So where did we get to? Last time I wanted to get across the understanding that “original sin” is not an idea that is present in Judaism and neither was it present in The Church, until Christendom arrived.
The Bible starts at Genesis 1. Made in his image. Yes, we are sinful. But we are divinely created and inspired masterpieces that are in need of cleaning, rather than rubbish in need of throwing out.
You see, it all went wrong when Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I think that William P Young expresses it better than anyone else, in “The Shack”. His take, on what happened in this moment, was that we took on the decision to determine right and wrong for ourselves and away from God.
In other words, we stopped trusting and decided that we knew better.
I have three boys. The oldest is 12. When he was 1, I was everything to him. I was his safety, his guidance, his security. He totally trusted me. He had very little choice in the matter, as he was a baby/toddler. Now, he is a preteen and he knows everything. Most of the interaction I have with him is me talking to him and him telling me why I am wrong.
This weekend he was working on doing an “air 360” on his wakeboard. He was taught by the coach how to do it, but decided that he knew better and refused to listen to him or me. As a result, he spent most of the weekend slapping the back of his head against the water until he had mild concussion and a headache. Every muscle in his body ached so that he could barely walk the next morning.
That’s the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It’s the moment that humanity went from being a toddler, loving its daddy, to a preteen, knowing everything.
The problem is that we all know right and wrong. Well, actually, we all know our version of right and wrong. Everyone’s version of right and wrong is different. This is the root of every argument, every conflict and every war in the history of the world. This is the cause of suffering in the world. This is sin.
We are still images of the divine. We are still created by him. We are still his children.
But we are in a mess. And because we are in a mess, we’ve messed up the world and continue to do so.
So, there was a plan. God announced it in Genesis 4 when he said that the woman’s offspring would crush the serpent’s head. We follow the story through the Old testament.
God calls Abram to leave his tribe and start a new tribe. This tribe, unlike any other tribe in the history of the world, existed to bless other tribes. Not to survive. Not to patrol its borders. Not to defeat others. Not to exclude others. To enrich every other tribe.
More than that, it was to invite others in.
The Jews were really bad at that. There were even laws showing them exactly how to do it, but they didn’t really take much notice.
We watch the story unfold; of rescue from Egypt and of the wilderness and of the promised land and of settling and learning how to be a people ruled over by Yahweh. Existing to bless others and invite them in.
We watch them not doing this. We watch them demand a king. Someone to filter out God’s commands.
We watch them mess up, over and over and over. We watch them become the very thing that they were rescued from. We see them become slave drivers and oppressors.
We watch them eventually become enslaved again by other nations.
We look on and see this plan to redeem humanity, seemingly failed.
We see the hope apparently gone.
And all the time the mess is increasing.
But then we hear prophecies from Isaiah, about a root of Jesse (King David’s father) who would rescue them. We see the rumours of Emmanuel (God with us); of one, upon whom was “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord”, who would bring justice and restoration. We see the beginnings of hope that maybe, just maybe, it is not too late and maybe, just maybe, God has not given up.
Then a teenage girl has a visit from an angel and is willing to set aside her reputation, her future, her marriage, to become the mother of the son of God.
There he is. A baby… crying, weeing and pooing in a cattle trough. The hope of the world.
The culmination of all the years of waiting. The “true vine” (Israel was God’s vine, so this statement means that he was the true Israel). The Son of God. The son of Man. The Light of the World. The Way, The Truth and The Life. The Bread of life.
The Messiah; the “anointed” one, the chosen one.
The one who would bring all of history together. The one who announces that God’s rule is here right now. He starts to dismantle the mess by healing the sick, eating with the oppressed, casting out the demons and loving the outcasts.
“The Kingdom of God is here”. This is the good news. This is the gospel.
We can trust again. We can become children again. We can once again, become the human beings that we were originally made to be. We can have the relationship with God that we were born for.
This is the good news. God is taking charge again. All of history was leading to this moment when The Messiah steps onto the stage.
Then he dies. This act finally defeats the devil. As NT Wright describes it, a fox rids itself of fleas by gathering up a ball of wool and holding it in its mouth. I then enters some water and is submerged completely until only its mouth is above the water. All the fleas, then, are forced onto the ball of wool. The fox then just lets go, and the ball of wool (with all the fleas) floats down the river. Jesus made himself the ball of wool, allowing all the evil of the world to be concentrated on himself so that it can be taken away.
But…
…Then he rises again. He was dead but then he woke up, came back to life, fully alive and restored. No longer is death the end. No longer do we have to live in fear. We have the promise of the resurrection. We will be raised from death – physically, like Jesus was – and live forever in a renewed cosmos, the way we were meant to.
So, this is the gospel:
“The kingdom of God is here”, which translates into “God is taking charge again, he is ending suffering and pain and death. Come and be part of it!”
But it is more, so much more than just this….
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