by Dr. Lani Wilson
Good day, steadfast prayer warriors. We continue our prayers and fasting, for AT and this nation, both at a crossroads, linked by history and promise.
The word given this week is break. Incredibly, there are sixty-five (65) uses of the word as a verb or noun. Sixty-five (65). What is it about this word that gives it such liberal application? Its most obvious use is in “separate or cause to separate into pieces as a result of a blow, shock, or strain” (Apple Online Dictionary).
But Jesus didn’t back down. "Why, then, do you think this was written: That stone the masons threw out-It’s now the cornerstone!? "Anyone falling over that stone will break every bone in his body; if the stone falls on anyone, it will be a total smashup."
Luke 20:17-18 (TMB)This crowd is breaking my heart. They have stuck with me for three days, and now they have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they’ll faint along the way-some of them have come a long distance."
Mark 8:2-3 (TMB)Think of the gift you once had in your hands, the Message you heard with your ears-grasp it again and turn back to God. "If you pull the covers back over your head and sleep on, oblivious to God, I’ll return when you least expect it, break into your life like a thief in the night.
Revelation 3:3 (TMB)
These three passages are three examples of how The Christ used the word break. If we look at these verses reflecting different vantage points, we might garner a new understanding of not just the the passion of The Christ but what God is offering us all the time, every day that we wake and breathe.
1. In this Lukan passage Jesus is referencing the effect His life will have on everyone who trips over the Cornerstone, Himself.
We all know the wonderful Cornerstone passage and value its imagery: Jesus rejected by His people and tossed onto the rotting backside of the Roman Empire, Golgotha. From this perspective His public ministry and crucifixion are rolled into another failed Jewish chapter and tossed aside, outside the holy city, out of sight, out of the way. That is what everyone thought throughout the Sabbath. It is the Resurrection that morphs this supposed disposable prophet into the Cornerstone. His rising from the dead demands trust in the unbelievable, even after He was reportedly seen throughout Palestine and Judea. Jesus the Christ becomes for those of us who are seized by Him the immovable stone, a boulder for some, that we must confront. He is simply there.
The upright part of the cross (the stipe) was permanently mounted in the crucifixion area. The part that the victim carried was the cross Bar, weighing in at 79 to 125 pounds. The cross bar would be balanced on the victims [sic] shoulders, and their arms would be tied to the crossbar. In this position, if the victim tripped or fell, they could not use their arms to break their fall, and they would likely fall face first into the ground.
The Facts of the Crucifixion, Robert Gidley
Catholic Education Resource Center, 2000.
Is it possible that just as Jesus fell and tripped flat onto His face on His way to the cross, that we trip and fall onto our faces when we encounter The Nazarene, the Cornerstone who God threw onto the planet for our own good? What is that about?
Below is a map showing the sightings of Jesus according to the New Testament.
There is no complete agreement by the various commentators on precisely how many different appearances Jesus made to his disciples.
https://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/CP051GOSPELMAPS.
Map 10 - The Appearances of Jesus to His Followers, including Stephen and Paul, after His Resurrection (Ibid.)
2. In the Marcan passage Jesus references how the condition of His people affect Him. It is odd to give anthropomorphic attributes to the Spirit, to God, but in the flesh, He has human attributes. The Hebrew Bible is rife with God’s anger, rage, and compassion, and it was mediated through His/Her prophets. In the real life, real body of Jesus of Nazareth we have human attributes, human experience, and His words stating that our condition breaks His heart. Do we actually do that? Is that a Godly thing, that God can be hurt by our human condition?
So they got in the boat and went off to a remote place by themselves. Someone saw them going and the word got around. From the surrounding towns people went out on foot, running, and got there ahead of them. When Jesus arrived, he saw this huge crowd. At the sight of them, his heart broke-like sheep with no shepherd they were. He went right to work teaching them.
Mathew 6:32-34 (TMB)Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, "I want to. Be clean."
Mark 1:41 (TMB)Deeply moved, Jesus touched their eyes. They had their sight back that very instant, and joined the procession.
Mathew 20:34 (TMB)When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, "Don’t cry."
Luke 7:13 (TMB)When he saw them coming, he was overcome with pity and healed their sick.
Mark 14:14 (TMB)
Over and over again, we read that Jesus’ heart was touched, broken, moved by the suffering He witnessed. Whether you believe that suffering is caused by sin and/or that suffering is a part of the nature of human existence as in Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, you cannot escape the passion that The Christ felt for all those He saw. Before they even got to Him to ask for help, He felt their pain and healed them without their asking, just because they suffered. Our human condition, our humanity simply breaks His heart, not just because He is God but because He was human.
3. In the third chapter of Revelation, the Son of Man (The Christ) reveals what He will do when He returns. This last passage reveals God acting upon His/Her creation, breaking into our lives.
And in the center, the Son of Man, in a robe and gold breastplate, hair a blizzard of white, Eyes pouring fire-blaze, both feet furnace-fired bronze, His voice a cataract, right hand holding the Seven Stars, His mouth a sharp-biting sword, his face a perigee sun…I’m Alive. I died, but I came to life, and my life is now forever. See these keys in my hand? They open and lock Death’s doors, they open and lock Hell’s gates.
Revelation 1:13-16, 18 (TMB)
Two reasons for the simple power of Revelation is its complexity and the richness of the imagery. But it is obvious from reading it that this is a different Jesus. This Jesus is engaged in acts affecting creation; the metaphors are power-based and decisive. There is no doubt that this Christ is holding nothing back: He is in full regalia as arbiter between whatever we envision heaven and hell to be.
The Garden of Earthly Delights, oil on oak panels, 220 cm × 389 cm (87 in × 153 in), Museo del Prado, Madrid
The Last Judgment, Hieronymous Bosch, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria
Hieronymous Bosch was a 15th-16th century Brabant (now known as The Netherlands) artist who was known for his religious medieval paintings. They were rich in detail, color, and imagination. One of his triptychs, “The Last Judgment” haunted me for many years. In my Art History class in high school, the gruesome detail of suffering in Bosch’s depiction was stunning. Is it possible that most people believe that the endgame for many will be the hell detailed by Bosch? Does Revelation, among other things, show Christ decisively acting against creation with no impunity? Is it possible that this concept of God is the only attribute that most people believe: The vengeful, retaliatory, judge Who is bereft of love and mercy?
However one experiences God through The Christ, is it possible that S/He is the God Who makes Himself a stumbling block for us to trip over, to stop in our tracks, and re-evaluate our path? That He is also a broken hearted Creator, weeping with and for us and that these three of the indeterminable number of attributes of God cannot begin to describe The Unknowable One? It’s like trying to imagine how big the universe is: Our brains and consciousness cannot approach it.
1. God, the immovable Rock at our feet, placed there, waiting.
2. God, the broken hearted Creator, receiving, embracing.
3. God, the Arbiter of all that lives and dies, acting and assigning.
Rock, Creator, Arbiter…is that really all The Nazarene is in God? The song says He was “wounded for me.” If God delivered Himself to be wounded, broken, broken hearted, and resurrected for humanity, how much more is there to our relationship to Her can there be? The answer must be infinitely…infinitely more. Just as in the photos we get back from space from unmanned ships with high-powered telescopes that gaze millions of miles into space, the possibilities of Who God is and what our relationship to The Christ are endless.
And we have to be the explorers because God is not our equal and it is on us to seek Her out, even as He is right here beside us, infinitely present. Infinitely.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/multimedia/index.html?id=381245
Hubble, Chandra, Jansky VLA Telescopes Collaborate on Galaxy Cluster
In October 2013 Hubble kicked off the Frontier Fields program, targeting six massive galaxy clusters, enormous collections of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies. MACS J0717, shown here, is one of the most complex galaxy clusters known, the result of four galaxy clusters colliding.
God of the known and unknown worlds, thank You for being patient with us. Thank You for breaking off a piece of Yourself and sending Him down to us. We don’t always act like it but we do love Your Jesus. You gave Him to us and we know what He did and does for us in You. Forgive us for breaking away from You and breaking the heart of The Christ. Because He was obedient, we can live and get all healed up and pieced together. And because otherwise we would be terrified, we call on His Name every chance we get.
No other help I know.
Yeshua.
Jesus.
No other help I know.
Amen.
