From the Foil of Ignominious Defeat, Jesus’ Glorious Victory Emerged as The Day Emerges from the Night, the Light from the Darkness

What was his ignominious defeat?

What was his glorious victory?

The concept of a foil is relevant here (Wikipedia). A foil is a literary device that creates a comparison between two objects. A foil highlights and emphasizes and intensifies and magnifies and amplifies and accentuates and underlines something that is juxtaposed to it. A foil adds meaning.

Jesus used the concept of a foil to upgrade our understanding of God. He contrasted his love for the children of Adam and Eve and the evil that we did to him. Our God is different than us.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).

What was his ignominious defeat? We tortured and killed Jesus. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on a cross as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death.

What was his glorious victory? He forgave us (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34 ) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35 (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). Evil offered Jesus a demotion from the level of our loving God to the level of the loveless beasts who scavenge for scraps in cutthroat competition with one another among the ruins of Eden. Jesus refused evil's offer. He declined a reduction in his dignity. In refusal, Jesus won his victory. From the scabbard of his prodigious love for us, Jesus drew the sharp sword (Matthew 10:34) of sweet forgiveness (Matthew 10:34) to slay the monster of the Crucifixion. Forgiveness killed the monster dead (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35 (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). While he was spending the coin of his flesh and blood to purchase for us the gift of forgiveness, Jesus conserved his love for the children of Adam and Eve. Jesus clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go. The dial that controls his love for us is in his hands not ours. Moreover, Jesus set it to the highest degree and locked it in place. Not even the evil that we did to him could budge it. His love for us is mysteriously intransigent, inexplicably persistent and radically stubborn (Isaiah 55:8-9) (Psalm 8:4-8) (Lamentations 3:22-23) (Jeremiah 31:3).

Behold the nature of God!

“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) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3).

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12).

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isaiah 60:1-3).

The ignominious defeat and the glorious victory are two parts of a single unit of apocalyptic revelation about the nature of God. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). They are the odd couple of epiphany. Together, they illuminate the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany. As a team, they reveal the nature of God to us.

A beautiful jewel emerged from the shit pile of evil. Beauty emerged from ugliness.

Nothing grows in the toxic soil of the Crucifixion. Nothing. It is a sterile matrix - hostile in the extreme. So when the flower of forgiveness germinated, sprouted and grew, we beheld a miracle. When grown, the flower of forgiveness will become "the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof" (Matthew 13:31-32). THE CHILDREN OF ADAM AND EVE ARE THE BIRDS OF THE AIR. GOD IS OUR NEST.