could not shake off. I flailed about wildly, panicking, desperately holding my breath, before I realized that I was all right. Peace enveloped me. I stopped fighting and surrendered to the water. I took a breath.

My eyes went dark as my false self drowned in that water

My eyes opened and I saw differently. Before, my eyes were on my performance, trying to look good, trying to appear joyful when I was not. My eyes used to be focused on my flaws and the flaws of everyone else around me. Trying to look like I had all of the right answers. Trying to appear acceptable to the God who had never rejected me. Now, I began to see beauty around me. I began to see others before I saw my self. I was no longer concerned about trying to look alive, trying to appear joyful. I just was!  I realized that I was still at the bottom of the pool, but breathing! I was not just alive, but astonishingly so. The weight of my false self was gone and I could swim about freely.

Life is different now. The old crowd I used to hang around with on the platform looks down on me, some with pity, some with open distain, and yet some have a hungry look about them. I see them looking at me and then glancing at the slide. I just enjoy living life to the full. Once in awhile the ghost of false self haunts me, kind of like an amputee experiences ghost pains. When that happens, I just jump back in the pool and breath in the sweet waters of divine love.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it”. Matt 16:24, 25

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would
have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:10-15

Groping about blindly in the darkness we had created, we forgot our own image. Fear emerged from the depths of the blackness and became a familiar and comfortable companion. We shaped our lives around it. It is dangerous in the dark, so fear drove us to create morals, rules, and arbitrary punishments to enforce these rules…all to keep us safe.

We had blocked out the light with the blackest of shadows created by self and could no longer remember who self truly was. We couldn’t even remember our maker. The one who is light. The One in who’s image we were created. Our darkened eyes reckoned light as an enemy. After all, when you exist in the darkness, light is painful, light exposes truth and contradicts lies we believe. Lies which have become part of our identity. Light threatens to rip those precious lies from our tenacious grip and we feel fear, not knowing what we will be left with after the lies are gone.

In the darkness, you cannot see clearly. There were so many obstacles to trip over, so many pits to fall into, so many jagged things to snag and cut us. Despite our rules and moral code which we created, we constantly fell, injuring ourselves. We were withering away from our hurt in the darkness. We couldn’t go on much longer.

The light shone through the darkness and saw us dying.

A kaleidoscope of compassion illuminated the shadows as the Word which created us became one of us.

To bring us a message of truth

To show us who we are

To restore our dignity

To show us who the light is

To show us that the light had never left us.

After all, can darkness have meaning without the presence of light?

The Word was called “Emmanuel”. God with us.

The Word had entered our darkness in smallness and weakness. Vulnerable and helpless. Dependant upon us who were dirty, blind, wounded and controlled by lies and fear. As the light shone in our midst, it hurt our eyes. All we could see at first was how dirty we were and how tattered were our clothes. Our grievous injuries were grotesque to behold. We felt ashamed. As He lived among us, His clothing too became tattered and he became covered in our filth and yet, in Him there was no hint of a shadow. The light simply shone brighter and brighter.

As the light shone for all to see. Many allowed their eyes to adjust to the light, enjoying the gift of sight for the first time. No longer stumbling and falling, they began to heal and were overjoyed as they experienced true life for the first time. They looked into the face of the Word and understood their true selves as they now knew their maker face to face. They too began to shine.

Just like the Word.

But it threatened the very system we had made. With perfect light to illuminate our way, there was no longer any need for our moral system, our rules and punishments. The keepers of the rules were powerful and respected and now this would be taken away from them. They sought to snuff the light out.

Taking the very one who is light, they took all of the filth in the world and heaped it upon Him, torturing and smothering Him to death. We were all culpable as none of us even tried to stop this heinous crime. For a brief moment the world was plunged into the darkest night it had ever known. They thought that their darkness could exist without the presence of light, that it could become a god unto itself that they could worship. A god that would serve them.

But darkness cannot exist without light.

Light however has no need of darkness.

The light consumed the darkness and exploded into the world with such intensity that all darkness vanished.

The Word who is the light gave us a clear message that no matter how hard we try to create shadow, the light will always be there surrounding us, giving us life.

The worst we can do, which many still do, is to shut our eyes to the reality of the light of life which surrounds us and penetrates our very being.

There are many of us now experiencing freedom and healing by walking in the light. There are still those however who choose to walk about with eyes closed, bumping into things, falling and getting hurt.

Are your eyes still closed? Will you open your eyes this Christmas and enjoy the gift of light and life that is already yours?

It isn’t easy selling something that’s broken. For the last few months I’ve been, with no success, trying to sell two items. One that is damaged; It is a stove which is missing the front glass from the door (otherwise works fine) Also for sale, is an item which is going to need some repair work; It is a truck which is showing low compression in one of the engine cylinders, but otherwise is in great mechanical shape. It even looks really good, but it is broken inside. It’s hard coming up with a good sales pitch to make people feel like these are items that they need. After all I don’t want them myself.

Growing up in the church, there was always this pressure from pastors and leaders to witness to my friends and neighbours. “How many people have you told about Jesus this week?”, was the guilt inducing question that I constantly dreaded. You see, even from a young age, I didn’t feel motivated to tell others of the “gospel” I was taught. You would think that if one had good news to share, it might just come out naturally, unless that good news maybe isn’t totally good news after all. I’ve always had a hard time feeling good about the typical evangelical “gospel” sales pitch. It goes something like this:

You are a sinner, separated from God and destined to be tortured in hell forever unless you ask God to forgive you and then clean up your act and become a morally pure person, which of course will show us all that your repentance was sincere. You see, you deserve to be punished for your sin by God, but God loves you and sent Jesus to be punished by God so that you don’t have to be…if you ask for forgiveness. Oh, and this is a limited time offer. Take it now before it’s too late!

It’s like trying to sell a defective product. There are so many problems with this sales pitch, I’m not sure where to even start. How about I’ll start with the obvious.

The Gospel, which means “good news” was never intended to be a sales pitch. The Gospel is not transactional. It is transformational. It’s not potential good news—something we can have if we buy into the sales pitch. It’s just good news plain and simple! Hearing good news tends to change people.

The first thing we need to understand, is that God is just like Jesus. God has always been just like Jesus and always will be. In John 14:9 Jesus tells Phillip that if he has seen Jesus, he has seen the Father. The writer of Hebrews in 1:3 tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. If God the Father was so offended by our sinful immorality and needed to punish somebody to “make things right”, shouldn’t Jesus also have been equally offended by our immorality and needed to punish someone for it…just like the Father…instead of Himself being punished in our place. I could go deeper, but I wish to simply write a blog post here…not a book. Already you can see John Calvins Penal Substitutionary Atonement theory collapsing like a cheap shanty in an earthquake of revelation.

The next thing we must understand is that sin is not a moral failure to be punished. We are created in love, for the purpose of relationship, to be loved by a God who’s essence is a love that is other thinking, self emptying and unconditional (Agape). Sin is “missing the mark” (the literal meaning of “sin”), therefore a relational failure in which we live apart from our design. This brings us sickness and brokenness, which cannot be remedied by punishment. It can only be cured by the divine doctor. God does not punish us for our sin. Sin brings its own punishment. If you eat nothing but potato chips and drink nothing but sugary soft drinks and lie around on the couch watching T.V. all of the time instead of eating healthy food and exercising, you will become sick. Is it God punishing you? No! It’s the result of your own poor lifestyle choices that punish you.

In stark contrast to the typical “Evangelical” gospel, the true and beautiful gospel starts out with us being created in love, in perfect relationship with our maker. We each choose to decide what good and evil (morality) are apart from God. We choose independence. This is against our design parameters and makes us sick. With our sin consciousnesses, we begin to think that we are separated from God. We begin to see God as one who is not only disappointed with us, but downright angry with us. We ourselves embrace a false identity and become violent and selfish as we believe the lie that we are now worthless. After all, we cannot attain moral perfection on our own. We fail in our attempt to become acceptable to God. We feel shame. In our twisted thinking, we believe that we are so powerful that we can cause God to change His mind about us. God sees us withering away in our sickness and becomes one of us, proving that our thoughts of separation were always just a lie, and He restores the dignity of the human project. He lives among us, loving, forgiving and healing. Jesus shows us who God really is. The God we had forgotten. He shows us that God never stopped loving us.

When I am sick and feeling miserable, I tend to push people away. I am irritable and become angry easily, this is when I’m most likely to lash out at those that I love. I just want to be by myself in my misery and pain. The presence of healthy people only reminds me of what I am not. The sickness of sin does that to us and more. We not only pushed away God Himself, we viciously mocked, tortured and killed Him. God didn’t punish Jesus. We did. Our sin did. As He hung there on the Roman torture device, dying, He did the only thing that God can do as God is love. He loved us. He forgave us. He showed us that no matter what we did to Him, we are not so powerful as to change His mind about us. We have always been loved, accepted, included, forgiven. He took our fatal virus, our sin into Himself and took it to the grave with Him…and left it there. He came back from death, bringing us new life. 1Peter 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This is something that was done to us and for us without our knowledge or consent. It’s a done deal.

What’s the difference between a believer and an unbeliever then? Belief. The gospel, therefore cannot be a sales pitch as there is nothing to sell. There’s nothing to buy. There’s nothing you can do to affect your forgiveness. You already possess it. There is only belief. You cannot possibly enjoy something that you have unless you believe you have it.

The Gospel then, is a proclamation of what has happened. All you need to do is to believe. It is something you awaken to. When you believe, the natural result is to surrender and become dependant on the God who has always loved and accepted you. Living as you were designed to live. This becomes easier as you understand who God really is. He is not an angry judge who is looking for someone to punish. He is the loving doctor, the rescuer who can’t stop thinking of you. This is the process of salvation. The root word for “salvation” is of course “save”, which literally means “healing” in the original language of the New Testament. When you believe who God really is and what He is like, when you believe that you are forgiven, loved and accepted, healing can begin. You cannot possibly begin to heal with the false message of the “Evangelical” gospel. There’s too much poison in it that will make you sick from the distorted image of God that it promotes.

Let’s stop with the sales pitch already. The harmful endeavour of trying to sell a broken product to a world that really needs the healing and life that can only come when people understand who God really is. Let’s proclaim the good news that we already have everything that we need. The good news of God revealed to us in the person of Jesus who has already forgiven us, who has always accepted us, who has always loved us and will never stop!

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3

 

 

Today is November 11. “Lest We Forget” is the phrase we will hear many times. We have set apart this day to not forget something important. There are some things we have not forgotten. The horror of war, the bravery and selfless sacrifice of young men and women on the battlefield. There are other things though, that we have forgotten, and so our history of violence continues to repeat itself.

Lest we forget that all human beings, no matter what colour, creed or country are created in Gods image. Therefore we all have inherent dignity and worth and are all connected to each other.

Lest we forget that because we are created in the image of God, that means we are created to live in relationship with God and with each other. We are created to live in unity. We are created to live in the flow of Gods self-emptying love poured into us to overflowing. That love overflowing from us is to be poured out into the lives of others around us. Violence and greed are the dams which stop that flow. This goes against our design and brings collective brokenness.

Lest we forget that though a violent solution may provide temporary peace, it will not last, for violence always perpetuates more violence in the end. There is no such thing as “just war.”

Lest we forget that any civilization which glorifies and participates in violence, which practices selfishness and greed, who has an “Us vs. Them” mentality will always live in spiritual and societal brokenness.

Lest we forget that nowhere in the gospels nor in any extra biblical historical records do we see Jesus, the perfect reflection of God, the archetypal human, reacting violently to any human being—not for his own defence or for the defence of anyone else. Instead, we see God Himself forgiving, healing, feeding the hungry, refusing to react violently, preferring to forgive as violence is inflicted upon Him. The more I consider this, the more difficult it is to for me as a Christ follower to justify or condone any acts of violence upon another human being for any reason.

Lest we forget that that there are much more creative solutions to conflict than the default solution of violence that humans have settled for throughout history. Let’s find another way.

Thomas Merton writes in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation”:
“Strong hate, the hate that takes joy in hating, is strong, because it does not believe itself to be unworthy and alone. It feels the support of a justifying god, of an idol of war, an avenging and destroying spirit. From such blood-drinking gods the human race was once liberated, with great toil and terrible sorrow, by the death of a God Who delivered Himself to the Cross and suffered the pathological cruelty of His own creatures out of pity for them. In conquering death, He opened their eyes to the reality of a Love which asks no questions about worthiness, a Love which overcomes hatred and destroys death.

“But men have now come to reject this divine revelation of pardon, and they are consequently returning to the old war gods, the gods that insatiably drink blood and eat the flesh of men. It is easier to serve the hate-gods, because they thrive on the worship of collective fanaticism. To serve the hate-gods, one has only to be blinded by collective passion. To serve the God of Love, one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love – in spite of all unworthiness, whether in oneself or in one’s neighbour”

 

The chilly late October air blows through your jacket as you walk down the dark sidewalk with your children. You shiver involuntarily. Could it be more than just the temperature doing this? As you look around you, while reenacting this pagan ritual of “trick or treat”, there are decorations of dead, decomposing things—evil things covering yards, hanging in windows. People walking around wearing costumes of that which we fear most. Skeletons, witches, zombies. All that represents death. What kind of a crazy celebration is this anyway?

Until recently, I have really, really hated Halloween. I found it to be grotesque and appalling with the images of death everywhere. Essentially, Halloween is a celebration of death. Why in heck to we want to celebrate something we all fear? Death, after all is the very black hole which sucks in joy, hope, peace and loved ones. Death is about loss and the hurt which comes from it. Do we celebrate death simply in an attempt to acknowledge our fears and bravely stand against them, or perhaps, maybe, could it be that there is some redeeming quality to death that is worth celebrating?

When I was 18 years old, I dated a girl for a while and I was quite serious about her. I fully intended on marrying her. I was convinced that she was “the one” and could not imagine life without her. Seven months after we started dating, it ended. It was a death. The realization of a fear I had. The fear of losing her. The death of a relationship, and I was heartbroken. I did not celebrate this, after all what good could possibly come of this? I mourned deeply. Almost two years later I met the woman who would become my wife of almost 23 years so far. I realized later on that this former girlfriend and I, for many reasons, would not have been a good match in the long run. There had to be a death. There was something so much better out there which I could not experience without that death. Though it was unpleasant at the time, the death of that relationship was ultimately something to be celebrated.

How many times have you experienced a death which led to something better? Maybe a job, a relationship, a lifestyle. We tend to get attached to what we have, even if it is not the best thing for us. After all—it’s comfortable, it’s familiar. The only way we can let go is through death.

Adam and Eve in the garden, before sin did not experience death. There was no need for it as everything was as it should be. One concept of what sin is that I particularly like is from Dr. Steve McVey. He says that sin is something which is less than what Gods best is for us. Adam and Eve after the fall existed in a system of their own making. A system which was less than what God’s best was for them and in their minds they were separated from God. God did not want them to live like that forever as He had something so much better in store for them. And so death came into the world. Yes, it seems like a curse, but when you live in a system of “less than God’s best for you”, no matter how attached to it we become, in order to enjoy God’s best for us there has to be a death.

There also has to be a death of false self (ego). Because of this system of sin which we all live in, we see ourselves wrongly and because of this, we behave wrongly. This is what keeps the system of sin alive. At best, we identify ourselves by what we do, or where we live, or perhaps our status in society. At worst, we see ourselves as depraved sinners, failures, unable to do anything good or right.

Both of these views are unhealthy as they are ego driven perceptions. Neither reflect our true self. When God created mankind He called us good. That hasn’t changed. A $100 bill is still worth $100 if it is crisp and new or if it is crumpled up lying in a mud puddle. Its value does not change! The reality is, that we are loved and accepted by God no matter how we act. We are not so powerful that we can change how God feels about us. Our false ego needs to die before we can embrace the reality of who we really are. Its a humbling experience as we like to think we can do things that make us great which we can be proud of. We like to think that we are capable of earning God’s love somehow.

I love what Robert Farrah Capon writes in “Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace”:
“Lord, please restore to us the comfort of merit and demerit. Show us that there is at least something we can do. Tell us that at the end of the day there will at least be one redeeming card of our very own. Lord, if it is not too much to ask, send us to bed with a few shreds of self-respect upon which we can congratulate ourselves. But whatever you do, do not preach grace. Give us something to do, anything; but spare us the indignity of this indiscriminate acceptance.”

Somehow sin also had a tangibly destructive effect on physical reality. As I get older I become more and more aware of this as the list of aches and pains in my body gets longer and longer. This is certainly less than God’s best for us. There has to be a physical death in order for us to enjoy something better which God has for us. I do not know what the metaphysical realm will be like, but I know that it will be a reality of healing and wholeness. I do believe that the physical realm will one day be restored and joined to the metaphysical and this gives me hope. It gives me reason to celebrate death. For death is simply the corridor we have been given to shed that which is not best for us so that we can enjoy what truly is Gods best!

One day, there will not be any more death, for in that day death will have outlived its usefulness. On that day all will be restored to perfect relationship with God, and where there is nothing better to have, there is no more need for death. That is a celebration I look forward to!

John 12:24-25 NASBS
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

There are two things that the western church of today needs to be aware of.
-One: I don’t think that the God of the universe ever needed a display of blood worthy of a Quinton Tarantino film to cure Him of a bad mood so that He could forgive.
-Two: Tommy Lee Jones really reminds me of God. More on that second one later.

What is up with the constant theme of blood sacrifice that we see throughout scripture? Right from Genesis 4 we see Abel offering a sacrifice from his flock. His brother Cain also offers a sacrifice to God, but from his crop. It appears that God prefers steak over vegetables. I can relate to that. By the time we get to Genesis 22 we find the story of God telling Abraham to offer up his only son Issac as a human sacrifice, which he seemingly agrees to without hesitation. This tells us, and we can also see from non-biblical historical records, that human sacrifice was already a common and accepted practice in many civilizations. Moving on to Exodus, God gives instructions to Moses that “You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.”( Exodus 20:24 NASB.) Well now it seems at least that we’ve moved on to animal sacrifices and left human sacrifice behind, but then….In the book of Judges we have the story of Jephthah. He had the misfortune of being born to the wrong woman, as such, was kicked out of the house, then we have a very heart warming underdog turned hero story come about where the entire nation of Israel is counting on Jephthah to save the day as their fearless military leader. Negotiations between Israel and their enemy—the Ammonites have failed and the battle is inevitable. Jephthah really needs this victory and makes a rash promise to God that “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the Lords, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.” (Judges 11:30b-31) NASB. Jephthah wins the battle and comes home in victory only to have his only daughter whom he loves dearly come out of the door to meet him. He follows through with is vow and sacrifices her to God. There is nothing here that immediately condemns his sacrifice. So we’re back to human sacrifice again.

No matter how far we peer into history, there is evidence of human and animal sacrifice in cultures around the world. Different people groups practicing this include; ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Neolithic Europe, the Celts, the Germanic people, the Slavic people, the Chinese, India, Hawaii, the pre-Columbian Americas, All across Africa. In 2 Chronicles 28, we see the reintroduction of human sacrifice in the cultic practice of Israel under the reign of king Ahaz. The question is: Why is it that every ancient culture has at one point in time had the compelling, perceived need to offer blood sacrifices to a deity? There have been three main motivators throughout history for sacrifice: The first and main one being that the people had felt that they had angered their god and thought they needed to give up something to appease their deity. The second reason was that the people wanted or needed an advantage over another people group and would make a deal with their deity…a trade. A sacrifice for a decisive victory. The third reason is for divine provision for favourable growing conditions for crops. Another trade off. A sacrifice in return for good crops. Other reasons tied into this, like the Mayans for example, sacrificing copious quantities of innocent lives so that the sun would continue to rise day after day. The common denominator here is one thing…Fear. Fear of God punishing, abandoning, and excluding them. Fear is the one thing that keeps the machine of religion ticking. It is the only thing. It doesn’t seem strange then, that various people throughout scripture are told by God or by angels to “fear not” over 100 times!

Then we see an interesting progression take place throughout the centuries recorded in scripture.
-Psalm 40:6 NASBS
[6] Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
-Hosea 6:6 NASBS
[6] For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Jeremiah 6:20 NASBS
[20] “For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba And the sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”
-Jeremiah 7:21-24 NASBS
[21] Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. [22] For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. [23] But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’ [24] Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.
Micah 6:6-8 NASBS
[6] With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? [7] Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? [8] He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
-Matthew 9:13 NASBS
[13] But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
-Matthew 12:7 NASBS
[7] But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
-Hebrews 10:5-6 NASBS
[5] Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT a BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; [6] In WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE.
-Hebrews 10:8 NASBS
[8] After saying above, “Sacrifices AND OFFERINGS AND whole BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices for SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the Law)

What’s going on here? Has God, the immutable One changed His mind about sacrifice?
Does the change in the tone of scripture from God seemingly wanting sacrifice to not desiring sacrifice mean that scripture is fallible and errant after all? I think that people who dogmatically insist on the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture are missing the point. As Rob Bell says in his book, “What is the Bible?”, it is a story about what it means to be human. It is an accurate collection of stories which show how people have understood God as He has progressively revealed Himself to us, culminating in His full disclosure of character when the cosmic Christ became enfleshed and lived among us. What’s going on here is that God has met man where he was: Lost, in pain, uncomfortable, believing in a false identity, forgetting who God really is and imagining what He is like based on fear. Eyes blinded by guilt, knowing that in Adam, in the choosing to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we have chosen to define what is right and wrong independent of God. Even worse, we have chosen to have knowledge that we should never have had. We were created to be in perfect relationship with God, completely dependant on Him. As such, there is no need to know about right or wrong. Such knowledge is unnecessary within perfect relationship.

Who was it then that desired sacrifice? Man or God? It was man who desired sacrifice so that we could control our way into right standing with God and therefore a greater future. We mistakenly thought through our guilty conscience that God desired it and could be manipulated through transaction.

Matthew Distefano writes the following in his excellent book, “From the Blood of Abel”: “Consider the backdrop for a moment. Here we have a man who does not bear a son with his wife, Sarah, until he is 100 years of age (Gen 21:5). Not exactly the most ideal period in life to procreate! Miraculously though, it happens. A baby boy! But then, one day God decides to “test” Abraham, commanding, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the…” (Gen 22:2) Wait! What? No, no, no…that cannot be right. It sounds too ridiculous! Well, not so fast . If we transport ourselves back in time, perhaps 3,000 years or more, then we will discover a vastly different culture, with very specific theological assumptions (starting to sound familiar yet?). The important thing to understand is that once upon a time, people in the Middle East were polytheists. More specifically, and this applies to the early Hebrews, they were henotheists. Simply put: gods were tribal. I had my god, you had your god, and they had their god. So, for instance, Yahweh was the God of Israel, while Molech was the god of the Canaanites, and so on and so forth. With that in mind, let’s get back to the story… What Abraham and Sarah faced religiously and culturally sounds brutal for any parent. Certainly, they both “knew” that in order for God to be appeased, blood had to be shed—and what better blood than that of a first-born son? This was just the way it was. I believe that is why there is no mention of Abraham contesting God’s “commands.” Notice, in Genesis 22:3, immediately after getting the instructions from God, we are simply told that Abraham “rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac.” No protesting, no pleading for the boy’s life; just that he saddled up for the journey. Now, after the two reach the place where Isaac is to be slain, Abraham immediately builds an altar (Gen 22:9). I can imagine a rudimentary pile of rocks with hefty pieces of wood strategically placed on top. I picture them doused in a flammable oil of sorts, perhaps something like animal fat. After all, the body would have to be burned so as to reach the nostrils of God. Once everything is just right, Abraham binds his beloved Isaac and takes out his knife. With a shaking hand, he is ready. But all of a sudden, in comes the plot-twist. As Abraham goes to kill Isaac, we read, in Gen 22:11: “But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Do no lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Immediately following this, Abraham sees a ram and sacrifices that instead. After he does this, he names the place Adonai-jireh , or “The Lord will provide” (Gen 22:14). In order to determine the power and meaning of this text, we are provided with some very strong clues in the very language used. Notice: • Verse 1: Elohim tested Abraham… • Verse 3: Elohim had shown him… • Verse 8: Elohim himself will provide… • Verse 9: Elohim had shown him… • Verse 11: But the angel of Yahweh called… Here we have a wrestling with “God’s will.” Initially, a theological assumption is made about the creator God, Elohim, arguing that he needs Isaac’s blood to be spilled. But then the God of Abraham, and then later Isaac, and Jacob, via a messenger angel, rescues Isaac from this false, and might I say murderous, sacrificial assumption. Remember, everyone in Abraham’s day believed all gods, Elohim included, demanded blood. But this is simply false. In fact, it is a lie, and ultimately comes from the satan—or in other words, the human principle of accusation—the one whom Jesus would later label a liar and murderer from the start (John 8:44). The lie the satan hides behind here is that God demands blood. The truth, though, is that it is really us as the satan who are the lying, sacrifice-demanding murderers, not Elohim . In all reality, the one true God—whether named Elohim or Yahweh—has never demanded blood sacrifices, but that theological understanding is not our starting position; the belief in a God who demands human sacrifice is . This passage takes us from one theological place to another. It is a baby step in a way, but it is also huge (especially for me!) because it is ultimately the reason we do not sacrifice first-born sons any longer (and I am a first-born son!).”

 

One theme that we see throughout the story of humanity in the Bible is how we have gotten lost and God has met us, not where we should be, but rather where we are—lost, broken, confused about who we are and confused about who God is.

Around twenty years ago, a bunch of friends and I had the brilliant idea of climbing to the top of Mt. Burke in the Canadian Rockies which is a 3000ft elevation gain, on December 23rd…and toboggan down the north face. Yes, this is one of the few times in my life, where I actually thought I was going to die that day. We ended up getting lost on the way down and what should have been an easy two hour hike to the base of the mountain turned into an exhausting adventure trudging through deep snow in the dark, trying to find our way back. Fortunately, one of the guys that had started up the trail with us had gotten tired out and turned back while we were on the way up and was back at the vehicle waiting for us, wondering what was taking us so long. He became concerned for our safety and managed to get the help of some guys who had their snowmobiles out, and together, they went looking for us. Where should have I have been at eleven o’clock at night on December 23rd? Probably at home with my wife and my one month old daughter. That’s not where I was though. I was cold, tired and hopelessly lost in the forest somewhere on the north west side of Mt. Burke. I needed rescue and my rescuers came to where I was and took me to where I should have been. This is a picture of how God has met humans where we were throughout history and brings us to where we should be.

I want you to imagine someone important in your life. A person you cannot imagine living without. It could be your wife, or your husband, brother or sister, your mom, dad, a grandparent, that crazy uncle, a lifelong friend. Picture that person in your mind. Now imagine something you could do that would hurt that relationship. Imagine you have indeed done that…whatever it is. You feel incredible remorse and want more than anything else to make things right with that person. You are willing to sacrifice anything of yours which you hold as valuable in order to have that relationship back. Your whole view of that person you love has now changed. You imagine him/her to be, at best, disappointed with you, at worst, furious. You end up avoiding that person out of guilt, maybe working up the courage to make a phone call or send a text offering to make up for what you have done. If you can only exchange something valuable of yours for forgiveness, it would have the effect of easing your conscience.

This is a picture of the human condition. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve made a wrong decision. They decided to act like less than they really were. In their minds, God was angry with them and they needed to do something to make up for what they had done. They produced children. The children got their ideas about what God is like from their parents. The children also made wrong decisions and assumed that God is angry with them and that they need to do something to make up for it. This is the system of sin which Adam and Eve introduced, something which evangelicals would call the “sin nature.” Here’s the thing though. God was never angry or disappointed. It’s probably quite difficult to be angry or disappointed with anyone when you exist outside of time and have already known for a few billion years what decisions people will make. The first thing God does in fact, after Adam and Eve sinned was to come looking for them so that they could go for a walk as they usually did. Together enjoying relationship. God did not withdraw from Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve hid from God. God has always demonstrated forgiveness, yes even before the cross. In fact, I believe that the very act of creation was an act of forgiveness. God never needed for us to “make up for what we had done” He never needed an exchange of something valuable in order to forgive.

Lets get back to Tommy Lee Jones shall we? In the 1997 movie “M.I.B.”, the characters “Kay” played by Tommy Lee Jones and “Jay” played by Will Smith have cornered a villainous alien known as the “Bug”. The bug takes away and ingests the weapons of our would be heroes in the epic final confrontation between protagonists and antagonist. Kay then tells Jay that he’s gonna get his gun back, and moves in front of the alien shouting insults. He then screams at the bug, “EAT ME!” The bug more than gladly obliges, thinking that this is the end of one enemy. Kay, however finds his gun inside the alien and kills it from within. Just like God did to religion. He climbed into our darkness, into our mythology, our misconception—our religion for the purpose of killing it from within. He met us where we were and continues to meet us where we are; smack dab in the middle of our lostness.

In the preface of his book, “Across All Worlds”, Dr. C. Baxter Krueger brilliantly writes:
“Jesus wants His Father known. He is passionate about it. He cannot bear for us to live without knowing His Father, without knowing His heart, His lavish embrace, His endless love—and the sheer freedom to be that works within us as we see His Father’s face. Jesus knows the Father from all eternity. He sits at His right had and sees Him face to face, and shares life and all things with Him in the fellowship of the Spirit. How could He be content to leave us in the dark with no vision of His Father’s heart? How could this Son be indifferent when we are so lost and afraid and bound in our mythology? Burning with the Father’s love for us, inspired with the Spirits fire, the Son ran to embrace our broken existence, baptizing Himself into our blindness. He braved the seas of our darkness to come to us. Why? So that he could share with us His own communion with His father in the Spirit, and we could know the Father with Him, and taste and feel and experience life in His embrace.”

 

I can hear the objections from my religious readers already: What about Hebrews 9:22 where it says, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” NIV

First of all, if you are still reading an NIV Bible, do yourself a favour. Light it on fire and get yourself a better translation that isn’t jam packed with sloppy interpretive bias. Here’s a better rendering of that verse with some context: Hebrews 9:18-22 NASBS
“[18] Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. [19] For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, [20] saying, “This IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU.” [21] And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. [22] And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” There is a clear distinction here in, “ONE MAY ALMOST SAY”, and “ACCORDING TO THE LAW.” Who’s law is this anyway? God’s, or man’s? Since we know now that God never wanted sacrifice, I think we can confidently say that this was mans law, made by men who mistakenly thought that God wanted sacrifice. God entered our religious system to meet us where we were. God does not require anything in order to forgive. In fact, as soon as you bring a transaction of any sort into the picture, it is not forgiveness anymore. It is a payoff.

One other thing that my religious readers will bring up is a verse from the NASB since that is what I have been primarily using in this essay: 1 John 4:7-11 NASBS
“[7] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. [8] The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. [9] By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. [10] In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Yes, even the NASB has some sloppy translation, and the usage of the word “propitiation” is a perfect example of this. The NRSV correctly translates this as “atonement”. Why is this important? The word, “propitiation” carries the meaning of “being appeased”, which necessitates a transaction, which is then no longer forgiveness. Atonement is an excellent word choice. Lets break it down to get its meaning. At. One. Ment. To reunite, to make whole again. It has the imagery of the Hebrew word, “shalom”—nothing broken, nothing missing. It’s interesting to note that the greek word irresponsibly translated as “propitiation” is ἱλαστήριον (hilastērion). This word comes from the Hebrew word כּפּרת (kappôreth) which means “Lid”, referring to the lid of the ark of the covenant. This is the place where God (the uncreated) and the high priest (being the representative for the created) would meet (At one ment) together in the holy of holies and were able to do so because of the blood sacrifice covering sin. (Sin needed to be covered so that the people’s conscience could be cleared at least for a while in order to enjoy relationship with God. God enters the sacrificial system and allows them to use this as a means to relationship—atonement). Jesus the Christ became the lid or the place of atonement where the uncreated and the created are able to meet. Jesus was the sacrifice (who was not sacrificed to God, but rather to humanity) and He did not just cover our sin, but actually removed it. We are now a kingdom of priests able to always be in the holy of holies.

1John 2:2 says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” NRSV. John 1:29, speaking of John the Baptist says, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”. Why was it important for Jesus to remove the “sins of the world”? Sin leads to a guilty conscience. A guilty conscience leads to the severing of relationship. Hebrews 9:11-14 NASBS
[11] But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; [12] and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. [13] For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, [14] how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

When we look at the whole picture of God that scripture paints for us, we must come to one of four conclusions:
God is not immutable. His essence can change throughout the ages
There is disunity within the Godhead with God the Father being the angry, punishing judge, God the Son being the loving, forgiving, self-sacrificing one and the Holy Spirit being the neutral one.
Scripture is unreliable as it presents two clearly different and conflicting views of God’s character.
God is immutable. God the Father is, always has been and always will be like God the Son. We haven’t always known this as a human species, but with the perfect revelation of God in Jesus, we now do. Scripture is simply a reflection of our progressive knowledge of this.

I believe number four is the correct answer.
God entered our religious mythology and though never desiring or needing sacrifice to forgive, recognized that it was us who thought we needed the system of sacrifice to appease our guilty consciences. He met us where we were, not where we should have been. We see throughout the story of scripture how God reveals more and more truth about Himself until we finally have the full and perfect revelation of God in Jesus—whom we sacrifice on the altar of religion, violence, empire and human independence in our lostness, confusion and sin-sickness.

Was Jesus a sacrifice? Yes, in fact the ultimate sacrifice to end all sacrifices. He was the sacrifice that we demanded, not God. He was the sacrifice that proved that no matter how much we fell short of what it means to be human, made in the image of God. No matter how independent, selfish, prideful and violent we were, God in Christ would hang on the Roman instrument of torture, bleeding, hurting, and lost in our darkness, just like us…and He would say, “Father forgive them.” God never asked for sacrifice. We did. And God entered our lostness and met us where we were, giving us what we asked for, to relate to us, to show us that He is here for us as our healer and rescuer.