A riddle revealed

The riddle of Samson to me is this, if Christ Jesus and Samson were in the same party, to which would we gravitate?  Who would we want to be more like?  Who’s attention would we want?  Samson was an apparent demi-god.  Jesus had no beauty that we may behold.  Both men could attract a crowd.  Both men could dispel one too.  i think Samson might exist to show us that even at our best, and more than our best, the best we could do is bring more death.  Samson couldn’t change his own heart much less ours.

“Out of the eater

something to eat.

From the strong

came something sweet.”

Samson carved out his own path.  He sought his own vengeance.  He didn’t purposely seek his own glory.  Contrary to popular opinion, an alpha male doesn’t have any need to push himself to the fore.  To gain reputation.  They are alpha males precisely because they are already fully assured of their own reputations and greatness.  They have looked around and judged themselves, rightly or wrongly, as superior to what they see.  So they need not listen to inferiors.  They have no equals.  They see no reason to do things to impress the lesser men because lesser men’s opinions do not matter to them.  No, the glory of hoi polloi could not give anything to him so why seek it?  Samson simply did what he wanted.  

But for all his greatness, this paragon of man, this tragic superhero, all his vaunted strength, all his cleverness, he could not beat death, the eater of all life, and he could not find love, the very sweetness and joy of living.  A superhero couldn’t save us.  A prophet who could call down fire from heaven could not save us.  A king after God’s own heart could not save us.  A law, a tabernacle, a temple, a priesthood could not save us.  “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Rom 7

“What is stronger than Death?

What is sweeter than Love?”

Jesus, the prophesied one who would deliver God’s people from the hand of Death, the chosen one of God, begotten, not created, who was with God and was God from before the beginning, everlasting to everlasting, chose to intermingle with his enemies.  On his way to arrange his marriage, the evil one attacks him and he repels him with nothing but the Word of God.  The strong man tied up he proceeds to do what His Father wanted and nothing else.  This alpha male didn’t need anyone to tell him who he was.  He knew what was in man’s heart.  He does not seek the adoration and praise of men, though it is his due.  Nor did he have to shy away from it when it was truly given, because it is his due.  He did not consider himself greater than anyone but made himself instead a slave to all.  Doing for them what they could not do for themselves.  He used all his power and his strength to obey his Father and save his people.  Those the Father had given to him.  He became Prophet, Priest, King and Superhero.  For he answered the riddle once and for all.  

Out of death, the eater of life,

something to eat, 

“This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that someone may eat from it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  John 6

From the strong, and what is stronger than God?

came something sweet.

“…that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (you having been firmly rooted and established in love), in order that you may be strong enough to grasp together with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, in order that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”  Eph 3

“For while we were still helpless, yet at the proper time Christ died for the ungodly. For only rarely will someone die on behalf of a righteous person (for on behalf of a good person possibly someone might even dare to die), but God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Therefore, by much more, because we have been declared righteous now by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, by much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. And not only this, but also we are boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Rom 5

Love came and love brought life.  And life everlasting.  Life abundant.  Life that flies in the face of Ecclesiastes.  Life above the sun.  If we live forever in Christ, then nothing we do for him is meaningless!  Death alone is meaningless for we are the resurrected.  God restores and adds to all we “lost”.  “For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us.” Rom 8  This alpha male is worth following.  This is the one we’ve been waiting for.  This is the one we are waiting for.  He wasn’t the hero we deserved.  He’s not even the hero we wanted, Thank God!  He’s the hero we need.  Place your hope in Him.