And breaking the curse
in that way, with social systems, it might be preached somewhere....
But Adam by the garden, serpent, and curse did not preach that. Noah of the ark and flood did not preach that. Moses in the law nor the prophets preached that. David by prayer and song did not preach that. John the Baptist from the desert by the river did not preach that. Jesus born to the Jews did not preach that. Mary, Peter, nor John, nor any of them with Jesus preached that. Paul blinded and seeing again did not preach that. The early Fathers and Martyrs did not preach that. My grandfathers did not preach that. My mom and dad did not preach that. Nor my pastors. But maybe I missed a nuance here and there.
Ah, I know of this one place in the scriptures. Three times Satan proposed
another way and three times Christ refused the temptation. I hear echoes of the time that or Lord Jesus Christ was taken “to a very high mountain and showed all the kingdoms of the world”. Satan proposed that the remedy for our sin be in
earthy systems that Satan would give to Jesus. For worship. But Satan was made to keep his vile place, on his belly and eating dust. Because our Lord Jesus Christ did not go that way. It is only through Christ and His Way that we may enter the Kingdom of God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ cursed the fig tree, that same tree that first covered Adam and Eve at paradise lost. And later, in Gethsemane, again we are in a garden. And again there is sweat . In prayer, "His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." The cursed ground. And on His way to paradise, I say paradise because He later told the thief, “today... paradise”, on His way He was captured and made prisoner. The beatings and the pain. And the Roman whip with how many lashes we guess. To say the name of each lash I can not without tears. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39. And then we see Christ crowned with those sharp, sharp thorns of the curse. And spit upon. Our Lord Jesus Christ hung on a tree, on a hill. The place of the skull. Some say Adam’s skull. Light left and the cursed ground did shake. “It is finished”, our Lord Jesus Christ did say.
Forgive me if ever I say otherwise. Sunday morning, stone rolled away.
And now I am thinking of this song by Crowder.