9/8/09

Beyond looking up

I can't remember seeing a "reflection" picture from this angle, but it made an impression on me, nonetheless. Somehow looking up to "look up" is a strange concept to me. Its like the clouds are actually part of the building instead of outside it. Both seem to morph the building into a heavenly edifice. And the longer I look at it, the stranger it seems. Seeing Jesus must have been something like this picture; you can see him, yet, there is something more there, something you quite can't put your finger on, something special. Even unbelievers could understand (after awhile) and react. Check out this passage from John chapter 10 to see the light of it.
John 10:24-31
24 The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, "How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."
25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you don't believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, these testify about me.
26 But you don't believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.
30 I and the Father are one."
31 Therefore Jews took up stones again to stone him. WEB

The Jews wanted to stone Jesus because they understood (at last) that Jesus was God, not just a representative of God. One not only in substance and character and power, but a physical Earthly display of Godhood! In order to see him for what he really was they needed to look up beyond their own narrow understandings and see the truth. And what they finally understood was too much for them and they became violent because of their hardness of heart. Looking up to look up higher does take a bit of faith, but to look up and see beyond reflections, well, that is the stuff of heaven.

Seeing God for what HE is

It seems to me that who did this picture had the tale of Moses and the burning bush in mind. So, here is the passage from the book of Exodus.

Ex 3:1-6
3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God's mountain, to Horeb.
2 The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 Moses said, "I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt."
4 When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, "Moses! Moses!" He said, "Here I am."
5 He said, "Don't come close. Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground."
6 Moreover he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God. WEB
Astounding! Just consider for a moment what is happening here; God is speaking with a man! Even more puzzling is the comparison of "The angel of Yahweh" (verse 2) with the statement from verse 4 that "God called to him out of the midst of the bush". Is God an angel? How could this be? Well, the term angel means messenger, so we have God being a messenger of himself, humm. In the new testament book of John it says that no man has seen God, so is there a contradiction? No, because I believe that the Exodus passage is referring the preincarnate Jesus. Not only here, but in every instance of God directly interacting with man. Think about it, in the Godhead, God the father directs, the Son materially interacts with mankind and the Holy Spirit empowers. There is not a God of the Old Testament and a God of the New, but rather One God manifesting himself in various distinct and yet collective ways. All this may seem very difficult, but consider how difficult it must have been for Moses to be there? I know it would be for me, especially as I don't like heights!