Surprised by Grace (25): Reconciliation

Almost all have seen the scene.

A young blonde was offered to King Kong.
All villagers hid away, watching.
Then King Kong appeared.
Took the girl.
Happy, King Kong left the village.

Villagers danced happily.
It worked!
King Kong appeased his anger.
Safe for another year.

Same script is replicated in multiple myths and various cultures.
It runs true almost always:
*Humans irritated deity.
*Humans offered sacrifice.
*Deity anger placated.
*Humans enjoyed peace.

There has never been any protest of injustice.
Why of course, humans are in a weak bargaining position.
The only expected response is submission.
Just offer the sacrifice.

It would be a surprise to see KingKong put up a sacrifice to appease humans!

Unless grace is real.

Then there is this rarely used Greek word “reconcile” used precisely in an absurd scenario:

And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18 NET) .

The word is typically used in accounting field.
It is commonly known to refer to balancing the columns of plus and minus, of in and out, and debit and credit.

It is also used in religious realm.
Exactly the way used in the King Kong scene and all myths.

So what Paul says in 2 Cor 5 above goes against the grain.
It describes an unthinkable and surprising scenario.

God offering up to make peace with humans!

That’s what Paul goes on to describe fully in the next verse:
“In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Cor 5:19 NET)

The picture is so unthinkable as to becoming absurd.
Unless of course if the world can tolerate surprise.
Surprise of grace.