Climax to The Greatest Story Ever Told

Climax To The Greatest Story Ever Told Part 3

"As You command, my King," the demon-king mocked. His voice dripped with sarcasm. Still, Christ could tell that behind the show of bravado, Lucifer had had to respond to His command.

"And this is how you appear before Me?" Christ was serious and deadly cool. "Twice My height and hard to look at? Are you trying to scare Me? You, of all people, should know only too well how truly terrifying I can be."

"Not when You're like this," the demon retorted. "You're in my domain, now, and have been ever since You took on human flesh. You're not so high and mighty now and You know it. One wrong step..." He sneered menacingly, making sure to punctuate those last three words. His fingers twitched with glee. "Though how You manage to prove so difficult to trap even in Your current state remains a mystery to me..."

Christ exhaled wearily and shook His head, eyeing His misguided opponent. "You still don't understand, do you? Have you learnt nothing all this time?"

"I can't say I understand what You mean," the demon king replied in a syrupy tone. "After all, Your thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are my ways Your ways, right, Master? As high as the heavens are from the earth, so high are You above us," Lucifer spat half-mockingly, half-enviously. "Those were Your own words."

"Why must you delight in playing smart with Me?" Christ responded calmly. "You know very well what I mean. You knew it in the beginning and you know it now. But if even now, after all that's happened between then and the present, you still choose to close your eyes to the light and abandon your ability to know and understand the reason behind all this, then I have nothing more to say to you."

"Oh, come now!" the demon king growled. "Oh Great Omniscient One..." he spat. "Don't give me that! You're such a conceited bigot! What are You on about this time?"

Christ merely looked the poor creature in the eye and gripped His sword, taking an attacking stance. He knew a lost cause when He saw one. He would not waste time by continuing this pointless discussion. The Lucifer He had created all those ages ago had all but disappeared completely. This person before Him—Satan—was a mere shadow of what he had been as Lucifer. But even this shadow knew enough to understand perfectly what Christ was referring to. Stubbornness and delusions of grandeur coupled with a sincere belief that he could actually achieve the impossible feat of defeating God Almighty had blinded and driven this creature beyond the point of all help.

It wasn't that he would not be forgiven if he were to turn from his foolishness this very minute. Of course he would be. How can perfect, divine Love ever hold a grudge in bitterness for all eternity? Is Love so shallow that it could ever fail to forgive; and would that not, if it were ever to come to pass, be more akin to Hatred than to Love?

But what if the beloved willfully, constantly and stubbornly resisted any and all attempts at forgiveness and reconciliation? What then?

You can bring the horse to the water but you can't make him drink.

Well, you could, by putting salt on its tongue, some would tell you; by making it want to drink. He was God. He could easily enforce a change of will in anyone and anything. He would need no permission. And He would have no obligations to achieve it with finesse or subtlety. But wouldn't that defeat the purposes of Love itself? Would you really be getting what you wanted if every time you wanted the horse to drink you had to force him?

How can Love force the beloved to love it in return? Would that not be mere robotics, and not love? Like making an android and programming it to tell you it loves you several times a day. That would prove meaningless; for, though the creature could say the word "LOVE", it would understand nothing of its meaning or its value and would indeed be incapable of either giving or receiving love. No, in the end love had to spring from choice. Love could only exist where freedom lived.