Sacrifice turned into invitation
Ever take a look at Matthew 6 or Luke 11 in light of Easter? These are the two Gospel accounts during which His disciples asked Christ how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is recorded there. It is tied inextricably to His death and resurrection, though after 2,000 years it may not appear so at first look.
The first two words, “Our Father,” give it away. To understand why, we need to understand that the Jewish people of Christ’s time could never see God as Someone who could be that intimately connected to His worshipers. Up to that time God had worked through intermediaries. True, according to Genesis, God had spoken directly and intimately with Abraham. But the Hebrews, and later the Jews, claimed Abraham as their father because it was through him that God had made the covenant that named them as His people and
He as their God. They saw themselves as children of the promise.
Fast forward to Moses in the book of Exodus and we see what happened when God showed Himself to these children. Exodus 20 tells us that while Moses was on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments from God, the people witnessed the spectacular results of God’s presence. It made them fearful, so much so they thought they could die. They told Moses to be the go between. So Moses became a kind of law-giver as God’s agent-in-place. The people themselves kept their distance.
That occurrence on the mountain set the pattern for thousands of years. It even affected the way the people dressed and approached God in prayer. Every Hebrew/Jew always kept some kind of covering or shawl that was worn on the head whenever he would pray. It was felt that people were unworthy and must have something between them and God just to approach Him. The rituals prescribed by the Law reinforced this. God’s presence in the tabernacle, and later in the Temple, was set apart and concealed by a curtain. This Holy of Holies as it was called, could be entered only once a year on the Day of Atonement, and then only by the high priest after he had properly prepared himself. Even the Prophets, who spoke in God’s name, with the messages He gave them, could not enter into His presence physically.
The idea that God could be addressed directly by anyone, and called Father, was actually shocking to the Jewish people of the day. Yet here is Jesus telling His disciples to call God Father, as Jesus Himself had done throughout the days of His public preaching and ministry. Something was changing the nature of the relationship between God and those who follow Him.
But what?
John’s Gospel tells us in advance of the events he was about to relate because he wanted to tell us all very clearly God’s intention. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13) Put another way, it is not about man’s intention or genetic heritage. It is about the will of God creating the means and issuing the invitation, because He loves us. Christ’s life, death and resurrection are the means, the power, that enable us to call God, Father. All we do is respond to the love that made the sacrifice into an invitation.
(Philip Severi, a former Bishop resident, previously wrote a weekly column for The Inyo Register.)