Our love for Christ should not inflate His death
As cruel above all who've died. More unjust,
Yes, for One Who loved with each indrawn breath,
And One Who proved worthy for men to trust.
Their trust best not rest on how much He pained;
He wore flesh only to prove Himself man;
The flesh was killed; His eternal Self remained.
Our sins hurt Him more than lost men ever can.
In more appaling ways have others bled,
Though not guiltless, for their brothers' sake;
All their pain combined is a mior dreg
To the monstrous load He did freely take.
He did not fear the dread pain of the tree,
When He asked God, 'Let this cup pass from Me'.
Dying for us was easy for Jesus compared to living for us and facing rejection, denial and inflexible hostility. Christians have an almost irresistible urge to over-emphasize the atrocious pain inflicted upon the body of Jesus by the Romans who crucified Him. It was more painful though that His own people influenced the Romans to crucify Him.
The horrible suffering of Jesus depicted in the movie, The Passion of the Christ, mistakenly emphasized the agony of the flesh in the crucifixion, and minimized the suffering that the Creator and King of the universe went through emotionally in order to leave the glory of His throne and place Himself in the hands of the wayward creatures He had made in the beginning. The 33 years He lived was more agonizing mentally and spiritually than the killing of His flesh was painful. He loved men while they were yet immersed in sin, yet most of them turned their backs to His pleas.
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1 comment:
When I first read this poem in "Sonnets To Love By", I was admittedly disturbed and didn't understand your view. I'm still a little confused. (Hold on...!)
"Passions" was definitely a brutal and "raw" visage of our Lord's suffering. As horrifying as it was, I believe that such extreme display was necessary for human flesh to see what Human Flesh endured. Your spiritual observation is - in my opinion - quite foreign to those in that day as well as unbelievers today.
My disappointment about this movie was the quick and simplistic re-enactment of the resurrection. It was weak! The GREATEST MOMENT of mankind's history seems to hide in the shadow of the blood-stained cross.
Is this what you mean? That our focus should be our journey as Believers and not Jesus' 9-hr ordeal? Certainly without diminishing it's necessity and purpose for redemption, are you saying Believer's should look at the saints and martyrdom and their sacrifice for our faith?
If so, I see your point. Why should we dwell on Christ's agony when our belief is founded on God's power through the resurrection?
Perhaps your view comes from an "eternal" perspective; ie, from that of one who is already a Believer. But an unbeliever needs the cross first. WE need the cross first - with all its gore and horror.
However, it is surely through the God of Israel's POWER that others (and ourselves) have bled because we know that if God can raise His Son from the dead, then He can sustain us however He wills.
Patti
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