THE PALE GALILEAN
Galatians 3:1-3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with
the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
If they were completely
honest, many people would have to admit that God is to them an almost entirely
negative force in their lives. It is not merely that He provides that “gentle
voice we hear…which checks each fault,” but that His whole Nature seems to
deny, to cramp and inhibit their own. Though such people would never admit it,
they are living endorsements of Swinburne’s bitter lines:
Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean,
The world has grown grey from Thy breath.
Compared with their non-Christian
contemporaries their lives seem to have less life and color, less spontaneity
and less confidence. Their god surrounds them with prohibitions but he does not
supply them with vitality and courage. They may live under the shadow of his
hand but it makes them stunted, pale and weak. Although the thought would
appear blasphemous to his devotees, such a god is quite literally a blight upon
human life, and no one can be surprised that he fails to attract the loyalty of
those with spirit, independence, and a keen enjoyment of the color and richness
of life.
The words written above are a plan exposure of a false god, but of
course the unhappy worshippers never see their bondage as clearly as that or
they would break away. They are bound to their negative god by upbringing, by
the traditions of a Church or party, by the manipulation of isolated texts of
Scripture or by a morbid conscience. At last they actually feel that it is
wrong to be themselves, wrong to be free, wrong to enjoy beauty, wrong to
expand and develop. Unless they have their god’s permission they can do
nothing.