He Did It All

 

Photo from history.com

I recently read an article about a statue that went through a CT scan. They discovered in the scan that the statue is what is referred to as a "living Buddha"; the Buddha statue was formed around a mummified human being.

The man whose remains are inside this statue went through a 10-year process of self-mummification. For ten years he slowly starved his body by eating only nuts, berries, tree bark, and pine needles in increasingly smaller and smaller portions. He ate herbs, cycad nuts, and sesame seeds to decrease the amount of bacteria in his body. He drank a poisonous tree sap to embalm himself and repel insects. 

After a decade of this he was buried alive in an underground chamber where he sat in the lotus position and chanted, breathing through a bamboo pine. Each day he would ring a bell to signal that he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the chamber was sealed for three years.

After three years his body was removed and completely mummified. This man's body was then taken to a temple and revered because the self-mumification was successful. However, most men who attempted this process, at least 75-90% of them, failed to self-mummify. Those bodies were exorcised and reburied. This man is the only mummified monk that has ever been found in a statue. 

When I read this article, it made me really sad. This man spent the last years of his life focusing on how to possibly preserve his body through a process that has a 75-90% failure rate...all because he thought it was what his god wanted him to do.

What could he have been doing with himself those last 10 years instead? How many people could he have loved? Who could he have helped or served? What kind of joy could he have experienced if he was nurturing himself well instead of starving himself?

I obviously don't know all of his story, but I can't help but contrast it with what God asked of Abram in Genesis 15. 

This story has always been a bit of a headscratcher for me. The first six verses are pretty easy to understand, but after that I have gone through the rest of the chapter and wondered what the significance of it is. I am currently reading Rediscovering Israel by Kristi McLelland and she explains how this covenant ceremony works and what it means.

God asks Abram to take three large animals and cut them in half. He also has him kill two birds and dig a ditch between the halves of animals and the birds to catch the blood. Abram does this and keeps the vultures away from the carcasses until nightfall. Then God puts Abram into a deep sleep, takes the form of cloud and fire, and then passes between the animal pieces. 

This ceremony is a covenant ceremony that is actually practiced in the middle east today, though it is not as common now as in was in Abram's day. The lesser party of the covenant is the one who brings the animals. He kills them and creates a sort of aisle with their bodies. When he passes between the carcasses, walking through the blood, he is saying to the greater party, "If I break my covenant with you, may I be as these dead animals".

This is actually where the tradition of a bride and groom waking down an aisle to make vows to each other stems from. I'm glad we walk on flower petals now-a-days instead of blood, but I wish the vows were taken as seriously as they were then!

Back to our story: What does God ask of Abram? A small sacrifice (we know he was very rich, so five animals out of his many was not a big deal). A little obedience (I'm sure it wasn't pleasant to keep watch over those dead animals all day, but it was only one day). And then what? God puts Abram to sleep (doesn't sound like it was a pleasant sleep, but it was sleep none-the-less). And GOD, who was certainly not the lesser party in this covenant, is the one to pass through the aisle of blood. Why did He do that?

God knew everything that was to come. He knew that Abram and his descendants were not going to keep up their side of the covenant. He knew that they would fail Him, would blatantly disobey His commands over and over again. And yet He was willing to pass through and pledge His undeserved faithfulness to them. And He lovingly arranged it so Abram was not able to make a vow that he could not keep.

Ladies, this is amazing! It's beautiful. And it's humbling. 

Because He does the same thing for us!

He doesn't ask us to torture ourselves to please Him. He doesn't want us to destroy ourselves to become a memorial to Him. All He asks is a little sacrifice, and little obedience, and then He does the heavy lifting. Anyone who says that the God of the Old Testament is mean just doesn't understand Him. 

When God sent Jesus, He was proving that He was willing to risk EVERYTHING to have a relationship with us. All He wants us to do is accept His gift and enter a covenant with Him.

We don't have to torture ourselves to please Him, there is nothing we can do to earn God's love. We can never sacrifice enough to gain it. We will never be good enough and the beautiful thing is that we don't have to be, He gives it us freely! 

So rest in that love, dear one. 

Love,

Lee

https://www.history.com/articles/ct-scan-reveals-mummified-monk-inside-ancient-buddha-statueCT Scan Reveals Mummified Monk Inside Ancient Buddha Statue | HISTORY