The Oddity of Perfection - Part 1
Isn't it interesting that the number 7, which by divine estimation is the number of perfection, is in human estimation an "odd" number? You might say numbers by course of alternation, are either even or odd. And yet, it is indisputable that in this course of alternation, the lot of 7 has fallen to the "odd" category. My point in using this example of the perfect yet odd number 7 is to simply show this, that when something is considered as perfect (or in a state of being perfected) by God, it is more often than not considered as "odd" by people who do not have a yen for recognizing the perfect.
When the perfect Son of God and Son of Man walked this earth, He was not recognized as perfect. Instead, He was considered odd, very odd indeed. The people He came to save first, the Jews, esteemed Him “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4) His own family and the folk of his town thought at one point, that He had gone insane. When He was sentenced and then crucified by Roman authorities, they thought they were doing away with a criminal, a socially odd person. In all these cases, He who was perfection in the flesh was considered odd.
Perfection and Imperfect People
Perfection is a property of reality that evokes a sense of oddity. When imperfect people are confronted with perfection, it is beyond perception, beyond recognition. When we who are imperfect behold that which is perfect, we look at it through imperfect eyes, and with imperfect judgment conclude that it is odd. Naturally so, for without a frame of reference, imperfect people cannot recognize perfection.
For instance, if you bring an uncivilized Barbarian into a Renaissance art museum, and show him some of Michelangelo's sculptures, or a Rembrandt painting, and exclaim "Perfect!" he may think in his own thinking way, “How odd that this city man is looking at a piece of stone and calling it 'perfect.' ” Further, he may consider the storing of stones and rocks (which we call “sculptures”) in vaulted buildings, an odd practice. He has no frame of reference for perfection in western high art. You may say he has no “class.” I say he has not had a “class!” So give him one. Give him some time: educate him, enculturate him, display “perfection” of this sort before him regularly. Then bring him back after a few years, and you may find appreciation has been cultivated. He may then stand gazing with you, appreciative of Michelangelo's sculpture, David. Why?—Because now, a frame of reference has been built into his thinking. And now, though he may not be able to pull off a sculpture like Michelangelo's, he at least has a sense of the "perfect" in art. What was once odd in his estimation is now appealing. So perfection evokes a sense of oddity, in that what is truly perfect is viewed by imperfect people as odd, unless they have been exposed to and have experienced perfection for themselves.
What then does a person need in order to recognize the Perfect Man, Jesus, and to recognize imperfect men being made perfect? More importantly, why do we need to recognize the Perfect Man, and the process of perfection He carries out in people?
Continued in Part 2
© Kenny Damara, 2014
