Bierkergaard: The Writings of Soren Kierkegaard

"It is a whole musical tone deeper than common human suffering." Soren knew what it felt like to be mocked, derided, and dismissed, in his attempts to shake Copenhagen from its sleepy civil rectitude and Christendom. God uses the lowly and humble to confound the worldly-wise. Christ and His message is hope for those with faith and an insult to those who have not faith.

Soren details Peter's denial of Jesus. The Offense of God being a lowly man on trial for blasphemy.

"They are offended that He, this lowly man, should be the extraordinary one."

Jesus asked this of the 12 Disciples who had seen his miracles. The Offense. Proofs make us attentive but it still requires Faith.

When John was thrown into prison, he began to doubt Jesus as the Christ. "The huge folios which develop the truth of Christianity" (S.K.) were incinerated in the jail crucible of doubt. Proofs can make a person attentive to the claims of Christ. Faith is always required. "Wilt thou believe or wilt thou be offended?" The question then. The question now. That the Bible shows that John doubted points to the fact that the Bible's heroes outside of Jesus are so very human. And, in my estimation, point to the accounts of John's doubt as being accurate. None were, born of a woman, greater than John. According to Jesus. And John doubted.

The Established Order(s) in the the U.S., where ideology trumps truth. And trumpery is practiced in spades by the Right and Left political factions that are religious in character. About ultimacy. No deviance from all positions is the requirement. Or else.

"The Pharisees and the Scribes here represent the established order...which had become empty externalism." S.K. Matthew 15: 1-12

Kierkegaard writes that humanity is offended by Christ's assertion that He is God. And if God, how could He be a lowly man? "The God-man is the paradox, the absolute paradox."

Soren tells us not to fear the enemy within or outside. "Blessed is he/she who is not offended in Him but believes." Fear taking offense at the Cross.

"Admit candidly before God how it stands with him, so that he might accept the Grace which is offered to everyone, who is imperfect, that is everyone." Soren Kierkegaard

"He will not suffer Himself to be transformed to a nice...human God: He will transform men and women and that He wills out of Love." Soren Kierkegaard.

Jesus liberates the Believer from sin. Sin is hard labor, subjecting the soul to a burden we cannot bear in time and particularly, in eternity. Soren was no Existential Mocker of God. He was on the sure side of orthodoxy.

The crowd became bitter and disillusioned with Jesus because He failed to conform to their vision of the Messiah.

What are we to make of Jesus stating that He is God? Are not all such claims shrouded in darkness making all claims to Deity grey? Soren writes that it is Jesus's humility which makes Him unique in His Deity. It is not a posture that any individual could and would think up. Our claims to Deity would elevate us; not humble us. Even if we were bonkers and off our rocker.

Soren writes that Jesus was/is the Expected One. Who was so Unexpected!

Soren riffs on the idea that Jesus, had nowhere to lay His head, and that being the case, how could He offer rest? Can God truly be homeless? The answer is "Yes" because the rest He offers all is soul rest. Knowing that God is working in us for our good

I used the song "Drowning Man" by U2 to show the profound difference between Christendom, which is some Dialectical System of Principles which have made accommodation with the world, versus Christ, the God-Man, who offers us His Hand and His Peace.

As Soren writes in today's reading: "He humbled Himself and was swaddled in rags." The God-Man is a paradox and Faith in Him is not the result of mere historical knowledge. It is the belief fundamentally that He is who He says He is. That Faith is as contemporary now as it was 2000 years ago.

Kierkegaard strongly affirms that until Christ returns in glory, Christians are called to live as he did. In humility. For in humility, we will find rest for our souls.

"He (Jesus) went, in sooth, the infinitely long way from being God to becoming a man, and that way, He went in search of sinners." The Grace of God. The Weight of Glory, as C.S. Lewis phrased it in his essay. BTW, "In Sooth" means "Truly."