²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” ²⁹A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. ³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Jn 19:28-30 ESV)

I must first acknowledge that this is a meditation upon our Fr. David Houk’s homily last night at St. John’s (so perhaps this is a re-meditation on John 19:28-30). I woke up thinking about one central moment in the crucifixion of Jesus that has gripped me this Holy Triduum.

The God who made the world hung upon a Cross, the wood of which he brought into being and sustained in its existence. He hung there in the merciless Jerusalem heat having his torn and lacerated flesh sun-burned by the very sun that he had made and sustained.

I have access to this account through Scripture interpreted through the tradition handed down through the apostles and prophets. Even that scripture itself is a deep form of divine condescension:

For who is so devoid of intellect as not to understand that God, in so speaking, lisps with us as nurses are wont to do with little children? Such modes of expression, therefore, do not so much express what kind of a being God is, as accommodate the knowledge of him to our feebleness. In doing so, he must, of course, stoop far below his proper height. ¹

John Calvin is speaking against those who had over-emphasized the references referring to God anthropomorphically (e.g., God’s right hand) and made the point that such language about God has nothing to do with body parts but is telling us much about the immeasurable degree of the divine condescension that began in the Garden, continued in revelation, and reached its apex in the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, Jesus the Christ.

If we back out of Calvin’s polemic, I believe the point can be made that divine condescension does, as a matter of fact, express quite precisely what kind of being God is.

He is a being that when reviled by those to whom he gave and sustained life, he did not revile in return but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. And being led to the slaughter by those same revilers, by me and by you, he opened not his mouth, but said, “I thirst.” And when the soldiers gave him this last bitter drink, the last chalice of his Passover meal, he declared “It is finished,” and died, bearing the death of death upon his life that in him, and him only, we might have life that never ends.

Yes, indeed, God has stooped beyond what words are able to convey. He has humbled himself beyond what we can know in the person of Jesus. And in showing us these things, he has in fact expressed quite boldly what kind of being he is. God is mercy. Amen.

__________

¹ Jean Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Translation of: Institutio Christianae religionis.; Reprint, with new introd. Originally published: Edinburgh : Calvin Translation Society, 1845-1846.;Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), I, xiii, 1.

His part it was, and His alone, both to bring again the corruptible to incorruption and to maintain for the Father His consistency of character with all. For He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father.

For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. In one sense, indeed, He was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been without Him Who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are. But now He entered the world in a new way, stooping to our level in His love and Self-revealing to us.

Merry Christmas,
St. Athanasius

St. Athanasius. On the Incarnation : The Treatise De Incarnatione Verbi Dei, trans. A Religious of C.S.M.V. (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996), 33.

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, through the compassion [a] of God to present your bodies as sacrifices living, holy and acceptable to God as your spiritual service. ² Do not be conformed [b] to this age, but be transformed [c] by the renewing [d] of the mind in order that you might discern what the will of God is, the good and acceptable and telic. [e]

For better or for worse Modern Reformation published the book review I did on Ed Clowney’s posthumous How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments.  See for yourself in the Current Issue section of the Modern Reformation web site or read the unedited version on the Nook. 

Deuteronomy is the transliterated Greek title (Δευτερονόμιον) of the fifth and last book of the Pentateuch (as compared with אלה הדברים - these are the words or sayings). The Greek transliteration comes from δεύτερος meaning second or subsequent and νόμος meaning law, specifically referring to the Mosaic Law. So how did we get from “These are the Words” to this is the book about the second giving of the Law? There is quite an interpretation in rendering the title of the book as Deuteronomy, as I think you can see.

The Hellenistic Jews who translated the Tanak or Old Testament into Greek from Hebrew were the ones who made this interpretation that has stuck with us from before the time of Jesus of Nazareth. This translation is called the Septuagint, abbreviated LXX. The English speaking world does not know the last book of the Pentateuch as “These are the Words” but as “Deuteronomy”.

In entitling the book “Deuteronomy”, the translators of the LXX it seems were trying to account for the reiteration of the Law in Deuteronomy 5 and perhaps the nuances to the commandments as found in Exodus 20. While these are important considerations, it seems to project tertiary concerns of the translators rather than the primary concern of the book itself.

Covenant Remembrance and the Second Giving of the Law

I suggest in this opening of a short series of reflections on Deuteronomy that this interpretative rendering of the title of the book as Deuteronomy seems to be a bit ambiguous and therefore confusing.

On the one hand, the “Second Giving of the Law” as a title might reflect the immediate context of the covenant renewal through which Moses was leading the People of God. In this way, even today, the church of God always looks to the written Law, and each Sunday comes to renew the covenant that God has made with them and they have broken in many ways during the week. In this way, Deuteronomy would seem to reflect the idea of “Zecherayberith” ( בְּרִית + זֶכֶר) or the Book of Covenant Remembrance.

On the other hand Deuteronomy self-consciously looks beyond itself. The words in Moses’ mouth teach us this:

¹⁵“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19, ESV)

So there is to be a prophet raised up who will speak everything that the LORD commands. That is, unlike Moses who was the greatest of the Prophets, this prophet will communicate everything that the LORD commands. While Moses was barred from entering the Land of Promise because he communicated something contrary to what the LORD had commanded Him, the future prophet of whom Moses speaks will not do such a thing.

This prophet does come and does present perfectly all that the LORD commanded him to communicate. John 1:18 teaches us that Jesus, the Word of God, was the explanation of God. Colossians 1:15-20 shows us that Jesus who was the image of God, came in the likeness of God, and restored fellowship with God through the blood of his Cross. So perhaps as we telescope Deuteronomy’s trajectory out to its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus, we see again that the book looks forward to a time when covenant will be renewed once and for all on account of the blood of Jesus’ cross.

Jesus as Deuteronomy

If the book of Deuteronomy then is all about covenant renewal and covenant renewal is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus who is the explanation of God; then we must also consider the aspect of covenant renewal that includes the reiteration of the terms or parameters of the covenant. This is why the Ten Commandments are recited and reapplied to the historical context that the Israelites found themselves in forty years after the Ten Commandments were given to them as represented in Exodus.

The Ten Commandments are most definitely imperatives for us; however, they have a greater weightiness for us than just being imperative. They are primarily descriptive to us of who God is and correlatively they describe humanity, those created in God’s image. The imperative force is seen when we who are created in the image of God, whom the Law describes, rebel against God and correlatively deny ourselves and walk in unlikeness to God. We walk as self-contradictions when we rebel against God’s Law, having lost our referent that gave us any objective dignity.

In this way, we find that Christ Jesus has come and perfectly kept the Law of God. In other words, Jesus demonstrated the likeness of God perfectly. He reiterated the Law in his words and life as he labored to renew the covenant we sinners broke with God. In so far as Jesus is the final expression and iteration of the Law of God, he is the second giving of the Law, truly he is Deuteronomy.

My wife and I are reading through a most contemplation evoking paper presently on the Eucharist that has sparked a great wonder and awe of God in me. Traditionally, we have thought of God as being of infinitely greater and altogether different kind of being from which we have our being analogously. Even so, one of my favorite theologians begins his volume on the Doctrine of God:

Mystery is the lifeblood of dogmatics. To be sure, the term “mystery” ( μυστηριον) in Scripture does not mean an abstract supernatural truth in the Roman Catholic sense. Yet Scripture is equally far removed from the idea that believers can grasp the revealed mysteries in a scientific sense. In truth, the knowledge that God has revealed of himself in nature and Scripture far surpasses human imagination and understanding. In that sense it is all mystery with which the science of dogmatics is concerned, for it does not deal with finite creatures, but from beginning to end looks past all creatures and focuses on the eternal and infinite One himself.¹

For newer generations to theology, the term ‘dogmatics’ simply means ‘systematic theology’. Systematic theology then serves its greatest purpose when it exposes its very limitation and inability to circumscribe God, compelling us to a greater sense of worship in the face of wonder and mystery.

God’s Givenness in Redemptive History

God’s people have believed for about 3,500 years that God was the one who gives himself to his people. He confined himself to a pillar of fire in the desert of Sinai to lead his people out of Egypt. The infinite God took up residence in a structure built by human hands(!), in order to demonstrate his givenness to us.

4But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 5“Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. (2 Samuel 7:4-6, ESV)

The question here is ironic. David out of good intention wants God to “live” in a better place. God reminds him that he has chosen to limit himself to a tent. In asking the question, the Lord is drawing the reader towards his givenness and help us to see his utter humility, to limit himself in ways that we can perceive and with which we may relate.

So when the Lord takes on flesh and makes his dwelling among us (literally tabernacles among us in John 1:14, looking back to the tent in the above reference;), we find the apex of his givenness to us. He is not our God at a distance, but has taken on humanity that we might take on godliness.

Incarnation as Paradigm of Givenness

Therefore, the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the greatest if not the greatest mysteries in all of creation. The Incarnation is a double-sided confrontation. First, exposes us, who are poor beyond measure, leading us to mourn our poverty to be made meek that we hunger and thirst for righteousness that we ourselves do not have.

Second, in our poverty we find that God throwing aside the glory of heaven, limited himself to a human being, in time, in space, in life and death and in so doing redefines all things created. In other words, God the Son made himself poor to mourn with us, demonstrating truly meek submission to the Father, whose righteousness he hungered and thirsted after to no end.

The Incarnation as the apex of God’s givenness to us shows us with the greatest alacrity that he is not a God that is far off. Nor is he a God who merely wants to make our lives more comfortable. No, the God of heaven and earth is the God who is given, who has through out all history, both before and after the Fall of Humanity into sin sought to give himself in the deepest fellowship to us. This at once underscores the compassion of our God and his passion for his people, while at the same time exposes the insanity of rejecting the means by which he gives himself to us not just 2,009 years ago (being born c.a. 2 BC). No, God has pledged himself to his church as an eternal bridegroom to be given to us eternally, apart from time, always.

Givenness in the Meantime

We now live in the time between when this givenness is initiated and when it is consummated. We live in a time in which our eternal and incarnate bridegroom has gone to prepare a place for us in eternity, apart from time, always. We now wait as the betrothed.

He has not left us or abandoned us in this time in between. He has allowed himself to be revealed through human, created, finite language in the Bible, both preached and read. He indwells us with his Spirit, while the Son intercedes for us to the Father and helps us to pray acceptably (Romans 8). He gives himself to us in the baptism, promising to attend the baptism with his Spirit. He allows himself to be communicated in the Lord’s Table, the Eucharist, in which believers feed upon Christ, who is our life (John 1:4):

32Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 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. (John 6:32-35, ESV)

God’s Eternal Givenness

The written Word of God, both read but especially preached now, directs us to the moment (if we can employ such a temporally loaded term as ‘moment’) when we will be with the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God for eternity. It compels us towards our eschatological destiny in Christ, who we are taught will come again to give himself to us, and us to him, completely.

Prayer to the Lord is mediated now and quite imperfect on our part; nevertheless, we may come before the throne of grace boldly (though not arrogantly), on account of God’s givenness in Christ, who now as a human being (also fully God) intercedes for us to the Father. We look to the time when our prayers are unhindered perfect interpersonal connection with the Lord:

Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with God.²

Where the Scriptures and prayer are verbal means by which God communicates to us himself; the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist are visible ways. Jesus is not the bread, nor is he the wine, but he does communicate himself to us through the means of bread and wine. He does give himself to us in promising to bind himself to us in baptism and gives us his life in when we receive the bread and wine.

We live in the time between that is both unique and at the same time very consonant with all history before us. God of heaven and earth has sought to and accomplished the reconciliation of the world in Christ Jesus, the God-Man, who perpetually gives himself to us as a picture of the eternal and unhindered givenness of God we will experience in glory.

He prays, but He hears prayer. He weeps, but He causes tears to cease. He is bruised and wounded, but He heals every disease and every infirmity. He is lifted up and nailed to the Tree, but by the Tree of Life He restores us, yes, He saved even the robber crucified with Him. He dies, but He gives life, and by His death destroys death. He is buried, but He rises again…³

² Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2 vols. [ Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 2:45

³ Gregory of Nazianzus. The Fourth Theological Oration XX, NPNF Vol. VII, P. 309.