Jesus: “The nucleus of the atom”

In 1951, surrealist painter Salvador Dalí created Christ of Saint John of the Cross (pictured above), a dramatic departure from what his audience was used to.

In an interview, Dalí defended this diversion, saying…

"...I had a 'cosmic dream' in which I saw this image in colour and which… represented the 'nucleus of the atom…' I considered it 'the very unity of the universe,' the Christ!" 

Or, to quote a popular worship song at my church, “Jesus at the center of it all.”

The Human Problem

There is something wrong in the world and ourselves.

No one is perfect, and that imperfection has a nasty habit of causing problems.

Human history is the ongoing story of our species attempting to rectify this but never quite getting there.

There have been a lot of noble attempts and much progress has been made! But the fact remains. The world is still messed up. Despite our best efforts, we cannot fix it.

The solution rests in God but as we read in Genesis 3, humanity has rejected that and, as a result, was separated from Him.

In a poetic twist of irony, we separated ourselves from the One who brings the peace we seek.

Jesus: The Great Healer

Jesus often spent time in the company of those the religious elites deemed “sinners.”

When confronted about this, Jesus said the following:

Look, I’m not trying to be Mr. Negative but there’s something deeply wrong with the human race. We cannot avoid contributing to the brokenness of the world. We’re born seeking meaning in the midst of it but few of us ever find it.

This problem, what the Bible calls “sin,” is what Jesus came to resolve.

God mended the gap between us and Him. And how did He do that? By bringing together God and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.

Being God, Jesus was able to lead a perfect life, not once contributing to the world’s brokenness.

Being human, Jesus was able to experience the weight of the world’s brokenness and, thus, could receive the fallout of it.

That fallout killed Him.

But only for three days.

Then He rose Himself from the dead, demonstrating that a power greater than every single imperfection in the world had arrived.

In doing so, Jesus showed us, as I’ve heard it said, “A new Way of being human.”

And by leading the life He led, dying the death He died, and bringing Himself back, Jesus overcame that great barrier of sin keeping us from the fulfillment we all seek.

Now we don’t have to be formed by the world’s brokenness.

Now we can be formed by God Himself.

Now we can truly live.

All because the Son of Man, the Son of God, came and fulfilled what man couldn’t but what God always could.

For now, be blessed.

Jon,

Theophilus Newsletter