The God who died

[aron]

The God who died, part A

Originally Posted by aron

I would like to offer a couple of examples.

Second example: the Centurion's slave in Luke 7. The centurion's word says, "For I also am a man under authority, and I say to my servant, "Go", and he goes, and to one "come" and he comes, and to another "Do this", and he does it." Jesus marveled and said that there was no such faith in all of Israel. But the question that is begged by the centurion's word is simply ignored. Jesus clearly is also a man under authority, who came to do the Father's will. But who are the servant's of Jesus, that He merely needs to give the word to, and the Centurion's slave will be healed? Is the Holy Spirit the servant of Jesus? Or is it angels? Or some combination?

Look at Psalm 147. "Jehovah sends His command to the earth/His word runs swiftly". The Luke narrative said that "in that same hour the centurion's slave was healed", that Jesus said it was to be done. So the centurion indeed understood what was going on. Jesus just spoke the word and the slave was healed at that very hour. Indeed the word does run swiftly. But what did the centurion understand, that Jesus marveled? We don't ask, because it might upset our dogma. At least that is my impression. The centurion's explanation, that Jesus marveled at, is simply excised from the discussion. If Jesus has invisible servants who go and come at His word and do what He commands, we don't want to think about it because our job as Protestants is to ignore the angels. Or, how can we say the Holy Spirit is "under" Jesus? The centurion said, "I also have servants under me"????

So we ignore it. Not neat and tidy like our theology. We would rather be comfortable.

I've gotten sick of hijacking Bearbear's thread on "supernatural worldview and the power of the Holy Spirit", so I'll continue here. I want to write about the God who died, and what it looked and felt like.

But first I wanted to show the "supernatural worldview" by way of contrast. Faithful readers will notice that I've made a lot of hay on John 1:51. "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." At one point I got interested in seeing heaven open, and so I began to pay attention to these things. Jesus prayed to the Father, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". What is it like "in heaven". Jesus said, "In the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like angels in heaven." What is it like in heaven?

So John 1:51 became, to me, is an invitation by Jesus Christ Himself to see the heavens opened, and to see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. If WL wants to turn that into "the Holy Spirit" from Genesis 28 (the oil upon the rock), or "the church life" from the same passage (Jacob said that Bethel was the house of God), or "the humanity of Jesus" (i.e. the Son of Man as the ladder on the earth and touching heaven) that is fine. But to me the question remained, even begging to be asked: what do you see when heaven is opened?

As I said, the Roman Centurion got a good supernatural worldview when he talked about being under authorit, and having servants under him, and telling them "Come" and "Go" and "do this" and they would come, and go, and do this, as he channeled his authority Caesar. Surely Jesus was doing the same thing. A lot to see there, if you are interested.

Now on to part B