Why do I recommend that we lay our heads on the pillow of Calvary to sleep the sleep the sleep of the angels? Certainly, Calvary was no pillow for the Son of God.
But it is a pillow to us.
Many false, inaccurate and conflicting pictures of the nature of God circulate through the minds of the children of Adam and Eve. The multiplicity of pictures creates confusion. “This is God” some say as they point to their favorite picture of God. Others point to a different picture and say, “No, this is God.” The controversy goes on ad infinitum.
Because of the confusion about the nature of God, the most Holy Trinity desired to set the record straight once and forever. At Calvary, they cleared the air. Calvary was disclosure. It was apocalyptic. Calvary was publication. At Calvary, God published their nature to us (and our potential - we have the potential to become godlike). A veil separated the Holy of Holies from the children of Adam and Eve. At Calvary, “[t]he veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” God stepped out from behind the veil to reveal the glorious splendor of divinity itself. “Behold the nature of God” were the words the angels sang at Calvary as God was showing us His nature.
Calvary is a self portrait of the nature of God. The most Holy Trinity painted it for us in their own hand. Because it is a self-portrait done by God themselves, it is reliable. In the ten commandments, God did not want us to make images of Him because such images would not be as accurate as the image that God themselves would make for us at Calvary. They would be lesser representations of God. Reject all lesser representations of God as counterfeits. Cling to the self portrait that the brush of truth painted for us on the canvas of Calvary in the pigments of pain and suffering. Let it become your touchstone. Do not let yourself be deceived by those who tout a different picture of God. Measure everything against the self portrait. Reconcile everything against the self portrait. Calvary is the truth that will set you free.
Both He and His love for us survived the boiling cauldron of pain and suffering into which we baptized Him. His survival is the proof that He put in our hands to convince us that God is omnipotent. The survival of His love for us, however, is the proof that He put into our hands of something much more significant than omnipotence. The survival of His love for us is the proof that He put into our hands that the nature of God is indestructible love for us. We committed the sin of sins against the Son of God. We tortured and killed Him while He was human. alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest. Yet, He continued to love us nonetheless. As we impaled Him on the Cross, He clung to His love for us, held tight and did not let go. He clung to His love for us with the iron grip that a drowning man clings to a life preserver in the middle of a raging storm.
Whenever we become confused about the nature of God - whenever we become disoriented - whenever we get lost, we must always return to Calvary to get our thinking about God straight. Calvary is the rock on which to build all of your thinking about the nature of God.
Rest your head on the pillow of Calvary to sleep the sleep of the angels.
The angels know God and, thanks to Calvary, we do too.