To this end was I born,
and for this cause came I into the world,
That I should bear witness unto the Truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
— John 18:37
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We established in “It’s Not About Me” that Christ wanted us to focus solely on The Word. But contrary to His wishes we created a Personality Cult oriented around His person and the circumstances of His death.
We established in “Suffering Is Not God-Willed” that the idea that the Crucifixion was planned and willed by the Almighty throws up many conflicting conclusions. And accepting these inconsistencies based on “faith” is wrong because it demonstrates a misinterpretation of what Christ meant by faith (ref. “Faith Is A Halfway House“).
We now explore further:
Being “Lifted Up”
When ye have lifted up the Son of man,
Then shall ye know that I am He,
and that I do nothing of myself;
but as my Father hath taught me,
I speak these things.
— John 8:28
Personality Cult thinking interprets this as a reference to Crucifixion.
In Word-oriented thinking “lifting up” means “making The Word the most important thing”: elevating it above all other things, worshipping It … i.e. living It!
And when we live it, we will know (i.e. experience) that His Words are of God (ref. “Act To Experience To Know“).
In so doing we will truly appreciate Christ’s Nature:
He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me:
…
and [I] will manifest myself to him.
— KJV, John 14:21
We must always seek to understand Christ’s Words in a spiritual sense (see “We Don’t Understand The Word”, “Blessed Are The Meek”, “Arise and Walk”, etc.).
We “lift Him up”, i.e. glorify Him, by ingesting His Words (His flesh and blood – ref. “The Word Is The Bread of Life”) and doing what He demands of us. Not by hanging Him on a cross…
We also have:
And I,
If I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me.
This he said, signifying what death he should die.
— John 12:32-33
A Word-oriented interpretation leads us to conclude that Christ was indicating His willingness to die so that His Word would not be lost, and men would still have the opportunity to hear It and live It.
The Crucifixion became necessary for The Word not to be lost in the prevailing circumstances (discussed below), but it was not pre-ordained.
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“Must” Suffer
And he began to teach them,
That the Son of man must suffer many things,
and be rejected of the elders,
…
and be killed …
— Mark 8:31
Foreseen does not mean pre-ordained.
Christ did not bring any religion (ref. “Christ Is Not The Founder of Christianity“), but His Message made human beings think independently and inevitably highlighted glaring faults in the existing religious beliefs and organisations. Thus the religious elite were determined to get rid of Him.
It was evident that Christ would not back down, would not recant or be silenced. Therefore the likelihood of a fatal confrontation increased over time until it became inevitable, without it being God-Willed or pre-ordained.
Hence the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen that He gave shortly before His death:
There was a certain householder,
which planted a vineyard,
…
and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:
And when the time of the fruit drew near,
he sent his servants to the husbandmen,
that they might receive the fruits of it.
And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, …
But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying,
They will reverence my son.
…
And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
…
— Matt 21:33-41
So: the householder did not send his son to be killed by the husbandmen.
This parable completely opposes the idea of a preordained, planned, God-willed Crucifixion.
That in spite of this we accepted the idea that Christ came to be crucified shows that we have all been reading The Word through the lens of dogma, instead of Truth.
It proves that we diminished the meaning of all His Words (ref. “We Don’t Understand The Word”, “Truth vs Human Words“).
Part 1: It’s Not About Me!
Part 2: His Suffering Was Not God-Willed
Part 4: Father Forgive Them, For They Know Not What They Do
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