"IMAGERY " Howdy, Thanks again for taking the plunge. I feel as if I should put out the PG warning placards today as in it may not be appropriate for young kids. Sometimes I feel as if I'm kidding myself with that, because kids, sometimes know way more than I do☺️☺️. It's kind of like that show that Jeff Foxworthy use to do, " Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" I don't always know the answer to that question, but I believe as we get older, we probably forget more things that we don't have a use for or regularly put into practice. I took three years of French in high school and just guess how much of that I still remember after years of not using it?☺️☺️. Still!, there are things that kids are incredibly good at, almost as a sixth sense. I brought a new phone a couple of weeks ago, and I really could have used a 5th grader to show me how all of the bells and whistles work☺️☺️.
When I think of imagery, I think that its very much about perception. It's how someone can look up at the sky and see the most majestic beauty, full of splendor and wonder and someone else just sees a bunch of clouds. It can often be the difference between two people encountering the exact situation and for one it's the greatest thing ever and for the other, pure horror. Just for a second, think about how we may interact with a pregnancy. It could be set up as the biggest blessing ever, joy beyond joy, and for someone else it's a cause for panic and mass hysteria . They aren't looking forward to to the next eighteen years as a reason for exceeding great joy.☺️
It's often about where we find ourselves and maybe the phase of life. I recently found myself visiting my son at his place, and I walked in and he doesn't have one stick of living room furniture. It kind of made me chuckle, because when I was a young bachelor, I had very much the same taste as my son , when it came to living room furniture.☺️ It was probably for different reasons, and for me it was about people stopping by and over staying there Welcome ☺️☺️. My son just doesn't care, he says that he doesn't entertain anyway, so what's the point.? It could possibly be looked upon as us both being a little antisocial for different reasons....so perception!
While I was there, I thought to myself, surely just one chair couldn't hurt the situation all that much. After all, a chair is just an inanimate object, until we assign a description or purpose for it. It made me think of a line from an old Luther Vandross song, where he posed the question, is a chair still a chair, if no one is sitting there? Maybe a little profound, and then again, it's that hold thing about if a tree , falls in the woods ☺️☺️. I would argue that a chair isn't something that we give much thought to , unless it's our favorite Lazy Boy and someone else has parked their butt into what everyone in the house knows is your spot ☺️☺️. A chair can be pretty innocuous until we give it a reason to be something more. It can be a place that we find ourselves behind a desk for some unspecified period of time each day. It can be a place, where we all pretend that we are eating dinner together, while we are all on screens and totally zoned out.☺️☺️. A chair can be a place where we watch our favorite shows and personalities, like Archie Bunker, now that was a man who knew how to define a chair☺️☺️.
Again it's all about the definition and intent. A chair can be a door stop, it can be a place where you throw your dirty clothes, or even pose as an extension of your desk for additional clutter☺️☺️. A chair can be propped up under a door knob to deny someone access to some place. I've seen old chairs restored and turned into a beautiful piece of craftsmanship and I've even seen them broken down and used for firewood. I put the PG placards out today, so a chair must have the ability to be something much more sinister. I'm rather fond of action adventure movies, especially if it has a component of * espionage , the intrigue of the spy angel, or adventures of the dark side of governments and world powers at large. Keeping that in mind, I know that a chair is sometimes used as a place of torture. How many times have we seen someone tied to or duct taped to a chair? If it's about torture, then some of the cruelty is really creative and the seat of the chair can have a hole in the middle of it , to expose some of the bodies most sensitive areas to pain. It's that kind of pain that makes most men just cringe and simply just wished to be kicked in the nut sack, because it would just probably be so less painful☺️☺️. I think that one of the more or most infamous of chairs, has to be "Old Sparky"
I know that it can be a sensitive or sore spot for many when we bring up the subject of capital punishment. I will say that the Bible makes a very clear distinction between murder and killing, but we just like to see it all as one thing, that is until it comes to killing the innocent unborn. I'm not going down that trail today or opening up that can of worms, but wanting more so to focus on the rights of governments or states to execute justice as they see fit. Many years ago I remember a house fire with fatalities and it's always just the saddest when young children and pets are involved, but that was the case here. The smell of burning human flesh is not something that you easily forget and honestly , it's haunting and stays with you the rest of your days. Its something that you hope to forget or never experience again in your life. I often wonder if there were screams or maybe that it was merciful and the smoke inhalation got to them before the flames did.
The imagery is still about a chair , that is not always so simple. I think " Old Sparky " is the most popular of renderings, but it's known by other names as well and often just referred to as the " Chair ", and people immediately know what you are referring to. It's one of the most brutal ways of taking someone's life. The horror of the whole experience, from having your last meal, right up to having a medical professional pronouncing you as dead. Maybe one of the most realistic portrayal of it was in the movie the " Green Mile" . Tom Hanks and Michael Duncan and incredible piece of work. The last meal, the walk to the death chamber is just the beginning of something that I'm sure is nothing short of having your whole life flash before you. We have sanitized it a little bit with the lethal injection thing, but not for old sparky. The person is strapped into the chair. There is some object stuffed in your mouth for the convulsions that they are going to experience. They have electrodes placed strategically over the body for maximum effect and usually a wet sponge over the head to increase the connectivity of the electricity. There is usually some clergy present for last rights , and they ask the condemned if they have any last words. The moment of truth , the pronouncement of their crimes against humanity and the usually something placed over there face, so that the shear horror of it all will not be exposed to the on lookers. The switch is thrown and a massive amount of electricity is thrust upon the poor soul. There blood boils within their veins. Their brain is literally fried to death and usually accompanied with blood coming from different orifices , such as eyes, nose and ears. Life is zapped from their body in a matter of minutes. A medical professional then enters the death chamber armed only with a simple stethoscope to check for signs of life. If the heart still beats another blast of electricity, and if not the pronouncement of death, marked by the time and date.
It's a* grewsome way to go, and regardless of your views on capital punishment, I'm sure that it's not something that you would wish on your worse enemy. Sometimes family members of the victims , feel it's a just deserved punishment. Most of us are familiar with the saying of " Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time" . Still if we turn the page, there has been a complete travesty of justice for a man who committed no crime, and yet suffered a death worse than that of old sparky. We didn't need a DNA test to prove His innocence and even those who were supposed to make sure that justice prevailed said that they found no fault in Him. You may wonder what kind of things that He said and did , and taught to warrant being beaten past all recognition of being anything human. Was He a radical in His approach to dealing with people?....yes He was. Was He someone who went against the grain?, yes He was. In many ways He was a head of His time in thinking, and yet perfectly on time . He was on a mission to restore something that had been lost for generations.
He heralded that the kingdom of God had come, it was at hand and it was in His very hands. It was perplexing to most. It was simple in nature and almost to good to be true. Repent and turn to or should we say return to God. He came to set the record straight as to how people believe they connected with His Father. He taught a new way of putting others before yourself. The greatest , would be the least and take the place of a lowly servant....talk about push back.....does He not know just how important that we think we are? ☺️☺️ He taught to love your neighbor, the same way that you love yourself. He taught to love and pray for those who had mistreated you. He performed miracles, which He called signs. They were supposed to be teaching moments to point to the goodness of God, but that was also perplexing to many in that day, just as it is today. It's as if God had hidden something in plain sight and we missed it, because it's just to simple. Our nature tells us it's got to be some catch to it and because we don't believe God, we do and spend all kinds of valuable time trying to earn something, that God has offered as a free gift. I don't know so much that it was perplexing as it just didn't penetrate our hard hearts. He was kind and paid special attention to the one's who were the most overlooked. The poor, the destitute and the marginalized.
He clashed with the pious , who believed that it was about power, prestige and positioning. Some questioned Him and His motives, and a few, such as a man named Nicodemus, managed to see beyond himself. What should be the fate of someone who went around teaching to treat others the way that You want to be treated. Someone who went around healing the broken, but meeting us at our deepest need. Someone who fed many from the* meagerness of a few fish and some day old bread. Someone who healed the sick, released people from demonic forces and even raised the dead. What would or should be the fate of someone like that? . He came and served and gave His all. When He was tired, when He was hungry, when He made himself constantly interruptible , do you know how hard that one is? Its like being the only adult in a world full of toddlers ☺️☺️ He always made time for people and the ones with the most brokenness and the most messy. Surely we should name a stadium or some huge magnificent building after Him. Maybe a bridge would be more fitting, or some city or town after Him , that would stand the test of time, so that He would be honored and not forgotten. We could never repay, but we made a payment. We cheered the chant , and it was , crucify Him, crucify Him, as if it was the only defiant tune that we knew. Brutality in exchange for love🥲
The imagery now moves from the chair to the cross. The most brutal of death instruments and it makes old sparky looks like child's play. So "We" beat Him beyond all recognition, and make no mistake about it, you were there and a full participant. This is collectively what we have all done. We smashed a crown of thorns into His head until it produces blood running down His face. We forced Him to carry a heavy wooden *apparatus , where He would be put to death on. He was made to lay down on this cross, where we nailed heavy spikes into His wrist as His arms were stretched wide for all humanity. We weren't done yet and we took another spike and drove it into His ankles. Then almost as an after thought , we picked up the cross and not let it just so gently, but with a thump and dude , fall into hole that was prepared for the cross to stand in. Only His spike pierced ankles to push Himself up and to try and catch His breath . Torn flesh, bleeding and life leaking from His body as His lungs begin to fail and asphyxiation is inevitable. I think that we pride ourselves on our cruelty , so after all of this we have to add insults , taunting and jeering , just the mocking over the top.
Why would someone who claimed to be God, subject Himself to such ridicule, torment and torture? All of the signs and wonders that He performed, surely would indicate that He was greater than and capable of freeing Himself from such cruel and inhumane treatment. Yes!, legions upon legions of angels stood by and were on call and all He had to do was whisper the word...come!, as He did when He raised Lazarus, and it would have taken place. He hung there on that cross, blead and died , for me, and for you and for every person who would ever draw breath and walk the earth. He died for the ones who drove in the spikes, the one's who spit upon Him...can you imagine spitting on the Son of God?, and yes He hung there for the one's who offered insults as well. He took our punishment, so that we wouldn't have to face the wrath of all mighty God !
This is straight up wild, the just for the unjust. The goodness of God for the wickedness of man. Righteousness for unrighteousness and self Righteousness. He came to set the record straight and to restore what had been lost for generations and that is for us to be in right standing with God. He made it possible for us to have a relationship with God , through Himself. What a scandalous reversal of fortunes. It wasn't a small gesture as we all to often take it for granted, or not even recognize it at all, as we merrily go about our business. HE TOOK YOUR PLACE!! It was you, it was me, it was all of us who should have been hanging there on that old rugged cross. It cost Him everything and He gave everything for you, for me, for us. The imagery for all who will believe in faith and trust in what He has done, the imagery of the cross is forgiveness. This is my final thought for today and what I want you to give some thought to. Walking with God is like the relationship that you have with your kids. Once you have God in your life, you can never ever imagine life without HIM!! Nothing is sweeter, and I mean absolutely nothing!!
