1.7 The Church
Christ began to reveal himself to Israel at the wedding in Cana. Despite public miracles like this, most of Israel ended up rejecting him. This was because Christ had come so swiftly on the heels of John the Baptist being able to receive the revelation of the Trinity. There was only one person who was capable of receiving God’s revelation in all of Israel. It should be no surprise then, that most of Israel couldn’t see the Truth of Christ, despite all the signs and wonders.
Christ did not come to gather droves of followers to him. He came to reopen the door to Creation. To demonstrate such outrageous love that we would be incapable of keeping our eyes closed. And to establish his Church, which could then maintain a connection with Creation across time. It would then be up to his Church to preach and share the good news of God’s love. As we have seen before, God wanted to leave as much for his children to do as possible. This would empower them to grow and mature.
Being God incarnate, Christ could have done all manner of signs and wonders, but it would have made no difference. Humanity was not in a place to hear from him; they refused to open their eyes. So if Christ had done greater wonders and performed them throughout the world, gathering all people to himself, it wouldn’t have done Humanity any good. In fact, it would have been a hindrance. By establishing their faith on miracles, Humanity would have been right back in the place of the Patriarchs.
God had no desire to rob us of the hard won independence of Judaism. He wanted to push it forward and accelerate it. This meant he did the bare minimum of miracles to accomplish his mission. Some miracles were necessary, as a kindness. Without miracles John the Baptist is the only one who would have believed. By performing miracles Jesus could bring others who were near to John’s level across the line and into faith.
When he was arrested, we see how effective this was. Everyone deserted him because their faith was not hard won and organically developed. At his trial before Pilate we see why God had never tried to force his children to trust him and open their eyes. When confronted with the Truth, God’s children stubbornly doubled down on their rebellion. Some Jews in the crowd even went so far as to cry out for Christ’s blood to be on their innocent and absent children! So we can see how destructive it can be trying to force wilful children to open their eyes and acknowledge what is right in front of them.
Christ calmly and mildly went along with their story; just as he had always done since the day of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. He knew he could not force anyone to open their eyes. But now things were different than they had been before the Quintentium. Humanity had come so far in their development and recognition of reality that if he did just enough he could get them to open their eyes and see his love. Though no one could force him to lift a finger, he willingly laid down on the cross to prove the love he had tried to get Adam and Eve to see.
Lying down on the cross Jesus embraced more pain than we can ever imagine. His pain was a reflection of his love and his love compelled him to act as soon as reaching us was possible. If he had come later, he would not have needed to suffer so much. If he had come sooner, no amount of suffering would have caught our attention. In order to reach us as soon as possible he must endure the greatest amount of pain possible.
Like all things with the Quintentium, this pain was not for God’s sake, it wasn’t a punishment. It was for us. The pain Christ endured brought no satisfaction to God’s justice, God was not seeking justice. The pain Christ endured was a demonstration of self sacrifice and therefore love. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the love. Pain was a way for Christ to reach into our story and demonstrate love in a way we could understand. Pain is an integral part of life within the story of the Quintentium. Nailed onto the cross Christ was speaking to us in a language we would finally listen to.
At last we were willing to look at him. Looking at him, hanging there, soaked in the pain and suffering we are all so familiar with, we could see his love for what it was. Finally he had managed to get our attention; to snap us out of our fantasy. This act of total sacrifice and pure love was like a pinprick piercing the Quintentium. Now, though still shrouded in the darkness of our ignorance, we could perceive the smallest ray of pure reality.