"Seeing the Invisible"
by Reverend A.LaMar Torrence,
Cross of Life Lutheran Church
Scripture:John 1:14-18
Down through out the ages, through the chronicles of time, humanity has built up images of God from within the corners of our minds. We have created idols of silver, brass, wood, and gold hoping to capture the essence of a Supreme Being who could be credited for our blessings and cursing in life. From the great pyramids of Egypt to the charms, dolls, and fetishes of island voodoo; from Michaelangelo’s “ceiling” in the Sistine Chapel to the multifaceted stain glass windows of our local churches, humanity has sought to capture the divine in some unique form. We are a people that need visible evidence of God’s existence. We need some sign that he is omnipresent in our lives.
We want a god that is with us and about us as we travel throughout our earthly existence. Oh, we may not have built false idols, but we too want a manifestation of god’s power and love here on earth. We may not be rubbing the tummy of a statue of Buddha in our living room but we all want some more luck and prosperity in the coming new year. We may not have a white elephant with its trunk turn upward at doorway but we all want a God who will safeguard our homes and family. We may not have eaten a pot of black eye peas, or carried a rabbit foot in our pocket at the turn of the year but we all want a God who will blesses us and keep us in our comings and goings. We all some visible sign that will be with us has we go forth in 1999.
For us God has to be real. We need some sign, some burning bush, and some miraculous proof that God is with us and for us. We, who are to walk by faith, tend to worship that which appeals to our sight. We are attracted to a God who looks like us, thinks like us, and often acts like us. From the blue-eyed, blonde hair Christ of Western Europe to the blue-black, dread-lock wearing Jesus of South Africa, we all have mental images of this invisible awesome God we worship from Sunday to Sunday. As one preacher said, “God created humankind in his image, so we return the favor and make him into our own image.” Our gods tend to resemble us. From the physical ascetics to the spiritual pragmatics, we have often attempted to conjure images of a God that appeals to us. Some of us worship an angry and judgmental gods because we are an angry people – frustrated with the world and ourselves. And, some of us have a vengeful god of fire and brimstone because we are unforgiving and lack sacrificial love. And still others have a liberal, passive god; because of the free lifestyle and wayward living they value so highly and tolerate. Our gods tend to resemble us. We ascribe to the invisible One the disposition that appeals to us.
And yet, John the apostle tells us that no one has ever seen God. The true God cannot be made visible by any kind of image formed in our minds or conjured from our deepest imaginations. He remains invisible. No one has ever laid his eyes upon the Holiest of Holies. No one has ever captured a glimpse of the great ‘Jehovah ’. No one has ever seen the god of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. Moses only caught a peek at his back in wilderness. Daniel at best saw his hair of pure wool and feet of polish brass. No one has ever seen God. Thus, we are left to envision our God through the use of similes and metaphors limited to the vocabulary of Webster’s dictionary. As Christians, we are left with typologies and figurative language to describe to the world the God we worship. We can only tell an unsaved generation that our God is like a refiner’s fire burning eternally and yet at the same time, he’s living water that quenches our thirst. He’s the lion of Judah that bit the sting out of death and yet, he is the Lamb of God slain for the sins of humanity. He’s the mighty Logos – the spoken word and the Word that speaks thought into action. He’s our rock in a weary land, our shelter in the time of storm. He’s the wheel in the middle of a wheel, our rose of Sharon, our lily of the valley and bright morning star. He’s the alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. And yet the most poetic verses from a Longfellow’s ballad or Shakespearean prose can not capture the magnitude of our Majestic God. God himself could only described himself to Moses as being the “I am who I am”. There are not human words to give us a visible image of Elohim. He still remains unseen.
Yet, the gospel declares that at a certain point in time however, God became visible. It was a historical event that caused time itself to bend. Eternity’s clock changed its direction from BC to AD the moment God stepped out of time into our reality. The Creator of humanity became apart of his creation. People saw him. They heard him. They touched him. This is what we called the incarnation – God made visible, not as an idol, but in a life, a human life, the life of Jesus Christ. But my question is why throughout all the gospel and epistles, no one saw fit to describe the physical characteristics of God made flesh? How come the Holy Spirit left us mystified and clueless to what our savior Jesus Christ looked like? Was he tall, dark and handsome as a Denzel Washington? Was he ‘fly’ as Jasmine Guy? Or, was he so homey and gruesome that no man should desire him? How come we are still forced in this age of science and technology to still worship that which we do not see?
Well, I think John gives us some answers when he pens “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father. He points out to us that it matters not what Christ looked like when he dwelt among us. No, what matter is what he did. His actions outshine his appearance. His spirit overshadowed his flesh.
This is still a new concept for us. We are a people caught up with the flesh. We strive to look our best and we are attracted to those who look good. For us the hourglass figures of a Tyra Banks or Naomi Campbell out ranks the moral values of a Mother Hale or Mother Theresa. We strive to get the muscles and physique of a Tyson Beck rather than the character of a ML King. For us flesh and blood still matters a great deal. Think about it. What initially attracted you to your mate were their big ebony eyes and milky white smile piercing through their Carmel glaze frame. You were first turned on by the fulness of their lips and swing of their hips. If the truth were told, you didn’t begin to get into their spiritual character until some 30 pounds and 3 chins later.
But john says what drew the disciples to our Jesus was not the glide in his stride, or the fineness of his physique. It wasn’t the color of his skin or the height of his statue. No – john says that ‘we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only son from the father. Well, what is this glory that surpasses human appearance? What is this glory that made Jesus the light of men that pierced humanity’s darkest soul?
Well, scholars say that the word glory is almost a technical word in the Bible. If we were to venture to the pages of the Old Testament, we would read of the Shekinah glory revealed to the Hebrew children during their wilderness wanderings after the escape from Egypt. The glory they saw was a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. It was a glory that assured them of the real presence of God with them. It was the type of glory that showed excellence beyond perfection and merit beyond achievement. The glory they saw left them amazed, speechless, and awestruck. This is the same glory John seeks to describe to us when referring to Jesus. What they saw in him was beyond their human imagination. Jesus was awesome. To behold Jesus was to behold the glories of life itself. It was to behold the heavens and universe encircling the Creator’s brow. It was to behold the mountains and rolling hill tops standing firm upon God’s shoulders. It was to behold the birds of the air and the beasts of the field impressed upon his breast. It was to behold the lilies in the valleys and the roses of Sharon cascading down his back. It was to behold the depths of the ocean and the rolling waves of the seven seas rising at his waist. To behold the glory of Jesus was to see the cosmos wrapped up in flesh dwelling among humanity.
Well, what does that mean for us who were not there to see him born in manager or bearing a wooden cross? What does it mean for us who did not see him feed five thousand souls with two fish and five loaves of bread? What does John’s testimony mean to us who were not there standing before an empty tomb on Easter morning?
It means that we shall not really see God unless we consider his work in Christ for us. We need to receive that which our forefathers received in order to see this invisible God. We need to receive two precious gems that will allow us to behold God in all of his glory. They are God’s grace that is mercy, and his truth. This was his glory - the culmination of both true and mercy. First he has shown us the truth about us. We deserve to die. There’s nothing good about us. We all have fallen short of the glory of God and will continue to fall short of his glory. That why once again we made a new year’s resolution to be better persons than we were last year because we keep falling, missing the mark, sinning, backsliding. That’s the truth about us. Without Christ, we are worthless sinners. There’s no for us to continue through life guessing at what commandments we should keep because none of them will bring us closer to God. The truth about the incarnate Christ was that His life was the ultimate and last commandment. He said that this is my last commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man that this that a man lay down his life for his friends. My God died for me because he loved me. He died for me so that I would not have to die. That’s grace. That’s mercy. I got someone who loves me for just being me. He’s not concern with how I look or what I have. He loves me. And because of his love, his grace and his mercy, I can behold his glory everyday. Everyday, when I get one more hour of breath, I can behold his glory. Everyday, when there’s food on my table and clothes on my back, I can thank him for his glory.
