Power plays are always at work.
Even amongst good, ol’ timey religious folk like you and I.
Perhaps strongest amongst such folk like you and I.
It’s because we read the story with a distorted lens.
We say, “Jesus is like God.”
So we read all those power plays, even of folk such as
Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, David,
And the slaughtering of the enemies of God’s people,
And we push all of that into Jesus.
This is what God is like.
This is what Jesus is like.
But the resounding melody coming from the climax of the story
Is that, “God is like Jesus.”
That’s where the rubber meets the proverbial road.
And then we look at the executionary measure of the cross,
Where power was laid down,
Where suffering was truly embraced,
Where the enemies of God dispensed their violence,
On the one who shows us what God is truly like.
In that act, the man pronounces forgiveness,
Defeats the systems of evil,
Pacifies violence,
Vanquishes death,
Only to shed death’s coat himself a few days later,
Reminding us he’s making all things new
And calling us to join the day of making all things new even now,
To mirror ourselves after the original mirror of the Father.
God is like Jesus.
The Prodigal Thought 