Nielsen’s Nook

For those who enjoy context, our scripture readings this morning at St. John’s were Acts 1:1-14; Psalm 47; 1 Peter 4:12-19; and John 17:1-11. ]

I walked away from worshiping the Resurrected and Ascended Christ this morning with a profound impression that I want to encapsulate here. The Gospel promises eternal life for all who believe in Jesus Christ. Many of us, for manifold reasons, have come to believe that eternal life is something we hope to participate in after we die. It’s out there somewhere beyond time. In a sense that’s true. Eternal Life is beyond time; however, that’s because eternal life is God himself, who is alone alive by no other cause than himself.

It is this God, revealed to us in Scripture, that has not been content to keep eternal life all to himself, to remain a hermit of divine proportions. Rather, God came down, stooping, as it were, to bind himself to us in the person of His Son, Jesus the Christ. This Christ is our life, our eternal life, for he has trampled down sin, death and hell for us by his own death. Now being raised from the dead, Christians celebrate this life now in their lives. It is not something that we will only one day have, but Christ gives himself fully to us now.

This is celebrated in the liturgy every Sunday. Eternal Life, himself, calls us to worship, speaks to us in His Scriptures, hears our confession, forgives us our sins, and bids us to eat his flesh and drink his blood - to partake of Him, who is alone the life of the world. Such is the bond of love that Christ has made to his people. The cold shackles of sin, death and hell have been burst opened by Life, who has said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:29-30 ESV)

Such is the union we see as Life, himself, prays for his Church. We see his longing for unity with us as we demonstrate that bond in love to each other.

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HT: Fr. David Houk, Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, preached the sermon that spawned this meditation.

Listen now [14 min]:

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.

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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.

³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴ rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” (Jn 13:3-7 ESV)

Last night we celebrated Maundy Thursday, a remembrance of the Last Supper, when Christ instituted the New Covenant. I could not help but weep as I watched the celebrant priest divest himself of his magnificient chasuble (Eucharistic outer-garment) and take up a basin and wash the feet of three representative laity.

There is a God. I struggle to know what it means to be godlike, but what is even more overwhelming is that God proclaims himself to be Jesus-like. Jesus of course had already divested himself in taking on humanity (Philippians 2:6-7). He left the splendor of heavenly glory to become one of us.

However, the Incarnation itself could have taken countless variations. The one we have is not that God became a king, like the ancient Egyptians taught in Ra, but that He became the son of a carpenter. He did not surround himself with twelve princes, but with fishermen, a tax collector and a traitor. The Incarnate God did not promote himself but demonstrated always love and mercy and humility. God washed Peter’s feet.

It is quite amazing to me that as the Church of the Risen and Exalted Lord continues on for some 20 centuries, the way he has chosen to visibly communicate himself to his people is in something as common as bread, the most common food on earth. It is one of the least expensive foods to buy no matter where you live. It is common, yet sustaining and nourishing.

Of all the other visible means he could have used to communicate himself (if any) to his Church throughout the centuries he chose wine. Wine is not so common. The poor do not have fine wine at their meals. It is not something you necessarily drink at every meal. Wine underscores the celebration, the banquet to which Christ has invited his Church to participate with him, His banquet. Humble bread and exalted wine circumscribes the wonder of Jesus. The exalted God became a humble man that humble we might participate in the very life of Jesus now exalted at the right hand of the Father Almighty.

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

“That is,” writes Farley, “they are to manifest the Lord’s life on earth, as His Body.” ¹ I remember one of the extremely helpful and paradigmatic books I read in seminary by Benjamin B. Warfield. In this little booklet that he wrote to incoming students to Princeton Seminary, he encouraged us that there is never a time that we would turn from worshiping the Lord to our books or from the study of our books to the worship of the Lord (to paraphrase). ²

Warfield, Farley and St. Paul all resonate symphonically together here. The strange thing about truth is that it transcends all kinds of boundaries, traditions, cultures, and time. Colossians 3:17 underscores union with Christ the paradigmatic element of Christian theology and life. This union is in fact a participation in the divine energies (workings, ενεργη) and is most profoundly proclaimed at the Lord’s Table, where Christians by faith receive the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus—where God gives us himself and we give Him ourselves. And so we say during the consecration of the Bread and Wine:

And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him. ³

This is of course a continuation of the theme we find in John 15, where Christ makes plain his desire that we abide in Him and He in us, as He—the Second Person of the Trinity—abides in His Father. In this way Christians graciously participate in the divine life given to us in Christ Jesus. “[Our] life is His life. [Our] existence is to be one continuous outpouring of thanksgiving to God in His Name. The Christian calling is to be a eucharistic man.” ⁴

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¹ Farley, Lawrence. The Prison Epistles, The Orthodox Bible Study Companion Series. (Ben Lomond, Calif.: Conciliar Press, 2003) , p. 186.

² Warfield, Benjamin B. The Religious Life of Theological Students.

³ Book of Common Prayer, 336.

⁴ Farley, 187.

Translation

2 Through patience he overcame the unrighteous ruler and in this manner received the crown of immortality. While being overjoyed with the apostles and all the righteous he glorifies the God and Father Almighty and blesses the Lord Jesus Christ, the savior of our souls and captain [1] of our bodies and shepherd of the catholic church [2] throughout [3] the world.

[1] κυβερνήτης here is the idea of captain of a ship or vessel. It is an unique metaphor for the Lord’s governance of us because it implies participation and vested interest in the welfare of the ship. The Lord is aboard the lives of his people or to use St. John the Evangelist’s words, the Lord abides in his people and his people are to abide in him (John 15:1-5). As in 4 Maccabees 7:1, κυβερνήτης seems to have been a term with some unique use in “martyr narratives” as the trope referencing Jesus as the one who leads the martyr through the tempests on the sea of suffering to the shores of eternal glory.

[2] As mentioned in previous footnotes the Martyrdom of Polycarp is one of the earliest documents that uses καθολικά ἐκκλησία (catholic church) to refer to the body of human beings united to Christ as their savior and captain. See also §Preface, §8.1, and §23.2.

[3] κατὰ here is rendered as throughout (BAGD, 405).

Translation

1 So, they did not nail him to the pyre; rather they bound [a] him. He placed his hands behind [b] him and was bound - like a ram, outstanding from a great flock, for an offering, [c] a burnt offering acceptable to God having been prepared.

He lifted his eyes to heaven and said, “Lord, Almighty God, the Father of your beloved and blessed son, [d] Jesus Christ, through whom we have apprehended [e] knowledge concerning you, the God of angels, of powers, of all creation and of the entire people [f] of righteousness, which lives before you.

[a] προσέδησαν to bind or tie (BAGD, 712). 4 Maccabees 9:26 reads ὀργάνῳ καὶ καταπέλτῃ προσέδησαν αὐτόν. They bound him to the torture engine and the catapult (author’s translation). προσδέω does not appear to be an extremely frequent word; however, when it is used it seems to refer to the binding of people for the purpose of torture (c.f., 1 Clement 27:1). The passive form is also used in this verse.

[b] ὀπίσω an adverb of place only when articular is it translated behind (BAGD, 575).

[c] προσφοράν that which is brought, gift, and in this sense as an offering (BAGD, 720).

[d] Obviously, the technical terms for Christ’s sonship were not galvanized until much later when St. Athanasius and the Three Cappadocians would come on the scene. However, here when there is not the theological baggage, it is not υἱός but παιδός (παι̂ς) that is used to refer to the “son” of the Father. Perhaps, this is incipient Trinitarian subordinationism, for a παι̂ς was socially on the same household level as a servant or slave; whereas, a υἱός was a son come into his rights, an equal participant in the family.

[e] εἰλήφαμεν (λαμβάνω) to take, take hold of, grasp (BAGD, 464). Consider St. John’s use of παραλαμβάνω employing a double entendre in John 1:11 (NA27), εἰς τὰ ἴδια ἦλθεν, καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸν οὐ παρέλαβον. He came into his own and his own did not receive/apprehend him (author’s translation).

[f] γένος descendants, race, people, nation (BAGD, 156).

Translation

3 But the proconsul insisted, saying “Swear the oath, and I will set you free! [a] Revile [b] Christ!”

Polycarp replied, “Eighty and six years I have serving him and he has done me no wrong. So how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”

[a] ἀπολύω to set free, release, pardon a prisoner for example Barabas in John 18:39 but not the same idea exactly as John 8:32 that the truth will set you free ( ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς).

[b] λοιδόρησον an aorist active imperative of λοιδορέω. John 9:28 records that the Pharisees reviled ( ἐλοιδόρησαν) the man born blind to which Jesus had restored sight.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Translation

the resurrection of the body, [1] and life eternal. [2] Amen.

[1] σαρκὸς (σάρξ) is the word St. John uses to speak of the Incarnation where the Logos became flesh (ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, Jn 1:14). This is the flesh that was just like ours. The difference between us and Jesus is that Jesus overcame sin, and swallowed up death by his own death. τοῦτο γινώσκοντες ὅτι ὁ παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος συνεσταυρώθη, ἵνα καταργηθῇ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τοῦ μηκέτι δουλεύειν ἡμᾶς τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ· “This we know, that our outmoded self was crucified with him with the result that the body of sin was sacked, that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Ro 6:6, author’s translation)

[2] αἰώνιον (αἰώνιος) that is, life without beginning or end, timeless, eternal. This is the kind of life that Jesus possessed as the Second Person of the Trinity. It is the kind of life that swallowed whole the condemned life that humanity ekes out as a result of the Fall and sin. It is the life that a New Humanity, one rooted in Christ Jesus participates in by mystical union, Christ giving himself to his people via means of grace, (e.g., the Word, sacraments and prayer).

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Translation

on the third day he was raised [1] from among the dead, was taken up [2] into heaven,

[1] ἀναστάντα (ἀνίστημι) in this passive participial form is not used in the NT. Polycarp in his Epistle to the Philippians (9:2) writes οὐ γὰρ τὸν νῦν ἠγάπησαν αἰῶνα, ἀλλὰ τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀποθανόντα καὶ δι ̓ ἡμᾶς ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναστάντα (They [the Apostles] did not love this present age, but the one who died for our sakes and who was raised by God for us).

[2] ἀνελθόντα (ἀνέρχομαι) It should be noted that this may be a continuation of the passive aorist participle form that has been used of the other verbal elements in the Creed; however, it may also be functioning as a deponent, meaning middle/passive form serving with active meaning. Ambiguously, Jesus either ascended into heaven or was taken up to heaven. Given that the passive is used throughout the Creed, it seems that the former possibility is the better translation. Much like the ambiguity in John 3, when Jesus answers Nicodemus, the prefix ἀνα here can augment the type of going/coming to mean “to return” or “to go up.” In a very real since both are true, Jesus is confessed to be the incarnate God come from heaven, now returned. In terms of the hierarchy of places in the Fallen scheme of things, heaven is indeed a step up. The NT uses the word in speaking of ascension in elevation (in a clearly active aorist form). ἀνῆλθεν δὲ εἰς τὸ ὄρος Ἰησοῦς καὶ ἐκεῖ ἐκάθητο μετὰ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, But Jesus went up on the mountain and sat there with his disciples (Jn 6:3). When speaking of traveling to Jerusalem NT writers would speak of going up to it (again active aorist). οὐδὲ ἀνῆλθον εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, neither did I go up to Jerusalem (Gal 1:17). This is also true in the LXX (active aorist). τὴν ὁδὸν, ἐν ἧ ἀνῆλθεν, the way by which he came up (3 Kings 13:12 LXX, 1 Kings 13:12 English). See also Josephus, Antiquities 6.314.

Vibrant Sanctified Life

God in his mercies gave us in Christ Jesus a new mind a new set of desires that are beyond what we could imagine before. Paul is urging us on here to that greater immeasurable Christian imagination. Now why do I put it like that?

Lewis put it something like this:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.[1]

We are far too easily pleased, indeed. We come to worship Christ, the River of Life, on Sundays content to drink of him with eyedroppers and shot glasses, when he bids us to drink of his inexhaustible grace. We come expecting to hear a good sermon that tickles our ears and maybe makes us laugh when Christ is here presenting himself to us boundlessly, strengthening those of us who confess our weakness and sin. We pray that God would make our lives more convenient when He has bound himself to us for the purpose of walking with us through valleys of thick darkness to lift us beyond the mountain tops of our own imaginations.

¹See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. ³And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 Jn 3:1-3 NRSV)

You see, Jesus would give us himself, endlessly, and we settle for a diluted version because we don’t, won’t or can’t imagine the full throttled love that God demonstrates for us as he grows us up. The joy of renewing our minds and offering our bodies according to the holy, pleasing and telic purpose of God for us is that we have fellowship with him now as he grows us up in our faith that could not be imagined apart from Jesus Christ.

But what could it be like for us? Would you imagine for a moment what life might be like with a participation in Christ Jesus deeper still? What would it be like in your life, in the life of your church to have a greater purity of fellowship with Jesus as you would participate with him in the purification of your bodies and minds? Not only would there be transformation in this present time - now - but we would participate in the very telic purpose of God for us as human beings.

[1] Lewis, Clive Staples. The Weight of Glory. (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 26.