41: God is no prostitute

A single figure standing on a street corner. Revealing clothing. Loud makeup, seductive eyes .. 'Want a good time?’

When we think of a prostitute we have so many preconceived ideas, so many firm held beliefs of who they must be and why they do what they do. We judge them.

I think we do this with God. We have so many preconceived ideas, so many firm held beliefs about him. God must be this, God must be that.

He dislikes me, he is mean, he doesn’t care…

Life throws many things at us, sometime horrible, dreadful things - surely if he was a loving God these things would not happen, they would not exist.. We judge him.

If you were God and wanted people to know you for who you truly were - how would you do it?

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Would you create them in your own image that they were a reflection of who you are? Would you create things in their world that showcased your personality, your character, love and power?

Maybe they would see the world independent of a divine creator, a designer, and miss completely the personality and character behind it all?

Would you speak to individuals to communicate your truth and heart so that they may know you and share with others who you are?

Maybe the individual and their words would be deemed mad as they claim to have heard from God.

Would you direct men and women to document the truth of who you are in a way that can be passed down from generation to generation in spoken and written word?

Maybe these words will be misinterpretted, abused, manipulated for power, greed, selfishness. Maybe these words would be seen merely as a good historical, cultural story, a good moral set of ideas - that has no relevence in today’s world.

Would you even go the lengths of selecting an entire people and reveal yourself and your power to them in miraculous works and deeds that none of them can deny? That certainly should work, as they are witness to these miraculous works as a collective and can remind each other of these things, that there is a God who is real.

Maybe over time, over generations they would forget, they would seek after other things, things they have made or found that can be their God.

Would you, in your love of them, take the greatest risk and give them free will?

Freedom to choose you or not, so that any form of communication and relationship with you would be unfettered and free and real?

Maybe in our free will we would chose to ignore you, seek our own significance, love and fulfilment from other things. Things we can easily get and use to meet our own desires and needs.

What if, even after all of these things you did as God, people still failed to understand and recognise you for who you were?

They judged you and judged you incorrectly.

I probably would give up.

Why bother?

What a dumb bunch of people!

Why waste my time and efforts on people who do not want to know me at all?!

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BUT

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What if you truly loved them?

What if your heart longed for real, personal and deep relationship with each of them? What if you knew their full potential and purpose?

What if you knew their wholeness and joy and deep longing for home and belovedness and family was only found in relationship with you - the one who made them?

What if you knew that the choice they made in Eden to be independent from you, to remove themselves from relationship with you, to judge for themselves, was ultimately going to destroy them and the relationships around them?

What if you knew the isolation they would feel would draw them ever further away from you- the one who was the author of life? That in this vacuum of not knowing you, not seeing you, not hearing you, they would try and replace your life and your love with poor substitutes they have made for themselves.

What if you knew the consequences of a life confined by human judgment - where all things are decided and lived in reference to self.

What if you knew the consequences of a life underpinned only by human love - where the definition of love is unclear. A human love that is finite, limited and very fragile. A human love that must be protected to avoid pain and hurt. A human love given in weakness and brokenness, leading people to love in order to receive love, to feel good, to feel needed, to meet that inner ache of unworthiness and significance...

What if you knew the destructive power of self if left unchecked without the truth to guide it?

What if you knew how dark a soul and heart could become if the author of love and life were absent? That this self powered life, rather than giving freedom, reduces people to mere pawns under the control of lies, desire, greed, hate, fear, shame, pride, despair, striving, selfishness, and self loathing? Some would call it a living hell, living in the absence of love, some would call it sin.

If I was God, I would feel so angry and frustrated and hopeless at the tragic waste of humanity in missing the intent of their creation. I would get so angry that I would walk away forever.

But I am not God.

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What did God do?

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He was so determined that we would know him, and his love and freedom that he came to be with us.

Not through a prophet. Not in a documented psalm or chronicle. But as a man and as God together.

Jesus: a breathing, living God-man with flesh and bones and blood.

What?! Thats outrageous you say! I totally agree.

But then God’s love is outrageous.

His love is big enough and powerful enough that it conquers all things, feels all things, risks all things, gives all things, understands all things, changes all things, and ultimately redeems all things - not for us, but for his glory and the wonder of who he is.

Why??

That we might see in Jesus the real character and reality of God.
That we might know him for who he truly is. 
That we might understand his love for what is really is.
That isolation, self and sin might be done away with by one great enough and powerful enough to remove it (for we cannot).

Well you might say, that plan failed miserably.

Jesus died, they crucified him, and not many had any idea who he was.

He was a carpenter for goodness sake, born in an unknown animal stable, lived in a small unknown town, son of a carpenter.

Wouldn’t it have been better if he came as ruler of the world, huge heavenly fireworks, miracles, and angel band, proclamation across the entire earth about who he was and why he was here?

But Jesus born in a feeding trough??

To an unwed 14 year old girl??

Then dying at 33 years of age??

If God truly wanted to communicate who he was - what was he thinking?

That is a good question.

What WAS God thinking??

What was God thinking in coming to earth as Jesus?? What was he communicating, what was he saying about himself?

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Let’s go back to the prostitute:

She sells her wares. 
She proclaims and promotes her services to any who will listen.
 You come to me - you get what you want for a price.
 I’m easy - I meet you needs and desires right now - no need for a relationship.
 I’ll be whoever you want me to be.
 You don’t have to commit. 
 You don’t have to know me.

But how does a prostitute relate to God at all?? Namely, that God is no prostitute.

In all Jesus said and did, he proclaimed the exact opposite:

God does not need to proclaim his virtues, services or ‘wares’. 
All has been communicated. 
His creation communicates who he is on a daily basis.

He does not need our worship, he does not need our acclaimation or our admiration.

He desires true intimacy in real relationship with us - body, soul and spirit. 
This kind of relationship does not come easy. 
It is a relationship build on the deepest of commitments with trust, faith and love.

It is a relationship that meets our truest needs - not what we think we need.

The relationship God seeks with us comes at the greatest of costs - it must be grounded in freedom - away from the destructive forces of self and sin.

This freedom we cannot make, we cannot pay for, we cannot earn, we cannot claim.

This freedom and relationship is given as a gift.

It is a relationship that will meet your needs - not for a moment, or a night - but for all eternity.

In some ways, it would be easier for me if God acted more like a prostitute:

We could pay a price and get what we think we need.

We could get it easily through our own hard work, striving and performance.

We could even get it without deep intimacy, commitment, vulnerability or cost to ourselves at all.

Sometimes I reckon we might want this from God.

Sometimes I think we get angry at God because we think he makes this relationship with him too hard.

But the reality is this - across all time, God has been communicating to us:

He loves us unconditionally.
 He wants us to know him in freedom.
 He wants us to be free to know his Joy and delight and love.
 He has done and given everything to make it possible.

But God is no prostitute:

He is himself and will not change for anyone.

As a loving groom, he will not share himself with anything or anyone else - but seeks true relationship and intimacy with his beloved bride.

As a loving Father he is seeking to be reunited to his children.

Amazing really….