Ruled Rulers

Can we kill oysters to redeem their pearls? Can we slay mountains to grab the gold? Should we milk cows because we can? Should we open up all the secrets creation hides?

Maybe it’s like this. Not everything that’s beautiful is meant to be grabbed by us. Maybe some things are just meant to be gazed at. I think the l’art pour l’art movement was quite right: beauty is there for the sake of beauty. Not for your sake. Subjecting the earth does not have to mean using the earth for our sakes only. Some things are just not to be touched, since otherwise we’d do damage to nature. But we are allowed to marvel at their beauty; to reach out but not hold these holy things. We can look at a glimmering fish swimming in the brook; but we know we shouldn’t hold it, for we would only damage its tender scales.

We have become like little children who want to touch and hold and eat everything that glimmers or looks edible. We dig holes wherever we think we can find something we can use; we devour whatever can be eaten; we adorn ourselves with everything that might make us look prettier (and the earth more devastated).

I’m guessing this is not what God meant when he made us “a little lower than the heavenly beings” (Psalm 8:5). He crowned us “with glory and honour”, but we thought we’d add a little to that. We want to dress up, to be God’s apes. But this is not what God intended for us. This “grab ‘n go” attitude is plainly the phenotype of original sin. Egoism. I want to play God. I want to rule the world my way. We don’t merely subject it – we suppress it.

We Are So Ungrateful. “In putting everything under him [man], God left nothing that is not subject to him” (Hebrews 2:8b, italics added). Man, he made us kings straight away! Yet we thought a revolt would be more exciting. (It was, in a bad sense.) Which is why “at present we do not see everything subject to him” (2:8c). What an understatement. Paul is being all too kind to us here. God made us “ruler over the works of [his] hands” (Psalm 8:6), but instead we are being ruled.

Fortunately, we then get “Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels” as well (Hebrews:2:9a). Fortunately, he’s been doing quite well as a ruler: he is “now crowned with glory and honour” (2:9b). Unfortunately, he had to suffer death for that. So that, fortunately, “by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone,” (2:9c) and bring “many sons to glory” (2:10a). Do I need to add we don’t quite deserve such a royal treatment? Crowns for free.