THE LAUGHTER OF GOD

The Course of Empire: Desolation, Thomas Cole (1801-1848).

In 2012 I visited the Columbia, South Carolina Museum of Art to view 45 paintings of the Hudson River School of Painters on loan from the New York Historical Society. The magnificent landscapes of Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, Alfred Bierstadt, Thomas Hill and Martin Johnson Heade portray images of the Catskills, the Adirondacks, White Mountain, West Point, Lake George, Niagara Falls, Yosemite, Mammoth Cave and South America. They expressed their sense of the sublime, the spiritual dimensions of nature, reflecting the grandeur of God’s creation. The towering mountains and vistas of valleys and rivers are accentuated by the presence of human figures, who are dwarfed by their surroundings. The tiny figures at the base of Niagara Falls give the perspective of the size of the natural features. Thomas Cole’s epic five-painting series, The Course of Empire traces the evolution of a great civilization from an untamed landscape to its ultimate decay into ruin. Nature eventually reclaims its territory from the hubris of humanity. He reminds us that all empires rise and fall in due time. This is the theme of Psalm 2 used by Handel in The Messiah to express the futility of those in power to seek to oppose God’s saving will and purpose in Jesus.

“Why do the nations conspire and all the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.”

Why is it that people think that they can go against God’s will and purpose in their lives? Why is it that people in powerful positions in politics, business, media, the arts and entertainment, or the neighborhood egotist and bully, think that they can plot blasphemy and hatred, and take their stand against the Lord and his Anointed One, the Christ? Can they never learn from history that you can’t win against God? We are puny, tiny, insignificant creatures in comparison with God and his grandeur. Percy Shelley expressed this his famous poem Ozymandias.

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

God laughs at such hollow hubris. “Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, ‘I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill… etc. etc.’”

The early Christians understood what God was doing. After Peter and John were released from prison for preaching the Gospel they prayed,

“Sovereign Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage…etc.etc.” Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the people in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:23-30)

People conspire against Jesus, against the Anointed One, against the will and purpose of God, and think that they can get away with it. They conspire against Christ by indifference, by neglect, by pride, by contempt and by busyness. Pilate sent Jesus to King Herod, who hoped to see him perform some miracle. “He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer…. Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him.” (Luke 23:8-12) Jesus had nothing to say to Herod. What an indictment! Herod had made his choice. He had John the Baptist executed on a whim at his birthday. He doomed himself by his treatment of Jesus. “Here is Hell, self-made, personal, chosen.” (E.M Blaiklock)

We may have many questions of God. We may think that we have the upper hand, that we have right on our side, that we deserve an answer to our complaints. We may threaten the Lord that we will withhold our loyalty if he does not perform some miracle for us. I would not presume upon the Divine Majesty too much if I were you. We are insignificant compared to his Grandeur. We should not get too high and opinion of ourselves. We know so little. We don’t see the whole picture. We have severely limited knowledge of what God is doing through the events of our lives. We should beware of getting to the point of impudently or insolently plying Jesus with many questions that we are met with stony silence: “Jesus gave him no answer.” (John 19:9) “The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes then in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath.” (Psalm 2:4,5)

Pontius Pilate was a coward, who surrendered Jesus to the mob led by the local leaders. He chose the easy way out of having to exercise Roman justice by appeasing the crowd, the latest opinion poll, the headlines, government by bread and circuses. He had Jesus flogged. He preferred to release Barabbas, a known terrorist, than the gentle preacher of the kingdom of heaven. He found no basis for a charge against Jesus, but facts could not stand against popularity with the public.  “What is truth?” Pilate asked of Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He could not recognize the truth that was standing in front of him. We cannot see the truth even though it may be staring us in our eyes. People prefer to go with the crowd – to follow the trends – to choose known immoralists who live promiscuous and selfish lives in the celebrity culture, rather than the healer of men’s souls and bodies. They grab at the latest fad, the latest guru, the latest trendsetter, the latest flash and bang to distract them from having to face up to the inevitability of accountability and personal responsibility in the face of God.

“Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way.” “Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you.” (James 4:10)

When we think we are in control of our lives, and are self-sufficient and independent, God laughs at us for our ignorance and stupidity. Herod and Pontius Pilate behaved as if they were in control, but they ended up doing what God’s power and will had decided beforehand should happen. We either work with God or we work against God, but God’s will and purpose will be done in the end. It is better to seek his will for our lives, to pray that we may speak with great boldness and that we may see miraculous signs and wonders before our very eyes. “Seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

Are you up against something big in your life – a Herod or a Pontius Pilate – an illness, loss of loved one, financial challenge, loneliness, addiction, resentment, guilt, anxiety or fear? See that God is much, much bigger than they and laughs them to scorn. Face them with boldness and the power of prayer. Do you have this perspective on your life? Have you surrendered to the will and purpose of God? Don’t let the laugh be on you. Laugh with God at the pretensions of unbelief.

A chorus I learned years ago still rings true:

God is still on the throne

And he will remember his own.

His promise is sure,

He will remember you.

God is still on the throne.

 (Excerpted from Ted Schroder, SOUL FOOD, Vol.3, 279-282)