Pause and Consider: A Picture of Grace

    I was reading Matthew 27 and 28 yesterday afternoon. Usually, reading that account and the matching accounts of Christ's crucifixion leave me with a white-knuckled grip on the table and an overwhelming sense of God's grace. Yesterday was no exception.  However, in addition to all that, something was brought to my attention I had not before noticed. I'm not going to try to establish a new theological point here; the following is mere speculation. However, if it was indeed intended as I saw it yesterday, it is a beautiful picture.

In Matthew 27, when Pilate asks the crowd whom they would rather he release, Jesus or Barabbas, they called for Barabbas and said of Jesus "Let him be crucified!" All of this is horrible enough, but it is even more so when we consider what Barabbas full name was.  He was Jesus Barabbas, Yeshua Bar Abba, Jesus Son of the Father.  So, if you like, we could say he is another Jesus, a fake, not the real one. So, in a sense, as we look at this picture, we have chosen the false Jesus rather than the true Son of God. (Yes, I say WE chose.  The idea that the Jews killed Jesus has been bandied about for centuries. That is false. Yes they were the tools on that day, but we have all rejected Him and those of us alive across 2,000 years up to today are just as guilty as those that said the actual words.)

But let us continue. They took Jesus and hung him between two thieves. These were not mere pickpockets, that type weren't usually crucified.  The word in the original text denotes a rebel and plunderer, a brigand. John MacArthur suggests they were probably cohorts of Barabbas. That was where I stopped and thought a while. Companions of Barabbas. Were these two brigands perhaps scheduled to be crucified with their fellow criminal Barabbas? Was Jesus, the real one, the Only Begotten Son of the true living God hanging between two rebels where Barabbas was supposed to have hung?  The innocent was taking the place if the guilty, while the guilty was set free. The innocent Lamb of God is crushed by the wrath of God, while we, the guilty, who should by all rights have been hanging there instead, go free. What a picture of God! Of His love, His justice, and His Grace.

"...And He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53:12

An old love is even better than you remembered after several years of rest.

 I watched an old favourite movie of mine tonight.  Mystery Men.  I used to be practically obsessed with that one, but I have largely ignored it over the past 5 years or so.  It was even better than I remembered!

I think I have just about settled on a background for this site.  I tend to change my mind numerous times before I settle on something.  Originally the background was a 17th century style map  in a burgundy brown. Classy, but almost too stiff for me.  The bookshelves are nice, they match the skin on my Kindle. A wall full of tomes has always been my main security blanket.  I'm sure there's some deep-seated psychological reason for that.  I wish I could find a nice argyle or Burberry plaid background, that would be perfect.

  Speaking of Kindles, have I yet mentioned how much I love mine? I got it for Christmas, and was skeptical at first.  It doesn't feel like a book, it doesn't smell like a book, and there are no pages to turn. However, for someone like me who has a bad habit of reading several books at a time, and a worse habit of dragging a bagful of books everywhere she goes, being able to keep a whole library's worth on a little flat thing is a boon. Also, if one likes to annotate, you can underline and type notes on the screen without worrying about having a pencil nearby.  I still like my wall of tomes, but I also like my Kindle. Hmm, it really needs a name rather than just  "the Kindle" or "My Kindle".

   I was interested this evening in a concept I came upon in my current read Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis.  Lewis posited in his work Miracles that humans are continually unaware of the supernatural, it's a chronic problem we have. I'm doing a bad job of relating his ideas (as usual) but the idea is that humans are unaware of the supernatural because it is with us all the time, it is like a window, our mother tongue, or breathing.  We don't notice a window when we are looking outside, or our breathing, or speaking our mother tongue, it just naturally happens.  As I said, I'm doing a bad job of relating the concept.  I will elaborate further after I have sorted it in my mind.

  After a couple of rotten weeks at work, yesterday and today ended on a high note. I am happy.

It's plain, simple English!

Had trouble sleeping again last night...just when I thought it was safe to start weaning myself off the Chamomile.  I'm actually beginning to develop a taste for it.  

I'm rather rusty at this blogging thing.  The last time I posted on my (now defunct) blog was just after my foot surgery, and that was nigh on two years ago.  

Where was I...Ah yes! English. 

   I overheard a conversation at work today.  It all started when a coworker of mine said her husband was an English Liverpudlian.  I was about to quip something about him being a Scouser, but I was not sure how this would be received. (Must ask British friends if this is considered derogatory or not.) 

That led to another person saying that they needed subtitles to understand British TV.  It made me think, why do Americans have such trouble with British accents.  This isn't the first time I have heard something of the sort.  Maybe for me the accent really isn't hard to understand because my mother spent her teenage years in Britain, and I watch inordinate amounts of British TV an movies.  Granted, RP is easier to grasp than a thick Scots accent, but even those aren't that difficult. Have Americans moved from being monolingual to mono-accentual (is that a word?) as well? I mean it is just plain English, isn't it?  Ah well.......   

As for tomorrow, more training from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  I wish the extra responsibility at work did not come with so much hassle.  I almost cried today.  I have too much to do already without spending all day in a conference room.