Tag Archives: Jesus Christ

Into Lent

14 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in Faith, Lent

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We are told that immediately after his baptism, Jesus was driven out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. We do not often ponder how odd this phrasing is. Here, at the start of the mission, we see the Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness; and as anyone who has been there will tell you, beyond the Jordan it really is a wilderness; by day the sun scorches and the scorpions threaten, and by night the cold freezes the body, and the howls of wild animals the blood. It was there that Jesus was tested.

The wilderness is a rite of passage, a test, throughout the Old Testament; it is there that those chosen by God are tested: Abraham is commanded to go into the wild places to sacrifice Isaac; the children of Israel are led through the wilderness by Moses for forty years; it is in the wilderness of Sinai that God gives Moses the tablets of the Law after he has fasted and prayed for 40 days; Elijah is is also led into the wilderness and sustained there by God for 40 days. Jesus follows this pattern.

By contrast Adam, was placed in the Garden of Eden. His life was set beside still waters, and all that he wanted, even a companion, was provided by the will of a beneficent God. But that was not enough for Adam and Eve. Having all they could wanted, they found, as we, their descendants do, a new want. They wanted to be as wise as God. They could bear nothing less than equality with God. Satan appealed to pride and self-will in setting before them the idea that God wanted to keep them in subjection and that if they would but reach out their hands, they could soon be like God, equal with Him. Adam and Eve succumbed to this, despite the felicity of their surroundings. Now we see the second Adam, Christ, undergo the second temptation of man in a wilderness symbolic of that in which mankind had lived since the fall. Paul tells us: ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.’ Here we shall see the Tempter defeated, where once he was victorious.

Satan’s methods are the ones which worked for him of old; they work on us now. He tempts us to take a course of action which, in itself, seems harmless enough – in the case of Jesus, that he should feed himself by turning stones into bread. But that would have been to place our will before that of God. Hence  Jesus replies that we live not just by bread, but by the word of God. We, of course, knowing that Jesus is that Word, see a deeper meaning than the Devil could; if we allow ourselves to be guided by the things of this world, we too shall fail to see that the ‘Light which lighteth the world’ has come into it.

That Jesus was tempted reminds us of His true humanity. He triumphs not by the assertion of his own will, real though that is. He does so by renouncing his will and doing that of His Father in Heaven. Luke tells us that he was filled with the Spirit, and he relies upon the strength that gives Him; unlike Adam, he does not think that the exercise of his will is the way to respond to the promptings of the Devil. Paul tells us that Jesus came to overthrow the Evil One who holds us captive:

 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil

Jesus rejects the Devil’s offers of glory and power and embraces, instead, the will of the Father – and the path that will lead Him to the agony of Gethsemene and the sufferings of Golgotha. He who was without sin, He who resisted the Tempter, was ‘made sin’ for us so that through his sacrifice we might be made righteous. It is through Jesus that we are saved. His obedience does that which our own efforts never could do – they make us right with God. As all fell in Adam, so, if we embrace Him, will all rise in Jesus.

So, as we go through this Lenten season, may we so conform our will to His, that we may take His obedience to the will of the Father as our example. May we, through the Spirit, be delivered from temptation. As He rises, may we rise with Him, and in Him, and through Him.

Jesus the Nazarene?

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Bible, Faith

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555_NazarethMap“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” asked Nathaniel? The place is not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament; indeed, outside of the New Testament there is no literary evidence it ever existed.  But archaeological excavations have confirmed it did, and the recent discovery (2003) of a large Roman bath house there suggests that far from being a tiny village, it was a substantial settlement. Indeed, it may be that the building of the Roman fort and bath house provided the reason why the settlement existed in the first place; it would certainly have provided work for a small army of tektons (as the Scriptures call Joseph) – that is carpenters and builders.

In the Greek texts of the Gospels Jesus is not called ‘the Nazarene’ or ‘of Nazareth’, He is called  ‘the Nazoraios’ – that is ‘the shoot’. ‘Nazer’ in Hebrew means the ‘shoot’ and is a reference to Isaiah 11:1 ‘A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.’ (I use the NRSV here as it is more accurate). St Matthew makes reference to this prophecy: ‘There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”’ A Nazorean was one sprung from the root of Jesses – that is one of Davidic descent – a point made by Matthew and Mark. It wouldn’t be at all surprising, if there were families of Davidic descent there, to have called the settlement ‘Nazareth’.

We are told little about Joseph, but we are told he was a ‘righteous’ man. Let us dwell on that for a moment. John the Baptist and Simeon at the Temple are also thus described, as is Joseph of Arimathea. What did it mean? It was a title of honour, bestowed on those who knew their Torah well and lived according to its precepts. We know from Jewish sources that craftsmen who worked on the Temple were sometimes described as ‘righteous’.

So, far from Jesus being brought up in some sort of isolated backwater, he was brought up in a place with Roman baths which had many stone houses, and his putative father was a man learned in the Torah who, in all probability, earned a good living as a skilled craftsman in a settlement where there were families of Davidic descent.

image004Much is made sometimes of the fact that there was no general census at the time of the birth of Jesus; as ever a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. We know from the Babatha archive that the Romans required Jewish landowners to be registered in person at the nearest record office. That is the most likely reason Joseph was travelling to Bethlehem (another Davidic city and possibly his hometown). If Mary also had property there, then she would have had to go in person. Indeed, it is hard to see any other reason why she would have had to travel when so heavily pregnant.

So, if we take on board the archaeological and historical evidence, we find not the poor son of a poor old carpenter barely able to scratch a living in a provincial backwater, but a background of some comfort where an education would have been available, and where, given the proximity of Romans and traders, both Latin and Greek would have been spoken daily. It was in this place, as part of an extended family with Rabbinic connections, that the young Jesus was nurtured and prepared for his mission.

Lutheran Vespers

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in Faith, Lutheranism

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There is an experimental one year lectionary in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod that I am coming to love. It is based on the historic lectionary. Our churches like the Roman Catholic went to a 3 year cycle after Vatican II, and so this is a sort of traditional thing.

I don’t normally do Vespers, (not least because none of my area churches offer it) although I often use it as  a guide. But this week, I decided to share Sunday’s, as it seemed very appropriate to almost all of what we have experienced this week, as usual, the week has been a rather mixed bag, some horrendous news, and some triumphant as well. But, as usual, if Jesus is on our side, who can stand against us?

The Collect

Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and mind to follow Thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

First Reading: Deut. 11:1-25

Love and Obedience Rewarded

1 “Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. 2 Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— 3 His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day; 5 what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— 7 but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did. 8 “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’[a] 10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. 13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I[b] will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ 16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the LORD’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you. 18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth. 22 “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea,[c] shall be your territory. 25 No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

Footnotes:Deuteronomy 11:9 Exodus 3:8 Deuteronomy 11:14 Following Masoretic Text and Targum; Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, and Vulgate read He. Deuteronomy 11:24 That is, the Mediterranean

And the Gospel

Second Reading: Matt. 12:1-21

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even[b] of the Sabbath.”

Healing on the Sabbath

9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him. 11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. 14 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.

Behold, My Servant

15 But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes[c] followed Him, and He healed them all. 16 Yet He warned them not to make Him known, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
18 “ Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen,
My Belovedin whom My soul is well pleased!
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.
19 He will not quarrel nor cry out,
Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench,
Till He sends forth justice to victory;
21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.”[d

What we see here, is that if we have Faith, and Love, there are certain ares of the law that we can supersede. The law matters, but Faith, and Love, and yes, Charity matter more.

I think the Collect says it all when it says, “Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and mind to follow Thee”.

‘Self-righteous and misleading’?

18 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Faith, Pope

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Our new friend, theophiletos, fears that my comments in my post of ‘salvation’ were ‘self righteous and misleading’. So, let me try to explain the position they outline clearly.

Theophiletus claims:

 I think the most natural interpretation of your statement, “What I have not, and do not, find in any way useful is the assertion that my own church, or any other Church is the only valid one,” is that there is more than one Church which is legitimate

This, he tells me:

seems directly to contradict the Roman Catholic doctrine that it is the sole true Church founded by Christ to which all true believers are (willy-nilly) spiritually linked

Let is therefore examine the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church here to see if aught that was written runs counter to its teaching, and, if so, correct any self righteous or misleading comments; but let us also hope, that should there be nought there of those things, that will prompt further thoughts.

Alas for the damage done by the narrow interpretation often offered to St Cyprian of Carthage’s statement ‘extra ecclesiam nulla salus’. When Bosco cited them to me recently I asked the question: ‘define the Catholic Church’? It is easy (which is why it has been done so often) to interpret St Cyprian as saying that formal membership of the Roman Catholic Church is held by God to be the formal requirement for entry into Heaven, and that therefore everyone outside that Church is damned. Let us turn from popular interpretations to the voice of the Church – which alone is authorised to determine Catholic doctrine and see what it has to say on such matters.

In Dominus Iesus one of the most recent expositions of the teaching of the Magisterium, written under the hand of none other than the Pope Emeritus, we read this:

Furthermore, the salvific action of Jesus Christ, with and through his Spirit, extends beyond the visible boundaries of the Church to all humanity. Speaking of the paschal mystery, in which Christ even now associates the believer to himself in a living manner in the Spirit and gives him the hope of resurrection, the Council states: “All this holds true not only for Christians but also for all men of good will in whose hearts grace is active invisibly. For since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery”.

Now that last statement, in quotation marks is from Guadium et Spes which is one of the documents produced by an Ecumenical Council. It goes along, here, with section 16 of Lumen Gentium which reads as follows:

 Finally, those who have not yet received the Gospel are related in various ways to the people of God.(18*) In the first place we must recall the people to whom the testament and the promises were given and from whom Christ was born according to the flesh.(125) On account of their fathers this people remains most dear to God, for God does not repent of the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues.(126) But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind. Nor is God far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is He who gives to all men life and breath and all things,(127) and as Saviour wills that all men be saved.(128) Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.(19*) Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.(20*) She knows that it is given by Him who enlightens all men so that they may finally have life.

Now read these as I might, I cannot see in them anything which would support the narrower reading of what St Cyprian wrote, or which states that only Catholics may go to Heaven. As the then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in Dominus Iesus:

Above all else, it must be firmly believed that “the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5), and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through baptism as through a door”.77 This doctrine must not be set against the universal salvific will of God (cf. 1 Tim 2:4); “it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for this salvation”.

So, if we are to follow and understand the teaching of the Church, we must hold these two things together; the polemicist will not; he is welcome to his view, but he should not claim, in that, to be following the teaching of the Church. Indeed, most polemicists here simply state that these things were not said by the Catholic Church, but by some false church in its place. That is their problem, and one day I hope they will get over it. But just because they find it impossible to follow the teachings of the Church, does not mean we should not.

As St John Paul II wrote in Ut unum sint:

Indeed, the elements of sanctification and truth present in the other Christian Communities, in a degree which varies from one to the other, constitute the objective basis of the communion, albeit imperfect, which exists between them and the Catholic Church.

To the extent that these elements are found in other Christian Communities, the one Church of Christ is effectively present in them. For this reason the Second Vatican Council speaks of a certain, though imperfect communion. The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium stresses that the Catholic Church “recognizes that in many ways she is linked” 14 with these Communities by a true union in the Holy Spirit.

Now I can see in this nothing which goes against what I wrote. A canonised Pope himself, along with his successor and the documents of an ecumenical council all go is the same direction, namely that whilst there is only one true church, other churches and ecclesial communities are not lacking either in merit of salvific efficacy. I would not reduce that down to saying that there is only one ‘valid’ church. A valid church is one which finds us where we are to be found and which carries us closer to Christ. Just because I have been given the Grace to see that the Roman Catholic Church is the one True Church founded by Christ, does not mean that I should see no merit in other churches, or that the Church does not. To repeat so none can be misled:

Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.

If you disagree, take it up with the Pope and the Magisterium, not me. I simply take seriously what the Magisterium teaches.

Becoming Gods?

28 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by in Bible, Early Church, Faith, Salvation

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Geoffrey’s post about theosis deals with one of the most important topics for Christians, and one which we in the West do not foreground the way they do in the East. The notion is misunderstood by Mormons. It comes from 2 Peter 1-4:

 ”Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,  by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Read literally, one can see how some people have reached the hubristic and heretical conclusion that we become gods. But St. Peter is explaining that partaking in the eternal life requires our flight from the corruption that is in the world through lust, esteeming the value of our precious salvation, and holding fast to the divine promises. That the heresy is an old one is shown by the fact that both St. Athanasius and St. Cyril wrote on it.

St. Peter  himself emphasized this concept in his first epistle by saying, “Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Pet 13-16).

The original Greek text should be translated as “partakers of the divine nature”. It never appeared in any language with the preposition “in” which is “en” in the original Greek language in which the epistle was written.  It is not possible that any creature partakes in the nature, being, or essence of God. Whoever claims this is caught in a great theological error against the faith in God, and against the superiority of His essence and nature over all creation. This claim is also the type of pride that the devil previously fell into when he said, “I will be like the Most High” (Is 14:14).  May we be kept from such an error and such presumption.

By saying “partakers of the divine nature” St. Peter simply means that we become partakers with God in His eternal life through partaking in His Holiness, paraphrasing the commandment “Be holy, for I am holy”.  Even being partakers of the holiness of God is relative, and not absolute. Perfection of the creation is relative but perfection of God is absolute. Holiness of God is natural and not acquired but our holiness is acquired.

To be human is to be Christ-like in the sense that God intended creation to reach its climax in ‘the Word made Flesh’, and so, thanks to His redeeming work the road to theosis is open; for to be human is to be called to an eternal destiny.

Through our selfishness and disregard for God’s Law, we have erred and strayed, and the image of Him in us is marred and obscured. Christ’s coming allows that process to be reversed, and we can, once again, attain the eternal destiny.