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<\/a><\/p>\nINCOGNITO<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He came in incognito,<\/p>\n
A thinly veiled disguise<\/p>\n
The not so subtle son of man,<\/p>\n
A human with God\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The messianic secret,<\/p>\n
Left many unawares<\/p>\n
A God had walked upon the earth<\/p>\n
And shared our human cares.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We did not see his glory,<\/p>\n
At least not at first glimpse,<\/p>\n
It took an Easter wake up call,<\/p>\n
Before it all made sense.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The truth of Incarnation,<\/p>\n
Of dwelling within flesh,<\/p>\n
Shows goodness in creation,<\/p>\n
And Word of God made fresh.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing on the boundary<\/p>\n
Twixt earth and heaven above<\/p>\n
A Jew who hailed from Nazareth<\/p>\n
But came from God\u2019s great love.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Born of humble parents,<\/p>\n
Installed inside a stall<\/p>\n
This king required no entourage<\/p>\n
No pomp or falderal<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
No person was beneath him<\/p>\n
No angel o\u2019er his head,<\/p>\n
He came to serve the human race<\/p>\n
To raise it from the dead.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
His death a great conundrum,<\/p>\n
How can the Deathless die?<\/p>\n
But if he had not bowed his head,<\/p>\n
Life would have passed us by.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though we are dying to be loved,<\/p>\n
And long for endless life,<\/p>\n
He was dying in his love,<\/p>\n
And thereby ending strife.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the incognito<\/p>\n
Belongs instead to us,<\/p>\n
Who play at being human,<\/p>\n
And fail to be gold dust.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there was once a God-man<\/p>\n
Who played the human\u2019s part<\/p>\n
And lived and died and rose again<\/p>\n
Made sin and death depart.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes now through a glass dimly,<\/p>\n
We see the visage royal<\/p>\n
And feebly honor his great worth<\/p>\n
And his atoning toil.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We cannot see his Spirit,<\/p>\n
But moved by its effects<\/p>\n
We are inspired to praise his worth<\/p>\n
And pay our last respects.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet that too brings him glory<\/p>\n
That too makes a start,<\/p>\n
The journey of a million miles<\/p>\n
Begins within one\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And someday we shall see him<\/p>\n
And fully praise his grace,<\/p>\n
Someday when heaven and earth collide<\/p>\n
And we see face to face.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He comes in blinding brilliance,<\/p>\n
A not so veiled disguise<\/p>\n
The not so subtle Son of God,<\/p>\n
A God with human eyes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
May Day\u00a0 2005<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
THEOLOGICAL MUSINGS<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
How many times do we hear these days\u2014 \u2018just make it simple\u2019, or \u2018put the cookies on the bottom shelf\u2019\u00a0 or even \u2018dumb it down\u2019?\u00a0 Whatever you may think of this sort of approach to pedagogy, it certainly does not comport with Jesus\u2019 approach to self-revelation, or for that matter the Gospel writers\u2019 approaches.\u00a0\u00a0 They were all about teasing one\u2019s mind into active thought, rather than over-simplifying things.\u00a0 They were all about forcing the audience to reach for it, so that their reach would extend further than their grasp.\u00a0 They were all about forcing us to concentrate, or as Jesus put it \u201clet those with two good ears, hear\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation of profound things, as it turns out involves mystery, incognito, and secrets revealed at great cost and in amazing ways.\u00a0 It requires boiling up the people, not boiling down the revelation if it is to be understood.<\/p>\n
It is doubtful that there was a widespread expectation in early Judaism for a messianic figure who would call himself \u2018the Son of Man\u2019, and almost certainly no one was expecting a crucified and risen\u00a0 Son of Man.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus, it would seem did not come to meet people\u2019s expectations, but rather their needs,\u00a0 and in so doing he decided to reveal his real nature and God\u2019s real plan in his own way, on his own terms, without conforming to pre-set or simple formulas.\u00a0 Indeed, one NT scholar, Eduard Schweizer once said Jesus is the man who fits no one formula, the man who can\u2019t be stereotyped or pigeon-holed.\u00a0 It is thus not surprising that Jesus is not always, or in every way easy to understand.\u00a0 In fact one can say that while many profound theological ideas and truths can be stated clearly,\u00a0 this does not mean that they are easily understood.<\/p>\n
There is a further problem as well, of which Paul is cognizant and refers to in 2 Cor. 3.\u00a0\u00a0 He speaks of the veil over the human heart which prevents people from seeing Christ as he is, seeing his glory.\u00a0 But not only do we have to deal with our own spiritual obtuseness, there is the further problem that we, as fallen creatures, often are not \u2018ourselves\u2019\u00a0 or better put not our best and authentic selves.\u00a0 We play at being human, we pretend to be honest and forthcoming, but much of the time we are actually hiding behind one persona or another, one incognito or another. We have a hard time letting people see our real \u2018face\u2019 indeed we have a hard time facing it ourselves.<\/p>\n
In this sort of darkness, and dealing with truths that take us clearly out of our depths, Karl Barth\u2019s wisdom becomes all the more clear when he said that God, even God in Christ, can only be known as he reveals himself, and even then there must be a transformation and indeed conversion of our imagination and understanding if we are to understand the revelation as well.\u00a0 In other words revelation without transformation of our understanding and our hearts avails for nothing.\u00a0\u00a0 One more thing.\u00a0 While we clearly understand Jesus better now with the benefit of hindsight than at least some of the disciples did before Easter, it is also true that even we only know in part.\u00a0\u00a0 There will come a day when faith will become sight, but for now only believing leads to seeing, not the other way around, when it comes to the divine incognito.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INCOGNITO \u00a0 He came in incognito, A thinly veiled disguise The not so subtle son of man, A human with God\u2019s eyes. \u00a0 The messianic secret, Left many unawares A God had walked upon the earth And shared our human cares. \u00a0 We did not see his glory, At least not at first glimpse, It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":68659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15094],"class_list":["post-68761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hiding-in-plain-sight"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n