Reflection on the Word for the Sunday of August 14, 2022
GOD SAID THAT WE ARE gods
Psalm 82:6-7 : I said, “You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.”
We are gods, of course in lower case letters and meaning, otherwise a statement like that would be a blasphemy, however it is definitely written in the 82nd Psalm, moreover Jesus, himself, corroborated it in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, when he was accused that he made himself equal to God. This would have been a capital offense, and they wanted to stone him on the spot.
Jesus asked them, that "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?" The Jews answered him, "We don't stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy: because you, being a man, make yourself God."
Jesus answered them, "Isn't it written in your law, 'I said, you are gods?'
As the genealogy chart of Jesus in the Gospel declares Adam as the son of God, we have Biblical proof that our origins are not only from the dust, but from God’s Spirit as well, as it is also written that the Lord God “breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Our body taken from the dust is not alive without the breath of Life, which comes from the Spirit of God, who is the very source of life.
Thus life, as a pivotal essence of God is in us, as it is also written, that the Lord said that “My Spirit will not abide with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.” It means that the complex earthly person is soul and flesh, but the God formed soul gives life to the flesh, and the human soul is breathing the Spirit of God in order to live, in order to exist.
The most down to Earth interpretation of the 82nd Psalm comes from the Jewish tradition itself, which says that in the Psalm God is addressing the members of the Great Assembly as lower case letters gods, which is the gathered congregation of the Judges of Israel, It existed from the rebuilding of the Second Temple in 516 BCE to the time when Alexander the Great came and had attempted to conquer and subjugate the whole known world during a single decade, but died young in 324 BCE.
The Great Assembly had allegedly 120 members, and many of the late prophets,named in the Bible, were a member of it. The lower case letter gods term is justified, because the Palm says that “Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.” So the message is to definitely mortal people, thus not in any sense they are equal with the Holy One. The warning was given to the assembly of the judges of Israel, governing Jerusalem in Judea, possibly within the Persian empire, that they are judging the people in the name of God, or at least according to the Laws of God given to Moses.
So they must exercise their duty with utmost care, as it is written in the Psalm that “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
It should have been an impossible situation, it would not have ever happened, that the judges usurped their power, if the judges would have been paid close attention to God, whose presence was being always among them, but they did not heed it.
As the Psalm explicitly says that “God presides in the great assembly;” so God was there, but despite the Presence of God they favored the rich and the haughty-naughty in their rulings, oppressing the poor and the weak. That is why, the presiding God had rendered judgment over the judges, whom the Psalm calls “gods” with lower case letters, as they were ruling over not only who lives and who dies, but also over spiritual and religious claims and incidents.
The divine judgment over the false judges and their trials and tribulations might be more strict and harsh, because they were the leadership of the people of God, as it is written that “Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.”
In the Gospel of John, when Jesus was accused that he calls God as his father, and he was accused of stating that he is the Son of God, Jesus also could have invoked further the 82nd Psalm, in which God also said that “all of you are sons of the Most High.”
The very biblical statement, that we are all sons of God, is profoundly true, having a great significance in faith, as God’s image is a stamp in all of us, his breath of life is in all of us, our commission is from God, our meaning and our purpose are God, our destination is God.
It is a fact, that we have a very intimate relationship with God. The quality of this relationship depends on our conduct, good or bad, nonetheless, it is an ultimately intimate relationship, as God is our parent, the king of the Universe, our rock and redeemer, but also our judge. As God is our parent, so Jesus is our brother and teacher, our Crown Prince leader and High Priest, our prophet and friend in the same time.
Most nations have sacred places, holy topography, revered edifices, a river, a lake, a landmark, or even the whole land like in Israel, hills and whole mountains being considered holy or even just a single, mysterious tree can be held as sacred. Throughout the history, but also from the time immemorial there were places where the presence of God felt just somehow stronger than somewhere else. People from all phenotypes used to flock on pilgrimage trips, often committing to long journeys to experience the closeness of God by visiting these often really extraordinary places.
However, there is a place like nowhere else, which is, which should be, considered the most sacred place of all, and that is the human heart, as Jesus taught the disciples that “But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. ”
Our intimate relationship with God means that we can talk to God in hour hearts, and God talks to us in our soul, relentlessly calling us to repent and follow the commandments.
The reason, why we do not need to have a mediator between humans and God, when we pray, or we do not need to go on any pilgrimages to feel God closer, because God’s presence dwells directly in our hearts, closer to us than our skin.
God’s presence in our soul was often compared metaphorically to a candle light or divine spark or the life force-field in us. If one fully obeys God in one’s heart, if one completely agrees with God, if one loves only God in one’s heart, that the promise of Jesus comes around as the ultimate reality in one’s life, as he said it in the Gospel of Matthew that “Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything, that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father, who is in heaven. ”
One person and God in the heart are two. If these two agrees on anything,then the miracles will be visible, like sharing the bread, sharing the roof, sharing the resources, loving the neighbor, healing the sick, walking on the water, enlivening the dead for the always greater and visible glory of the Lord, according to the will of God by the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
