“Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.”
Last week, we saw that we are connected to all else that is because of our contingency. It is not necessary that we exist, but we do. The love of the Trinity, between Father, Son, and Spirit, flowed out in creation. The whole universe exists from and for that love. To be is to be connected to all else that is in love.
That still leaves a chasm between us and God. Sure, we are created by God out of love and we are connected to every created thing because of that, but God is not a created thing. God is outside of creation. Can our love cross the divide from creature to creator? Is the separation of the universe from the one who made it insurmountable?
We need to go a little deeper into creation in order to understand our possible connection to God. As uncreated and eternal, God exists outside of space and time. God is not just big, God is outside of bigness. God is not just ancient, God is outside of the concept of ancient. There was not a time or place when God wasn’t, but there was God when time and space weren’t. Before time and space existed, there was only God.
To create, God had to withdraw. For anything else to exist, God had to limit himself. He did this out of love. This is kenosis, or emptying out. In love, God intentionally emptied himself out to make it possible for the universe to exist. God did not have to do it, but chose to do so to create in love. Some believe that God exists in the created world (in that mountain, tree, or star, for example), but we believe, in a sense, that the universe exists in God. As difficult as it is for us to comprehend, God is eternal and exists outside of space and time, but space and time are finite and exist within God.
The chasm between us and God really only goes one way. Existing within God, the divine is intimately connected to all that is; a hidden reality inaccessible to our senses or measurements, present but invisible. Beyond our reach, it permeates our being. When revelation happens and God pulls back the veil, the divine breaks through. Jesus is transfigured, dazzling in light. God can reach us, but we still can’t reach God.
God’s second act of kenosis changed all of that! For love, God radically entered time and space by becoming a human being. In Jesus, God united human and divine nature. Paul describes this (Phil. 2:7-8): “Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” In Jesus Christ and through his suffering, death, and resurrection, God has crossed the chasm both ways. St. Athanasius described this great mystery thus, “For the son of God became man so that we might become God.” This is why Jesus doesn’t just tell the truth, he is Truth; doesn’t just have life, he is Life; doesn’t just show a way, he is the Way. Through love, Jesus unites us to God. Not only is God connected to us: we are connected to God.