Meet Yourself in the Parables. (Part 2)

Yesterday we noted that there are three prodigals in the story Jesus told in Luke 15:11-32. The greatest of stories is to contemplate this third prodigal.

Behold the lavish waster, the spend thrift of the cross. Behold him who walked on foam capped billows, stilled the angry waves, gave sight to the blind, raise the dead, made devils tremble and disease flee, offering himself upon the cross as a substitute.

Behold him who created all the rivers and lakes and seas cry out on the cross “I thirst”. This is real poverty. Before we can have any right idea of the love of God we must understand His precious glory in all its height of majesty and his incarnation on the earth in all its depth of shame.

It was one great leap from the throne of God in heaven to a feed box in as stable, from the top of glory to the bottom of humiliation, from a son to a servant for he was made in the likeness of men and took upon himself the form of a servant (Phil 2:7).

He put on humanity so we could put on divinity, he became the son of man so that we could become the sons and daughters of God “for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” 2 Cor 8:9.

How must the angels have felt when told that he who threw into space the racing planets, whirling worlds and luminous suns, that He who created the world with its wonder of animals and beauty of plants and flowers and majesty of rippling rills, seas of glass and lofty mountains, that he who placed the twinkle in the stars, the sparkle in the planets, and the blaze in the sun, was going to lay aside his purple robe for a peasants gown. That the infinite God upon whose shoulders the universe hangs was going to become so helpless as to hang at the breast of a women. Isa 12:2 says “God is become my salvation.”  Condescension! He was man. He was God! But who can tell the majesty of Christ or the height of His glory, or who can tell how low he descended. To be a man was something, to be a man of sorrows was far far more, but to bleed, to suffer, and to die these were much for him who was the Son of God, but to suffer a death of such unparalleled cruelty. To endure a death of shame and desertion by the father. This is the depth of condescending love that the most inspired mind must utterly fail to fathom.

Behold the majesty of divinity on its knees to fallen humanity as he stooped and washed the disciples feet. Behold the majesty of God in tears as Christ wept over a fallen world. Where shall language be found to describe His matchless, His unparallel love towards the children of Adam.

Behold the glory of God on a cross where he “made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we could made the righteousness of God in him.” (2Cor 5:21). It was here that he was being “treated as we deserve so that we could be treated as he deserves. He was being condemned for our sins in which he had no share so that we could by justified by his righteousness in which we have no share. He was suffering the death which was ours so that we could receive the life that was his.” (Desire of Ages p25)

Behold the Son of  God nailed to the cross between heaven and earth as if he were not fit for either. The sinless Son of God, hanging upon the cross, his flesh lacerated, those hands so often stretched out in blessing spiked to the bars. Those feet so tireless in ministries of mercy nailed fast. That royal head with a crown of thorns, those quivering lips shaped to the cry of woe , and all that he endured, the blood drops flowing from his head and hands and feet, the agony that racked his frame and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of the fathers face. All this speaks to every child of humanity declaring that it is for you that the son of God condescends to bear this burden of guilt.

His hands were pierced for the wrong things we have done. His feet were pierced by the wrong places we have been. His back was lacerated for the wrong burdens we have born, he wore a crown of thorns for the wrong things we have thought. The spear was thrust into his side for the wrong things we have held near our hearts. His tongue was cleaved to his jaw for the wrong things we have uttered. He was suffering a human death because of the wrong thing we are.