What distinguishes our genuine God from the many counterfeit gods - the frauds - who try to deceive us? His reaction to the evil that we applied to him distinguishes our genuine God from the many counterfeit gods. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he forgave us. His love for us survived the evil that we did to him. His love for us did not fade as we tortured him and did not die when we killed him. By his bloody wounds, we recognize our God . Jesus wears His bloody wounds as the outward signs of forgiveness - the badges of forgiveness. His bloody wounds are the rainbow of the new covenant between our God and us . His bloody wounds are the credentials of divinity. A person who claims to be God or to stand in persona Christi is an impostor unless he can show you his credentials. Demand a demonstration from any claimant to divinity of his credentials . Expose the frauds. Good cleric, the trappings of the priesthood are not valid credentials. Do not point to your clerical collar or to your ordination. They are not valid credentials. They are just lipstick on a pig . The only valid credential is sacrificial love. The only way to distinguish the shepherd and the hireling is by sacrificial love . Nothing else. The shepherd lays down his life for his sheep . Remember that the serpent had no credentials. Jesus, on the other hand, flashed his credentials to us on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. He clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go even though we tortured and killed him . Show the serpents without credentials to the door. Welcome only those who can show you their credentials.
The Pillow of Calvary
The Owner of the House is back!
Long absent from the house, its owner returned but the servants of the house no longer recognized Him. He had become a stranger to them. In their eyes, He was just a meddlesome intruder intent on interrupting the complacency of their way of life; so, they tortured and killed Him. Or so they thought. Both He and His love for His servants survived the brutal baptism into which they immersed Him. Then their eyes were opened. They recognize and remembered Him. Happy are the servants of the house whose owner loves them despite their wickedness.
The thirty-three Visit of the Son of God to us at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of the world called the Middle East more than two thousand years ago was an apocalypse. It revealed the nature of God. The Visit tore in twain the veil that hid from us the nature of God. The thirty-three Visit told us many things about the nature of God.
His birth spoke to the humility of God. The Son of God came amongst us not on a level above us as befits God but with us on the same level as us - as one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. The Son of God rubbed elbows with us. They say He pitched His tent amongst us.
His miracles spoke to the kindness of God. He healed the sick and raised the dead. He was a friend to sinners.
His survival after we tortured and killed Him spoke to the omnipotence of God. Death, our greatest enemy, has no power over Him.
The survival of His love for us after we tortured and killed Him, however, tells us even more and takes us deeper into the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God. It reveals the very essence of divinity itself. It shows us that God is indestructible love for us.
Oh! Happy love!
The thirty-three Visit was the dramatic announcement that the owner of the house who had withdrawn had now returned and was here to stay. He is back! He is back! The owner of the house is back! The owner is back to reclaim His house. “... [P]repare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). Tidy up the rooms of the house. For He is back and is here to stay! The stranger wants to become our friend as He was a friend to our parents, Adam and Eve.
During the thirty three Visit of the Son of God to us upon the earth, the Son of God has given us proof of the nature of God. Therefore, proclaim the proof! Let the knowledge of God fill the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).