You would think that after the way humans mess
up the whole communication process because of their inherent selfishness and
obsession with self-preservation God would give up on that approach. But there
is something to be said for the effectiveness of the human touch, especially
when it’s done right. After all, getting communication from extraterrestrial
beings or ants might not have the same connection possibilities! We relate much
better to people like us or to those who can speak our language or who know
what it’s like to be us, to live where we live, to experience what we
experience. We might be in awe of aliens coming in the name of God to
communicate God, we might be fascinated by ants suddenly speaking to us about
God in words we understand, but it’s highly likely that the immediate curiosity
would wear off in time.
The Jews even had God appear visibly in a cloud,
in a pillar of fire, thundering His voice to be heard. They saw God intervene
miraculously to divide the Red Sea providing a way of escape from the pursuing
Egyptians. God showered them with food and water to keep them alive in the
desert. God even caused the sun to stand still so their armies had more daylight
to battle their enemies. Talk about powerful visible manifestations of God! But
even those revelations wore off, the impact wore thin and they eventually
turned a deaf ear. There must be a better way.
So God decides to pull out all the stops. Here’s
the way one author wrote about it: “Long ago God spoke many times and in many
ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has
spoken to us through his Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) The author is describing an
ascending level of communication significance and importance. God begins in the
early days by communicating through special messengers called the prophets.
Their role was to continue giving messages from God to the people in order to
keep them following God’s plan and God’s leading. As it turned out, the people
often turned a deaf ear to the prophets’ appeals.
So then God decided to send His own son as His
primary spokesperson. If anyone knew God well enough to communicate Him to
people, it would be God’s son. Here’s the way the above author continued: “The
Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God.” (Hebrews
1:3) Who better to communicate God and what God is really like than the one who
knows God best, His own son, the one closest to the heart of God? So into the
scene of human history comes God Himself through his son. And how did this work?
Here’s the way the author John described it: “In the beginning the Word already
existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the
beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created
except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his
life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness can never extinguish it.” (John 1:1-3)
You see described here a fascinating process.
The one called “the Word” is with God and in fact has the very character of
God. The Word is the agent of creation and of life. In other words, when the
Word is around, life happens, life is full and abundant. And with the coming of
the Word, darkness is dispelled. Darkness is often a symbol of ignorance or
misunderstanding or lack of clarity. So the Word is portrayed as giving clearer
meaning and understanding to life and to God.
Who is this Word that gives life and light to
people, that dispels ignorance and lack of clarity about God? John continued: “So
the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love
and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and
only Son … For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and
faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But the
unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed
God to us.” (John 1:14, 17-18)
Jesus was God’s son and came as the ultimate
revelation of God. Who better to communicate the truth about God than the one
closest to God, the one described above as nearest to God’s heart. And what
about God did Jesus come to communicate and reveal? God’s “unfailing love and
faithfulness.”
How did it happen? “The Word became human and made
his home among us.” What a concept! God’s ultimate self-revelation came about
by becoming human and, as one author put it, “moving into the neighborhood.”
(John 1:14, Message) God knew that the only true way to become known was to
become one of us, to live like us, to look like us, to talk like us, to feel
what we feel, to experience what we experience, to truly enter into the human
world in every way. And in rubbing shoulders with humanity, He would be able to
describe God in understandable ways. People would be able to relate to Him and therefore
to the God He came to reveal. “God with us,” Immanuel, is one of the Hebrew names
of God given to Jesus.
Jesus lived out His life with that purpose in
mind. So that before He died, He said to one of his disciples who had asked to
see God, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t
know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9)
And what did Jesus’ life say about God? Jesus’
life centered around going to great lengths to love and embrace people,
especially the marginalized and disenfranchised, the ones considered by others
as living under the curse of God or rejected by God. Jesus touched them,
accepted them, and restored their dignity by associating with them and eating
with them. He went out of His way to include everyone in His life and to communicate
that they belonged to God, too. It was a radical and revolutionary mission. It
was God’s ultimate attempt to reveal himself to humanity in the clearest way
possible.
And then, in an act of complete unselfishness
and self-sacrifice, in the final demonstration of complete love, Jesus gave up
His life on the cross. He was executed for His radical life of inclusion and
refusal to compromise love even when it butted heads with the establishment and
institutions of his day. What more could a person do to prove their love than
to say, “I will lay down my life for you no matter what! If embracing you and
lifting you up leads to my death, so be it! I want you to know beyond a shadow
of a doubt that I’m committed to you at all costs! You are worth it all!”
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