Prophecy and Crucifixion

 Sun Jul 13th 2025

In the midst of the times of the divided Kingdoms, the prophets speak. They are sent to call Israel (and Judah!) back to God’s will.  But neither Israel nor Judah will listen.

Beginning with Isaiah chapters 40-66 (academic theologians call it 2^nd Isaiah) new direction emerges. Isaiah points to a possible future when Israel will have another chance at the glory of being a blessing to all peoples. But Israel thinks only of a different glory – of the wealth and might of Solomon’s great Empire. It does not understand the prophets. And this is where Isaiah’s prophecies of the Suffering Servant are critical, because the servant is no longer Israel. The people have been replaced by a person. And the sacrifice of the servant person?

The way the tradition goes is that we are saved by the blood of Christ, and that Jesus gave his life for us. That is not wrong, but it needs unpacking. It goes much deeper than being a blood - life sacrifice, which was common to the religious practices of those days. Remember Abraham’s test in Gen Ch. 22? Sacrifice your only child! Remember the Day of Atonement? Read Leviticus Ch 16. Once a year, a sacrifice made in the holiest of holies; with blood poured out as an offering for the sins of the people. Good for a year. Then the ‘forgiveness’ license expired.

Is that it, or from the perspective of Jesus’ words on the vine and branch in John Ch. 14 is it perhaps not a matter of life and blood but of a separation from God which is not easily understood and is difficult to explain from a human perspective.

This sacrifice offers self-separation and it means being cut off from the blessed existence of God’s presence. A death that is more than a loss of physical life, but of soul life, for it involves loss of spiritual life-energy. It is an estrangement that leads into utter desolation. We experience this when death cuts us off from someone whom we are deeply attached to, and we cannot do anything about it. We cannot reach them, and they cannot reach us. Such separation is a desolate isolation. We are adrift and disconnected, and relationship no longer exists. And if that relationship is everything to you and is an integral part of you, what happens then? And all this is from a human perspective.¹⁰ What would it mean for God? That, you see, is just how much the Lord our God loves us!

This is why it is difficult to describe God’s love for creation. We use human love as a model, but the limits are obvious. God’s love is not selective, and no one is left out. Since Israel favors worldliness, some other must carry out a lasting action. God created us to be Godlike, and we keep failing to reach our full potential.  We keep thinking that material success is the answer, and it is not. We must enter by the ‘narrow gate’ and walk the ‘hard road’. Funny thing - those who do so find that the road is not hard. Why? Because once you are on the road God changes how it works and it becomes a joy to move on! Seeking experiences of earthly comfort won’t get us anywhere near the reality of heaven’s trans-dimensional spirituality, beginning in and then transcending earth’s ‘comfort’ zone.

Our refusal to be in accord with God is unacceptable to God because it leaves God’s loving will for us unfulfilled. I can’t explain that, it’s in the nature of who and what God is. God is Spirit, God is love. We have a sense of that love from what we feel for those whom we care for - family, friends, spouses, children. So, God is apparently unwilling to let us be, so scripture says in John 3:16 that God so loved the world. The Word, the creating power of God, as in John Ch. 1, comes from God to us, to be a part of us as one of us, and to invite us into the Kingdom, to become close to God. A loving Father calling children home! We have avoided and side-tracked that invitation by making Jesus the only point of it all. He is the inviter! Do not short change the Father’s love  in your life!

 Jesus constantly preached the Kingdom! Jesus never said believe in me and you’ll get into the Kingdom of God. Instead, he said ‘the kingdom of God is within.’ Few have figured that one out. But the road into the Kingdom lies within us, and the road and the work to get to the Kingdom lies with and within our spirits. But as long as we think our mind is our spirit we will not get there. That is just part of the first step. Spirit = soul, and that is an entity that is much more than the body! Not the social aspect nor the mental aspect but the spiritual aspect is needed. It is not somewhere out there, beneath a clear blue sky, as the little mouse sang…..but here now in whom we are. You cannot preach Christ without preaching about the Kingdom that he calls us into, here and now. So, in this crucifixion-redemption-deliverance-salvation-atonement- action- sacrifice, there are dynamics not easily discoverable which have been  ‘explained away’ by the convenient interpretation of a blood-life sacrifice. Read Ps 50:3 which says “Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats…to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?’ And Isaiah 1:11 as well.

A higher form of sacrifice then?  Frighteningly more. This is spiritual death. Soul death. The event is consequential and not related to the duration of time we use to describe it.  3 days, 3 nights – what is that to us? It is nothing. But where God is, neither time nor space exists.  Do we know, then, what 3 days and nights really mean? No.  But if in times of deep meditation or prayer the Spirit moves you here and there and it seems like a long journey and then you come back to find that you have somehow ‘lost track’ of time and that only a couple of minutes have passed - you might begin to get the idea. The Bible at face value is mostly a historical recounting of events. But its spirituality is hidden and waits to be discovered. It is never a matter of reading or of book knowledge. That is just academic and of the mind. There are only vague references if any to the unique and ‘strange’ other worldly experiences that God causes. Read Ezekiel 11:1; 1 Kgs 18:10-12, and Acts 8:26-40, for starters.  Spiritual journeys in the Old and New Testaments. When this chapter is done, we move on to David and then Elijah and Elisha!

It is not blood that enables deliverance for us, but reconciliation of separation. God resolves the separation that we willfully create in refusing the offer of growing in God, in being and becoming Godly beings. God gives up God’s self-essence and energy (blood?!) to bring us back into a place that is already given and is kept waiting for us. Jesus is made sin – made separate, for us. He is not afraid of death and certainly not afraid of death on a cross. Nothing unique about that. People were being crucified daily at the hands of the Romans! What is dreadful is the reality of the spiritual separation that the Word of God faced. That is inconceivable to the human mind, and still only vaguely discernible to the current state of the human spirit.

This is what makes Isaiah’s prophecies of the suffering servant so frightening. No one had the words to explain it then, and we still don’t. But once you get a sense of and experience some of the reality of how the Kingdom exists and functions in and around you, you will see and interpret events differently. Saved by the blood of Jesus is good historical talk that worked well in those times - of being saved by the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Ah yes, behold the Lamb of God. Indeed. But those who grow spiritually keep learning.

 Look at Isaiah for a bit:

40:1-6 the servant will be a light to the nations

42: 1-4 the servant will bring justice

50:4-11 no one follows the lord anymore…walk in the flame of your fire...

52:13-52:12 the servant makes the ultimate sacrifice to deliver us from our self-created fate – cut off from God – separated. His blood, sure; his physical death, yes. But it is his spiritual separation from God that is the clincher.

This is what God does for the creation God loves – God transfers judgment and gives up  God’s own creative power and persona. In balancing this through resurrection-creation, God does not re-give that which has been given, but causes it to become nothingness, for a timeless time. Then new life is given. 

The original Genesis call to Israel failed because Israel would not follow. Yet that is the frightening reality of God’s creative will – once God creates and assigns choice, God limits God’s own control and will not influence. Hence God’s warning about earthly kings who will misunderstand the true nature of power. Tricked by Satan, human ‘Kings’ think earthly accumulation of wealth and material possession is the true power. They miss out on all that God wishes to show humankind. We must find our own way and grow by ourselves, right down to fixing the things that we screw up on. It is a lesson on spiritual growth. God the Father is not a controlling God. Control does not result in maturity. God lets us run free. But this freedom is not to do as we will, but to discover the magnitude of God’s will for our maturity. Those of us who have tried to be true parents understand this to some degree. We may suffer silently, but we are always there. And so is God.

Now there is no longer an ‘Exodus’ type deliverance in a geo-political situation of oppression. This one cuts to the chase. Hence Jesus says ‘come, follow, I am the way’

And the biblical paradigm for deliverance-salvation shifts for the second time. Mission and Covenant are reinstated, but they are now of a new nature.

 Again, ecclesiology misses this one. Why? Because cause and effect also continue.  No free rides. The Jews refuse it. Not their interpretation. The church claims to understand it but uses an interpretation that justifies both ecclesiastical existence and authority. But God is not making a ‘this world’ offer about a life to come. No pie in the sky when you die as someone once cheekily sang. There is always a present offer that takes us into God’s presence and power now, with real life results and real death results. If we namesake the offer, it will remain hidden.

Believing we are not in control, we can only hope and pray at best. This is why many say that God is in control. But God has put us in control! The Christian journey is not a ‘hope and pray’ journey. It may be how we all start out, but it does not stay that way. And it can take a lifetime to learn that. We do not just hope and pray. We make a thing happen. We know what the thing is to be. God has told us. Not a wait and see prayer but rather a know and do prayer! And God walks with us, every step of the way, making it so. This is what we must seek now. The Christian tradition may like to declare a ‘we know the true way of salvation’ proclamation–but it does not. Deliverance-salvation is beyond Christianity and all of the other structured religions, because it is the One God calling everyone to return home in the Spirit now. If we respond, WE will be ready when it is time for US to leave here.

If some of these things seem strange, it is because the Christian tradition teaches a historical and cultural spiel that tells us nothing about how God is working today! Because of Jesus, no one need ever go to ‘hell’. No need to use threatening language to frighten folk into conversion. We can’t convert anyone. Folk will grow spiritually when they are ready – the Holy Spirit will lead and change them. Not us. Only the Holy Spirit can teach you these things. Not the Bible, not your priest, not your pastor, nor I. I only point the way. That’s just dumb pointing, not making great proclamations of a divine nature. You have to figure it out for yourself. And you can. Nothing to do with education nor wealth. See Colossians 3:12 – 17 and figure out what a prototokos can and should be. That is the invitation from the One God. As we work through the strangeness of David’s life and begin to move towards that of Jesus, we will see whatever we are ready to see. Every blessing in Jesus, G.