The Divine Universe

People have been making images of God since mystics in prehistoric times took clay in their hands or used sticks and their fingers to paint on the walls of caves. Gods are associated with power and control so, a few thousand years ago, when people had formed communities and nations with sovereign rulers, it was natural that they should imagine their gods as supernatural kings and potentates.

Some 3000 years ago, a group of Semitic tribes invented ethical monotheism. Their God (YHWH) was the ultimate ruler of the tribes of Israel, even after they had secular kings. He (he was male) had a dwelling place, but it was not an earthly one. It existed somewhere beyond the sight of humankind, far off beyond the stars. Nevertheless, YHWH visited this world from time to time and took an active part in human affairs.
After many generations of mostly very unsatisfactory secular kings of Israel, Isaiah and other prophets began to imagine a perfect ruler, a man of supreme status and power, anointed by YHWH himself. He would come from the distant kingdom of heaven, though he would be born of the royal line in the normal way. He was referred to as Messiah.

A little over 2000 years ago, groaning under the oppressive yoke of Imperial Rome, this vision inflamed the hearts of the Jewish people. They eagerly expected the Messiah to arrive at any moment. A number of men emerged who believed they were indeed the “anointed one”, and gathered enthusiastic disciples around them.
One of these was Jesus of Nazareth, but of all the contemporary candidates, he is the only one, 2000 years later, who still has a following and a cult or religion associated with his name. And it is not just a handful of Jews but many millions of people in every part of the world.

Christians (what we call disciples of Jesus) believe still that Jesus was the true “Son of God”, as some Jews used to call the Messiah. During the centuries since, a complex and sophisticated Christian theology has been built around YHWH and Jesus.

Jesus is referred in prayer and poetry as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” but, reading the narrative portraits of Jesus that were written during the seven or eight decade after his death, we find someone quite unlike any kind of king or ruler ever known in history.

He was conceived out of wedlock for a start, and his enemies made capital out of this throughout his life. He was remarkably passive in his relationship with other people. He demonstrated impressive power as a healer and exorcist, but claimed it was the faith of others that accomplished these messianic signs. He was a brilliant and forceful prophetic teacher, but this made him powerful enemies in the corridors of secular power. He never took aggressive action against any of these however, ending his life as the victim of a completely unjust a horrifically cruel execution at the hands of the Roman military.

After such an inauspicious beginning and tragic end, it is remarkable that Jesus had any followers left at all. In fact, at his execution, only his mother and two or three disciples remained faithful.

But, a few days after his death, one of those disciples, Mary Magdalene, saw Jesus alive again in a tangible body, but not quite a normal human one. Other disciples began to have similar experiences. These experiences continued for about six weeks, until a very substantial number of people became quite convinced that Jesus was still alive in a very real way.

That number is now many millions. And, what is most remarkable, they do not see Jesus as just a heroic martyr for a noble cause, they see him as embodying what true sovereignty, true leadership, informed by the wisdom of God, really means. They see him as the king of God’s realm.