A Greatly Preposterous Idea
1 Peter 1.8-12
You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him – with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation. The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it – that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves – through the Holy Spirit – the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!
For myself and many of my friends, the reality of Jesus Christ living in this world comes from stories we’ve heard as babies, children, and teenagers. As I am teaching my own daughters, there is no doubt that Jesus lived as a man and crafted miracles beyond the ordinary things of this world, and that he willingly sacrificed himself so that we can live forever with him and those who love him. This reality has been my reality for as long as I can remember, from flannel graph depictions to the deep vibrato story telling of my father to the soft and precious prayers my mother prayed for me before bed. No matter the number of disputes or claims or fictional oppositions – Jesus Christ has always been the Son of God who walked this earth two thousand years ago and counting.
If we think about it, it really is a pretty preposterous idea. Even starting with the fact that there is a God – one who crafted everything we can see and touch and feel (and everything we can’t see or touch or feel). The fact that this God who made our ever expanding universe also crafted a plan for a man to be born from another preposterous idea: the Holy Spirit and a teenage virgin. The fact that Jesus, who grew up as a carpenter’s son would abandon his obligated familial craft to craft the physical, mental, and spiritual restoration of human beings by healing them of sickness, ailment, and even death. The whole story is the grandest of fairy tales.
Yet there were women and men, who for thousands of years, eagerly anticipated the arrival of one like him – one who would bring healing and restoration and eternal salvation. They did not have the stories we have, they only had their own imaginations of what might happen. Yet they believed, perhaps more so than you or I. Instead of experiencing the joy and satisfaction of the now and coming salvation offered by Christ, they had to be satisfied with knowing that they were paving the way for men and women and children like us – ones who would come after him, who would get to hear of his miraculous deeds and passion.
And Peter, who lays this all our for us, simply asks, “Do you realize how fortunate you are?” And sadly, the majority of the time, I must confess that I do not. I must confess that many days I feel it a burden to know the stories of Christ that I know. Because I am so easily consumed with myself and making myself satisfied with the things of this world. We have much more than the prophets of the Old Testament had – yet we fritter it away with meaningless, loveless relationships, with throwing ourselves into putting on a show for everyone else so we can look pretty for them, with determining to never allow our hearts to be hurt like we had before.
And when I write it like that, that is an even greater preposterous idea than the thought that God crafted a plan to bring you and me and everyone else into a permanent relationship with him.
