I learned a new word yesterday

Apotheosis - I read it at some Star Wars site. As my youngest daughter would say, "You're such a nerd." Yeah, I know.

Oddly enough, I encountered that very same word for the second time in my life reading a book that night, a book about God. The book made a very salient point about the flow of the Bible.

In the early books, the Torah, God is very present, and has very anthropomorphic qualities. In the earliest stories of Genesis, God even walks in the garden of Eden with Adam. Throughout the Torah he gets angry, he takes sides in human affairs, he offers counsel, and even seems perplexed at the misbehaviour of the Israelites in exile from Egypt (and who wouldn't be - worshipping idols scant literary moments after being rescued by their own God?)

But as the Bible grows more recent, the writers seem to become more aware of what God must really be like - far away, inscrutable, unlike humans in any way: not just an overseer of human beings, but the supreme creator of the universe. You get a glimpse of the changing impression of God in the Book of Job, when God recites some of the more mysterious things in nature and asks Job if he has understanding.

Christianity takes this and turns it on its head in the New Testament. Yes, the Godhead is fundamentally beyond our comprehension. But God takes the leap across that gap Himself, taking human form and setting for us an example of exactly what kind of human being He would be, were He one. I think that is one of the appealing things about Christianity. Other religions seek to comprehend God on a human level, too. Hinduism has a complex way of reducing the inconceivable Brahmin down to components and mythologies that are human in scope as well.

But in the singular person of Jesus, this task is accomplished with incredible conciseness and economy. Not multiple avatars, just a single one, with a single purpose - Love. And this love is a love so great that our God as man causes no ill to anyone; does not rebel against his Roman captors, or his priestly accusers; a love so great that it bears death for others transgresions; and lastly, a love so great that death cannot extinguish it - it must conquer death and be ressurected.