Sometimes in the midst of just doing my job, I get a different perspective on God and how He interacts with us as people. Today was one of those days!
For those of you who don’t know, I work at a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility for children. Part of my job is to see to the physical and emotional well-being of the kids entrusted to me for the day, and to run therapeutic groups.
Today, I was running a movie group with the kids, watching Disney’s “Hercules.” Their objective was to log the emotions they noticed on a graph, and to raise their hands when they spotted one. Now, I like to do the groups WITH my kids, for a whole lot of reasons; the main reason in this group was so that I would be able to prompt the kids if I saw an emotion displayed in the film and no-one responded.
In the first few minutes of the movie, there is a voice-over where The Muses sing (in a song called “The Gospel Truth,” heaven help them) about how Hercules had lost his divinity due to a plot by his uncle, Hades.
Young Herc was mortal now…
But Zeus and Hera wept
Because their son could never come home
They’d have to watch their precious baby
Grow up from afar
The subtext of this whole section of the movie was one of the basic tenets of Greek mythology; namely, that if you were a mortal, you couldn’t set foot in Olympus. Paradise was only for the gods, and mortals were destined for the Underworld. And as I watched that, I became so immediately aware of the enormity of God’s love and awesome compassion.
God doesn’t lock the throne room. He invites us in. Beyond that, He insists that we enter, and spend time with him. This theme is woven throughout the Bible, going back as far as Esther, when she boldly enters the throne room of Xerxes, her husband. This interaction mirrors the bride of Christ entering His throne room with boldness. Ancient Greek common knowledge said that the Gods were inaccessible in a lot of ways; sure, they could come to earth and raise a ruckus, but could a mortal set off to Olympus and meet with them? No.
They could, however, have a great conversation with a STATUE. (This usually happened when someone did something either stupendously offensive or wondrously heroic.) And indeed that is what happens to Hercules, who gets rather a shock when he goes to the temple of Zeus and Dad starts talking to him through a gigantic marble carving. “Surprise son, you’re a god! Sort of… Well, if you just REALLY work hard and prove you’re worthy, we’ll get it all squared away and we’ll let you back in to Olympus. Good luck!”
Worst. Ventriloquist. Ever.
Again, this is not the model presented by God. Christ’s story is one of God getting himself out of the box – in human terms at least – and into the world; his divinity was not limited to paradise, it was accessible all! The veil into the Holy of Holies was impressive; 60 feet high, 30 feet wide, and four inches thick. When Jesus died, the veil was torn. I have always imagined the veil torn on a diagonal, to show the people of Israel that the Temple was empty, and God had left the building. His tearing of the curtain was a clear message: God is out among the people now.
Submitting to Christ as Lord and accepting his salvation is the opposite of the Herculean scheme: We are justified by faith, not works; our works are a resulting outcome of our salvation, not its cause. God makes himself accessible to us; personally, immediately, and at all times; We don’t have to talk to a statue on truly extraordinary occasions when we’ve gotten His attention. He welcomes us to talk to Him on every occasion, to pray and enter the throne room- because He’s Dad, and he loves when His kids drop by the office .
The most magnificent thing about all this, though, is the outcome. Not only do we have God’s presence and a direct line to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, but at the end of the road, after we’ve run the race, God does not send us down the tubes to the Underworld with Hades. Because again, He didn’t lock the throne room, and Heaven isn’t just for the divine.
We get to go home and meet Him face to face!
