5 – 19 – 17 Strength and the Uniqueness of the Crucifixion

Link to Daily Readings

I was thinking about my workout when I was about to brush my teeth just now, and I thought, when do I feel strong? I certainly never wake up feeling strong. I sometimes wake up feeling fresh, clearheaded, and sound of body, but not strong. I think strength is something you can only feel within yourself when it’s being tested, and I don’t think this is exclusive to the physical variety. It makes quite a bit of sense. How on earth could you get an idea of how much weight you could lift, except by lifting weights? You could eye yourself up in the mirror, flex and check to see how much muscle mass you have, but everyone’s neurological efficiency differs. There are stringy people who are strong, people who look like tubs of lard but are immensely strong, and bodybuilders who can’t bench press their own bodyweight.

I think God must be planting these thoughts in my head sometimes, because they always come around to some spiritual interpretation quite quickly. What started as my uncertainty as to what my performance will be like this morning has now led to a more arcane thought process. When we look around us, it is unlikely that we are ever able to reliably estimate someone’s inner strength. You could only say they had a certain amount of spiritual/emotional strength once they had been broken and you could say “just before then.” You could only ever estimate your own strength in that same moment, but you are incredibly unlikely to be thinking about your own particular qualities if you are, in whatever sense or manner, broken. Broken, but not defeated, a concept that endurance athletes, warriors, and every other group that believes themselves tougher than everyone else has tried to claim as their own. It’s all falsehoods and pretense. The original is the only man to do what no other man has done. People can claim to be utterly broken, at their end, but in the exposition of their claim they reveal themselves to be not only alive, but quite alive, rational. If they recall a time they were utterly broken they’re perhaps nearer to the truth, but they were still conscious. Christ went far beyond unconsciousness, far beyond an ordinary death, descended into Hell and rose again, of his own power.

I’ve been thinking about this particular quote quite a bit recently, and it was actually the reading this morning, Jesus says, “No man has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for a friend.” It’s in the beginning of the Big and Rich song Eighth of November (Video on Youtube) in reference to some very heroic men, but I believe this use diminishes it’s intended message. When this quote is used in reference to war there are people who are quite obviously the person’s friends and those who are his enemies. Ultimately his goal is twofold, not only to save his friends, but to kill or capture his enemies. If he could kill them all without dying, everyone on his side would agree that to be actually preferable. So in this case not only is the friendship conditional, these are the men of his country, who he’s trained and strained with, but the sacrifice is conditional as well, it is the worst case scenario, not a planned one. Christ’s death is so much different than this in both aspects. His friendship is not conditional, when he lays down his life for his friends, he intends the sacrifice to be for the benefit of all of humanity. He has no enemies, save the Devil and his demons, or at least no human enemies. No enemies that have the life of God inside them, how could he? But a soldier only fights people, only kills those with Christ inside them. Secondly, Christ’s death is not a contingency, it has been planned for millennia. He knows it is coming far in advance, and has the freedom to opt out, but goes willingly in accordance with his Father’s wishes. So Christ’s death is not only universal in its friendship, but a planned, intended measure as opposed to reactionary. Now I can already hear the argument of kamikaze and other suicide missions that are quite planned but I think this misses the point. These people are only performing these missions because it is their last option, it was Christ’s first choice to die for us.