Chronicles of Marnia

For a few years, Dane and I had the privilege of being Sunday School teachers and youth workers for a group of remarkable young men and women. We had the pleasure of teaching a young man named Tim...

Tim is one of the most insightful and authentic Christ followers I know and I'm honored if I have a miniscule amount to do with that since God let me have Tim to teach for a while. Tim comes to our house and we will sit at our kitchen table for hours discussing the infinite character of God and how He is moving in our lives. Tim jokingly refers to our time together as "Oracle". It is during Oracle I've learned even more about God because Tim shares with me his personal encounters with God...and the student becomes the teacher. Today, Tim blogged on a weighty subject concerning God, and his blog was so beautifully crafted, I had to share...

call me crazy, but i always wondered why jesus had to die. i mean, maybe there was a class or something like that for the rest of you, but to me it always seemed quite confusing why god couldn't have come up with another way out. i mean, he's god, and he's all powerful, so atleast in my mind it stands to reason that he should be able to find another way.but maybe not...so, if you live in texas, i'm pretty sure we're all in agreement that the end of the world is upon us. a week of straight drenching down to the bone rain at the end of june? what is this world coming to. i'm working this awesome job this summer being a manny to a couple of trouble making junior high boys. i get paid to play video games and swim.[hey, it's not all fun and games]but part of that means taking them where they need to go.

and for this week atleast, it's been taking the older one to football camp in midlothian each day. so i'm sitting outside of the football field in the car waiting for him, reading up on a great new book by steven james called story [really, i highly recommend it to some of you avid readers out there]and i gotta say, i was getting a little irritated, because the kid is like ten minutes late and his brother is complaining, and i'm wondering why he's not just coming on out. did i mention it was raining then too? and then, all at once, in some blinding revelation of truth, it hits me!that is why jesus had to die!

so i finally get out of the car and go up to the gym, and there he is standing at the door just chilling and waiting for me to get there so that he can go home and we can play some more video games. now, let me explain...i was there the whole time waiting on him. he was there the whole time waiting on me. we were both just stuck, waiting on the other one. but to him, i was like a row down hidden behind other cars, and to make matters worse, it was raining. should he step out of the safety of the gym and look for my car, he would have found it only a few down and we could have left, but he had no guarantee of that. and so he resolved himself to sit there and wait. it wasn't until i myself got up and braved the drenching rain, showed him that i was indeed there and showed him the way back to safety, leading him to the car that either of us could go anywhere.

that is why jesus had to die.god was waiting. israel was waiting. they were both waiting on each other. but god needed to do something to show them that he was safe, that he loved and valued them - something that would spell a dramatic departure from the god of justice they had known before. so what did he do? he sent the very best that he had...his own son, god with skin on, imago dei...and he sent him to show them the way. he had to show them that he was safe, that he knew the way, and that he was committed to loving them...and what better way to do that than to take the hardest route imaginable, death on a cross, to show them that he was serious. to show them that the hard part was over, and that he, god himself, had taken the bullet of reconciliation. the hard part was over, and now it was about a god of grace.me stepping out of my car and braving the rain to show a kid the way home helped me to understand a god stepping out of his glory to show mankind the way home...through an empty tomb.

"death swallowed up by triumphant life! who got the last word, oh, death? oh, death, who's afraid of you now? it was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. but now in a single victorious stroke of life, all three - sin, guilt, death - are gone, the gift of our master, jesus christ. thank god!"1 corinthians 15:54-57

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