The Cross Is Judo
Have you ever tried to point at a bone or a stick in order to tell a dog where to look? The dog will simply look at your finger. In the last four weeks we have been looking at the fingers of the philosophers, poets, and prophets, trying to find clues that will help us solve the mystery of human suffering.
Today, we stop looking at the fingers and look directly at the answer to which the fingers point.
Our clues have been pointing to Jesus. And since our problem is with God, a Someone, our answer is also a Someone. The incarnation, life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus answer the mystery.
The most distinctive and best known characteristic of the art of Judo is the use of an opponent’s moves and momentum against him or her. When an opponent runs toward you, judo teaches you how to use your strength along with their momentum to throw, grapple, or otherwise disable that opponent.
In order for Christ to have suffered in every way that we do, he had to die. That was always in the plan of God. Interestingly enough, this was also part of Satan’s plan from the beginning. Unfortunately for Satan, the enemy’s own power was used to overcome him. Satan’s plot was used as the means for his own defeat. The murder of Jesus, which he so adamantly sought, was turned back on him when Jesus rose again and defeated death forever and for everyone.
Join the conversation as we explore the mystery: The Cross of Jesus Is Judo.
- What is your exposure to the martial arts?
- How would it feel to plunge from eternity and immortality to earth and mortality?
- How will it feel to change from mortality to immortality?
September 9th, 2009 at 11:08 am
A friend and I were pondering this line:
“In order for Christ to have suffered in every way that we do, he had to die.”
Couple points, for whatever they’re worth … Christ did not suffer in EVERY way we do - e.g., He never experienced the loss of a spouse, or a child. He didn’t *have* to die. God could have redeemed us without dying, and even without the Incarnation - He’s God, after all.
I only bring it up because I think it shows the *love* of God that He would *choose* to redeem us the way He did.
September 10th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Good point. I never thought aout the fact that he had to die to experience our same suffering. I dare say the “way” he had to die probably counts for the agony and suffering we go through with the loss of a child or spouse. I don’t know just seems like getting old and dying in one’s sleep or from an illness probably does not involve the same physical suffering that he experienced on the cross. I/ve never lost a spouse or a born child so can’t compare; I know it’s quite unbearable.
Good thoughts.
September 13th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Maybe the way he lived, suffered, and died spanned the whole *depth* of human suffering, even though he did not suffer in every individual *way* that we suffer …