“Hollywood” has done an excellent job of portraying demonic evil. Their capacity for scaring the bejeezus out of people by embodying and loosing Satan and his minions to terrorize unsuspecting victims is remarkable. The success of such films taps into the fascination that people have with the holy. Rudolf Otto, in his famous work from the early 20th century, “The Idea of the Holy,” calls the feeling (the “non-rational” response) of people when confronted with “that which is hidden and esoteric, that which is beyond conception or understanding, extraordinary and unfamiliar,” the mysterium tremendum. He argues that this might be a positive response, such as the soul bowing down before the reality of God. But it also “has its wild and demonic forms and can sink to an almost grisly horror and shuddering.” If Otto is correct, then despite the outward denial of many in the West to the reality of demons and the devil (and God), inwardly they are both drawn to and repelled by the idea.
As Christians, we understand why people are compelled by “the holy.” They have been created to worship the one who is not seen, who dwells in unapproachable light, who is neither constrained nor defined by the human. The Fall destroyed our innate capacity to know this one, but our connection with “that which is beyond conception or understanding, extraordinary and unfamiliar” remains. And when the veil is drawn back, if only by the imagination of a filmmaker, that connection is aroused and people are frightened.
How different our state, then, when we are, by his grace, reconciled to God. Not only has our capacity to know him been restored, but we long to see him face to face, not looking away or hiding from his majesty. And united to Christ, who sits at the right hand of the Almighty, we can face the evil hosts when they creep out from the shadows threatening us harm. In Christ, we have complete assurance that there is no “created thing,” not even angels, rulers, or powers, that “will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” Clothed in the reality of this truth, we can “stand against the schemes of the devil,” knowing that he and his cohort are destined for the pit, there to remain forever.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Palm Sunday -- To Receive a Kingdom
“Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Such are the accolades poured down upon Jesus as he proceeded to Jerusalem at the beginning of his “passion week.” Hopes were high that he was the looked-for inheritor of David’s throne. He certainly had done things that no one else had done, things that heralded the reign of the promised one. The signs were there: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” He must be the one! “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
But as was often the case for those who encountered Jesus, the enthused people failed to grasp all that was going on. They were right to hail him as king, but the fulfillment of his reign was not to be realized in the days that immediately followed. This they needed to understand so that they might be prepared for his return. On that day, he will come not on a donkey “having salvation,” but astride a white horse to “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.” To press this point he told a parable.
The nobleman of the parable was going to “a far country” where he would “receive a kingdom” and return. If they were listening, what they needed to grasp was the fact that upon his return the nobleman would settle accounts. The metaphor Jesus used was the nobleman entrusting money into his servants’ hands with the expectation that they would “engage in business” until he returned. There were others in the parable who, like the religious leaders of Jesus day, rejected outright the nobleman being vested with authority to rule over them. These, too, would be called to account.
The nobleman’s dealings with his servants, however, is most applicable to us in his church. What he gave them was something with innate capacity to bring a return (as the saying goes, “the rich get richer . . .’). For the church, it’s not money that has been entrusted, but things of far greater value, all with innate capacity to bring him a return: his story, his Spirit, and his reputation. How we have stewarded these precious commodities is what we will have to answer for upon his return. By his grace, we strive to hear, “Well done, good servant!”
But as was often the case for those who encountered Jesus, the enthused people failed to grasp all that was going on. They were right to hail him as king, but the fulfillment of his reign was not to be realized in the days that immediately followed. This they needed to understand so that they might be prepared for his return. On that day, he will come not on a donkey “having salvation,” but astride a white horse to “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.” To press this point he told a parable.
The nobleman of the parable was going to “a far country” where he would “receive a kingdom” and return. If they were listening, what they needed to grasp was the fact that upon his return the nobleman would settle accounts. The metaphor Jesus used was the nobleman entrusting money into his servants’ hands with the expectation that they would “engage in business” until he returned. There were others in the parable who, like the religious leaders of Jesus day, rejected outright the nobleman being vested with authority to rule over them. These, too, would be called to account.
The nobleman’s dealings with his servants, however, is most applicable to us in his church. What he gave them was something with innate capacity to bring a return (as the saying goes, “the rich get richer . . .’). For the church, it’s not money that has been entrusted, but things of far greater value, all with innate capacity to bring him a return: his story, his Spirit, and his reputation. How we have stewarded these precious commodities is what we will have to answer for upon his return. By his grace, we strive to hear, “Well done, good servant!”
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