What difference does all the previous information and for that fact Jesus have to do with our feelings of disappointment with God? I have no doubt that Jesus tasted disappointment and more than once. But.... thus far it seems like we're getting a Theologians explanation for our disappointment. Justification, reconciliation, propitiation, just some legal terms that I and many others don't really understand and thus do not relate very well to. And thus is probably a part of the foundation for our questions?
Philip the author suggests that we look past those words and look at the underlying story of God's passionate pursuit of human beings. He offers the story of the Prodigal Son as an illustration for God's passion for us. In case you're not familiar with the story it's one of an anxious father grieving over his runaway son. Our Waiting Father, waiting patiently for us His runaway children to come home.
The first difference Jesus makes in our disappointment with God is the introduction of INTIMACY. One man touches the Ark of the Covenant and falls down dead. People touch the hem of Jesus garment and come away healed. Jesus introduced God as ABBA or "Daddy." In Jesus, God came close. The book goes on to differentiate between the God of the Old Testament and Jesus. The book of Hebrews gives full account of these differences. Only once a year on a specified day could one person enter the Holy Place. Special clothing, five sacrifices, ritual baths, and a bell tied to an ankle with a rope so that if the person died they could pull him out. Today everyone can come boldly before the throne with great confidence. So Jesus contributes to the problem of disappointment with God: because today we do not need a human mediator.
Jesus provides a face for God. If I wonder how God thinks about deformed or disabled people, I can look at how Jesus moved among the crippled, the blind and those with leprosy. If I wonder about the poor and whether God destined them to to lives of misery, I can read Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount. And if I have question about the "spiritual" response to pain and suffering, I can recall how Jesus responded with fear, trembling, loud cries and tears.
In the New testament Paul is convinced that Jesus has changed the universe forever. He continually says things like, "In Christ all things hold together, through Him He reconciled all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven... Christ is seated above the rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come." So why some twenty centuries after Paul's grand declarations is Philip Yancey devoting an entire book to the topic of disappointment with God. And why would I spend weeks trying to unwrap the secrets of that book for myself and others?
Philip states, his questions of God being hidden and silent seem to be of less importance. For me there seems to be at least some level of satisfaction with the answers interwoven in the first 17 chapters of this book regarding God's hiddenness and silence. But is God unfair? That's still bursting with desire to be answered. Even in the death of Jesus, the seemingly unfairness of God did not disappear. In fact it seems to worsen. Jesus very disciples received the "rewards" of prison, death, torture, and martyrdom.
All that being said, Jesus did change things forever. Jesus identified with man. And now we can envision a God who can identify with us. Jesus, a spirit, had never been confined to the world of matter. He experienced human flesh, the feelings of pain and suffering. The Old testament showed us what it "Feels like" to be God, but the New testament records what happened when God learned what it felt like to be a human being. Whatever mankind has felt God has felt as one of us. God understands our feelings of disappointment with Him. "MY God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus cried. God's Son "learned obedience" from His suffering, says Hebrews. A person can only learn obedience when tempted to disobey and can only learn courage when tempted to flee. Jesus mission was to become one of us, to live and die as one of us. That was the only way God could work within the rules He set up at Creation. God.... passionate, in His love for people and on the other hand an urge to destroy the Evil that enslaved them. That matter was resolved on the cross as His Son absorbed the destructive force and transformed it into love.
The only way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living human being. When it is absorbed there, like blood in a sponge or a spear thrown into one's heart, it loses its power and goes no further. Gake D. Webbe
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