The Christian faith is radical at its core—more radical than we’ve smoothed it over to be in the two millennia since Jesus hung on the cross.
If we proclaim Christ crucified, it’s not just that we believe in an omnipotent, omnipresent, puppetmaster God… We believe in the DEATH of this God. The real, visceral, self-chosen death of this God.
And not metaphorical…
Literal.
Screaming in agony, “My God, why have you forsaken me?!!”
This God self-divides
To shake God’s fist
At…
God
And then…
Dies.
Even atheists don’t take it this far. They just don’t believe in a God. But believing in a God who truly dies?! Outlandish.
We’ve all experienced this desert where our ideal of God is blown to smithereens. We feel like God just dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and took off.
In these times, if God were a God of wholeness and omnipotent perfection, we could say that we were as far away from God as we could imagine. If we proclaimed a Zeus-like God of rippling muscles and superhuman strength who tosses thunderbolts at every problem and combs his beard in victory, well… We might say that God is nowhere to be found in our lowest seasons.
But this is not the God we find in Christ.
In Christ, we encounter a God who doesn’t have a solution to every problem. We encounter a God who runs counter to our grandest ideals. We encounter a God… Who dies.
Uncertainty and unknowing are baked into the God of Christ. Alienation is a feature, not a bug, of this God.
This is the God of lack.
But that’s not the end of the story.
In Christ, this lack - this death - is generative.
New life springs out of divine emptiness.
When you look at your life, you might find that the most fruitful seasons originated out of the bleakest ones. You might find that the things that really shaped you came out of the times in your life when you were as far away from your ideal as you could be. That when you gave up and said (with no shortage of rage and despair), “Here, God… YOU take this mess,”… Something new happened.
In Christ, death is generative.
You’re still here. And maybe you’ve softened a bit. Maybe you feel less shifty now. Maybe you’ve grown.
And I know this is wild to think… But maybe, like you, God had no idea how it was going to turn out. And now, Jesus is looking at you, going, “Wow. What a ride, huh? I was right there with you, and it was touch and go!”
Can you picture his smile sharpening with mischief before he asks…
“What’s next?”
[And I know this is wild to think… But maybe, like you, God had no idea how it was going to turn out. And now, Jesus is looking at you, going, “Wow. What a ride, huh? I was right there with you, and it was touch and go!” Can you picture his smile sharpening with mischief before he asks… “What’s next?”]
This is how I see God, but I haven't found anyone near me who sees anything near the same. My sister and her family is VERY trenched in "God will take care of everything"; "I'm praying to God for {fill in the blank outcome}; "God will take care of {fill in the blank terrible person}. I was Christian before my sibling and was overjoyed when her and her adults kids started attending church about six years ago. We had many great discussions about our faith. After a couple of years, she started interpreting God's "way" by what is explicitly stated in the Bible. And now a days, there is no room for discussion anymore. She will spout passages from the Bible any time I want to talk about how I interpret God's "way. It is overwhelmingly disappointing.
Thank you for refilling my soul. :)