Christology – Page 10 – What Does This Mean?

Sunday School: Capernaum

Encore Post: On the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, along the Roman road known as “the Way of the Sea,” the fishing village of Capernaum existed as a trading center during the 1st Century A.D. The apostles Simon and Andrew had moved there with their families to be near their fishing partners, Zebedee, James and John. The apostle Matthew also lived in town. His job as toll collector was likely practiced in a toll booth along the trade route.

The commander of the Roman army unit guarding the town, a centurion, lived in town as well. He was likely a God-fearer — a gentile who believed in the God of Israel, but who was not circumcised. He was the patron of the local synagogue, who paid for its construction and was well-loved by the residents of the village.

After Jesus began his ministry, he moved to Capernaum to make it a kind of headquarters for the Galilean phase of his earthly ministry. It was here he preached his first sermon, cast out demons and healed the sick, healed the servant of the beloved centurion and a paralytic lowered through the thatched roof of St. Peter’s house on his bed. Tradition places the Sermon on the Mount on the hillside near the village along the Sea of Galilee.

The ruins of the town were unearthed beginning early in the 20th Century. The floor of the synagogue in which Jesus preached and the likely location of the house of St. Peter have been uncovered and can be visited today.

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

Sunday School: The Temptation of Jesus

Encore Post: Just after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit sent Jesus into the desert alone for forty days to fast and pray prior to beginning to minister. The number forty was important to the Jewish people. Their ancestors wandered in the desert for forty years. Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days in the desert. God kept Noah and his family safe in the ark for forty days. For them, the number forty stood for a period of testing.

For us, the temptation of Jesus is wonderful. He could have blown Satan away. But He chose to face temptation in a way that we can face temptation. He quoted the will of God from the Scriptures. In God’s Word is the power to overcome the Devil — and the world and our flesh, too. The Scripture calls on us to pray to a Lord who was tempted in every way the way we are, except that He did not sin. Because He faced temptation as a human, we know He understands us and is ready to help.

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

Sunday School: Baptism of Jesus

Encore Post: On the First Sunday after Epiphany, the Church celebrates the day that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.(Matthew 3:13-17) The baptism that John performed was for the forgiveness of sins, so it puzzled John. Why would the sinless Son of God need to be baptized? Jesus told him it was “fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) Like the scapegoat and the Passover Lamb of the Old Testament, John called him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. “(John 1:29)

So, when we go into the waters of Holy Baptism, Jesus washes away our sins (Ephesians 5:26-27) These sins he took upon himself at his baptism and carried them to the cross. When he died, we died to our old life. When he rose, we rose with him to new life. Our sins were forgiven and we need sin no more. (Romans 6:3-11)

When Jesus came out of the water, God the Father spoke from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) The Holy Spirit also appeared in the form of a dove that landed on Jesus. An appearance of God in this world is called a theophany. At the Baptism of Jesus, all three persons on the Trinity appear in our world. In the readings for the Church Year, the season of Epiphany begins with this theophany and concludes by celebrating another — the Transfiguration.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: The Holy Family Moves to Egypt

Encore Post: King Herod the Great is a figure that the Jews have mixed feelings about. He was not Jewish, although his family converted to Judaism and he was raised in that faith. He ruled because the Romans appointed him King of the Jews. He adopted a Graeco-Roman life style. In many ways, he represented everything they hated.

Yet Herod built many things that improved the lives of the Jews greatly, including its only Mediterranean port — Caesarea Maritima. His most important project was the rebuilding of the temple into its most glorious form. He was also ruthless. He killed anyone he even imagined threatened his throne, including his sons and favorite wife. A joke going around Rome at the time was that it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son. It takes little imagination to believe that he killed all of the young males in Bethlehem.

It is no wonder, then, that the arrival of the wise men from Persia upset Jerusalem, asking for the newborn King of the Jews. The talk of the Messiah was a real problem for him. This kind of thing could provide a focus for those who would rebel against him and Rome. His offer to worship the young child rings hollow to anyone who knew him.

Matthew tells us that the wise men were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Ancient wisdom valued dreams and so they paid attention to it. For Joseph, a man named after the most famous interpreter of dreams in the Bible, the appearance of an angel in a dream for a second time moved him to act. He quickly took his family to Egypt.

A Jewish family moving to Egypt was not unusual. For centuries, the Greek rulers of Egypt were patrons of the Jewish people. Legend tells us that the second such king had commissioned the Septuagint — the Greek translation of the Bible used by Jesus and his disciples. A larger population of Jews lived in Alexandria at that time than in Jerusalem. As it turned out, they didn’t have to stay long. Herod died just a few months after he killed the innocent boys of Bethlehem. Matthew tells us the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus’ life would repeat the history of the people of Israel in one person.

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

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Sunday School: The Presentation of our Lord

Encore Post: Childbirth was an exciting and frightening event at the time of Jesus. Many children and their mothers died soon after a birth. When both mother and child survived the ordeal, God’s law required male children to be circumcised on the eighth day following their birth. After forty days — when the greatest danger to the life of the mother and the child had passed, they were to present themselves at the temple to make a sacrifice. For the woman, this sacrifice made her clean again and able to return to worship God.

During the time of Jesus, rabbis gathered in the temple in the court of the women, the closest to the Holy of Holies, a woman was allowed to go. They would take each child in their arms and bless them. So it was that the Holy Spirit directed Simeon to Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. The Spirit revealed to Simeon that Jesus was the coming Messiah. By the prophecy given to Him, Simeon pointed to Jesus’ mission to save both Jews and Gentiles and to the cross. Simeon’s song of joy is still sung by the church in worship.

Anna was a prophetess, like Miriam and Deborah, one of very few women God used to speak to His people. She likely served in the temple to help with a variety of tasks. In her devotion to God, she also saw Jesus and had the privilege of telling everyone that the Messiah had come.

On February 2, the Church celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the temple and the singing of Simeon’s song, known as the Nunc Dimittis. We also sing this song every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: Mary and the Angel

Encore Post: In the small town of Nazareth, not far from the Sea of Galilee, the Angel Gabriel appeared a second time. He visited a young girl, likely about twelve to fourteen years old. Mary of Nazareth was preparing for her marriage. Her parents and Joseph’s parents had likely arranged their wedding years before.

Like all the Jewish families in the area, her ancestors had settled there when God’s people won their independence from the Greek rulers of Syria about one hundred and fifty years before. They were from David’s town of Bethlehem, near to Jerusalem, and descended from King David. She was related to Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah, to whom Gabriel had appeared just six months earlier.

Just as startled as Zechariah, Mary responded very differently. The elderly priest had doubted God’s word, sent by his messenger. If anything, the message brought to her was even harder to believe. She was a virgin, and she knew what everyone knew — it takes a man and a woman to conceive a baby. However, she did not doubt the word of God’s angel. She didn’t even ask why. She asked how. When told the Holy Spirit would cast his shadow over her, as he did in the beginning, over the face of the deep, she consented. “I am God’s slave,” she said. “Let it be.” And it was. The eternal Son, God of God, Light of Light, became a baby in her womb.

She would treasure this visit it her heart. She would need that strength. Difficult days lay ahead. Her Joseph would doubt. Wouldn’t you if your beloved said, “Good news! We will have a baby. No, obviously he’s not yours. He’s God’s son. An angel told me!” He would plan to divorce her until an angel appeared to him. A Jewish man named Joseph knew better than to doubt dreams!

Yet it meant the first century equivalent of a shot-gun wedding, whispered gossip in the shadows, a quick visit to cousin Elizabeth until everything calmed down and long, uncomfortable walks while very pregnant. Yet God’s word was enough for her. She was blessed to bear and raise God’s Son. He would suffer and die while she watched. Yet she knew what his name meant: he would save his people from their sins. She would indeed be blessed — and honored by God’s people as the Mother of God himself.

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

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Sunday School: Angel in the Temple

Encore Post: Four Hundred years had passed since the prophet Malachi spoke to God’s people. God had been silent all those years, but had not been idle. Now an elderly priest named Zechariah was chosen to burn incense in the Holy Place of the temple, right outside the Holy of Holies. The Angel Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God himself appeared to Zechariah to announce the miraculous birth of a son. He was to be named John (God’s gift) and would fulfill Malachi’s last prophecy to send a herald to prepare the way of the Messiah. The last time this angel appeared, he brought dreams to Daniel.

You’d think Zechariah, who should have known better, would accept the news that he would have a son with joy. Yet that, like Abraham, he would have a child in his old age, when he was barren, was too much. Gabriel punished him by taking his voice until the day his son was to be circumcised.

When John was born, his relatives asked Zachariah what name to give his son. Zechariah wrote on a Roman wax tablet, “His name is John.” Then the silence of God was broken. Zechariah prophesied about the coming salvation and the role his son would play. We sing this prophecy in the liturgy of morning prayer. It is called the Benedictus. This old priest was, therefore, the second last prophet of the Old Testament. His son, who we know as John the Baptist, would be the last and greatest.

John the Baptist had almost all the credentials to be the Messiah. His Father was a priest, descended from Aaron. His mother was related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and so descended from King David. Gabriel the Archangel announced his birth in the temple, while his father was offering the prayers of the people to God. Both of his parents were very old, like Abraham and Sarah, and barren, like Hannah, the mother of Samuel. God named him in the same way he named Isaac and changed Jacob’s name to Israel. The angel announced he would come in the spirit and power of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets. Yet from the very start, he and his parents understood John was not the Messiah, but the one who would reveal him to the world and prepare the way for him.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: Prophets Told of Jesus Coming

Encore Post: A prophet is someone who speaks for God. In the Old Testament, God called many individuals to serve as His voice among the people of Israel. While we think of a prophet as someone who predicts the future, mostly a prophet preached to God’s people, calling them to repentance and bringing a word of comfort to them. Once in a long while, a few prophets would see into the future and tell God’s people what God was going to do.

The Messiah would be a descendant of Eve, whom Satan would kill, but who would defeat Satan. (Genesis 3:15) He would be born of a virgin. (Isaiah 7:14) in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). The Messiah would be a descendant of David and called God. (Isaiah 9:6-6) He would be crucified as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53:4-12)

As important as the prophets were, Jesus is the greater than all of them. He was a prophet like Moses. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19) The writer of Hebrews tells us that “in many and various ways, God spoke in ancient times through the prophets, but now in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.” Prophets spoke the word of God, but Jesus was the Word of God. When we hear Jesus, we hear the Father, when we see Jesus, we see the Father. When we want to know what God is like, we look at Jesus.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: Three Men in the Furnace — or is it Four?

Encore Post: Ancient peoples looked upon their leaders as lesser gods, worthy of worship. They built statues to honor themselves and required all people to worship them. This practice continued even in Roman times to the pagan Caesars. It was seen as a patriotic act, similar to saying the pledge of allegiance and saluting the flag. From time to time, kings would enforce public worship of their statues or the statues of their gods to test the loyalty of their subjects.

For Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, loyalty to God was more important than life itself. They trusted God could deliver them and placed full trust in Him. Yet they were prepared for God to take them to His side instead. God sent his Son as the Angel of the Lord to protect His servants in the fire. The writer of the book of Hebrews included these men in the great chapter on faith. (Hebrews 11:32-34) Christian martyrs throughout the centuries looked up to these men for inspiration when called to choose between God and country.

Faith is trusting God to keep his promises. It holds on to the fact that God kept the most important of his promises to his people in the Old Testament. In the person of the Son of God, he became a man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, lived a perfect life for us, suffered and died at the hands of a pagan government, rose again from the grave and ascended to heaven. Because he has done these things, we are certain that he will keep the rest of his promises — to bring us to be with him forever when we die and raise us from the grave on the last day. It is that faith that sustained Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, their friend Daniel, all the martyrs for the faith who obeyed God rather than man. With them numbered may we be, here and in eternity.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: King Hezekiah Celebrates Passover

Encore Post: Every year, Jewish people celebrate Passover. This festival remembers the time when God freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea to safety. It remembers the night when God commanded their ancestors to sacrifice a lamb, place its blood on their doorposts, roast and eat the lamb with unleavened bread and prepare to leave Egypt. That evening, God sent the Angel of Death through the land to kill the firstborn son of every Egyptian from the Pharaoh to the lowest slave. When the Angel saw the blood on a doorpost, he passed over the home.

When the father of King Hezekiah died and he became king of Judah, he resolved to restore the worship of God according to the traditions of his ancestors David and Solomon. (2 Chronicles 29-30) His father had neglected the worship of God and allowed the people to worship the gods of other nations. King Hezekiah ordered the priests and Levites to perform the rituals commanded by Moses to make themselves holy, to cleanse the temple and make it holy according to the rules set down by Moses, Solomon and David. He ordered a large scale sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people and restore regular prayers and sacrifices there. Because the priests were caught by surprise by this, not enough of them were ready.

Eager to celebrate Passover again, Hezekiah and the people decided to celebrate it late — in the second month rather than the first (April into May) They invited everyone in Israel, including the survivors of the invasion of Assyria in the conquered northern kingdom of Israel. They people celebrated so joyfully, they decided to extend it to a second week.

For Christians, Jesus is the Passover Lamb, whose blood saves us from eternal death. In the Lord’s Supper, He gives us His body with the bread and blood with the wine. In it we receive the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. So we celebrate it with joy, because God set us free.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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