Sharing God through vulnerability

Hennie Symington

         For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power. The scripture says,                                                

“ will destroy the wisdom of the wise

and set aside the understanding of the scholars.”

So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skilful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!

For God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called “foolish” message we preach, God decided to save those who believe. Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom. As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles . 1 Corinthians 1:18-23

We don’t like to think of God as vulnerable. Our souls yearn for a God who is a rock - a God who fixes what is broken, who saves when all is lost. It is human nature to seek gods who wield power: The ancient Greeks had Zeus with his lightning bolts which he shot out in fits of anger, while the Egyptian sun god Ra and Shiva from the Hindu mythology are seen as almighty deities who not only controlled the forces or nature but also the fate of men. Even Yaweh in the Old Testament is seen as a God who is mightier than the Egyptian god. Remember Moses pitting the strength of the God of Israel against that of the Pharaoh and Elijah challenging Baal on Mount Carmel and setting the God of Israel up against him almost as if to say: My God is stronger than your god!

Yet in Christ we experience God as the vulnerable one. He doesn’t make his appearance in power and glory but as a helpless baby in a crib, born to ordinary parents like you and me. He has no place to lay down his head and is crucified as a common criminal.

Why? Why does the all powerful God of the universe choose to reveal himself in this way? What does it mean to us that God chooses engage the world in this way? Perhaps it is in his wounded state that God best demonstrates his solidarity with the weak, the outsider, the broken-hearted, the outcasts and those who suffer physically and mentally. And with you and me. He is our brother and suffers with us in whatever befalls us. And through his suffering He redeems us. That’s power in the true sense of the Word.

Prayer: Lord forgive us for sometimes having too much heaven on our minds which keeps us from seeing the need for your love and understanding all around us. Thank you for stepping over the great divide between heaven an earth by giving us a piece of yourself, you only Son, to show us how to make your love real in this world.