So Jesus is traveling his last time to Jerusalem and things are going to get shook up big time. In his journey his is denied a place to stay in a Samaritan village because he is going to Jerusalem, you see the Samaritans also had a temple and they wanted Jesus to go there. Now the Brothers James and John better known as the Sons of Thunder want to call down fire on these people, for disrespecting Jesus their prophet and the prophet of the god of their religious imagination.
You see these two apostles come from a very violent practice of faith, and quite frankly a very violent view of god. They know god as one who punishes people for unbelief and according the stories of the Torah, is not a god you want to catch on the wrong side of the bed. They believe if a person is blind, god must be punishing someone for something, this view of God was and is very common among all people even today.
They want to call down fire from heaven or rather the atmosphere and burn these guys to a crisp, they want wrath and they want it Now! Jesus however knows something that the Prophet Elijah only learned after the fact, that is that God the Father is not in the Fire from heaven. In fact the Fire from heaven is from Satan the prince or god of the power of the air, heaven or atmosphere. Jesus knows He is going to Jerusalem and will suffer violence from the hands of people who’s god is violent and enjoys suffering and death. This god we know all to well for he has come to kill, steal and destroy. So the scripture records in the 9th chapter of Luke this simple phrase “Jesus turned and rebuked them”
You see Elijah called upon the wrong power to burn those soldiers who hand been sent by the King. Later he learns God the true God is not in the Fire but is a still small voice. Jesus having come from the Father knew this, that the work of God could not be accomplished using the ways of the violent god of Israels Past. That they had it all wrong for a very long time, for you see the true God is a God of Love and it would be Love that saves the world and not violence. And in there last act of commitment to their violent god they crucified the Prince of Peace. Jesus this God in the flesh the one who if you have seen him you have seen the Father, His last words He give them mercy for all their violence and violent god. Forgive them Father for they are trapped in a way of seeing you that is anything but Love which is what God is!
Jesus says to all of us I am not That Elijah and my father is not That god.
First let me say Questions are great especially in the search for knowledge and wisdom, but there are questions which have neither of these noble quests in mind. I have noticed a rise in questions that are purely for the purpose of an Inquisition. An Inquisition is “an official investigation, especially one of a political or religious nature, characterized by lack of regard for individual rights, prejudice on the part of the examiners, and recklessly cruel punishments.”
There was a man during the Salem Witch Trials whose name was Giles Corey, this brave man refused to plead innocent or guilty. He correctly understood that to answer that simple question was to justify the validity of the Inquisition. For this rejection of a Question which was based in an Inquisition he was killed in a very gruesome manner. Jesus also refused to answer question at his mock trial before Pilot and his accusers, I find it interesting that Satan means accuser in the Hebrew tongue. The Book of Job opening heavenly scene is Satan asking God Questions, the purpose of which was to destroy what was in balance in order to rule in pride.
This brings me forward to the 21st century and in many respects not much has changed with regards to Questions and Inquisitions. The other day I read an article where Mark Driscoll was interrogating another Christian and calling him a coward because he held a different interpretation to the Questions. This kind of stuff goes on all the time especially in religion and politics, both areas where Unity is Vital. For some though the answer is not a question that leads to Unity but rather leads to Conformity, this is the Inquisition I speak about.
One in which a “Christian” goes up to a person made in the image of God, and then asks “Do you know where you will go if you die today?” Is it any wonder that many people see God as the lead Inquisitor, and the Jesus Question as the one you must answer their way or else. What if you asked a person a question in order to learn about them and how you might Unify, but then its just so much easier to view them as Dead and Hell bound.
I encourage you to look at the questions you ask and above all else reject those questions that are based in an Inquisition Mindset. I understand you have been taught this way but my Friend look at Jesus and see another Way.
As the Hebrew scriptures teach God creates a material world in balance with the Spiritual one (One Kingdom Under God), as He surveys all that flowed through His great Logos (Christ) God gives it all a Value by calling it Good. Then the story continues and God makes Man & Woman in the Image of the Godhead, decrees they are good and will live as ever-growing reflections of His love and Creativity in the cosmos.
Now death enters the scene through a side door from the trickery of a (The Jealous One) and as both the Hebrew and Greek scriptures teach creation is ruled by this great death principle. Instead of Life alone there is Good and Evil, Love and Fear and all the great dualities death brings into the realm of Life. Behind all that death there is a another more powerful principle which is the principal of Life, which always seeks to overcome and overtake death and all its forms & consequences.
One day in God’s Good time, this Principal of Life is revealed in the form of a Man (Jesus Christ) and He begins to speak the mysteries of God. That He is Life & The Resurrection and that all creation shall one day be resurrected by the power of His Life, which flowed through Him into being at the Point of Origins. Death is revealed to be just a temporary interloper, which although greatly feared is a resting place for those who God loved and called to live in simple faith. Death is but a veil that keeps us from seeing clearly our value to God, His Christ and Spirit. At the Cross it is death which is defeated by the resurrection of the Last Adam and His faithful obedience, with the promise that He was the first but not the Last.
Two resurrections sit out on the horizon for all Mankind, the first for those who believed the tellings of God throughout the ages and lived as stewards of life in this world. They are Physical Israel and her descendants who are always first and then the Church which is the Body of Christ reflected in the gentile nations.
Wait though there is more, for these elect are resurrected for a purpose and not for a proud boasting. There is still a work to be accomplished for like the first Adam and Eve, life must be taken out into the world that it be transformed and death finally defeated. This is the second resurrection where those privileged to be the first like their Messiah humble themselves, to bring Light and Life to those of the second Resurrection.
When God has restored all he has a claim on in Love, then that which refuses life whether it be men or angels are destroyed, for there is no life in them anymore. Then the begining of a endless unfolding of new beginnings begins, and Death is no more! Worlds without end amen, and Glory to God in the highest and to His Christ by the Power of His Spirit.
