C.S. Lewis noted that we can no more understand or relate to or see God than Hamlet could understand, relate to, or see Shakespeare. The creation does not relate to the creator. The only way to even remotely relate to the creator of the story is for the creator to write himself into the story.
Two thousand years ago, after thousands of years of longing, expectation, and promises, God wrote Himself into our story. He became Immanuel, or God With Us.
Humanity promptly murdered Him.
Humanity has, for eons, created his own gods. Man’s gods are capricious, flawed, vain, divided, arrogant, and reflect us. The Greek gods were prideful, lustful, arrogant, and vengeful. The Egyptians were not much better. The Mesopotamian gods had a blood lust. The Hindu gods were many and multifaceted. The Muslim god is all powerful, but cold, exerting much mercy, but showing no grace.
The gods are like us, at least the ones we created.
Then there is the real God — the one who made us. He is omnipotent, but relational. He is all powerful, but He weeps. He, like many gods in many mythologies, is willing to die. But unlike those other gods, he died for no noble cause, but because he was arrested, tried for treason, and executed though clearly innocent. What a wasted plot line. He dies for something that superficially seems dumb — a relationship with us. But, it turns out, it was the most important thing.
The Christian God turns all the mythologies on their head. They all echo the real, but the real is so unique and different and delightful. God wants a relationship with us so He wrote Himself into our story that we might understand some aspects of Him. But, like Dorothy Sayers, as Tim Keller noted, writing herself into novels as a love interest for Lord Peter Wimsey, we, like Wimsey, can only know of the author what the author adds into the story.
Two thousand years ago, God came into the story so that we might come out of this chapter and go into the next with Him. The creations in the story turned against their author. They chose one of their own — a murderous insurrectionist — over the Creator of all things. They might have had a sense they were in the presence of their author, but they liked the story without Him and wanted to create their own gods to reflect their stories. They were selfish and self-interested. They, like so many of us, want to control the plot.
But Jesus wants to be reconciled to us. The Word that became flesh wants you to know Him. Those of the world want Him dead that they might create their own gods in their own image instead of embracing that they are fearfully and wonderfully made in His image and likeness.
Today we celebrate Good Friday. Two thousand years ago this past Sunday, the world heralded Christ as King. Today, the world turned its back on Him because He offered them eternity. They only wanted the here and now.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved thr
ough him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
John 3:16–21 (ESV)
In the here and now, you have a choice — the world or God. He will keep smashing your idols until you are left with no choice. Sadly, some will still choose the smashed and broken world than He who has the power to make all things new.
Choose carefully. And if in doubt, He lives. So cry out to him.
Happy Easter to you all. Thank you for letting write about the important stuff this week, instead of the pressing news of the day. This is more important. After my show today, I’m going to step out for a week of family vacation.
At noon, I’ll deliver my twelfth Good Friday Show on radio. You can listen to it live here or subscribe to the podcast.
God bless you all and I thank you so much to those of you who pay for a subscription for supporting my work and my ability to share the gospel like this and now across the nation on radio.
