In the little town of Wallace, Idaho, there is a manhole cover with the label "The Center of the Universe." (When you make your pilgrimage to Wallace, be sure to have your picture taken by it!) Scientists say that the 'Big Bang' had no actual center, and all the galaxies are moving away from each other, which I don't understand but then I don't know a lot about physics.
One thing I have discovered from studying the Bible is that Jesus Christ, who was (and remains) the Son of God perfectly united with humanity, is the center of God's entire plan for humanity. His job of uniting us with the Father was planned from before the beginning of time, and his life, death, resurrection and ascension accomplished God's central purpose. So in that sense you could say Jesus, himself, is the center of the universe.
Consider John's opening comments in his gospel, John 1:1-3: "In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him." John says his whole purpose in writing was to point people to Jesus so that they would believe and have life, in chapter 20:31 .
The book of Hebrews has more to say: "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command." The remainder of the book of Hebrews goes on to show that Jesus was greater than the prophets (1:1) the angels (1:4 - 2:9) Moses (3:1-6) the high priests of Israel (4:14 - 5:10) Abraham (by the figure of speech of Melchizedek, 7:1-10) and the whole priesthood and sacrificial system (7:11 - 8:6). He brought the new covenant (8:6-13) and superseded the entire old covenant system (chapters 9 and 10), which means he is greater than that system. The 'rest' described in chapter 4 is resting, in Christ, from our own works-oriented mentality. The faith described in chapter 11 is faith in what God would do through his Son, because "none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us"(11:39-40). Chapter 12 continues the focus on Jesus: "We do this [live an enduring Christian life] by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith"(verse 3). We have not come to anything in the past, it says, but to "Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people" (verse 24) and "speaks from heaven" (verse 25, compare 1:3). And in 12:8-21, some of those themes are brought back as a conclusion to show that our lives and faith are all wrapped up in Jesus.
In Ephesians 1:4, Paul declares that "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes."
If that weren't enough, we could look at Colossians 1:15-20, which may have been an early hymn of the church:
"15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross."
There is so much in the Bible, both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament, referring to the plan of God as carried out by the Son of God, that it seems inescapable. Without Jesus, there is no 'plan of God'. But in Jesus, we are loved and fully accepted by God. He is certainly and without hesitation, the center of my own universe. Is he the center of yours? If not, isn't this a good time to re-think that?
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1 comment:
Great post, Mark.
I've been to Wallace, Idaho many times - even did racial reconciliation with First Nations People there and did know about the existance of that manhole cover!
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