Catechesis – Page 2 – What Does This Mean?

The Right Hand of God

Encore Post:

[Thirty-First in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

In ancient palaces, a ruler exercised power in a very formal way. He would enter the throne room with a herald going before him. All would bow to him and yet watch his every move, every gesture, and listen carefully to every word. His crown identified him as a ruler. The session began when he sat down on his throne. In fact, the word “session” literally means “the time of sitting.” Those who stood near him were very powerful people. Only those of equal power would sit in his presence — especially at his right hand. So, the right hand of the ruler became a figure of speech that stands for his authority, glory, and honor.

When we say that Jesus “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty,” we confess that he is equal to the Father and is also almighty. (Matthew 28:18). This truth is precious to us for many reasons.

When Satan, the world, and our sinful nature try to rule over us, we can tell them to get lost. They do not rule us — Jesus does. When we baptize and teach others God’s Word, it is not our talents, reputation, or ability to impress others with our words that matter. The authority to do so comes from Jesus, and the power that changes hearts comes from him and the Holy Spirit. When we feel lonely, we are not alone, because he is with us always, until the end of time itself.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Christ is Risen!

Encore Post:

[Thirtieth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

Since ancient times, Christians have greeted each other on Easter with “He is risen!” or “Christ is risen.” The words of the angel to the women at the tomb (Mark 16:6) are still joyful to this day. In Lutheran churches, it is common for pastors to open sermons throughout the Easter season with these words. The greeting is repeated at the end of Lutheran burial services, reminding us of the resurrection. So, why does the resurrection strike such a chord with Christians? After all, the full price for our salvation was completed when Jesus died on the cross.

The reasons we cling to the Resurrection of Jesus are many. The most important thing is that the resurrection of our bodies is tied to it. In baptism, we die with Christ, and when he rose, we rise to new life. (Romans 6:3-4) If Jesus did not rise from the dead, we would remain in our graves. We would have believed in a lie. But Christ did rise from the grave, the first harvest of God’s children. (1 Corinthians 15:20) His resurrection broke the seal of the grave. On the last day, we will rise, body and soul, to live with Christ forever.

The resurrection of our Lord also fulfilled all the promises of God’s word and the predictions of Jesus himself. When he rose, he demonstrated that God’s promises are kept. The three days in the grave — Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Saturday evening — fulfilled these in great precision. So, with the Church of all times and places, we confess, “on the third day, he rose from the dead,” knowing that it makes our resurrection a sure and certain hope. So, we can face death, knowing it has no sting any longer.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

He Descended into Hell

Encore Post:

[Twenty-Nineth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

In the Apostles’ Creed, all the teachings we confess are pretty straightforward, so much so that we can explain them to children — except for one. “He descended into hell.” Most Christians have a hard time figuring out what it means. Was this a part of Christ’s suffering? Was he visiting the dead to preach the good news to them? The first doesn’t seem right, since Jesus’ last words were “it is finished” and “commit your soul to the Father.” The second seems off because Scripture says no one can come to faith after death.

These instincts are correct. Scripture tells us that after Jesus rose from the dead, he went to hell to announce his victory over sin and death to Satan, his demons, and the lost. (1 Peter 3:18-20) He defeated the devil and broke the power of sin and death over us. (Colossians 2:13-15) What this means for us is that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can stand up to the devil. “Scowl fierce as he will, he can harm us none.” (Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress“) In Jesus, we are more than conquerors, because he descended into hell.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

And He Suffered Under Pontius Pilate

Encore Post:

[Twenty-Eighth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

You say it every time you confess the Apostles’ Creed, “And He suffered under Pontius Pilate,” but what does saying it convey?

Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor who had authority over the use of the death penalty. That is a historical fact. And it is important to show that faith in Jesus Christ, as recorded in Holy Scripture, is historical. We can look at the historical record and see a governor named Pilate who served in Judea, and it was this man who gave the Jews the go-ahead to crucify Jesus. This is extremely important to acknowledge, but there are some important theological implications of reciting Pilate’s name as well in the Creed.

We remember from Holy Scripture that Pilate desired to release Jesus because Jesus had done nothing wrong. Certainly, Jesus did nothing that required the judgment of death by crucifixion. Pilate judged rightly that the Jews were bringing Jesus to him because they were jealous of him and how the people chased after him.

However, Jesus was before him, and he had to pass judgment. Because of his position as governor, his judgment was as if God spoke the judgment: “I find no fault in him at all.” And that right there is of great theological importance. Pilate, as governor, goes on record to say that an innocent man dies for the sins of the people. That is the Gospel proclamation. The innocent man receives the punishment of death while the sinner goes free. While Pilate wanted to release Jesus, he was getting nowhere with the people. The priests and scribes had caused a riot to break out. Pilate, being afraid, gave Jesus over to them that they might crucify him.

And in so doing, Pilate allowed the Chief Priests and the Scribes of the Jews to actually fulfill their duties as those who would sacrifice the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Yet, Christ is the Victim and the Priest on this Good Friday at the altar of the Cross.

Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was handed over to the ruthless Priests and Scribes for crucifixion, but facing the cross, Jesus did not blink, nor did he complain. But rather suffered under Pontius Pilate that we might be set free from the punishment of our sins and live with Him in everlasting life.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

It’s His Story

Encore Post:

[Twenty-Seventh in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

People love stories. From small children who beg to read the same book over and over again to adults who will go back to their favorite movie just to escape the moment for a while into another world. But it’s not just fiction that captures our imagination and emotions. Stories about real life help us make sense of everything. It tells us where we fit and gives meaning to life. In fact, history is really telling stories about the past.

Every religion tells a story about how the world began, what its gods did to make it that way, and how the world will come to an end. Most importantly, it tells what will happen to us. These stories are called by scholars myths or salvation histories. The Apostle’s Creed is THE salvation history — how God acts to save us.

The Second Article of the creed is all about Jesus. The story begins with Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary as a true man. Why did he do this? Because we were lost and condemned by our sin. So he redeemed us, not by gold and silver, but by his own blood, shed on the cross. Now we belong to him and will live with him forever. This story gives us a place to be, no matter how our lives fill with complicated plot twists. We can put up with it because we know how the story ends — we live happily ever after.

Most importantly, the Bible is his story. It is all about Jesus, the son of God.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

God Can Do Anything He Wants to Do

Encore Post:

[Twenty-Second in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

When we say that God is almighty, it seems simple enough. We can even explain it to a three-year-old: God can do anything he wants to do. Yet the more we think about it, that God is omnipotent, παντοκράτορ — all-powerful, the more we have trouble taking it all in. We get a sense of this when a child asks the snarky question, “Can God make a rock that he can’t lift?” or when an opponent of the faith asks the classic question, “What did God do before he made the world?” The questions normally get the answer they deserve: an equally silly response like: “he made hell, so he has a place to send people who ask such questions!”

Such questions point out that there is a limit to how much we can understand about our maker. They show what happens when we try to pit one quality (attribute) of God against another. So … For God, who is eternal, time does not exist. There is no before or after creation for him. He makes all the rules, so he doesn’t have to follow them. That’s what makes a miracle possible.

When it comes to what God cannot do, we are inclined to answer “Nothing.” After all, Jesus said, What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Lk 18:27). Yet the Book of Hebrews tells us, “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18), and St. Paul states that God “cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13), in short, God cannot act contrary to his nature. So, God does not want to do any of these things.

Why it is important that God is almighty is that he can—and does—keep his promises. To save those who rebelled against him, ruined and still ruins his perfect world. He did so by being born of a virgin, dying to pay for their sins, and rising again from the dead. On the day he chooses, he will call his children to rise from the dust to live with him forever. It means that he saves us and will bring an end to sin, death, and the devil. So we confess: “I believe in God, the Father almighty” and marvel at all he can do, wants to do, and will do for us.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Calling God our Father and Meaning it

Encore Post:

[Twenty-First in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

Calling God our father is second nature to Christians. After all, Jesus invites us to do so. We teach the Lord’s Prayer to our youngest children as their first prayer. So it may come as a surprise that it is unique among the world’s religions. Most religions hold their gods at a distance. The high god of native religions makes the world and goes away, leaving it to lesser spirits and humans. For Muslims, Allah is a strict, distant god. You must toe the line to please him. In Judaism, while God is seen as having a warm relationship with them, even to pronounce his name is considered disrespectful. For Hindus, Buddhists, and other Eastern religions, god is not a person at all. The universe is their god, and they see humans as gods in a real sense.

For Christians, however, God is very much a Father who loves us and is a part of our daily lives. The Father adopted us as his sons and heirs with Christ. He invites us to call him abba — daddy — and approach us the way a little child approaches her father.

When we confess God as Father, we claim he loves us, cares for us, wants to be with us now and forever. It is incarnational — a statement that God cares for us so much that in the person of his Son, he became a flesh-and-blood man, lived with us as one of us, suffered and died for us, and rose again for us. By doing so, he restored the relationship between himself and us. He is indeed our father and a model of what fatherhood is.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor
Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Three Ways God Cares for Us

Encore Post:

[Twentieth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

When we baptize a new Christian, we ask him to promise several things and to confess several things. Following the Church’s ancient tradition, we ask the candidate whether they believe what the creed proclaims. But we do this with three questions: “Do you believe in God the Father…?” “Do you believe in Jesus Christ…?” and “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit…? We do this because each person of the Holy Trinity has His own role in our life and salvation.

This is a bit of a mystery, since all three persons are involved in these acts of love for us, yet Scripture speaks of each having a distinct role. Rather than try to puzzle out how this is so, we rejoice that each person loves us in his own way.

Martin Luther, in his Small Catechism, calls each person’s work an article and speaks about them separately. He talks about the good news that God the Father created and provides for us, that God the Son redeems us through his own blood, and that the Holy Spirit makes us holy. This good news gives us joy, especially since we just considered his law in the Ten Commandments. We have been confronted by the fact of our sinfulness. Now we can have peace in the gospel of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

What’s a Creed, Anyway?

Encore Post:

[Nineteenth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

We say creeds together every time we worship together. We study them in confirmation and memorize two of them. They contain the basic teachings of Scripture that all Christians believe. Even Protestant churches that reject formal creeds cheerfully confess what they confess. But what are they, anyway?

The word creed comes from the Latin word credo, which means “I believe.” They are statements of what we know about God, especially the gospel. In one sense, they are salvation history — a statement of how God saved us and where we fit in his plan. They are short and sweet — something we can take with us forever.

While the Apostles did not write the creeds, the words and phrases reflect how the Bible proclaims the Gospel. When new Christians were taught the faith in the early Church, their teachers had them memorize short sentences and phrases that summed up what they believed. When they were baptized, they would recite them. Some of these are in the Bible. Here are a few:

“Hear, O Israel…” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
“There is one God… one Lord…” (1 Corinthians 8:6)
“Christ died for our sins…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
“Jesus Christ is Lord…” (1 Corinthians 12:3), (Philippians 2:11)

Over the past three hundred years, these statements have grown in size. Christians began to use the same words. In the 4th century, they developed into the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. They became ways for all Christians to know Jesus’ story and their place in it. When we recite the Creed, it reminds us of who we are and whose we are.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

God the Jealous God

Encore Post:

[Eighteenth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

In our tour of the Ten Commandments, we learned God wants more than just a casual keeping of his law. He wants our hearts and souls to match our behavior. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Of course, we know we cannot keep the law perfectly in this life, and God knows it, too. Jesus died to pay the price for our disobedience and to earn us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. So, why should we try at all to be good?

The reason is that sin has its consequences in this world and the next. When Adam and Eve sinned, sin multiplied and became a part of the lives of every one of their children. It brought with it death, sickness, disaster, grief, and pain. It destroyed the close relationship between people and between people and God. Since we were made to share our lives with God and each other, it harmed the very purpose for which we exist. It sin that God sent his Son to save us from, not to be a fire insurance policy against hell.

God describes his relationship with his people as a marriage. Sin amounts to being unfaithful with other gods, dividing our love for him by giving ourselves to others. So it is that God warns us in the First Commandment that he is a jealous God and there are consequences when we are unfaithful to him. (Exodus 20:5-6) God, in the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, breaks the power of sin and death in our lives. With prayer and the help of other Christians, we can fight back against these sins and sometimes even be free of them.

After all, God’s warning comes with a promise. It is not only sins that travel from generation to generation but also blessings. With the help of the Holy Spirit, when we establish habits of doing good — attending worship faithfully, praying with our children, reading God’s word to them, and caring for others, these, too, will be a part of their inheritance.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana