The Paradox of
Pastor Joe Fuiten, February 27, 2005
Scripture
What does God want? If he wants relationship with us, why does it
seem so difficult for us to know God? Or
why does his presence often seem missing?
Adam
and Eve, and the whole human race since then, had this bad feeling that they
were on the outside looking in. It is
not without good reason that they felt this way. God did not want them in. He drove them out of the Garden and prevented
them from returning. They were no longer
provided for from God’s garden. Now they
had to fend for themselves.
Cherubim guarded the presence of God, not just the
tree. There was an intentional effort on
God’s part to keep Adam and Eve away from his direct presence. This event had a profound impact on humanity
from that day forward. All through
ancient cultures you have cherubim-like creatures guarding sacred spaces. They all share one or more features of a man,
an ox, an eagle, and a lion. These
sphinx or combination creatures are everywhere in antiquity. Wherever people went, they created sacred
spaces. Wherever they created sacred
spaces, they placed guardians outside them, just as God did at the east
entrance to the Garden of Eden.
We have never quite gotten over that problem. No matter how successful we become or how
well we do outside the garden, we have this feeling that we wished we were
someplace else. People don’t know what
to call it but it is there.
One of the ways to think about the Bible is to consider
the front end and the back end. The
front end begins with people face to face with God. It began in a world of no sin and no
death. Go to the other end and you
discover that all this will culminate in that same kind of world restored. You could say that history has been the long
telling of God’s purpose to restore
Even while we have been living under this banishment from
the Garden, and to a large extent a banishment from
God’s presence as well, we see evidence that God wants us in.
There have always been exceptions—people who made it past
the barriers and had a relationship with God.
In the Bible days there were people like Enoch, Abram, Jacob, Moses and
Gideon. Each of them had close
encounters with God, speaking to God face to face. Even though we were largely separated from
God’s presence, yet he spoke through those exceptional people. We had to take other people’s word for what
God was like. For thousands of years God
seemed distant. Even his proxies seemed
to be held at bay. The High Priest of
Israel could only go into God’s presence once a year on the Day of Atonement.
That
great distance was shattered rather radically.
The writer of Hebrews opens his book by comparing the experience of God
speaking through proxies with God speaking rather directly. He said in Hebrews 1:1-4 In the
past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in
various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son
is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being,
sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification
for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
With Jesus it seemed like many of the old norms
changed. At the banishment God said, “He must not
be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat,
and live forever." A whole apparatus was set up to prevent the man from
having eternal life. Then when Jesus
came along he took the exact opposite tact in John 6:35-51 “Then
Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go
hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But
as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the
Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive
away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will
of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me,
that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at
the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone
who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day."
41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because
he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the
son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came
down from heaven'?"
43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves,"
Jesus answered. 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the
Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father
and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one
who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the
bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.
50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven,
which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from
heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." NIV
In the Garden they could talk with God. After the banishment they could only
pray. But Jesus came along and taught
them how to pray as they should. He even
went beyond that, at Pentecost he gave them the gift of speaking in an unknown
language as a prayer to God. God gave
them the words that they should say to God.
Then he gave them the ability to know what they were praying.
They struggled to know the intent of the serpent in the
garden. The Holy Spirit has now given us
gifts of discernment.
Even though we have not yet seen the final culmination of
all things, we are experiencing bits and pieces. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:12-14, “And you also were included in Christ when
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you
were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance
until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his
glory.”
We do have a problem.
We have a sin problem. It was
what got us removed from the Garden in the first place. Thank you Jesus, we have been forgiven if we
want it. As a result, we have access
once again to the Lord himself.
In this particular season we are in leading up to Easter,
we are intentionally empting our lives of distracting stuff so there is room
for the presence of God.