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It is not possible for there to be more pathos than what is packed into the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross. But often there is no "correspondingly" from us to match the significance of the moment. How do we move from cold indifference to melting?
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The Cross and "Whatever"
March 6, 2009
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.
When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:36-38
The depth of appreciation, and the moving expression displayed by this woman is both laudable and unnerving. Her worship is laudable in that Jesus himself receives her tears and perfume as a worship offering, as he defends her vigorously.
Her actions are unnerving in that I find myself falling far below the bar she sets. When was the last time I was overwhelmed by the grace of God. When was the last time even one tear formed, let alone dropped, or that I got all choked up?
Christina Rossetti pondered on the same subject of emotional detachment, and the following poem resulted.
Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?
Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon,—
I, only I.
Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
Our hearts are stone, and yet Rossetti's hope and ours is that the Lord will smite us. Not in a punishing way, but only so that water will gush out.
And as Oscar Wilde points out, a broken heart is what most easily weeps.
Ah! happy those whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!
How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from Sin?
How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?
And given the hardness of our hearts, to have them broken by our sin is as likely as water flowing from a rock. But as back then, God is able.
When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:36-38
The depth of appreciation, and the moving expression displayed by this woman is both laudable and unnerving. Her worship is laudable in that Jesus himself receives her tears and perfume as a worship offering, as he defends her vigorously.
Her actions are unnerving in that I find myself falling far below the bar she sets. When was the last time I was overwhelmed by the grace of God. When was the last time even one tear formed, let alone dropped, or that I got all choked up?
Christina Rossetti pondered on the same subject of emotional detachment, and the following poem resulted.
Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?
Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon,—
I, only I.
Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
Our hearts are stone, and yet Rossetti's hope and ours is that the Lord will smite us. Not in a punishing way, but only so that water will gush out.
And as Oscar Wilde points out, a broken heart is what most easily weeps.
Ah! happy those whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!
How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from Sin?
How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?
And given the hardness of our hearts, to have them broken by our sin is as likely as water flowing from a rock. But as back then, God is able.
