One of the difficult revelations of the Christian Faith is to fathom that Eashoa is Allaha in the flesh.
The first time one catches a glimpse of this phenomenon, one is struck by the seeming impossibility of the Lord being a child born in a manger, a lowly birth. And then how could the creator of the universe start out as a baby in His mother's womb and then grow up as a vulnerable child in Judea under the oppression of the Roman Empire? Why would Allaha allow such a thing to occur? Why didn't Eashoa come to the world as a king? In fact, isn't this the first stumbling block of the Jews at the time of Eashoa? They expected the Messiah to come as a champion of their cause, to free them from the rule of the Romans and to provide for them a kingdom of this world.
Then there is the confrontation of this phenomenon in the life of a Christian. Why would the Lord, who brought out Moses from Egypt, with great signs and wonders, choose such a torturous path when He came to the world as a human being? Why would He allow Himself to be spat on and beaten, then crucified? Yet the faithful Christian finds a way to accept all this and still believe in the deity of Eashoa. Why would Eashoa allow the Romans to spit on Him and torture Him before He was crucified? This was an obstacle to the early Muslims (and still is) -- how can the Christians accept this to be the truth of how Allaha came to the world? Isn't this an outrageous claim? The Muslim Allah is all-powerful; He would never allow such a thing to happen.
Again, how are we to sound the depths of this revelation of the Scriptures, as revealed by Isaiah? Here is where my translating from the Ancient Aramaic opened up a window to understand what Isaiah was really saying regarding the Lord, a realization that Isaiah must have wrestled with five hundred years before the Messiah would come. Isaiah didn't personally anticipate the day, but he prophesied that it would come; he was faithful to recording the oracles given to him. This is the wonderful thing about the Scriptures, perhaps why they are called the living word, because they open up a new window for the believer to understand how such a revelation can be understood by and by.
As I translate Isaiah, the revelation that Eashoa would not be coming as a conquering hero, that in fact this could not be -- because if He came as a King, for example, why would He have to be humiliated first and then crucified? -- this obscure bit of prophesy is difficult to fathom. And in fact to many this is still the case.
Millions of people have accepted the death of Eashoa on the Cross as a predestined event, a fulfillment of prophesy -- the Lamb slain before the Foundations of the Universe -- but how did they come to accept this side by side with His humiliation before humanity? They accepted His death on the Cross on behalf of their sins, but what about the Lord being spat on, is this to be taken in a different context?
The Churches, historically, have done a wonderful job of convincing believers that in fact Eashoa was humiliated and crucified on behalf of their sins, that therein lies salvation for them; but how could they reconcile the doctrine that Eashoa was Allaha in the Flesh with the humbling that He experienced? But then, of course, didn't Eashoa have to harp on this issue before His Crucifixion? So much so that His Disciples began to grumble: no this cannot be! Yet He assured them that it was necessary. John didn't even want to baptize Eashoa, "Me, baptize you?!"
How are we to fathom this anomaly of the Christian Faith? It is my understanding that this is why Isaiah's prophecies are so significant. If Eashoa was going to come to the world as a King, why would He bother, He would simply rule from Heaven. And He would give us the Laws through the revelations like those of Moses, the Ten Commandments, and so on. (Paul explains beautifully why the Law of Moses cannot do the job.)
Well, this is another point why Eashoa had to come personally and set the record straight: He was not coming to take over as a worldly king ("My Kingdom is not of this World.") Eashoa had to clarify that we are dying flesh and that all flesh must undergo death so as to be reborn -- isn't this what Eashoa said? (He said that not until the grain of wheat dies, can it be resurrected to bear more fruit.) This is the natural reality that the Lord created from the beginning.
This is scientific fact: the grain of wheat is dead, as the plant shrivels up and dies, it falls to the ground and is buried. The kernel of wheat has the potential of life in it, but it takes that spark from above that allows it to germinate and come back to life. Such is the case with all birth, sickness and death; in order for life to proliferate and the Children of Allaha to bear fruit, there is to be life, sickness and death before new life is to begin again.
Sickness and death are difficult to accept. Lazarus got sick and died, but his sisters waited for the Lord to come and raise Lazarus from the dead. How did they know that Eashoa could raise Lazarus from the dead? They must have heard about "Taleetha," the little girl whom Eashoa resurrected. Or, perhaps, they knew from the Scriptures, from Isaiah, for example. But Eashoa wanted to teach them that, yes, He could raise Lazarus from the dead, but it was life everlasting that He had come to offer them.
In John, chapter (11:21), Martha said to Eashoa, "My Lord, if you had come to us, my brother would not have died. (22) But I know even now, however much you ask of Allaha, He shall grant it to you."
(23) Eashoa said to her, "Your brother shall rise."
(24) Martha replied, "I know that he shall rise ... in the resurrection of the last days."
(25) Eashoa answered her, "I am the Resurrection and the Life, and whoever believes in me, even though they be dead, they shall Live, (26) and whoever that Lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
This was the crucial question: do you believe this? It was indeed difficult to believe even though Eashoa was there before their eyes, and He had performed all kinds of miracles; yet there was still the question that He was an ordinary man, very much in the flesh, just like them -- how could He be the Messiah that the prophets had spoken of, Allaha in the Flesh?
Yet, the prophets, if read faithfully, had said it and had recorded it, otherwise how could Martha have uttered the following words to Eashoa?
(John 11:27) She said to him, "Yes, that I do, my Lord! I do believe, that you are the Anointed Son of Allaha Who Comes to the World!"
So they all knew, and many would come to believe. But Eashoa was not going to heal everyone who was sick or raise everyone who died the First Death. Eashoa would raise everyone on Judgment Day, however, and the Life and Resurrection that He talked about were relating to the Second Death. It's the Second Death that is crucial in the life of humanity.
Yet, because of the shortcomings of the non-scribal languages, people can't distinguish between the First Death and the Second Death. To most people death is death. They don't know the difference between death and Death or dead and Dead. So we expect to live in this world forever -- or something like this world. We're unable to imagine a different reality. We don't understand about other universes; we only know about one universe. Einstein theorized about the ever-expanding universe. So it was one universe, but expanding endlessly. (There was a kernel of understanding there: the endlessly expanding universe is another way of saying that the universe is infinite or that there are many universes, universes beyond our comprehension.) Yet, the Ancient Aramaic speaks plainly of infinite universes. And Eashoa speaks about the Father having many abodes.
Which brings us back to Eashoa being Allaha in the Flesh. In order to fathom the depth of Eashoa's deity one has to dig deeper into the concept that Eashoa is Allaha in the Flesh. Then who is the Father? The Allaha in the Spirit? And who is the Holy Spirit? Allaha in the Spirit again? Well, all three are Allaha in the Spirit. They all have the Spirit. Just as we believe that, as Christians anyway, we have spirits. So are we saying that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are separate entities?
The Catholics commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. He painted an image of Allaha with white beard, extending his hand toward Adam, who is depicted as a younger man with his finger extended toward Allaha. Setting aside the issue of graven images, what humanity has contemplated is that the Father is very old. He has to be ... infinitely old. Now, the Father is supposed to be a Spirit, so as an old Spirit He would still look the same -- age has nothing to do with how spirit appears (spirit has no appearance; it can't appear as young or old.) So how the Father would look like to someone describing him would be very difficult; but not for Eashoa. He said to Philip, "When you see me, you see the Father." In the Ancient Aramaic this is very clear. In physical form, Eashoa represented the Father. It is saying that Eashoa is also the Father.
But we know from Western Church doctrine that each of the three entities (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) is Triune. So we have nine entities altogether: the three (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) and each representing three more -- well, this is getting too complicated. Can we simplify this, so we know what we're talking about?
It is possible to do this much easier in the Ancient Aramaic; the language is, after all, called the sacred, scribal language, or, in other words, the language of the Scriptures. There is one Allaha: He is the Father (manifesting Himself as the Creator of the Universe), the Son (manifesting Himself as the Messiah prophesied by the Scriptures, who Comes to the World), and the Holy Spirit (who is the expression of the Father's Will and the affirmation of the Son's love for humanity.)
Eashoa Msheekha (Messiah) is Allaha's Milta and the expression of the Rookhit Qoodchah (Holy Spirit). They are one. However, the Son dies, He dies in the flesh, like everyone born in the flesh (He has to die, just as all flesh has to die); but in the case of Eashoa the Messiah, He dies only once (He is incapable of dying twice, because He is Allaha in the Flesh and not subject to the Second Death. He is the only one who can raise the dead and proffer everlasting life to those He has chosen. This is His Mission.)
But what's really hard to understand is that Eashoa is always Allaha. So when He talks to the Father from the Cross, who is He? Is He Triune then? Yes, according to doctrine He is; but then why is He talking to the Father, is He talking to Himself? Yes ... for our sake; He wants us to hear what He is saying. His death on the Cross is for the record; in other words, it is for the sake of the Scriptures. He came to rectify, to restore, to reaffirm, to clarify the Scriptures. Scriptures delivered by the mouth of prophets is one thing; but this is Eashoa, His words are forever and they need to be understood, especially by those who want to believe in Him and those who love Him.
Many times the Holy Spirit is heard speaking out loud for the sake of humanity at the time of Eashoa. These words have been recorded in the Scriptures. In fact, the purpose of the Scriptures were to usher in the Coming of the Messiah. This is what Isaiah is all about. It's really an incredible Book of Prophesy about the Messiah Eashoa. Together with the Book of Jeremiah, these two Books represent the death and suffering of all flesh. Suffering is part of being alive in this world. It's a necessary part, as there is sickness and death; however, there is life and rebirth as well. Sometimes it is easy to forget that there is death, and when we're young it is much easier to forget; we think we're all going to live forever. And we are, but not on this earth -- those of us who follow Eashoa and come to understand the Scriptures as He wished us to know them.
Sickness is a reminder that we shall all die someday. We need to heed the signs of the coming death, the death of the flesh, and we need to dedicate our lives to the work that the Lord has planned for us. So when we pray to live longer and fulfill our dreams, it is out of an understanding that just as Lazarus was resurrected from the dead to live a bit longer in the flesh, this is not the life that Eashoa has in mind for us. The life that really matter are the everlasting lives, not the life of the flesh. Sickness is to be endured as all evil has to be endured. We can pray for health and healing and a long fruitful life on earth, but what we should yearn for is the life promised by the Scriptures.
Allaha came to the World in the Flesh and endured suffering and pain so we can have an example of how we too must be prepared to endure in faith regardless of sickness, suffering and death. We are to have courage and pray for strength and the enduring faith that conquers death. We must keep in mind that He is the Life and the Resurrection. He spoke these words when He was in the flesh, but He was always the Allaha that the Scriptures prophesied would come to the world.
August 20, 2011