"What is the worst thing that has happened in human history?" This question was asked today at church. The pastor answered, "We killed God." Shortly after he asked us, "What is the best thing that has happened in human history?" followed by his answer, "Jesus rose from the dead." That wasn't the main point of the service today but it was pretty much the only thing on my mind throughout the entire service. (The main message was on our purpose and our mission as followers of Christ).
I started thinking at that point about all the terrible things and all the great things that are described in the bible (or more accurately the stuff I have read so far and have heard from others). I agree with the pastor on the point that the best thing that has ever happened in human history is Jesus rising from the dead, granting us eternal salvation at the price of His blood, giving us a way to make it to heaven! That is wonderful and glorious!
But the death of Jesus was required for this to happen. According to scripture there was no other way, I believe Jesus Himself said if there was another way He would take it in Luke 22:42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." But clearly there was no other way and Jesus had to die. Not only did He have to die but we had to kill Him, Isaiah 53:7-9 says "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." Isaiah 53:10 makes it clear that God had this all planned out for a while, "Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer..." So is it really the worst thing in human history to follow the will of God?
I started thinking, "Ok... so if that isn't the worst thing, then what is?" That's when Genesis hit me. "And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."" Aaaaaand, "...she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."
How I looked at these verses before was like this... God basically said, "don't eat that or you will gain some knowledge I don't want you to have." Snake says, "Lol watevs." Eve and Adam say, "meh, why not?" and suddenly they both have this knowledge and are all, "Oh crap, we done goofed." And God says, "Yeah... you done goofed... get out..."
After today I see it like this... It wasn't necessarily the fruit or the knowledge or anything like that that made God curse humanity, it wasn't anything like that at all. It was disobeying a direct order from God Himself. It was choosing a path different than the one He laid out. It was humanity saying, "Not Your will... My will."
THAT is what I believe is the worst thing that has ever happened in human history. Humanity choosing the will of man over the will of God. Humanity thinking it knows better than the Lord and acting on it. But it isn't just the original sin that I am talking about, oh no! It is every decision, made by every person, every day that chooses something other than what the Lord has laid out. God gave us the free will to "eat from any tree in the garden" but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He gave us the will to do as we please but put rules to guide us on what we should do. I see nothing worse than going against the will of God.
The cool thing is that even though Adam and Eve messed up pretty bad and He kicked everyone out of the garden, He did not leave us. He was right there with them and with humanity the whole time and still is. It was humanity that continued and still to this day continues to choose themselves over God.
Has He ever left us? No! Sure He killed a few thousand (or... million?) people in several fits of rage early on but as time went on He decided to try one last thing to ultimately secure our salvation IF WE CHOOSE IT. And that was to forfeit His only son to the mercy of mankind so we can kill Him, ultimately creating an opportunity to have Him be judged in our place (Romans 2:16 "This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares") because we pretty much suck at everything we do and have sucked since the dawn of time.
So... yeah that was pretty much what has been on my mind all day. I guess it could be argued that killing Jesus was pretty bad (well... yeah killing Jesus was pretty bad regardless of whether God wanted us to do it or not) but I think its ultimately up to how each individual interprets the scriptures on this one.
