Is that all you got?

So I'm finding spritual significance in the weirdest places.  Last weekend we rented a movie, People Like Us.  I came in several minutes into the film, but it didn't take long to get caught up.  It explores a strange family dynamic after a father dies, and the son discovers that he has a half-sister that was kept a secret from him.  The woman, he soon discovers, is a recovering alcoholic who works as a bartender (oh, the irony), but has aspirations to be a landscape designer.  She has a son, whom he stalks as a way to get to the woman.  He has a gift for  her, but more about that later.  In one scene, Sam (played by Chris Pine) has taken Frankie (played by Elizabeth Banks) and her son Josh to the beach.  They watch what could have been a very romantic sunset, except for the brother-sister dynamic that Frankie doesn't even know about yet.  The "tension" is broken when Josh glances at the sunset and snidely comments, "I've seen better."  His mother, tongue-in-cheek, shouts out over the waves, "Yeah, God, is that all you got?!"

I smiled at this response.  While she may have been giving her son a lesson by taking his comment to the extreme, it made me wonder about Man's response to God throughout the ages.  Men have always felt a need to worship, but many gave names to natural phenomena and worshipped the sun, the rain, or the wind.  Others fashioned idols made of wood or stone, finding it easier to worship something they could see or touch.  When God revealed Himself to Abraham, it took a great deal of faith to obey--not just in the one story of offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice, but in the day-to-day walk of following God, of listening to His voice and obeying. 

Later, the Hebrew descendants of Abraham tested God often: having seen God part the Red Sea, they whined because they had no water (at Marah); they had no food (God gave them manna); or they were sick of manna (God sent them Ravens).  Having seen God visit Moses on the mountain, they could not wait a month before asking Aaron for a golden calf.  It's as if the whole forty years of wandering were filled with taunts of "Hey, God, is that all you got?"

When God revealed Himself in the flesh, in the form of a man named Jesus, the Pharisees watched him closely, tested him often, and criticized him unmercifully.  Instead of being like Abraham, having faith in and listening to God as He said, "This is my beloved Son; follow Him," they acted more like the refugees from Egypt who followed Moses through the desert.

There are tons of examples in the Bible.  When Moses brought the plagues to Egypt, the Egyptian sorcerers and magicians were able to conjure similar phenomena.  "Hey, God, is that all you got?"  Even today, when unbelievers try to justify their unbelief, they ask questions like "why would a loving God send people to hell?" or "if God is all powerful, why is there so much suffering in the world?"  In essence, they are saying God does not run His business like He should, like I would if I were in charge.  In fact, they are justifying themselves, by bringing God down to a  human level so they can compare themselves favorably--"I'm just as good as God is; if I were all powerful, there would be no wars or famines or suffering.  Therefore I must be better than God."

Irony.  The human condition is a fallen condition.  Because of our sinful nature, we are separated from God, yet we still want to compare ourselves favorably with Him.  Yet for some reason, God has not wiped out the human race and created something more perfect.  He has chosen to forgive us, and send us His Son to die in our place.  But that concept is foreign to us.  We can hardly fathom it.

Which brings me back to the movie.  Sam leaves his failing business in New York to travel to California to help settle his father's estate.  He finds a huge sum of money with a note asking him to give it to Frankie and her son, Josh. While it is obvious that the money would help Sam get out of his legal troubles, he doesn't seem to be tempted with taking it.  He makes several ham-handed attempts to let Frankie know that her father loved her, and wanted to provide for them.  Frankie misunderstands, and thinks that Sam wants to pursue her sexually.  Sam fends off her advances, and finally comes clean that he is her brother.  All he really wants to do is to give her the gift that her father had left for her, especially now that he knows her situation and her needs.

But near the end of the film, after his identity has been revealed, and the money has been offered, Frankie broods a bit about her life without their philandering father.  She says she would have given anything to have been able to spend more time with the dad; she would gladly forego the money for the chance to get to know him before he died.  She looks at Sam and shakes her head.  "Instead, he sent you," she says, wistfully.

I got to thinking about that line: "Instead, he sent you."  This must have gone through the minds of the disciples of Jesus and others in the first century Church.  Many of them had probably known of God, and had wanted know more, to have fellowship with God.  Many may have had pre-conceived notions of how God would manifest Himself to His people.  When Jesus appeared on the scene, He did not fit into anybody's idea of what God was like.  The religious leaders pushed back the hardest, questioning everything He did.  They ultimately plotted to kill Him. Others at the time had an idea of a military leader who would throw off Roman oppression.  They tried to crown him king of their earthly province, not realizing that he was the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Neither had any inkling that while they would not get what they wanted, Jesus would give them what they needed.

God knew our deepest need was a sacrifice for our sin and a restoration of the relationship that had been broken by sin.  All men cannot die in their sin--there is no fellowship in that.  So He sent One to die in our place.  This One was raised from death and has been crowned to sit on the very throne of God.  No one can see God and live; so instead, He sent Jesus.  As a result, "people like us" can come before God and intercede for our world.

Where the father in the movie was fatally flawed, God the Father is perfect.  Where the son in the movie was a mere shadow of his dad, God's Son is the mediator between God and Man.  He comes with a gift from God--not money or happiness, or even an end to suffering.  Rather His gift is eternal life.  Thank God for sending His Son!