JESUS DID NOT SERVE HIS FLESH AND BLOOD TO US RAW. HE DID NOT PUT A FLESH AND BLOOD CARPACCIO ON OUR PLATES.
Jesus tinkered with his flesh and blood at the Last Supper before he surrendered them to us on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. A tinkering then a surrendering.
Our Dire Predicament in the Valley of Tears
In utter poverty, the children of Adam and Eve were scavenging for scraps among the ruins of Eden. [Many, even the richest of us, still scavenge for scraps today.] We were trapped with the other miserable, hideous and loveless beasts in a ruthless paradigm of brutal, cutthroat competition. The scraps were scarce. Our bellies were empty. We were always thirsty and starving. Our predicament was dire. Attack, defend, defend, attack was the motif of our trap. It was a war zone. We lived in a state of perpetual conflict. Evil was an ubiquitous, existential threat. In vicious, never ending cycles, evil was begetting evil. The cycles of evil proceeded unbroken. Evil multiplied unchecked. Death reigned (Psalm 23:4-6).
The Serpent’s Virulent Anti-god Propaganda
Our brutal baptism in the Valley of Tears (Hail Holy Queen) generates doubt about the very existence and exact nature of God. Our dire predicament in the Valley of Tears is at odds with and materially deviates from the notion of a loving God. Adverse circumstances and a loving God are incompatible - two oxymoronic ideas. As the teeth of our crosses chew us up into bits and pieces, it is hard to believe our almighty God loves us. Moreover, their tongues are as sharp as their teeth. The tongues of our crosses broadcast powerful anti-god propaganda into every nook and cranny of the Valley of Tears. “Where is your savior now?”, they taunt us as their teeth mercilessly masticate us into bits and pieces. “Despair! Abandon hope! You are alone and forsaken. Nobody is coming to rescue you” (Matthew 27:42 - 46). The tongues of our crosses take us to the edge of despair. The argument that our crosses make is a very powerful anti-god argument.
Neutralizing the Serpent’s Virulent Anti-god Propaganda
How did Jesus neutralize the anti-God propaganda that our crosses broadcast to us? To neutralize the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and re-purposed it to offer us the counter-argument. Our crosses testify to a loveless God. His Cross testifies to a loving God. It is up to the jury - the children of Adam and Eve - to reach a verdict. We need to weigh the evidence and make a decision for ourselves about the existence and nature of God.
Abandon Ship!
Godlessness is a sinking ship (Mark 4:35-39). We are its passengers. The Church is its crew. God gave the Church a rescue mission. However, the rescue mission that God gave the Church is not to save the ship. The rescue mission that God gave the Church is to save the passengers. To the lifeboats! To the lifeboats! Abandon ship! Abandon ship! IF THE EXIGENCY IS NOT FELT, THE CHURCH IS NOT DOING A GOOD JOB.
The Problem of Evil
We are troubled by the problem of evil because our conception of rescue is different than God's conception of rescue (Isaiah 55:8-9). We want God to eliminate the crosses that nail themselves to us as we pass through the Valley of Tears - to circumvent our baptism in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10). We want God to transform the Valley of Tears into a kinder, gentler and more hospitable place for godless people to live. God, however, wants to transform godless people into People of God. WE WANT GOD TO RESCUE US. GOD, HOWEVER, WANTS US TO RESCUE OURSELVES. In rescuing ourselves, we transform ourselves into People of God. We transform ourselves into People of God, when we learn how to pick up and carry our crosses (Matthew 16:24-26). There is a secret to picking up and carrying our crosses (Matthew 16:24-26). Jesus revealed the secret to us.
Resist or be Crushed
Our crosses either crush us under their oppressive weight or we pick them up and carry them towards the finish line (Matthew 16:24-26). Love transforms us into superman. Only Love gives us the ability to pick up and carry our crosses. God wants us to become superman. God wants us to fill our hearts to the brim with love.
“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.“ (John 13:35)(Matthew 22:36-40)(1 John 4: 7-12).
Jesus Demonstrated God for Us
Jesus was dispatched from heaven to our dog-eat-dog world among the ruins of Eden in order to put on an irrefutable demonstration of God’s love for us. He was tasked with the mission of showing God to the children of Adam and Eve. He came to ‘shift’ the paradigm that made life without the society of God in the Valley of Tears “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (Thomas Hobbes). The God who fashioned us out of the dust with his hands (Genesis 2:7)(Genesis 18:27) put himself into the hands of the dust to leaven (Galatians 5:9) the dust with the yeast of divinity. Love is the yeast of divinity (Matthew 13:33). Jesus came to plant the seeds of civilization in us. He came to blaze the escape route through our dog-eat-dog world, over the Red Sea of death, across the finish line and into the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey (Numbers 13:27).
Recruitment and Training
Jesus did not invade the Valley of Tears at the head of a powerful army of angels, riding a tank, armed to the teeth (Joel 2:11) to deliver the coup d'état to evil. He could have done so but he didn't (Matthew 26:53). Jesus infiltrated himself into the Valley of Tears, alone, riding a cross, and armed with no weapon but love. He was a saboteur intent on establishing a fifth column (Wikipedia) to undermine the kingdom of evil from within. It was a suicide mission (Wikipedia). His purpose was to recruit and train an army from the children of Adam and Eve to resist evil with love. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING WERE THE MISSION. Jesus would deliver the first blow in the war against evil not the last. The children of Adam and Eve would deliver the last blow. They themselves would deliver the coup d'état to evil.
Jesus Threw the Monkey Wrench of Love into the Gears of the Machinery of Evil
Jesus led by example. Jesus showed us how to do it. Jesus threw a monkey wrench into the cycle of evil to bring it to a screeching halt. The monkey wrench that Jesus threw to disrupt the cycle of evil was love - love in the form of forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34)(Luke 23:34 )(Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47). From the darkness of the Crucifixion, the light of forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34)(Luke 23:34 )(Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) emerged. It was a bright light. Its incandescence illuminated the darkness of out understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany (John 1:5)(Psalm 43:3).
“The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19).
We attacked Jesus’s Flesh and Blood. He did not defend. He did not fight back. He did not resist.
The children of Adam and Eve had their sights set low. All we wanted from Jesus was his flesh and blood. His flesh and blood belonged to him and were useless to us. Yet, in our perversity, we still wanted to take them from him anyway. So Jesus gave us what we wanted. He surrendered his flesh and blood to us on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. We attacked Jesus. He did not defend himself. He had access to unlimited divine resources for his defense (Matthew 26:53). Yet, he did not fight back. He did not resist evil with evil. He did not answer the evil that we did to him in kind. He did not give us a taste of our own medicine. He did not require "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot"(Exodus 21:24)(Matthew 5: 38-48).
“He saved others; himself he cannot save.“ (Matthew 27:42)
What happened to the powerful God who smote the Egyptians?
What Did Jesus Put on Display on the Road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection?
Instead of putting his divine power on display on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection (2 Corinthians 12:9), Jesus demonstrated another aspect of God - a higher, more apocalyptic aspect of God.
"[F]or my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Instead of the indignant king making war against us, we see the king become a chef who made a meal for us to celebrate with him his Son’s victory (Matthew 22: 1-14).
Jesus Tinkered with his Flesh and Blood at the Last Supper
Jesus wasn’t naïve. Our attack did not take him by surprise (Mark 8:31). He had prepared himself for it. Before it happened, he had decided how he would handle it. He had prepared his answer to the evil that we would do to him. The answer that Jesus prepared is the Good New of Great Joy. Jesus knew that the attack would be an attack against the very person of the Son of God himself while the Son of God was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest in the Valley of Tears. So, before the attack, Jesus ‘modified’ his flesh and blood. He tinkered with them. The modifications to his flesh and blood transformed them. At the Last Supper, over his flesh and blood, Jesus pronounced a magic spell. He sprinkled pixie dust over them. Forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34)(Luke 23:34 )(Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) was the pixie dust that accomplished the transformation. By divine fiat, Jesus made an equation. The equation was gratuitous, unilateral and paradigm shifting. Jesus put an equal sign between his flesh and blood and bread and wine. What better way to say love than by doing forgiveness to the very creatures who did evil to you? What better way to say forgiveness than by serving your enemies food and drink who just took your flesh and blood from you?
“Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” (Luke 22:19)
“And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.”(Luke 22:20)
“Is” is the sign of equality. “Is” is the ‘=’ sign. The equation that Jesus announced at the Last Supper is the greatest equation known to humanity. Its power exceeds by countless magnitudes Einstein's E = mc2.
Jesus did not surrender his flesh and blood to us unmodified. He did not serve them to us raw. He did not put a flesh and blood carpaccio on our plates. Jesus tinkered with his flesh and blood before he surrendered them to us. We intended to take from him his flesh and blood. Jesus’s intention was different. Jesus intended to give us food and drink. In order to make this transaction a reality, Jesus transformed his flesh and blood into our food and drink at the Last Supper. We took flesh and blood; he served food and drink. One transaction took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection that was two different things depending on whether the perspective is ours or our Gods. Two quite different realities took place simultaneously on the on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, both very real, both quite contradictory.
The Audacity of God
Instead of defending his flesh and blood from our attack (Matthew 5:38-40), Jesus modified them. He changed them in order to change us. He forgave us (Jeremiah 31:31-34)(Luke 23:34 )(Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) even though we did not deserve forgiveness. Our God took the first step of forgiveness in the hope that we would take the second step of repentance. He did not wait for our conversion to forgive us. He forgave us to bring about our conversion. Behold the audacity of our God!
“… And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
He Fed Us When We Were Thirsty and Starving
By transforming his flesh and blood into bread and wine at the Last Supper (Luke 22:19) (Luke 22:20) (John 6:31-59), Jesus was able to feed us on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. He gave us food and drink. He satisfied our hunger and thirst by purchasing for us the bread and wine of forgiveness with the coin of his flesh and blood. Do you understand what your savior did for us? We were hungry and he fed us.
“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:9-11)
Jesus shifted the paradigm. He changed a dog-eat-dog world of perpetual war into a banquet, a glorious feast, at which Jesus himself serves the bread and wine of forgiveness to the dogs and swine who rent him to pieces (Matthew 7:6)
The Exorbitant Price that Jesus Paid
To feed all of the children of Adam and Eve from then and there, across space and time, to us here and now, Jesus was required to pay an exorbitant price. It cost a fortune. With the coin of his flesh and blood, Jesus purchased for us food and drink, to wit, the bread and wine of forgiveness (John 6:35). When Jesus fed the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21), he drew from his unlimited divine resources. With the purchase of the bread and wine of forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34)(Luke 23:34 )(Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47), however, Jesus did not draw upon his unlimited divine resources. He made the purchase by drawing upon his limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else. The size of the payment is the best evidence of the size of his love for us. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"(John 15:13)(John 12:24). How easy it was for Jesus to feed the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21) by using his unlimited divine resources. How exponentially harder it was for Jesus to feed humanity across time and space using only his flesh and blood! Without food and drink, we die of hunger and thirst. Without the bread and wine of forgiveness, death is just as certain. The purchase that Jesus made with the coin of his flesh and blood is the Good News of Great Joy.
“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:9-11)
Doing Confrontational Christianity
The mighty blow with which Jesus strikes us with the gift of love in the form of forgiveness wakes the loveless from their slumber. It rouses the loveless from the dead (Ephesians 5:14). It shatters hearts of stone and transforms them into hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Only a blow from Jesus’s gift of forgiveness transforms us - transforms godless people into people of God.
"Have a great love for those who contradict and fail to love you, for in this way love is begotten in a heart that has no love" St. John of the Cross.
Confrontational Christianity confronts the children of Adam and Eve with the reality of God's love for us. It is Christianity done right. Confrontational Christianity challenges us to come to grips with the fact that our God is head over heals in love with us. It rubs our noses into this truth. It sticks this fact in our faces. It pokes us in the eye with it. It whacks us over the head with it. If you are not delivering blows to the miserable, hideous and loveless beasts with Jesus’s gift of love in the form of forgiveness, you are not doing Christianity.
Discover the Truth of God’s Love for Us for yourself
Make a pilgrimage first to the Last Supper and then to the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The paradigm shift that Jesus announced at the Last Supper was put to the test and verified on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. He forgave us for the evil that we did to him (Jeremiah 31:31-34)(Luke 23:34 )(Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47). Feel for yourself the weight of God’s love for us (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus is confronting us with God’s love for us. He is challenging us to come to grips with it. Love begets love. While we were still unrepentant sinners (Romans 5:8)(Matthew 7:6), Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19). We love him, because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
What is the appropriate response to God’s love for us?
"The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2).
Do you understand? Are you seeking God? Have you commenced your pursuit of God? What are you waiting for?
The Holy Spirit is tugging at our souls. But only the curious are following the tug back to its source. Along the way, the curious are exploring the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God.
“Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Isaiah 55:2)
Highlights
He did not put up a fight. He did not defend himself. He did something else. He shifted the paradigm. He fed us. We were hungry and thirsty so he fed us with the bread and wine of forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34)(Luke 23:34 )(Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47). Instead of making war on us, the king became a chef and made us a meal.
On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, we are torturing and killing him. We are making him suffer and die. He is feeding us with the bread and wine of forgiveness. He is feeding us with his flesh and blood that he turned into the bread and wine of forgiveness at the Last Supper.
Jesus ‘booby-trapped’ his flesh and blood at the Last Supper in a good way. As we took his flesh and blood from him on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, they would explode into the bread and wine of forgiveness.
Jesus did not surrender his flesh and blood to us unmodified. He did not serve them to us raw. He tinkered with his flesh and blood before he surrendered them to us.
On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, we tortured and killed the God who loves us. We made him suffer and die. He fed us with the bread and wine of forgiveness.
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