The
Deigning of Christ
12/2/13
When
we think of Christ and how He lived His life here on earth, our thoughts turn
to meekness and servitude for the people that He encountered. We know that Jesus’ mission here on earth was
to bring a closure to the gap that we had created so long ago with God. But have we thought about the time that Jesus
became the heal that crushed His and our enemy and what it meant to our enemy
when this event was fulfilled? The
completion of the events in the Garden of Eden and upon the cross do have
relevance with each other and need to be spoken about since one could not have
occurred without the other, which means that the life, death and resurrection
of Christ is the crowning achievement over our enemy or in this case God’s
deigning moment over His and our eternal enemy.
In the early 1900s there
was a tragic event that took place that was called the Odessa Pogrom. I
am only going to reference this one event for this article but keep in mind
that this type of activity occurred in 1821, 1859, 1871, 1881, and in 1886 as
well; however, in keeping with human tradition the pogrom of 1905 was the
largest and bloodiest of the years listed above. For those that are
not familiar with what a pogrom is, it is a process in which the methodical
destruction and devastation of a people or group is completed by another group,
mainly directed towards the Jewish population of an area and in this case it
does refer to the Jewish population of Odessa. The city of Odessa
that I am referring to in this article is the port city that sits on the Black
Sea and historically has been known as a multi-cultural city which invited many
different trades to secure their financial stability throughout the ages. While
this event only took place in a matter of 5 days, over 400 Jews were murdered
and over 1600 Jewish businesses and other properties were either severely
damaged or totally destroyed.
When familiarizing myself
with this event I found that this type of activity towards the Jews was
actually a precursor to what the Nazi Party did to the Jews during the mid
1930s all the way until 1945. Many of the ways that the Jews were
killed and tortured during the Odessa pogrom the Nazis continued and then
progressed into massive amounts of dead bodies that they could not get rid of
before the advancing allied army forced the German soldiers from their
posts. It fascinates me to see how humans can perform these types of
atrocities and then future generations fail to recognize directional motives
that others provide for the public and then sit back and deliberately ignore
the reports when they appear. Not understanding the human mind and heart
through human history and allowing such activities to re-occur, in my opinion,
is just as grave of a crime as the act itself and those who did nothing should
be held accountable on the same level as the guilty parties of the accused. My fascination quickly succumbs to the darkening
blinds that our enemy offers us and we in turn voluntarily place them around
our spiritual eyes so that we may pass over the scene without being witness to
the horrors that mankind is doling out on itself.
One specific setting that
I read in the book entitled “The Black Sea” was during this 1905 Odessa pogrom
and it had to do with the telling of what occurred to a Jewish interviewee
concerning his father’s store. The person who was being interviewed
said that his father did not come home that night when all the violent actions
of the local people were taking place. He and his mother were
worried of course but could not do anything since if they left their house then
they would have put their lives in immediate danger. After the
events had calmed down, he went to where his father’s store was and saw his
father outside looking at all of the damage that had been done to the store.
He reached his father and
asked if he was ok and his father stated that he was physically fine but the
store had been damaged greatly and viewing the damage to the front glass window
it seems like it probably would be a while before the store could re-open
again. A few moments later a Cossack officer on horseback turned the
corner and began to approach their positions. The father then took a
couple of steps towards the path of the horse and officer and then fell to his
knees and cupped his hands to form a begging for help type of setting. The
officer continued his path and did not even look at the father who was
obviously begging for help. As the officer passed the interviewer’s
father on his knees the officer deigned his cap but did not set eyes upon the
father; not once did he even acknowledge that the father was there besides the
fact of the action with his cap.
I was not familiar with
the term deigning so I had to look things up to find out what the word
meant. It is an interesting word that has very distinct undertones
of dignity and how one feels that a certain culture is of a higher standard
than another. I found the word to be of Latin origin and could
easily be referenced to racial or communal standards. With our history and knowledge of how other
cultures have portrayed the Jewish culture and then applying it to this story it
is not hard for a person to arrive at the conclusion that this type of violence
against the Jewish population was deemed “justified” according to the local
people of Odessa.
When the Cossack officer
deigned his cap to the Jewish business owner it was a physical sign to the
Jewish man that the people of that area, including the military of the area,
thought that the violent actions that had been taken against the Jewish
community of Odessa was justified since their race and culture were a
substandard form of life. And, that there was nothing wrong with the
destruction of Jewish businesses and the murder of innocent Jewish
people. The other local communities of Odessa singled out one group
of people and categorized them in order to justify their actions towards
someone else. It seems like that every time a group becomes singled
out for whatever reason it is that specific group that is going to bear the
brunt of the other groups’ actions. We have read about this in
history and we are seeing it occur today.
So, how in the world do
this event and specifically the word deigning have to relate to Jesus and His
mission on earth? It does seem rather odd to compare the two
situations with one demoralizing word but continue reading and you will
understand that the origins of the comparison actually begins in the Garden of
Eden and then reaches its pinnacle at the crucifixion and resurrection of
Christ. This is another example of the relevance of the Bible in our
world today and just how it ties into our lives due to the fact that we chose
to do things on our own and not to obey God’s one simple command.
In Genesis we see that
the choice has been made by humanity to go about things on its own and to
ignore what God has put into place. So when God confronts the participants of
the event He includes everyone in His laying out of the ground rules for the
future of all parties involved. An interesting portion of Genesis
Chapter 3 states this: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike
his heel.” Generally we refer to this as Jesus versus Satan and the
events that transpire between the two Kingdoms. While this is a true
statement, with reasoning one must look at the fact that the word “crush” that
is used here is a violent term. If anything is to be crushed the
form, shape, looks, stance, belief, etc of that object must have its
foundations and structure totally changed by another force that has mastered
it.
This is a turning point
in the war between the two kingdoms since the humans are now in play and are
still the focal point of both kingdoms. At the same time, these
proceedings set the tone for all future altercations between the two kingdoms
and this tone has not changed in any manner ever since. Our enemy
has had the privilege of using this anger and torture against mankind ever
since this event took place in the garden, plus he has allowed our emotions and
our human thoughts to be used against other people as well. As I have mentioned
many times before, human history is filled with all sorts of ingenious ways and
methods for humans to torture, maim and kill other humans. Therefore,
if the human is the center battling point of the two kingdoms and that the
sides have been allowed to form against one another, then the One who said that
a human would crush the enemy of the human will be of a violent nature because
if violence is of the common core of the battle for humanity then that is the
way that God must win the hearts of the human over the ways of the world.
So, where does Jesus fit
into all of this you ask? Well, it is kind of interesting but one
should not have too hard of a time understanding it, but probably most of us
have not thought about the reality of it before. All of us would
agree that Jesus is the meekest and humblest man that ever has walked on the
earth. We also would agree that even with this type of demeanor, He
demonstrated at times anger towards those who defiled the Temple from the
activities that should have been ongoing there. It is not unknown
that Jesus faced violent people and forces every day, take for example the
possessed person or when the news reached Jesus about the beheading of
John. All of these things about Jesus and what He experienced are
true, so the result of the consequences of the garden scene He witnessed.
This means that when God
set into motion the conditions of humanity, everyone would have to experience
this test at some point in their lives. Jesus, being a human was not
exempt from this experience so why would our lives be any different than what
He experienced? Jesus’ life represented everything that is good and gave
us a perfect example of how we should live our lives towards others. This
is easily accepted by many believers and nonbelievers throughout history but we
are forgetting one aspect of His life that represents the most crucial for our
spiritual survival. There is no doubt that there were people who had
the same philosophy of deigning when Jesus was alive and walking the earth, as
do humans have that same spirit manifesting through their lives today.
Now, if God has set
something in motion and Jesus was the one who came to close the gap that
separated humanity from God, along with performing great miracles, teaching the
ways of forgiveness and repentance, then this is a true example of Him
defeating what has already been established on this earth. But when
God sets something into motion and uses specific words in setting them into
motion, which means that the final act must include the pinnacle of
battles. Naturally Satan would use his investments and pour them
into the fight against humanity while God would use His investments and
continue to push back the darkness through His Son that walked on the earth.
Throughout
Church history there have been many who place the Jews as the ones responsible
for the Death of Jesus. While this may
be true in certain terms the mission of Jesus was actually being fulfilled and
it does not really matter who set Jesus u for His death. What many of us forget is that Jesus was born
to die. His mission was to die. His entire presence on this earth and His
ministry was for Him to die and if anyone doubts this claim then you are in
deep trouble because God ordained it while He was laying out the consequences
for man’s choices in the Garden of Eden.
God has a purpose for everything that He does. It may not fit into your plans or ideas but
His plans are perfect and complete in every way, a function that we humans have
difficulty in conceiving. It was not
Jesus’ human life that was the pinnacle of His ministry. It was not the miracles that he performed
that completed God’s plan for our enemy.
It was the death and resurrection of Jesus that fulfilled the crushing
blow to Satan and his dominion that God had in mind as the deigning moment in
human history.
It
is not just a physical aspect that Jesus died as a human being; everyone
dies. Yes, God recognized and approved that
His only Son should die and it actually made God proud that this event
occurred. Why? Yes, God hurt that His Son hung on a cross,
was beaten beyond human recognition, betrayed by His peers, mocked and
ridiculed and spat upon. But God understood
that these things had to be in order due to the fact of the progression that
man had come from the garden’s sin and it had to be manifested to our enemy and
for the entire world that the only way to God was through this pathway.
It
is difficult for us to comprehend this action of sacrifice but as soon as Jesus
dropped His head in death our enemy was reminded once again that he had no of
what was about to happen. I can imagine
that his mind began to tremble a bit as soon as the earthquake occurred and the
veil to the temple began to tear. Satan knew
at this point that God was actually in control of this situation, and the
revelation of what occurred next would shake the spiritual world wide
open. The direct communication lines
from God to man was once again opened as it was in the initial days of the
Garden of Eden. Satan knew exactly what
the veil inside the Temple meant and he also realized exactly what it meant
when the veil ripped from top to bottom.
Satan
also understood exactly that God had completed His mission, through His Son, to
inform every spiritual being and spiritual force that this was His party and
that His plan of restoration had been initiated and completed. This act of death and resurrection b Jesus in
no way shows anything but obedience and love for humanity. The act that god allows might seem cruel on
the physical side of things but when one understands that the spiritual side of
our lives are directly affected by this event, we can see that it was the
greatest progression of love that any form of creation can obtain. While the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus means everything to us today as Christians, it also serves as the
spiritual deigning of God towards his former wanna be in that he has no choice but
to accept certain and crushing defeat.
Is
this a haughty attitude that God displays?
It can be construed as such and is by billions of people around the
world. But we must understand that God
has a plan for each of our lives and in order for God to allow this plan to
flow through our lives we must have the knowledge that there is a war going on
for our eternal being. God could not
claim victory over death if He did not choose the plan that He had for His son. Even though God knows and our enemy knows
that there is no power comparison between the two entities that if He did not
display this type of control and command of the situation our enemy would have
grounds to claim that God was a liar.
Haughty? I do not think so. I do
believe that God had everything set into motion hundreds, thousands or billions
of years in the past and I also believe that while He was placing the beginnings
of the universe into place you and I were on His mind.
Our
enemy does not deserve to even have access to God’s perfect creation, yet we
allowed this access by our own choice. Our
enemy hates us with an eternal hatred and will try everything to destroy our
lives with little or no effort what-so-ever.
God has proven Himself time and time again throughout history that He
loves us so much and even though we continue to thumb our noses in the air
towards Him, He has promised to love us no matter what. God is a proving God and He proved Himself
while His Son was dying on the cross. He
proved Himself to our enemy that he holds no place in our lives and that he
does not even deserve the attention of us as we pass by him. This act of love is the deigning of God
through Christ to our enemy and it is a message that everyone needs to
understand about what actually took place that day in Jerusalem and it was all
to signify to us that we are so much better than what our enemy portrays us as
and that we as God’s creation do not even have to even tip our hats to his
presence.
DLB
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