Easter 2022

 Paul Krause has an Easter Sunday article at the American Thinker entitled Liberalism Can Never Accept the Real Jesus. When I hear people speak of Leftist Christians, to me it sounds like an oxymoron. But it is this desire to be our own god that causes the Left to deify the state. The Left seems to have turned such narcissism into a civic virtue. But I will let Krause tell it, because he does it better than I do:

The central truth of Christianity is that Christ is not only the Son of God but that he came to suffer and redeem us by his sacrificial atonement. In this world of suffering, the suffering of Christ alleviates ours and heals us of our brokenness. Liberals, however, cannot abide by this Christ because they see the state, not Christ, as the path to redemption.

Christianity asserts that the world is broken, as such the world needed to be healed by a Love that took on this brokenness and wounds of the world. Another central claim of Christianity, one that is now often distorted and twisted for the service of liberal humanitarianism, is that God is love. These two claims intersect with Christ on the Cross. On the cross the incarnate God of love came into the world and offered healing and reconciliation through his sacrificial death, bearing the suffering of the world to himself.

How broken are we? We sin even in our sleep! God the Father cannot even bear to look upon us, his own creation. He shies away. But God the Son entered into history, and lived for 33 years as one of us. He suffered the usual stuff we all go through, from having colds and the flu, having to go to school to learn the Torah like all the other kids, suffering the death of friends and loved ones. For at least 3 years he was homeless, living on the kindness of strangers. And while he was God, he had to forget he was God and trust the Father in all things.  That night, in the garden of Gethsemane, he no doubt suffered mortal fear.  And on the cross, he suffered total abandonment.  "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"  But then, at the appointed time, he served the Father by submitting to be despised, tortured beyond belief, and be crucified, because that was the only way to reconcile us to God. He was absolutely innocent. But, as a result of his dying and rising, when we pray, God looks at us, but sees the image of his beloved Son.

We don't really have a word for that kind of love. We can kind of understand it when we sacrifice ourselves for a loved one, perhaps. But for total strangers, people yet unborn? There are no words. Meanwhile:

Liberalism accepts certain Christian truths before corrupting and distorting them -- which is the way of Satan. Liberalism accepts that the world is broken and suffering. Liberalism accepts that there is a certain lust for domination that permeates the world. Liberalism accepts that the salvation of man involves overcoming the brokenness and suffering of the world. But that is where the similarities end and the great divergence commences.

...snip...

The liberal Christ is anything but the Suffering Servant who redeemed the world through his suffering which was the highest expression of love possible and who, in His suffering, fulfilled the promises to the patriarchs and prophets. As stated, the liberal’s Christ -- if they even keep Christ -- is just a figurehead for politics and to advance certain state-sponsored policies. Liberals take an element of Christ’s character and make that the entire essence of who he is.

Let Krause close this Easter post:

The Christ of Easter is the Christ that so many flee from but is the Christ who calls us to love because love entails suffering -- thus, Christ tells us to pick up our cross and follow him. This Easter, as with every Easter, we must always keep sight of the True Christ, the Christ who hung on the Cross and brought salvation through his sacrificial love. As St. Paul says, “For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

In this Easter beset by suffering, we are reminded that God came to suffer with us. Christ, not the state, heals us. Christ, not the state, brings our redemption. Insofar that liberalism sees the state as the vehicle of redemption it can never accept the real Christ.