Nestle-Aland 27

5 Νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς , πορνείαν ἀκαθαρσίαν ^a πάθος ^b ἐπιθυμίαν ^c κακήν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρία, 6 δι ʼ ἃ ἔρχεται ἡ ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ [ ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας ^d]. 7 ἐν οἷς καὶ ὑμεῖς περιεπατήσατέ ποτε , ὅτε ἐζῆτε ἐν τούτοις · 8 νυνὶ δὲ ἀπόθεσθε ^e καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ πάντα, ὀργήν, θυμόν, κακίαν, βλασφημίαν, ^f αἰσχρολογίαν ^g ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν · 9 μὴ ψεύδεσθε εἰς ἀλλήλους , ἀπεκδυσάμενοι ^h τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν ταῖς πράξεσιν ⁱ αὐτοῦ 10 καὶ ἐνδυσάμενοι τὸν νέον τὸν ἀνακαινούμενον ^j εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν κατ ʼ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν,^k 11 ὅπου οὐκ ἔνι Ἕλλην καὶ Ἰουδαῖος , περιτομὴ καὶ ἀκροβυστία , βάρβαρος , Σκύθης , δοῦλος , ἐλεύθερος , ἀλλὰ [ τὰ ] πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν Χριστός.

My Translation

5 Therefore put to death the parts of you which are earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil lust and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 The wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disbelief because of these things. 7 In these things you also formerly walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now lay aside these things: wrath, anger, malice, slander, obscene speech out of your mouths. 9 Do not lie to one another, in light of the fact that you have stripped off the old man with its ways of acting 10 and putting on the new, which is being renewed in full knowledge according to the image of its creator, 11 where there is neither Greek and Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is everything and in everything.

Grammar & Vocabulary

a ἀκαθαρσίαν � acc/sg/fem� ( ἀκαθαρσία ) impurity, immorality esp. of sexual sins.

b πάθος acc/sg/neu ( πάθος ) passion, often related to immoral sexual passions

c ἐπιθυμίαν acc/sg/fem ( ἐπιθυμία ) desire for something forbidden, lust

d ἀπειθείας � gen/sg/fem ( ἀπείθεια ) disobedience, disbelief

e ἀπόθεσθε � aor/mid/impv/2p/pl ( ἀποτίθημι ) take off, lay aside.

f βλασφημίαν acc/sg/fem ( βλασφημία ) slander, defamation [context tells us the object of slander is not God and therefore it is best to not translate this as blasphemy].

g αἰσχρολογίαν � acc/sg/fem ( αἰσχρολογία ) obscene or abusive speech

h ἀπεκδυσάμενοι aor/mid/ptc/pl/nom/masc ( ἀπεκδύομαι ) to strip off [c.f., v 2:15 – to disarm]

i πράξεσιν dat/pl/fem ( πρᾶξις ) way of acting, practice

j ἀνακαινούμενον � pres/pass/ptc/sg/acc/masc ( ἀνακαινόω ) to renew [figuratively of the Spiritual rebirth, only used in Pauline Epistles ¹

k αὐτόν here in v 10 would seem to refer to the new-person ( τὸν νέον ) which is being renewed.

Commentary

Colossians is a demonstration of how relatively few words can contain boundless profundity. The epistle began with Christ as the supreme image of God (1:15), who walked on this earth as the perfect (eschatological, 1:19) likeness of God, reconciling the world (cosmic implications, 1:20) by the blood of his cross.Chapter 2 largely deals with the connection between Christ as the archetypal image and us, His body, the church, who have been reconciled to the Father by means of the Son, through the Spirit. This is a mysterious union that believers have with the incarnate-crucified-risen-and-exalted Christ.

If all this is true, then does it affect me and you? And if it affects me and you, then what is the scope of its effect?

On account of what Christ has done for us, in reconciling us to the Father, we are engaged in what elsewhere is called the mortification of the flesh, the iterative putting to death of those principles in us that are unlike God. Interestingly, the first list of “earthly parts” is concerned with how we think about our body and others bodies. They all seem to be related semantically in varying degrees to the heading of sexual immorality ( pornea). So the deprecation of the body, the thinking of ourselves as objects to exploit for our own pleasures, is what is meant by those parts of us that are “earthly”.

It is for these dispositions of the heart, that the wrath of God is coming. These dispositions are iconic of disbelief or disobedience. The disposition of our hearts has always been that with which God, our Maker, has been concerned. Today in Western society, we are encouraged and prodded to think of ourselves in terms of fitness and physique. However, we were not made for our own bent-up pleasures, but to find that true pleasure is in being like God as his image. When we, as God’s image, seek to worship our bodies or other people’s bodies, which is idolatry, we misrepresent God in our manifest unlikeness of him to the world. It is against such unlikeness that the holy wrath of God is coming.

This is why believers are encouraged to truly live – not in the darkness – but in the light of the true life, of Christ himself. It is because believers are part of the church that is as a community united to him that we now struggle against the idolatry in our own persons. This struggle is a sign of life. It is indicative of the fact that when Christ gave us new life in himself, the old self was thrown off and the new self was born. We now live in that newness of life that is alone in Christ. This is why there is no longer distinction between Jew and Gentile in the Church. Christ is the defining element. Christ is the life that courses through all who are his. In this life, we, his people, now live.

After your heart has thus become firm in Christ, and love, not fear of pain, has made you a foe of sin, then Christ’s passion must from that day on become a pattern for your entire life. Henceforth you will have to see his passion differently. Until now we regarded it as a sacrament which is active in us while we are passive, but now we find that we too must be active, namely, in the following.[2]

Lord have mercy that we, your church, may live out our identity in you, by you, and through you. May the likeness of Christ abound in his church that God might be glorified. Amen.

__________

1 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature : A Translation and Adaption of the Fourth Revised and Augmented Edition of Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch Zu Den Schrift En Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, c1979), 55.

2 Luther’s Works, Vol. 42 : Devotional Writings I ( ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan et al.;, Luther’s WorksPhiladelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1969), 42:13.

Rating: PG13
YEAR: 2005
Media Reviewed: DVD
Language: Arabic with English Subtitles
AWARDS: Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film
Nominations: Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2005

In a world full of movies, it is nice to find oneself being gripped by a film. Paradise Now is one of those films that spills out on the floor of my comfortable Western living room and doesn’t seem to go away when the DVD player is turned off.

You’ve likely never heard of director Hany Abu-Assad or any of the leading actors in the film (Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman, and Lubna Azabal) - at least I never had. And yet what I found was that the actors were excellent and the story was gripping.

As many good works of art are, this film is also controversial. that some have felt humanizes suicide bombers. I would suggest to you that it is an important film precisely because it moves the Palestinian conflict with Israel from the abstract to your living room and puts it in very human terms.

Saïd (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) are two regular guys, who begin the film working as auto mechanics.� They are close friends and are trying to survive in a land that is run down in the mires of a devastating poverty.� They are likeable characters, faithful friends.

They are approached by a man from an unnamed Palestinian resistance group and informed that they have been “chosen” for the next mission.� The film then takes the viewer on a deeply psychological ride, as it depicts the manipulative elements at play in the decision of the two friends to “accept” the mission.

Some of these elements include good rhetoric; however, what we find is that the rhetoric is historical and generational. Saïd’s father had become a “collaborator” when he was only a boy.� A collaborator in Palestinian terms is one who is paid by the Israelis to subvert the Palestinian resistance.� Saïd’s father was discovered and killed when Saïd was only a boy.� Now a man, the shame that Saïd feels because of his father’s treason is a strong compulsion for him to accept the mission to blow himself up in Tel Aviv. Certainly the pressure of resistance groups is very real. The point the film seems to make is that they merely appeal to the frustrations and shames that exist in the Palestinian psyche at the deepest levels.� At one point in the film, the two friends are deliberating over whether or not they should complete the mission.� As they dialog one feels the contradiction in which they live: life is so bad for them that death could only be better. Such a “martyrdom” promises respect while dying in poverty holds nothing but shame for them.

Suha (Lubna Azabal) is the educated daughter of one of a legendary “martyr” who now lives in the aftermath of his death. She serves as the foil in many ways to Saïd and Khaled.� Stephen Holden of THE NEW YORK TIMES writes of Suha’s role as foil in the film:

In an emotional confrontation with both men, she articulates the arguments against suicide bombing. What happens to those left behind, she asks? Her question alludes not only to the grief of surviving loved ones but also to the political fallout from suicide bombing: the tragic pattern of revenge begetting revenge that will further oppress Palestinians. Her humane voice becomes the movie’s moral and emotional grounding wire.

This is a film that should at once make us uncomfortable and at the same time broaden our understanding of the complexities that orbit the ever continuing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Richard Silverstein believes that those who view this movie:

will have to reopen their minds to this conflict. They will have to dust off their certainties and grapple with brutal, hard moral ambiguity. They will have to readdress this seemingly eternal conflict in an effort to make sense of the tragedy happening on both sides of the divide. I do not worry that the film will create new sympathizers for Palestinian terror. Anyone who views this conflict in a clear-eyed, balanced way cannot sympathize with such abominable acts any more than they can sympathize with Israel’s often murderous response to them (or vice versa). No one can “win” this conflict.

As an American, terrorism and suicide bombings petrify me. As a Christian there seems to be a better way to establish peace and extend compassion to both the Israeli and the Palestinian than the way in which the current trajectories in Palestine and Israel allow. All heads that roll from the machinery of war and terror were all part of a living whole which the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all hold to be the image of the living God. There are more facets to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict than bullets and bombs can address. I hope you will also watch this film, throwing off the shackles of entertainment and taking on the yoke of contemplation.

Summary

The question that has been asked throughout the history of the church is whether or not the Incarnation would have happened “even without sin.” Or to put it in Berkouwer’s words, “Does the incarnation originate in and is it motivated by the lost condition of mankind, or would it also have occurred if there had not been a fall of mankind, or, at least, would it have been conceivable and possible?”[1]

There are those who would a priori insist that the “miracle of the incarnation simply cannot be a mere response to an act of human apostasy…. The connection between incarnation and cross is recognized as a historical fact, but it is a ‘connection’ in a condition which developed later, viz., of man’s lost condition and guilt.”[2] The sort of theologians that have entertained this idea in the Western Tradition are not the kind that “inspire confidence that the confession would be kept pure.”[3] These include Osiander, Socinus, and several nineteenth-century Vermittlungstheologen (mediation-theologians). Those who adhered to this view were responding to what they perceived as an overemphasis on hamartiology (doctrine of sin).

Among the medieval scholastics, Duns Scotus and the Scotists argued that to relegate the incarnation to a function of salvation was uncouth. This seemed to the Scotists to not do justice to scriptures like Colossians 1:16 in which all that is created is said to point to Christ. The Scotists had argued against the position of Thomas Aquinas who had concluded that the cosmic significance of Christ does not necessitate the incarnation. Thomas’ argument was rooted in the Fathers but also “simply on Holy Scripture.”� Thomas seems to view the idea of the incarnation apart from sin entering into the world as a way of abstracting an element of “the way of salvation” out of its soteriological context.[4]

Along with Thomas and Abraham Kuyper, John Calvin also surrenders to the superior authority of scripture. Calvin argued against Osiander who put for the idea of “the incarnation even without sin.” Calvin rejected out of hand the abstraction of the incarnation as a concept out of its historical place in God’s acts of salvation. Calvin was convinced that the Scriptures clearly taught that the “‘motive’ of the incarnation was deliverance from sin and death.”[5]

The incarnation then is something that fulfills the many Old Testament prophecies in which Immanuel comes to save his people (Isaiah 7:14). This ‘God with us’ is not a general abstraction but a historical realization of prophecy. Berkouwer argues that:

to speak first of Christ’s cosmic significance, ontology, and the anthropologic “elevation” of human nature to this unification; rather, the reality of Immanuel must be seen as the fulfillment of the prophecy of salvation, and full attention must fall on God’s Son descending and the heavens’ rending.

The message of the incarnation is never a thing by itself; it preaches not the elevation of human nature but its deliverance and restoration by him whom the Father had sent.[6]

That deliverance, writes Berkouwer, is one that is historical and very much a reaction of God to sin entering the world through Adam.[7] “That which has been called the harmartiocentric conception of history is nothing but the recognition of the reality of the historic reconciliation.”[8] The Church has understood (viz. in the Nicaean Confession: “he descended for our sakes”) that the incarnation was in a historical unity with the cross.[9] The only elevation of humanity that is possible is alone through the reconciliation and restoration accomplished by the blood of Christ’s cross. Christ’s coming was not for “our elevation but the communion with him.”[10]

Reflection

This writer very much agrees with Berkouwer (Thomas, Calvin, and Kuyper too) that the incarnation cannot be abstracted from its historical context, making it inextricably connected to salvation. Certainly, the primacy of the “movement” of God in the incarnation is upon his condescension to us in the incarnation, the invisible clothing himself in the visible. However, such a “move” is not with out immeasurable cosmic implications. Berkouwer wants to shy away from any intimation that humanity might be elevated. He intimates that suggesting that humanity might be elevated as a result of the incarnation denigrates the glory and wonder that God has for himself in it.  Nevertheless, I do not see how he can avoid such an elevation of humanity as a necessary consequence of God’s condescension in Christ to redeem a people for himself. When God takes on the stuff out of which we are made there is an immediate revaluation of that stuff even when the rubric for his incarnation is salvation. This does not seem to denigrate the glory and wonder of God in the incarnation but to rather increase it.

[1] G. C. Berkouwer, “The Motive of the Incarnation,” in The Work of Christ (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1965), 20.

[2] Ibid., 21.

[3] Ibid., 22.

[4] Ibid., 26-7.

[5] Ibid., 28.

[6] Ibid., 29.

[7] Ibid., 30.

[8] Ibid., 32.

[9] Ibid., 33.

[10] Ibid., 34.

Nestle-Aland 27

1 Εἰ οὖν συνηγέρθητε τῷ Χριστῷ , τὰ ἄνω ζητεῖτε , οὗ ὁ Χριστός ἐστιν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ θεοῦ καθήμενος · 2 τὰ ἄνω φρονεῖτε ,  1 μὴ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς . 3 ἀπεθάνετε γὰρ καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν κέκρυπται   2 σὺν τῷ Χριστῷ ἐν τῷ θεῷ · 4 ὅταν ὁ Χριστὸς φανερωθῇ ,  3 ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν , τότε καὶ ὑμεῖς σὺν αὐτῷ φανερωθήσεσθε ἐν δόξῃ .

My Translation

3:1 Therefore if you were raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Be disposed to the things that are above, not to the things upon the earth. 3 For you died and your life has been encrypted with Christ in God. 4 Whenever Christ, your life, is made manifest, at that time you will also be made manifest with him in glory.

Grammar & Vocabulary

1 The idea that φρονέω conveys seems to be rather holistic. It seems to incorporate our attitude toward something (Phil 2:5) and also reflects the end to which we focus our thinking and discerning faculties (Rom 12:16; Gal 5:10).

2 The verb κρύπτω is often translated as “to hide”; however, there is much to consider in how one is hidden in Christ. The word ‘encrypt’ is etymologically related to this Greek word and fleshes out the semantic dimensions that while one is hidden in Christ it is such a hiding that conceals them in Him, that prevents them from being found. It communicates a sort of confident security in Christ.

3 φανερόω is used twice in verse 4. In both the case in which ‘you’ is the subject and the case in which ‘Christ’ is the word is an aorist passive indicative. While ‘manifest’ might be a little clunky here, it is my hope that we see the passive here directs us to the fact that all that happens is according to God’s plan, even when Jesus comes again to judge the quick and the dead.

Commentary

Chapter 3 of Colossians could be thought of under the heading of “Processional Living”. This heading speaks to us of who Christ is as king, who we are as heirs with him, and the fact that we, who have been justified by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone, now walk with him to the same divinely appointed destination.

Paul begins by reminding the Colossian Christians who they are. They are those who by faith have been raised with Christ. They have received eternal life. They have become Christ’s sheep and no one or no thing can ever snatch them from the Father’s hand. By saying that they are raised with Christ, he is reminding them that they share the destiny of Jesus: resurrection from the dead unto unhindered fellowship with God.

Having reminded them of who they are, Paul then seems to answer the question, “What is someone united to Christ to do?” They are to seek for and be disposed to the things above and not to the things upon the earth (i.e., created things). This is an imperative to sanctification, the theological term for growing in godliness.

While regeneration, the making alive of a sinner to God, can never be thought of as cooperative; the progression of the Christian Pilgrim in this new life with Christ is very much a synergistic work. The Westminster Confession inform us that the irreconcilable war of sanctification is one in which the regenerate part of a Christian does overcome and so he or she grows in grace (WCF 13.3). Sanctification is the place where the justified walk with God working out their salvation because God works in them to will and to act (Phil 2:12-13). As such when one who is united to Christ does sin, we find that they, in turning from their hated sin, they are to purpose and endeavor to walk with Christ in all his ways and commandments (WCF 15.2). While there is no sin so small that it does not require damnation, there is no sin so great that it would bring damnation on those who truly repent (WCF 15.4). In other words, the activity of faithfully pursuing Christ and things above is done imperfectly and yet securely in Him.

If this would seem to be a sketch of what someone united to Christ would do, then we are left with the question of why such a person would do these things. The Christian has died to the old autonomy and againstness to God and the life (i.e., liveliness) that was given to them is hidden with Christ in God (v. 3). Paul returns us to the place he began. He returns us to our union to Christ who is our life (John 6:35,53; 11:25).

Christ is our life and our final destination. That is to say that he is not only the basis upon which we pursue godliness with Him working in us, but he is also the godliness that we pursue. When a person is justified and regenerated their sin is imputed to Christ and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to them. Sanctification is the working out of Christ’s righteousness in us with a view towards perfection. How could anyone ever be – ever hope of being – truly godly? The good news of the Gospel is that those whom Christ justified, he sanctifies; and those whom he sanctifies he glorifies, which is the perfect and holy godliness for which we strive now in Christ on this earth.

May the Lord empower us to run as those who know that they are rooted in one who loves them, will never forsake them, and who can never fail in remaking them in to the image of God that is in likeness of God and lives in fellowship with God. Amen.

Nestle-Aland 27

20 Εἰ ἀπεθάνετε σὺν Χριστῷ ἀπὸ τῶν στοιχείων 1 τοῦ κόσμου , τί ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ δογματίζεσθε ; 21 μὴ ἅψῃ 2 μηδὲ γεύσῃ 3 μηδὲ θίγῃς , 4 22 ἅ ἐστιν πάντα εἰς φθορὰν τῇ ἀποχρήσει , κατὰ τὰ ἐντάλματα καὶ διδασκαλίας τῶν ἀνθρώπων , 23 « ἅτινά ἐστιν λόγον μὲν ἔχοντα σοφίας» 5 ἐν ἐθελοθρησκίᾳ 6 καὶ ταπεινοφροσύνῃ [ καὶ ] ἀφειδίᾳ 7 σώματος , οὐκ ἐν τιμῇ τινι « πρὸς πλησμονὴν τῆς σαρκός .» 8

My Translation

20 If you died with Christ to the basic elements of the world, why – as one who lives in the world – do you submit to its rules and regulations? 21 Do not handle. Do not taste. Do not touch. 22 These things are all meant for destruction by consumption according to the commandments and teachings of human beings. 23 Such things have an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and false humility and unsparing treatment of the body. These things have no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Grammar & Vocabulary

1 στοιχείων gen/pl/neu ( στοιχει ̂ ον ) basic element

2 ἅψῃ aor/mid/subj/2p/sg ( ἅπτω ) to take hold of, touch

3 γεύσῃ aor/mid/subj/2p/sg ( γεύομαι) to taste

4 θίγῃς aor/mid/subj/2p/sg ( θιγγάνω) to touch

5 ἅτινά ἐστιν λόγον μὲν ἔχοντα σοφίας “The singular ‘word’ (logos) points to the entirety of the system, but it specifically represents the catchwords of v. 21.” [1]

6 ἐθελοθρησκίᾳ dat/sg/fem ( ἐθελοθρησκία ) self-made religion

7 ἀφειδίᾳ dat/sg/fem ( ἀφειδία ) severe unsparing treatment [of the body]

8 πρὸς πλησμονὴν τῆς σαρκός “The Gk. exegetes understood this to mean for the gratification of physical needs. But σάρξ , acc. to vs. 18, is surely to be taken in a bad sense, and the transl. should be for the indulgence of the flesh.”[2]

__________

₁Richard R. Melick, vol. 32, Philippians, Colissians, Philemon (electronic ed.;, Logos Library System; The New American Commentary Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c1991), 277.

₂William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature : A Translation and Adaption of the Fourth Revised and Augmented Edition of Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch Zu Den Schrift En Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, c1979), 673.

Commentary

Some may read this passage in Colossians and think that Paul was arguing against some new sort of dangerous thinking which was attacking the church at Colossae. Regardless of whether the form of what was being manifested at Colossae was new, the essence of what has plagued God’s people was familiar even to Adam and Eve.

In the Garden, the Lord told Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Ge 2:16-17 ESV) In the following verse (v 18) we find the account of God creating Eve. Adam received the command regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil prior to the creation of his wife and soul-mate, Eve.

When the serpent came to tempt Eve, he asks, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Ge 3:1 ESV). Eve replied to the serpent, “God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Ge 3:3 ESV, emphasis added). In Eve’s reply we find the subtle and likely well intended addition to the Lord’s command to Adam – neither shall you touch it.

Such additions to the word of God can come with good intentions. With the consequences so dire for eating the fruit we might think it wise to make such a prescription to not even touch the fruit. Adam and Eve did not have a sinful nature at this point in their lives and yet even here such stipulations could not help them against temptation.

So today, as in the time of the Colossian church, we are tempted to add to the word of God, creating regulations and stipulations that are perhaps well intended. Unfortunately, these regulations are meant for destruction for they too direct our eyes away from the sheer grace of God, who powerfully preserves and governs all his creatures and all their actions.

If structures and strictures that are solely human were of no value to Adam and Eve against temptation when they did not have a sin nature; how much more are they of no value to us who are not only tempted from without, but are also plagued with temptations from within, from our own flesh.

Commentary

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (Jn 6:35 ESV)

I remember as a younger man walking through a shopping mall one day and stopping in my tracks to ponder a phrase printed on the t-shirt of a man who briskly walked passed me in the opposite direction. It read, “Look busy! Jesus is coming.” I stopped because I was not sure whether it was mocking Christians or a serious exhortation to them.

I believe it is most beneficial to understand the shirt as satire. Many of us chase after many things in the name of religion. For some of us it is the approval of others. For some it is knowledge. For others it is service, or many other religious activities.� These activities in and of themselves are often helpful but for some of us at different times can serve to insulate us from the heat of Christ himself.

Think about prayer for a moment as an example. Paul is working out the profound and the simple truth of Jesus the Messiah. Many of us want our prayers to be as poetry, refined and reverent. A refined and reverent prayer is absolutely appropriate; however, the reality is that our lives, the place where we live moment by moment, is neither refined nor is it always reverent. So waiting until you are in the mood to pray, until the words are right, until you have had time to contemplate all that you would like, or whatever else you may want to do as preparation to pray actually can impede your boldly coming before the throne of grace.

God has included books in the bible like Judges and Job and psalms like Psalm 73 to remind us that His people are to just come to him with their heavy burdens and cluttered lives; for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. These texts are rough around the edges because they reflect the rough world that God is working to redeem in time and space.

That is the miracle of the Incarnation, of God coming to the mess of this fallen world in the person of his perfect Son, Jesus. Let us not chase after things that merely camouflage our prayers and service to God, but let us simply pray and serve. How can Paul say this? Paul knows that no amount of barren ritual or paltry preparation sustain life, especially eternal life. We go to God not through outward actions but “in Christ’s skin and on His back.” ¹ That is the nature and the gravity and the centrality of the Christian’s union with Christ.

¹ Luther, Martin. Vol. 42, Luther’s Works, Vol. 42 : Devotional Writings I. Edited by Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann. Luther’s Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1969. Page 23.