Whispers from the Cross
Several weeks ago a good friend asked me about Jesus’ final question from the cross. “Why would Jesus have any doubts in God if he believed he would be raised from the dead?” Together we looked at the cross connections this quotation has with Psalm 22 and explored how the Jewish culture and traditions may have influenced why Jesus would recite it before the crowd on Golgotha Hill. Still… this conversation stuck closely to my heart as I contemplated Jesus’ final few whispers to those who would listen.
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” – Hope in Times of Desperation (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34)
Perhaps the most well known whisper from the cross comes from the depths of his desperation. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Is this doubt? Has Jesus lost his faith? Has the darkness and bleakness of death set in so far that he can no longer sense the very presence which he saw as his own personal identity and as his own Father (John 10:7-18)?
It seems too easy to dismiss Jesus’ cry as simply being a recital of Psalm 22 in an effort for reflection to the Jews who would gather its meaning from memory recall. Jesus must have had a deeper meaning which embraced the very holistic Incarnality of his human existence. Jesus felt the heavy weight of carrying the cross up the steep embankment of Golgotha hill, the sting of the pointed nails piercing his wrists and feet, the trickling blood flowing down his forehead from the crown of thorns around his brow, and the coarseness of the wooden cross as it scrapped his back every time he went to take a breath. By the very definition of excruciating pain the cross becomes dehumanizing in nature.
Several years ago I can remember writing a paper on the medical effects of crucifixion and the researched understanding of how Jesus died. It was without a doubt one of the hardest papers which I have had to write throughout my college years. I spent many nights up contemplating the horrors of what those who stood on Golgotha would have bared witness too. There would be times that I had to take a break from writing as the tears which were streaming down my face would make it impossible to focus on what I was trying to communicate. Even now I feel the pressures of a burdened heart as I ponder that memory. Without a doubt in my heart it was then that I felt the furthest from God! In truth, I wanted it that way. Yes, I confess it. I wanted it this way because I could not bear the thought of another human being, let alone Jesus, paying that kind of sacrifice for the sins which I have committed.
Yet I am still… slow to respond…and perhaps that is the way God wants us to be. Still and slow, so that we might catch the promise of hope to which Jesus has in his whispers from the cross.
But you, O LORD, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD!
May your hearts live forever!All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.
Shaw TV Interview with the Calgary Aikikai Dojo
A couple of days ago my friend Todd contacted me about an interview which he was setting up at the dojo with Shaw TV. Of course I agreed to be part of it despite dealing with an on going shoulder injury making it difficult to use my right arm. To tell you the truth, with little time to practice I felt as though I did pretty poorly. I gave it a go though and thankfully the TV crew did not spend too much time focusing in on my techniques. As a slight correction to the commentary however I might say that prior to being in a wheelchair I spent 3 years studying Karate. Following my car accident in 1994 I studied 9 years of Kung Fu and for the last 2 years I have been involved here at Calgary Aikikai Dojo with Aikido.
Anyways, take a look and let me know what you think of the video!
My Apologies as the video has now been taken down by Shaw and I was unable to attain a copy!
The Confessions of Craig Evans on the Contemporary Practices of Christology
I must first confess myself that I have felt a great deal of emotional stress and fear in trying to complete the business plan for Expressions over the past few weeks. I have heard the still, small whispers behind my ear questioning if I know what I am doing and am I adequate for the calling? Does this dream and do I really make a difference in the calling of Christ? I suppose in some ways I am still struggling with these emotions.
Anyways, I have had little time for my pursuits and passions for creative writing which is why I have not posted anything of significance (to me anyways) for some time. Despite this, I read an interesting confession from Craig Evans in my book ‘The Case for the Real Jesus’ this past evening. Actually it was more like 3 am or something like that. Time has been a bit of a blur lately!
I thought I would share it as it has been relating to some similar material to which I have been reading elsewhere:
I intended to wrap up our interview by asking Evans to expand upon his own personal convictions. I anticipated that he would further elaborate on the divinity of Jesus – and yet our discussion ended with an unexpected turn.
“How have your decades of research into the Old and New Testaments affected your own view of Jesus?” I asked.
“Well, it’s much more nuanced, but at the end of the day it’s a more realistic Jesus. Personally, I think a lot of Christians – even conservative, Bible believing Christians – are semi-docetic.
That took me off guard. “What do you mean?”
“In other words,” he said, “they half way believe – without ever giving it any serious thought – what the Docetic Gnostics believed, which was that Jesus actually wasn’t real. ‘Oh, yes of course, he’s real,’ they’ll say. But they’re not entirely sure how far to go with the incarnation. How human was Jesus? For a lot of them, the human side of Jesus is superficial.
“It’s almost as though a lot of Christians think of Jesus as God wearing a human mask. He’s sort of faking it, pretending to be human. He pretends to perspire; his stomach only appears to gurgle because, of course, he’s not really hungry. In fact, he doesn’t really need to eat. So Jesus is the bionic Son of God who isn’t really human. This is thought to be an exalted Christology, but it’s not. Orthodox Christology also embraces fully the humanity of Jesus.
“What I’m saying is that the divine nature of Jesus should never militate against is full humanity. When that part gets lost, you end up with a pretty superficial understanding of Christology. For example, could Jesus read? ‘Of course he could read! He’s the Son of God!’ That’s not a good answer. At the age of three days, was Jesus fluent in Hebrew? Could he do quantum physics? Well, then, why does the book of Hebrews talk about him learning and so forth?”
I was listening intently. “So we miss his humanity,” I said, half to myself and half to Evans.
“Yeah, we do,” he said. “We find ourselves fussing and fuming over the divinity, but we miss the humanity. And from the historic point of view of the early church, that’s just as serious an error as, say, the Ebionite direction, which was to deny the divinity.”
Wanting him to explain further, I asked, “What is it we miss about his humanity?”
“Well, a big part of the atonement. He dies in our place as a human being who dies in our place. God didn’t send an angel,” he replied. “And, of course, there’s the identification factor. We can identify with him: he was tempted as we are. How was he tempted if he was just God wearing a mask – faking it and pretending to be human? Again, that’s Docetic Gnosticism – Jesus only appeared to be incarnate, only appeared to be human – and a lot of evangelical Christians come pretty close to that.”
“Is there something about his human nature you’d want to emphasize?”
Evans reflected for a moment, then replied. “Yes, Jesus’ own faith,” he said. “He tells his disciples to have faith. Jesus has a huge amount of credibility if we see him as fully human and he actually, as a human, has faith in God. Otherwise, well, that’s easy for him to say! Good grief – he’s been in heaven, and now he’s walking around telling me to have faith? But I take the teaching of Jesus’ humanness, which is taught clearly in scripture, very seriously.”
“Taking everything into consideration,” I said, wrapping up our discussion, “when you think about the identity of the real Jesus, where do you come down as an individual?”
“I come down on the side of the church,” he said. “Doggone it, bless their bones, I think they figured it out. They avoided errors and pitfalls to the left and to the right. I think the church got it right. Even if you only consider the Synoptics, you find that Jesus saw himself in a relationship with God that is unique. The Son of God is the way that’s understood. And then he goes further and demonstrates that he was speaking accurately. If you have any doubts, the Easter event should remove them.
“That’s where you always wind up: the Easter event. Otherwise, you have a Moses-like or Elijah-like figure who’s able to do astonishing miracles – but so what? Yet the resurrection confirmed who he was. And the resurrection is, of course, very powerfully attested, because you have all classes, men and women, believers, skeptics, and opponents, who encounter the risen Christ and believe in him.”
He looked me straight in the eyes. “As do I.”
Expressions
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years By Donald Miller
Eternity in Their Hearts By Don Richardson
Follow Me to Freedom By Shane Claiborne & John Perkins
Journey to Significance By Neil Cole
Organic Leadership By Niel Cole
Forge Canada
Friend of Missional
Missional Apologetics
The Missional Network
Verge Network
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