Have you ever been despised and rejected by someone important in your life, whom you deeply loved? You remember the pain was wrenching. Can we conceive of Jesus Christ experiencing that? But on an infinitely grander scale? For millennia our human souls have been concerned for our own salvation. This is almost universally accepted as the essence of orthodoxy. Evangelism is crafted on that premise. But theres a more important issue. In undertaking the salvation of this world, Jesus took our humanity upon Himself. He knows how we can love; the one so deeply loved by Him as His bride-to-be is His church. Has He known the bitterness of unrequited love, as we can know it--only on a cosmic scale? Can the companionship of multitudes of holy angels compensate for what His heart yearns for in the absence of His churchs response to His love? The pain of Calvary was for only a few hours (we think); indeed, it was intense. But the Hosea-like pain of extended nuptial alienation is Calvarys pain extended. Christ declares Himself as endlessly knocking on the door of His Beloved (Rev. 3:20). His appeal, if any man hear my voice, contains a significant Greek word, tis, which primarily means waiting for a certain one, not just any one, to respond to satisfy His own lonely divine-human soul. He is still the One despised and rejected. He wants to be with His people on earth even though earth rejected and expelled Him. Heaven is simply no longer home for Him. On this grand Day of Atonement, a change has come: the most important concern in life is now for us to honor and vindicate Him. He deserves His reward; it is He who must be crowned, no longer we who seek that honor. --Robert J. Wieland
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 05:13:27 +0000
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