Hello,
Maybe some of you
saw what caught my eye last week.
According to the news, someone bought a painting for 450 million dollars
($450,000,000.00!). Apparently, the
purchaser, whose name has not been made public, is an individual…..with a lot
of money! Not having that kind of money
in my pocket, such a purchase has a ring of incredibility. Who would spend that much money on a
painting? How could an oil covered
canvas, even as rare as it may be, be worth that much money. Since we don’t know the purchaser, we can
only suspect that this painting was bought as an investment, thus the purchaser
believing that it will actually grow in value as time passes!
Maybe if I was a connoisseur
of fine art, I would not be surprised at this sale, but I have to believe that
even those who treasure art are were a bit amazed at the price this painting
brought. To me, it seems foolish, if not
unbelievable.
Maybe that is why
the Christian message so often falls upon unreceptive ears. It does seem foolish, if not unbelievable,
that God would so treasure conscious driven carbon (that is, humans) so deeply
that, as the Bible tells us, that it led God to pay the price of his very
Son. And more unbelievable, and maybe
even foolish than that, is that the Bible tells us that God paid this
incredible price not as an investment for which he hoped an increased return,
but entirely out of love with no strings attached.
No wonder that some
sceptics of Christianity say that Christianity is merely a human concocted
scheme to make humans feel important.
From a logical perspective, it doesn’t make much sense.
I will be the
first to say that such a purchase price for me is hard to imagine…the flaws in my
character, the pain that I cause, the mess that I make, the narrowness of my
mind… that God would “send his only begotten Son” in order to have me does
ring, even in my own mind, of foolish unbelievably.
And yet, when that
$450,000,000.00 check makes its way to the seller’s desk with the purchaser’s
name inscribed on it, there is no doubting that such a purchase, as foolish and
incredible as it might be, was actually true.
And likewise when the one whose cross bore the inscription, “Jesus of
Nazareth, King of the Jews” paid the ultimate price, and whose boulder sealed
grave was opened and emptied, not by grave robbers, but by God who eternally
robbed the power of the grave by raising Jesus from the dead….well, when that
happened….therein lies the foundation of the Christian conviction that what
seems so unbelievable and foolish is actually true!
“Is that your
signature?” we might say to the one who handed over the $450,000,000.00
check. To which that one would say, “Yes.”
“Is that your
signature?” we are likewise apt to say to the one who “gave his only begotten
Son”. And that one’s answer is, “Yes.”
The cross and the
grave are God’s answer to the sceptics of faith who say Christianity is a human
scheme to make humans feel important.
The cross and the grave are God’s signature of God’s love driven heart
that humans are that important to God.
Such importance may seem foolish and unbelievable to the human
mind. But just like I, who do not hold
in my pocket the stash of money to even think about paying $450,000,000.00 for oil
on canvas cannot understand the drive for such a purchase, neither do I hold in
my heart the stash of love that I would even think about “sending his only
begotten Son” for conscious driven carbon to understand God’s drive for me.
But the cross and
the grave has been inscribed in time and space, and when I look at them, I find
myself asking, “God, is this your signature?”
And God’s answer……”Yes!”
Have a great week!
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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