Mirrors
From "Reliving the Passion" by Walter Wangerin Jr. (p. 25)
Isaiah 53:4-6
When I turn away (from loved ones I hurt) I reject the very source of my healing. My denial of my sin protects, preserves and perpetuates that sin! Ugliness in me, while I live in illusions, can only grow the uglier. (Therefore) mirrors that hide nothing hurt me. But this is the hurt of purging and precious renewal - and these are mirrors of dangerous grace.
The passion of Christ, His suffering and His death, is such a mirror. Are the tears of my dear wife hard to look at? The pain in the face of Jesus is harder. It is my self in my extremest truth. My sinful self. The death he died reflects a selfishness so extreme that by it I was divorced from God and life and light completely: I raised my self higher than God! But because the Lord God is the only true God, my pride did no more, in the end, than to condemn this false god of my self to death. For God will be God, and all false gods will fall before Him.
So that's what I see reflected in the mirror of Christ's crucifixion: my death. My rightful punishment. My sin and its just consequence. Me. And precisely because it's so accurate, the sin is nearly intolerable; ...for this is the mirror of dangerous grace, purging more purely than any other. And this (mirror) is not made of glass and silver...but of righteous flesh and divinity - and this one loves me absolutely. Jesus chose to..take the sin within himself and reflect the squalid truth of my personal need while revealing the tremendous truth of his grace and forgiveness. He took that sin away.
This mirror is not passive only, showing what is; it is active, creating new things to be. It shows me a new me behind the shadow of a sinner. For when I gaze at his crucifixion, I see my death indeed - but my death done! His death is the death of the selfish one whom I called ugly and hated to look upon. And resurrection is another me.
Merciful Lord, hold me to the fire long enough to know my whole self truly, long enough to be cleansed by your burning forgiveness... Amen.
Isaiah 53:4-6
When I turn away (from loved ones I hurt) I reject the very source of my healing. My denial of my sin protects, preserves and perpetuates that sin! Ugliness in me, while I live in illusions, can only grow the uglier. (Therefore) mirrors that hide nothing hurt me. But this is the hurt of purging and precious renewal - and these are mirrors of dangerous grace.
The passion of Christ, His suffering and His death, is such a mirror. Are the tears of my dear wife hard to look at? The pain in the face of Jesus is harder. It is my self in my extremest truth. My sinful self. The death he died reflects a selfishness so extreme that by it I was divorced from God and life and light completely: I raised my self higher than God! But because the Lord God is the only true God, my pride did no more, in the end, than to condemn this false god of my self to death. For God will be God, and all false gods will fall before Him.
So that's what I see reflected in the mirror of Christ's crucifixion: my death. My rightful punishment. My sin and its just consequence. Me. And precisely because it's so accurate, the sin is nearly intolerable; ...for this is the mirror of dangerous grace, purging more purely than any other. And this (mirror) is not made of glass and silver...but of righteous flesh and divinity - and this one loves me absolutely. Jesus chose to..take the sin within himself and reflect the squalid truth of my personal need while revealing the tremendous truth of his grace and forgiveness. He took that sin away.
This mirror is not passive only, showing what is; it is active, creating new things to be. It shows me a new me behind the shadow of a sinner. For when I gaze at his crucifixion, I see my death indeed - but my death done! His death is the death of the selfish one whom I called ugly and hated to look upon. And resurrection is another me.
Merciful Lord, hold me to the fire long enough to know my whole self truly, long enough to be cleansed by your burning forgiveness... Amen.
posted by Michelle Coder | 11:55 PM
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