The Lamb who was slain

Chris Whittington writes:

The great seventh-century teacher of prayer St Isaac the Syrian understood the kingdom of heaven to mean the gift of contemplation, the gift of seeing clearly, of transfigured awareness. With this in mind, we might look again at when Jesus was asked when the kingdom of God would come, as if it wasn’t here and might suddenly appear at the right time in the future. He answered, ‘The coming of the Kingdom cannot be observed, and no one will announce, “Look, here it is,” or, “There it is.” For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17.20–21, NAB). 

It’s easy to pass over how deeply challenging Jesus’ answer was. It’s equally easy to overlook the life-changing invitation wrapped within his words. The kingdom is not going to ‘come’, because it’s already present, within us. The kingdom cannot be observed by the thinking, conceptualizing mind. Just as the eye which sees cannot see itself, the kingdom cannot be made into an object of awareness, because it is that which sees, awareness itself – pristine, luminous, the imageless image of God. The kingdom of awareness cannot be observed by the discursive, conceptualizing mind, but it can be known by the heart, by means of a simple, loving intention. At this threshold the mind must fall silent, and allow love to carry us over. 

The Missing Peace, p.26

Awareness is the very heart of the contemplative life, and the means by which it is lived; and yet, as Whittington points out so clearly here, it cannot be seen or touched by rational inquiry. 

Early in his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul writes:

He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.  

(Colossians 1:15-20 NRSV) 

If this is so, then Christ crucified stands at the metaphysical core of existence itself: the cross runs all through that is as dye tints the whole body of water to which it is added. More than that: it was not "added", it was there since the beginnings of time itself. The crucifixion is not merely an event that occurred in around 33AD; it is fundamental to the Istigkeit itself, the very ground of being itself. Christ is "the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world." (Revelation 13:8 NIV)

These things cannot be calculated or established by analysis: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8 NRSV). The awareness of what is, of the ground of all becoming, can only be known by unknowing, so that the eyes of the heart may open in the stillness; for "Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:11 NRSV).