If you are a Christian you have probably heard it so many times it has lost some of its' "shock value."
It is so phenomenal, so "out of this world" and so hard for a human mind to grasp.
It is also the essence of Christianity.
What is it?
The God Of All The Universe comes down to earth as a human being in a mysterious way, and dies on a Cross for the salvation of all humankind.So, if you really stood back for a minute and acted like you were hearing this for the first time as an adult, what would your typical response be?
- Disbelief?
- Thinking the idea was crazy?
- Thinking the idea sounded "out there"?
- All of the above?
If you are honest, it would probably be all of the above.
Some people might even go so far as to ask how you could get someone to believe something like that.
This post looks at how the idea that the unlikelihood of God becoming Incarnate makes it more palatable and sensible to a human mind.This post just takes a different angle. That is, it speculates how the incredible story of Jesus Christ makes sense even more, in a way that is not always mentioned.
Yes, the idea sounds "out there" at first.
But you could start a conversation by what happens if you just leave the thought as "out there."
For instance, it has been said that one of the causes of the shift toward atheism in the Soviet Union after 1917 had to do with that idea of being "out there."
That means that Soviet leaders did not want their people spending their time on a "fairy tale" idea that God could become a human being. It was too good to be true.
But is the idea really "out there"?
The conversation could continue by thinking for a minute about a "God." What is a God?
Perhaps a person could call a God (at least in the Christian sense) a supreme leader over everything, animate and inanimate, in the Universe. It created you, has an effect on your life and your eternal destiny rests in this entity.
Thus, it is an amazing Being. It is even beyond what humans can understand.
So, how would this Being get your attention so you believed in him/her?
Perhaps something like a miracle, which the average human could not do. That would get your attention.
Yes, the Christian God performed miracles as a human. He healed the sick and rose the dead, as examples. (Amazing things for a human)
The point being made here is if this "Supreme Being" did not do things out of the ordinary, he/she might not seem transcendent.
In other words, he/her almost had to something out of the ordinary to get your attention to believe him/her.
If the story was unremarkable then even less people might search for God. The idea of God is so big it almost presumes something magnificent in scope.
Jesus worked in this out of the ordinary way, by turning normal human thinking on its' head. How about "love your enemies", for instance? Or "the last shall be first?" Or "what you did to the least of my brethren you did to me"?
If God worked in the same ways as humans, he/she wouldn't be God. Would you expect the God Of The Universe to think like you do?
Isaiah 55:9 reads,
If something created you, then wouldn't their mind be larger in scope?
The story of the Christian God almost had to be a "fairy tale" and have "shock value."
The message was received by many, though. If the idea was that "out there", would 11 of the 12 Apostles of Jesus have given their life in martyrdom for the message?
(Yes, some people would accept any message from God, but becoming human adds a layer of mystery).
Even if you look at another religion, like Islam, there is some of this concept. Allah does not come to earth in a magnificent way, but what is expected of his followers is a little out of the ordinary. It requires a lot, and is about the relationship with this entity.
For the record, Muslims think the idea of God coming down to earth as a human is too unbelievable to accept.
You only wonder what the Soviets were thinking at the time they though Jesus was a "fairy tale." Does it make more sense to them that there is no God? That you came from a big bang and that you aren't going anywhere after this world?
That kind of thinking would likely have negative ramifications through society, based on behavior.The "fairy tale" component makes the whole story more believable in a way. God is mostly spirit, even in the Christian Trinity. God the Father and the Holy Spirit are not flesh. The human part of the Trinity, which is Jesus, was so the God Of All could relate to you.
Of course, how amazing the story is does not affect the spiritual truths. The story is the same either way, and it is acceptable because it is about God.
But sometimes it is interesting to reflect a little, to think about why things are the way they are. (That is what these posts are for)
Now you can sit back and think,
"Wow. The Incarnation of God is astonishing, and it should be."
Like the fairy tale idea of the Soviets, this story of Incarnation also seems almost too good to be true.
Post Script: This post is not stating the story of Jesus was invented because of how it sounds.