Stephen
Terry, Director
The
Hour of Glory: The Cross and Resurrection
Commentary
for the December 21, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson
"But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the
dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If
there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And
if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." 1 Corinthians 15:12-14, NIV
As can be seen from the date of
this commentary, it is ironic that at a time when all are celebrating the birth
of Jesus, the incarnation of God as the very human second Adam, we should be
addressing his death on the cross. Of course, that was the denouement of his
life. The Old Testament prophets foretold his suffering and death. And even at
the otherwise joyful annunciation was the warning of the sorrow to come. (Luke
2:35) The more we emulate his character, the more we come to understand and
experience that path of sorrows ourselves. His death upon the cross gives eternal
life, but as with Jesus, it has also brought pain, suffering and death to many
who died in the hope that life yet remains to them and as they have suffered
with him, they will also take up life anew as he did. That hope reaches beyond
the grave to that which we cannot see or feel but nonetheless our heart is drawn
to.
In Genesis,
chapter three, we read that we were created to be in fellowship with God
who walked with humanity in the Garden of Eden. As so often happens in relationships
today, we looked at that relationship and decided we could do better. We walked
away. We even hid. God came looking for us with tears in his voice and with
broken heart, he asked why we fled. We did not take responsibility for making a
stupid choice. Instead, we blamed everyone and everything, even God himself for
our perfidy. But being God, he knew that one day, there will be those who will
feel the sadness and loss of that broken relationship even as he does. He told
humanity that a door would open for restoration. A Savior would come to open
that door for all who would enter it.
Before that happened, humanity
would plunge into the depths of depravity. Genesis,
chapters 6-9, tells us that happened long ago and resulted in a catastrophic
population collapse. Only intervention by God saved the handful that survived.
How hard it must have been for those who longed for restoration before it got
so bad. They must have hoped for, prayed for, and sought the advent of the
Savior to stem the tide of evil that was overwhelming everything and everyone.
But it did not happen. Had he come then, hearts were so hardened that no more
would have been saved than were saved. His time, the time we celebrate each
Christmas was yet far off. But in every generation, God had those who sought to
rekindle the relationship once enjoyed between God and his creation.
It is not a perfect story. It is
tainted with murder, revenge, adultery, and a multitude of other failings.
Though seeking a better world and trying to understand the golden thread of God's
presence that would lead them there, they also lived in this world, a world
that lives by the principle that if we seek God, we are mentally deficient because
he either does not exist or if he does, he is vengeful and cruel. Who would
want to love or even serve such a tyrant? The pressures both subtle and direct
have driven many to renounce any belief in God. But has that made their lives
any better? Maybe some who have accumulated obscene wealth may claim it has,
but on observation, even those seem to be striving for something they cannot
attain. Even if someone managed to own every morsel of food, every item of
clothing, every home, every vehicle in the world, it would not end their lust
for such things. There will always be something more they must own. There can
never be enough deprivation forced upon others to satisfy their need to own it
all.
In my lifetime, we have gone to
the moon and returned safely. We talk of going to Mars and dream of interstellar
travel. We dream those dreams without a reality to base them upon. The reality
we know tells us that super luminal travel is physically impossible. Yet, even
if we could achieve light speed, travel to the nearest stars would take years
amid known and unknown hazards, but we dare to hope despite the challenges. It
is as though we believe all of this because we believe we are evolving into
gods capable of anything we set our minds to. We reason as we did in that
rejection of relationship long ago that we do not need God. He will only hold
us back from being all we might be. (Genesis
3:5)
To those who do not understand
the nature of that relationship, it seems like audacity to seek to rekindle
that which has held us back from the beginning. To thwart that, humanity has
returned the favor God granted in spades. God created humanity in his image, so
now we have created God in our image and attributed many
of the worst qualities we have developed to him. We found it possible to murder
tens of thousands of innocents in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But
we like to lay the reason for all such evil in God's lap instead of accepting
responsibility for our own evil. We turn that evil about and say if God did not
prevent it, he must be evil, or he does not exist. This is no longer the belief
of the atheist. Even Christians model this by their behavior, acting as though
the very God they proclaim will do nothing if they also plunge into the pit of
depravity. The stories of that moral rot are frequently in the headlines.
The Bible tells us that evil
will be so pervasive that love will die out. But those who manage to keep on
loving despite the evil will be saved. ((Matthew
24:12-13) Understanding God's character is key to keeping love alive. Those
who worship a vengeful, tyrannical god will tend to be vengeful and tyrannical
themselves. That which is within our very being, to be the image of God will
come out manifest as whatever we believe is God's character. While this has produced
great evil in the world, it can also bring great light and hope when we get it
right. God is love. (1
John 4:8) That love is so powerful it extends even to those who hate him. (Matthew
5:43-48)
The world wants us to believe that
we will lose everything if we love God and try to live out that love in our
lives. They are afraid it is true and that it will invalidate what they have
spent their entire lives pursuing and never attaining - peace. Peace is not
possible through fear. It can only come through love. The response of fear is
to hate whatever is the source of that fear whether we think it is God or
humanity. But instead of reacting to fear, acting in love can drive out fear
from our lives. (1
John 4:18) But so many have been afraid for so long, it is hard to know where
to begin. It begins with a recognition that how we live our lives and what we believe
has made us afraid, and we do not want to live that way anymore. We ask God to
accept us back, apologizing for choosing such a harmful path for ourselves and
others. We then ask him to create a new heart in us. The stony, painful heart
of fear can be replaced by a loving heart of flesh. We only need come to God
and ask. (Ezekiel
36:26) He is more than willing to welcome us back to where we can enjoy walking
together once more.
We will still have to live in
this difficult world, but we will not be alone. God will walk with us as a new
and loving spirit comforting and growing us to be all that he created us to be.
The depths of grace that love can take us to have never been fully plumbed. It
would take all eternity to even come close. Fortunately, eternity is what God
offers through Jesus, and just as he promised a Savior for humanity, he also
promises a return to Eden with Jesus himself seeing us home. Things will get so
bad that they will rival that long ago population collapse in severity. (Matthew
24:37-39) Innately, people understand that something is coming. That is why
the sales of guns and survival products are skyrocketing. But despite all they
owned, none of it was able to save those who died in the first instance. It will
all prove just as useless when everything draws to a close again. We can fight
like demons (literally) to hang on to everything we have, only to find our
grasp holds nothing when we die. It will all go to those who would have taken
it had they the power when we lived. We walk away from everything we own in the
end and the only thing that matters is what use we made of it when we had it.
Once that opportunity to love others is past, it is sadly impossible to get a second
chance.