Christology – Page 15 – What Does This Mean?

Understanding an Unknowable God

“We believe in one God… And in one Lord Jesus Christ… God of God…” the Christian church confesses every Sunday. We love God, worship him, study his word and meditate on it. We want to understand God, but no matter how hard we try, one God in three Persons does not make sense to us. And that is a good thing, too.

God is our Creator, so there is always something about him we will not comprehend.( Romans 11:33-36) Because God knows this, he spoke to us in the Bible and revealed himself to us in his son.(Hebrews 1:1-2) He tells us exactly what we should know about him in our language and in ways we can understand. The trouble comes when we try to put it all together with human reason, which is limited by time and place. This will happen every time we deeply consider God’s qualities and characteristics. (His attributes) if you find you fully understand an attribute of God — worry. You are likely making over God in your image.

The way to come to peace with these limits is to believe exactly what the Bible tells us — even if it seems you can’t logically believe all of it at the same time. For example, the Bible tells us there is one God, but three persons are God, that Jesus is both God and man at the same time, that we are saved because God chose us before he made the world, but if we end up in hell, it is because we turned our axis on God and walked away from him. Because God Himself says all these things are so, we can believe them all and be at peace.

What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

Encore Post: God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, hovered over the dark chaos before the world began. (Genesis 1:2) When God the Father spoke and God the Son acted, He joined in the work of laying the foundation of the Creation. With the Father and the Son, he deliberated the creation of man and woman. (Genesis 1:26-27) Sent by the Father and the Son, he inspired the prophets to speak and to write the Holy Scriptures and spoke through them.

When the time was right, (Galatians 4:4-5) the Holy Spirit came to the Virgin Mary and conceived in her womb the Son of God Made flesh. (Luke 1:35) With the Father, he witnessed the baptism of the beloved Son — the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (Matthew 3:13-17, John 1:29 ) It was the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to send to us. He saves us through the hearing of the Gospel and the waters of baptism. He is our companion and counselor. He leads us to know the truth (John 16:13). He lives inside of everyone who trusts in Christ. (Romans 8:9-11, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Timothy 1:13-14) More than that, when we pray, he prays with us. When we cannot pray, he intercedes for us.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd

God tells us He is our Shepherd. He tends his flock, leads them to green pastures and still waters, guards them from danger, dresses their wounds, carries their lambs and is always with them. (Isaiah 40:11) This imagery is so powerful that, in ancient times, Kings often compared themselves to shepherds as well.

In the Middle East, shepherds often build a common sheep pen for their town. They would build a wall to keep the sheep from wandering away and to keep wolves and other predators from attacking them. A watchman would guard the gate or door to the pen so that only shepherds could enter. This discouraged thieves. When a shepherd was ready to feed his sheep, he would go into the pen and call them by name. They recognized the voice of the man who cared for them and would follow. He’d take them to good, green pastures and nice, quiet waters. (Psalm 23) He would protect them from wild animals, often doing battle with them, as King David describes what he did as a young shepherd. He would risk his life to save his sheep. (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. (John 10:1-18) He calls us by name. He leads us, guides us, corrects us and comforts us with his word. He gives us living water to drink and washes us clean in the waters of Holy Baptism. He feeds us with his own body and blood in his own supper. He appoints assistant shepherds to help feed us, protect us and guide us. He gave his life for us, his sheep. He will be with us always, even to the end of time itself, when he will lead us home, where we will live in his house forever. A Good Shepherd indeed.

When was Jesus Born?

Encore Post: In the Western world, the way we number our years is based on the year Jesus was thought to be born. The years before that time are called B.C. — Before Christ. ( Non-Christians, especially scholars call it B.C.E. — Before the Common Era). Years after that date are called A.D. — Anno Domini — the Year of Our Lord, (Non-Christians call it C.E. — the Common Era). The system was devised by monk Dionysius Exiguus In 525 AD to depart from the system developed by pagan emperors and last revised by the great persecutor of Christians — Diocletian. It supplanted a system based on the year of the reign consuls, emperors or kings.

The problem: most historians believe that Herod the Great died in 4 BC. The tyrant was very much alive when Jesus was born. Using other clues from the Evangelist Luke’s dating of events in the life of Jesus, Dr. Paul L. Maier, scholar of ancient history and Lutheran apologist, believes Jesus was born in 5 BC. Not too far off given Dionysius Had no tools of modern historical research.

Jesus’ actual birthday is not known. Jews of first century AD did not celebrate their birthdays. The big celebration was a male’s circumcision eight days after birth. In fact, Christians did not celebrate the birth of Christ until the 4th Century, after Christianity became the official religion of Rome. The date was selected in relation to the Resurrection, which was celebrated from the very start of the faith.

In the ancient world, a perfect human being was thought to die on the day of his conception. So the church reasoned the incarnation happened on the Spring Equinox, the day when daylight and night are the same length — 12 hours. In Ancient times, that was March 25. In the same way, a perfect human being was thought to remain in his mother’s womb exactly nine months. So, they reasoned he would be born on the shortest day of the year — December 25th.

The church made much of the date. The pagans celebrated the day of the unconquerable Sun, worshiping it as a god. From that day on, it seemed to grow ever stronger. So the church celebrated a service — a Mass– of Christ on that day to displace it. From that date grew the seasons of Advent and Christmas in the church calendar.

Luke’s Musical

Encore Post: St. Luke wrote his Gospel and the Book of Acts in polished, carefully constructed Greek. The Introductions to both books are in well-balanced, formal language, like the best of ancient classical history. But when he begins the story of Jesus, he writes in the Greek of the Septuagint — the translation of the Old Testament read in the synagogues where Jesus and his disciples grew up. It would be like reading a novel that starts in New York, writing with a Brooklyn accent, and, when the scene changes to Dallas, it speaks with a Texas twang and vocabulary.

As Luke weaves the story, he recalls several canticles — New Testament psalms really — sung by various persons in it. The result is much like a modern musical. The Church picked up on this. We sing them in worship and have done so for more than 1600 years.

Called by the first few words of these songs in Latin, they are:

Mary’s song, the Magnificat. We sing it during Vespers.

Zechariah’s song, the Benedictus, sung in morning services.

The Christmas Angel’s song, the Gloria, sung in the Divine Service — When the Lord’s Supper is served.

And Simeon’s Song, the Nunc Dimmitis, also sung during Divine Service.

These songs of joy, celebrating the births of the Messiah and the prophet who announced him are now our songs, too, not just at Christmas, but the whole year.

The Word of God Changes Everything

Encore Post: A good book, a great movie, a stirring song or a work of great art — all of these have the power to take you away to another place, another time, worlds away from day-to-day life. You can escape into them and find an energy there to face life for a little while longer. Yet even the best of them, even the most inspiring, do not change your world at all. Everything is still where you left it and you have to go on.

The Bible is different. It is not just any other book. It is like no other book. The Bible is God’s Word, breathed out by his Holy Spirit in the same way that God created the world. (1 Timothy 3:15-17) By God’s Word, the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts. (Romans 10:14-17, John 20:30-31) This faith takes hold of the promises of Holy Scripture, trusts the Gospel it hears when the Bible is read and lives by it. (Romans 1:16-17)

This is the reason why Christians have read the Bible in every worship service since Christ founded it and why the Hebrew and Jewish believers before them have read and meditated upon it for 3500 years. Great literature and works of wisdom authored by human skill can be very helpful to us when we want to understand the world and God who made it. These writings can just as easily confuse us, faith to provide insight and often completely mislead us. They often miss the mark when they assume that by our wits, we can understand God. But we cannot.

Because Holy Scripture is God’s own message, it can be trusted to be true, where every other message can fail us. It teaches us when we do not know what to do. It is eternal and never-changing and so is a solid base on which to build our lives. It helps us see through the complications and confusion of life in a sin-filled world. The Word of God changes things, reviving our souls, giving us joy in times of depression and comfort in times of grief. (Psalm 19)

The very center of the message that the Scripture proclaims is the Cross. God saw us lost in our sins and loved us. Not willing to see us die forever, He came to seek us, find us, lay down his life to save us. In Jesus, he took all our sin and guilt upon us. As the Lamb of God bore it all away. On the cross, he paid the full debt due because of it. Rising from the grave, he broke the power of sin, death and the devil forever. That is why we gladly hear the Word of God, give thanks to him for it, and use its power to obey it and serve him gladly.

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

Jesus Establishes the Holy Ministry

Encore Post: “As the father has sent me so I send you,” said Jesus. (John 20:20-23) The Father sent Jesus not to be served but to serve and to give his life for ransom for many.(Mark 10:43-45) He sent his son to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) Jesus then, in turn, sent his disciples to continue his ministry.

In every generation, Jesus calls men to seek out those who do not have faith in Christ, to offer the forgiveness of sins life and salvation, and to make them a part of God’s Kingdom. These men are his ambassadors, proclaiming the good news of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:19-21) Through this ministry, faith is created and sustained in the lives of God’s people.

The scriptures call these men pastors, preachers, elders, bishops, and many other things. We call this ministry the office of the holy ministry, the office of the public ministry, the pastoral ministry, and other similar things. Because many Christians use the word minister for anyone who serves in the church, Lutheran pastors prefer to be called “pastor,” which means “shepherd.” We also use adjectives with the word ministry to identify it as the office of word and sacrament

Jesus’s First Miracle: Water and Wine

Encore Post: “Our Lord blessed and honored marriage with his presence and first miracle at Cana in Galilee” begins the traditional wedding service in most Lutheran churches. Weddings are very joyful occasions. Everyone dresses their best. There is music, dancing and feasting. The bride and groom are excited because their life together will soon begin. Weddings today are very different today than they were during the earthly life of Jesus.

Weddings were seven days long, most of it eating, drinking, dancing, reciting wedding poetry and eating. On the first day, the bride and her wedding party would walk from her house to her groom’s house. They would say their vows in his house or under a tent that stood for the house. Then the party would begin.

Hospitality was very important at weddings. The groom would have to be sure there was plenty to eat and drink. At the wedding of Cana, Jesus saved the couple a lot of embarrassment. More than that, He showed His mother and His disciples that He was God and cared for people in their everyday lives. The church believes the fact that Jesus attended this wedding and blessed all marriages by making wine for the celebration.

Marriage is important, not only as the foundation of the family, but as a picture of the relationship between Christ and the Church. A beloved hymn sums it up well: “from heaven he came and sought her, to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died.” Marriage pictures for Christ’s self-sacrificing love for us and our response to his love. For this reason, what God has put together, let no one separate.

Bread From Heaven Five Ways

Encore Post: From the time that people began to plant crops until this very day, bread has been a basic food for people. God fed His people in the wilderness with manna to teach them to trust their Heavenly Father for daily bread. Later Satan would tempt Jesus to make stones into bread rather than trust Him. Jesus quoted what Moses said to Israel about Manna: “people do not live only on bread but on every word that God speaks.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Later, God would do other miracles with bread. The Prophet Elijah would feed the widow and her son with bread — their flour and oil did not run out for years. Elisha would feed one hundred men with a few loaves. Jesus would feed crowds in the desert with a few loaves and fishes. The crowds knew what it meant — Jesus was the Messiah and like Moses and Elijah.

Jesus also used bread in another way. During His Last Supper, Jesus took bread, broke it, blessed it and gave His body for them to eat. To this day, when we gather for communion, Jesus feeds us with His body — the true Bread from Heaven. When we receive this bread, we are given strength for our journey through this life to life everlasting.

When Jesus Walked Through a Storm…

Encore Post: It had been a long day. Jesus had just fed the five thousand. The people had tried to grab him and make him king, so they would always have bread. He sent the disciples ahead, while He went to a mountain to pray. (Mark 6:45-60)

The apostles worked hard all night to row against the wind. As professional fishermen that worked at night, they were very familiar with this kind of labor. Yet this night was particularly difficult. What they did not expect was to meet someone walking on the whitecaps.

So, when they saw Jesus coming, that was the last straw. They thought Jesus was a ghost. When Jesus told them who he was, they were no longer afraid.

Peter, who was known to rush in where angels fear to tread, asked Jesus to call on him to walk on the water to meet the Lord. (Matthew 14:28-31) When Jesus called Peter, the disciple walked on the water. As long as he focused on Jesus, he was fine. The moment he focused on the wind and the waves, he began to sink. It was all a member of trust. Peter called out to Jesus to save him. Jesus pulled Peter out of the water. Jesus scolded his star pupil for his lack of faith.

When Jesus returned to the boat, the wind stopped. The disciples then worshipped Jesus as God.

We should be careful how critically we view Peter. We like to think we have everything under control, especially in areas we are experts. When events demonstrate we really are not in control, we panic rather than trust God. To us God says “do not be afraid.” He cares for us now and forever.