In Graham Kendrick's song, The Servant King, he writes,
Come see His hands and His feetImagine that. The Creator with all that power and all that glory took on flesh and willingly died. For you. On a cross. The contrast is stark -- massive. Like the contrast between the sinless Creator-Son of God and the sinful son of his father, the devil -- you and me. There is no humanly reasonable explanation for that kind of sacrifice.
The scars that speak of sacrifice;
Hands that flung stars into space
To cruel nails surrendered
We have a word in the English language. It is "condescending." Today it is a bad thing. It means "showing patronizing superiority." But its origin is found in Old French in the mid-14th century speaking of God or a king who "makes gracious allowance" for human frailty. It means to yield one's rights, to step down. In terms of "yielding one's rights," then, Christ's actions toward us -- the Creator-King becoming flesh and dying on that cross -- was the ultimate and best possible condescension we can ever know.
2 comments:
If I hadn't heard the word and was simply basing it off the combined words, I'd say condescend means to come down with. And that is fitting for our understanding of a transcendent God. He came down with us. And what was our response to God in the flesh? Crucify Him! Today we celebrate His death by our hands, but also by His will.
“Condescension” does suggest a judgmental, haughty, distaining “looking down your nose” upon other people. While we equally sinful humans have no basis to feel superior to others, the Lord certainly is justified that way--yet He did not hesitate to come down and rescue us. When I consider the lofty and rightful place from which the Creator and King descended to walk with His pitiful and rebellious creatures, I am very humbled and beyond grateful. I like your wording, “There is no humanly reasonable explanation for that kind of sacrifice.” Fortunately for us, there is a Godly one.
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