Ruth Jacob

God’s unique way to overcome evil and win the world 

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world.”And he made sure we knew what that implied by adding, “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight … but now my kingdom is not from here." 

This has not changed: Jesus’s kingdom still doesn’t fit into this world system.Fighting is still the world’s way – a way that doesn’t belong in God’s kingdom.

Jesus told us what brings the judgement of the world system: again, he did not leave us to speculate that he might achieve this by force or by terror or by punishment.John records this from Jesus, during the final hours before his arrest:"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour… Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."

He said this to show by what death he was to die (i.e. lifted up on the cross). 

Jesus says that the judgement of this world was then, at the moment of his facing the cross.From that moment on, the downfall of evil and the ultimate transformation of the universe is inevitable.

Jesus’s acceptance of the cross - that was when the ruler of this world was cast out!Not in some future militaristic attack from the sky – remember, Jesus said that that kind of approach was very much of this world, so doing that would be bowingto the ruler of this world, not casting him out.

Jesus says at the same time that he will drawall to himself; he does not say he will force them to himself, or conquer them, forcing them to their knees.

It is only as a result of Jesus going to the cross that he will draw them.They will be drawn to him because of the cross, not for any other reason.God does not have some other more effective process for people to go through or suffer when he discovers that, oops, Jesus's death on the cross failed to draw all.The only way he has to reconcile the world to himself is through the cross of Jesus.

How will they be drawn by the cross?

If Jesus’s death on the cross was meant to draw all, has it failed?Does something need to be added to the cross to make it effective?How can an event that happened such a long time ago change the world in the future? - if it was going to, wouldn’t it have all changed straight away – or at least by now?

Zechariah foresees how.In his vision, God is saying, " I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn."John refers to this prophecy, linking it to Jesus’s crucifixion.

And Jesus widens this to include everyone in the world:

"… the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming ...” 

John repeats this in Revelation 1:7: "Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him."

The first thing that will happen at Jesus’s appearance and the resurrection of all will be a mourning for him.They will see him for the first time.Seeing a terrible and fearful almighty warrior would not cause anyone to mourn; they’d be too busy being terrified or thinking how to fight back.

So what will they see?

Jesus ended his life with his face beaten to a pulp and deformed.We know that he still had the marks of crucifixion in his hands, his feet and his side.It seems most likely thatthe reason these people didn't recognise him was because he still had allthe marks and wounds from his crucifixion, including the many terrible wounds all over his head and face from having the “crown” of thorns pushed on and then being beaten over the head and in the face with a stick.The thorns referred to had sharp spikes up to 4 inches (10 cm) long, with barbs along the shafts, and so would have done very extensive damage to his head and face.

Of all the billions who will ever have lived on earth, very few have heard even the name of Jesus, let alone knowing about his death for us and his resurrection.But that will not hinder the effects of his death in raising them all to life.

But once raised, they will see Jesus – the real Jesus as he is, the very same Jesus that the disciples knew after his resurrection.And they will mourn for him, when they see the terrible effect of the crucifixion on him, realising fully what he suffered and the unstinting love that drove him to do it for us.

Jesus will not “conquer” anyone with terror: Jesus will astonish and bring in all with the visible proof of his love.Again, how?
 
 

My servant shall be … lifted up, and shall be very high.As many were astonished at him - his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men - so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand.

… and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

Bible references:

2 Corinthians 4:6, John 18:36, John 12:32, Zechariah 12:10, John 19:37, Matthew 24:24, Revelation 1:7, John 20:14, Luke 24:15-31, John 21:4, John 20:25-27, Matthew 27:29-30, John 5:28, Acts 1:11, Isaiah 53:13-15, John 12:32

"The Human Face"

A recent science documentary on TLC, "The Human Face," discussed how essential facial recognition is for humans. So important for human survival that 80% of our brain's visual processing centers are devoted to the complex task of facial recognition. Clearly, one of the cardinal points for being recognized as human is the face.  They showed old medical text book photos--about 100 years old, because modern plastic surgery is able to mitigate most of the extreme cases--of women with extreme facial deformaties. These were congential deformaties that appeared at birth, and the most extreme examples were so deformed that they were completely enrecognizable as human faces. More inhuman then the most imaginative extra-terrestrial alien face that can be conjured up by Hollywood make-up artists.

We can perhaps console ourselves that such extreme deformaties are exceedingly rare, so rare that we would probably never encounter such an unfortuate individual. But it is precisely those who are at the extremes, at the very margins of human society, that the God of Jesus is passionately and obsessively biased towards. It is especially with the very least of among us, those who are not even recognized as being properly human, that the supremely Human One: Jesus, takes great pains to identify with in complete and total solidarity. To such an extent, that the first truly, authentic image and face of God: Jesus of Nazareth, endures the unendurable, becoming one of the inhumanly deformed himself. The Human One's face is beaten into a deformed pulp that is no longer recongnizable as properly human. The face of the beaten, deformed Jesus is truly the face of the God who is the God for others--especially the others outside the gate of human society. And He will not rest, nor be consoled, until even the most deformed amongst us are healed and transformed into His image.

Dave Farcas