Reflections On Hebrews 2:9...

I often forget how absurd Christianity can sound; I forget that to the wise, to this world's adequate minds, the message we proclaim and defend often comes across as foolishness. I've been a Christian for years now and I've talked about Jesus and the Bible with a few people, some absolute strangers. Every so often during these moments of confession, in which I openly state my beliefs, I have found that I really am taking a couple leaps of faith with this whole Christian thing. It goes something like this. 'So you see God created everything; the sun, moon, stars, ocean, land, animals, etc. And He created this one dude Adam and from Adam's side made the first woman, Eve. However, one of God's created angels who rebelled against Him came in the form of a snake and tempted Adam and Eve that they may question God and eventually disobey Him by eating from the only tree that God had forbidden. Of course in this act of thinking they knew better than God, sin entered the world and man no longer lived in perfect relationship with the perfect God...' And by this time I am usually asking myself, 'Do I really believe this?' The answer is yes. Absolutely yes. I firmly believe it takes less faith to trust this creation story than it does to believe that matter and energy came into being on their own and somehow without any direction or guidance developed into incredibly complex life; even life with instinct, critical thinking, volition, emotion, memory, etc. Still, I understand why the whole Christian faith sounds silly, because it only gets more unbelievable as it leaves the Garden, and I am reminded of this as I read Hebrews 2. In a portion of Scripture that presupposes not only a belief of the existence of angels but an understanding of their hierarchical standing, maybe the most unfathomable concept is relayed in Hebrews 2:9; 'that by the grace of God he might taste death...' In what universe does a statement like this make sense? How could it be by the grace of God that someone might experience death, especially the kind of death that is in view here? In what logical realm is it tenable that it would be due to the very fact of the gracious, loving, compassionate nature of a holy God that His own Son, God become man, would be beaten to a bloody pulp, mocked, and strung on a cross by the people He created and came to serve and save? Where in the world is the grace in that? We find where the grace goes in that Jesus tasted death 'for everyone', that Jesus died where we should have. We are the recipients of the grace, only made possible by Jesus being the recipient of wrath. There certainly is no sense in this, it is in no way logical. There is only grace. Because Christ's cross work is foundational to Christianity I often forget that belief in this truth requires God-given faith, and I usually pass by such statements with no second guesses. But this time I paused... 'by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone'.... and thought, 'This is absolutely absurd'.