Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

I was flicked a link to some reflections on “The Passion of the Christ” the other day which I thought were quite thought provoking. What is the passion about? Perry writes:

It’s about what happens when man meets God, but doesn’t recognize him.

Reading that, I was immediately taken back to the introduction to the gospel of John. So true.  And I was particularly struck by the confessional reflections that Perry followed that up with, which are worth reading here in their entirety. Have a read and tell me what you think.

But going back to the quote above, I think that would be a good one for meditating on, for exploring the deeper mysteries of the crucifixion in general. What does the crucifixion mean?

It means that Jesus is brother to every person who has suffered injustice. It means that he stood in the place of every person who has lived in terror and oppression and slavery. It means that while we grapple life’s great questions – why is there evil, why is there suffering, why is there so much pain in the world – instead of writing some kind of “answer” to these questions for us on a chalkboard (as though that would help), God instead came and lived among us, suffered with us, and died for us and with us.

We have all had our moments when we did not recognize God, and acted accordingly. What does this say about God?

2 responses to “The Crucifixion: What’s It About?”

  1. kay Avatar

    We have all had our moments when we did not recognize God, and acted accordingly. What does this say about God?

    First thing that popped into my mind when you asked this question was “epistemological distance,” ala Ignatius (I think).
    I don’t think this is what you were asking when you asked “What does this say about God?” but it is a concept that I’ve thought about on and off over the years.
    The idea is that God loves us, and desires our love, but so values our free choice that he doesn’t get in our faces with his existence (so to speak).
    He’s right there (and was uniquely right there in Jesus), but our being open and looking plays its part too.
    Don’t know if that makes any sense. 🙂

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  2. Matt Stone Avatar

    Yes it does. I think God seeks love above all else and our love can only come out of a voluntary drawing closer. It can’t be forced. Sometimes the best way to entice is to leave something hidden, veilled.

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