God's experience of Time is unique among all beings. It is not that He created Time and set it in motion, nor that Time exists within Him - it is none of these global concerns. It was in God's wisdom to reduce Himself to Time, to bind Himself to it, to live it, for it to affect His Being, and for Him to be submerged in time in the flesh of Jesus the Christ. The Most High has made Himself the Most Low: He took the very nature of a creature and a servant and limited Himself whilst being Eternal and Omnipresent. Through this impossible possibility we glimpse the heart of God.
He is Everywhere in Time, at once. A thousand years is a day for Him, and what seems distant in human history for Him is still keen and fresh - as if it happened yesterday. For Him, History is Now; it ever impinges upon the present. He sees the blow that fells Abel, the blood that drips into the soil, the stain it leaves, feels Abel's cold cheek and looks over the flocks that no longer have a shepherd. The instrument that wrought this cruel act lies in the dirt: the implement Abel used to slaughter the lambs for his sacrifice, the very sacrifice that sowed the discord that produced this fratricide. His blood still "speaks"; it cries for justice. Our Lord never forgets.
The pronouncements of Woe against the Pharisees in Luke 11 and Matthew 23 clearly show the pain Our Lord experienced over the murder of Abel: the trauma, the hurt, the suffering, the delight in Abel's humble offering. He was privy to Abel and Cain's last conversation. The greatest hurt party of all was the Lord. This is no parable or allegory for Our Lord; it is a tragedy that grieves His heart to this day. The sufferings of God started well before His earthly life. Unless we dwell here, unless our heart be like that soil that absorbed Abel's blood and soak in the unresolved issues and indictments and griefs of God's own heart, how will we see as God sees? How will we feel as God feels? How could we intercede for our own families, for warring nations and tribes, and for divided communities? Unless we call Abel our brother, how could we ever mourn with God and share in the fellowship of His sufferings? How could we ever stay our own hand when it wants to rise up against our righteous little brother? We must recoil in horror at the thought; if only we could hit 'rewind' and take the Lord's rebuke to heart before we hurt our brother; we could write a different story that would gladden the heart of God, and maybe make the sacrifice of Abel more sweet. Lead little Abel into the field and ask his advice about how his sacrifice was acceptable to God and ours was not. For indeed, the sacrifices of God are a humble and contrite spirit, and Abel was that meek and lowly fellow; Cain was not. You see, we are Cain before we can become Abel; and Abel before we can become anything like God.
He is Everywhere in Time, at once. A thousand years is a day for Him, and what seems distant in human history for Him is still keen and fresh - as if it happened yesterday. For Him, History is Now; it ever impinges upon the present. He sees the blow that fells Abel, the blood that drips into the soil, the stain it leaves, feels Abel's cold cheek and looks over the flocks that no longer have a shepherd. The instrument that wrought this cruel act lies in the dirt: the implement Abel used to slaughter the lambs for his sacrifice, the very sacrifice that sowed the discord that produced this fratricide. His blood still "speaks"; it cries for justice. Our Lord never forgets.
The pronouncements of Woe against the Pharisees in Luke 11 and Matthew 23 clearly show the pain Our Lord experienced over the murder of Abel: the trauma, the hurt, the suffering, the delight in Abel's humble offering. He was privy to Abel and Cain's last conversation. The greatest hurt party of all was the Lord. This is no parable or allegory for Our Lord; it is a tragedy that grieves His heart to this day. The sufferings of God started well before His earthly life. Unless we dwell here, unless our heart be like that soil that absorbed Abel's blood and soak in the unresolved issues and indictments and griefs of God's own heart, how will we see as God sees? How will we feel as God feels? How could we intercede for our own families, for warring nations and tribes, and for divided communities? Unless we call Abel our brother, how could we ever mourn with God and share in the fellowship of His sufferings? How could we ever stay our own hand when it wants to rise up against our righteous little brother? We must recoil in horror at the thought; if only we could hit 'rewind' and take the Lord's rebuke to heart before we hurt our brother; we could write a different story that would gladden the heart of God, and maybe make the sacrifice of Abel more sweet. Lead little Abel into the field and ask his advice about how his sacrifice was acceptable to God and ours was not. For indeed, the sacrifices of God are a humble and contrite spirit, and Abel was that meek and lowly fellow; Cain was not. You see, we are Cain before we can become Abel; and Abel before we can become anything like God.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Be honest, but be respectful. Blessings to you All.