Freedom from death
This week is on Acts 2:22-24:
These verses are part of a speech Peter made to onlookers after the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost. He's describing Jesus to a bunch of people who had barely heard of him. The hidden truth is that God is in control, even amidst death and misfortune. It flies in the face of the Pharisee philosophy that we sometimes see today, which equates earthly health and success with being favoured by God, and misfortune, sickness and death with being cursed by God.
I could swear sometimes that some of these people get their theology from watching bad horror movies. They see God as the bumbling priest who time after time gets tricked by the crafty and more powerful devil. "Oh God wanted to bless you but the devil came and took it away and God had to let him because you were in sin." In their world, God is hamstrung by a minefield of theological rules that prevent him from doing this or that, and in which he has to work hard to keep up appearances of success in a world where the devil has all the shortcuts. People have believed this for thousands of years, and yet all of it is shown to be nonsense by Jesus.
Imagine these sort of horror-movie theologians reading the Bible for the first time. They'd be following right along until Jesus gets arrested, tortured and crucified. At that point, they'd be like "Oh he probably got too prideful. See? The devil's taken away yet another good believer. Why else would he have been crucified? We all know it's never God's will that anyone suffer, unless they're in sin." And yet the righteous Son of God was condemned, tortured, and killed. Maybe this is why people's heads spin in horror movies.
Peter isn't one of these success-only Christians. He makes a point to draw attention to the crucifixion being God's deliberate plan. In other words, this was no bumbling God tricked yet again by the crafty devil, or some evidence of Jesus being a sinner. This was God the warrior king, master of strategy, tough as nails, running towards certain death without a shred of cowardice. "Oh you think death is going to stop my plan? Bring it."
It was God's deliberate plan because God is master over everything, even death. Jesus was raised from the dead, freed from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Impossible. As in, it cannot work any other way. God faced down the most impossible situation mankind has ever known, one which man still cannot master on his own, death itself, and beat it, because it could not be any other way. Everything is subject to God's rule, even death. He's not some mad scientist whose creation got out of control. He's a master who turns every situation to his purpose.
Other people had been raised from the dead before Jesus, but Jesus was the only one who raised himself. Confirmed dead, then confirmed alive, without any man having a choice or a role in it. What better way for God to introduce himself to us? How great of a slap in the face of organised religion, which follows the devil's script of "do what we say and you will be like God; do what we say and nobody gets hurt?" In one act he says, "this is who I am, and this is who I am not."
Instead of having to creep along the devil's spider web of religious obligations and unwritten rules, hoping not to wake him, we live in freedom. We're free from death, not in the sense that we won't die someday, but in the sense that it is impossible for it to keep its hold on us. We are saved by a sovereign God, a God who doesn't answer to anyone or anything, who does what he wants and who wins.
"Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him."
These verses are part of a speech Peter made to onlookers after the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost. He's describing Jesus to a bunch of people who had barely heard of him. The hidden truth is that God is in control, even amidst death and misfortune. It flies in the face of the Pharisee philosophy that we sometimes see today, which equates earthly health and success with being favoured by God, and misfortune, sickness and death with being cursed by God.
I could swear sometimes that some of these people get their theology from watching bad horror movies. They see God as the bumbling priest who time after time gets tricked by the crafty and more powerful devil. "Oh God wanted to bless you but the devil came and took it away and God had to let him because you were in sin." In their world, God is hamstrung by a minefield of theological rules that prevent him from doing this or that, and in which he has to work hard to keep up appearances of success in a world where the devil has all the shortcuts. People have believed this for thousands of years, and yet all of it is shown to be nonsense by Jesus.
Imagine these sort of horror-movie theologians reading the Bible for the first time. They'd be following right along until Jesus gets arrested, tortured and crucified. At that point, they'd be like "Oh he probably got too prideful. See? The devil's taken away yet another good believer. Why else would he have been crucified? We all know it's never God's will that anyone suffer, unless they're in sin." And yet the righteous Son of God was condemned, tortured, and killed. Maybe this is why people's heads spin in horror movies.
Peter isn't one of these success-only Christians. He makes a point to draw attention to the crucifixion being God's deliberate plan. In other words, this was no bumbling God tricked yet again by the crafty devil, or some evidence of Jesus being a sinner. This was God the warrior king, master of strategy, tough as nails, running towards certain death without a shred of cowardice. "Oh you think death is going to stop my plan? Bring it."
It was God's deliberate plan because God is master over everything, even death. Jesus was raised from the dead, freed from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Impossible. As in, it cannot work any other way. God faced down the most impossible situation mankind has ever known, one which man still cannot master on his own, death itself, and beat it, because it could not be any other way. Everything is subject to God's rule, even death. He's not some mad scientist whose creation got out of control. He's a master who turns every situation to his purpose.
Other people had been raised from the dead before Jesus, but Jesus was the only one who raised himself. Confirmed dead, then confirmed alive, without any man having a choice or a role in it. What better way for God to introduce himself to us? How great of a slap in the face of organised religion, which follows the devil's script of "do what we say and you will be like God; do what we say and nobody gets hurt?" In one act he says, "this is who I am, and this is who I am not."
Instead of having to creep along the devil's spider web of religious obligations and unwritten rules, hoping not to wake him, we live in freedom. We're free from death, not in the sense that we won't die someday, but in the sense that it is impossible for it to keep its hold on us. We are saved by a sovereign God, a God who doesn't answer to anyone or anything, who does what he wants and who wins.
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