Sword Saints

Who do we say that He is? (Part XI)

And so we've reached the end of our study on who Jesus claimed to be. For our final week we asked the question, "What do we say to that?" Like Thomas in the presence of the post-resurrection Christ, we can only bend the knee and say, "My Lord and my God!"

We spent some time talking about the names of God and how they had been made manifest in the life of Christ. We especially focused on the Greek Kurios and Theos, the words that John reported from Thomas's exclamation to Jesus. These are the Greek words that were used to translate the Hebrew Adonai and Elohim, respectively. From the Biblical Studies Foundation:

Elohim: The plural form of EL, meaning "strong one." It is used of false gods, but when used of the true God, it is a plural of majesty and intimates the trinity. It is especially used of God?s sovereignty, creative work, mighty work for Israel and in relation to His sovereignty (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 32:27; Gen. 1:1; Isa. 45:18; Deut. 5:23; 8:15; Ps. 68:7).

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Adonai: Like Elohim, this too is a plural of majesty. The singular form means "master, owner." Stresses man?s relationship to God as his master, authority, and provider (Gen. 18:2; 40:1; 1 Sam. 1:15; Ex. 21:1-6; Josh. 5:14).

And the name of Jesus Christ is likewise full of meaning: "Salvation is from the LORD, the Anointed One". He's the living Word, bearing testimony by His very name to the written Word! He is Lord and God, the Lord who leads the heavenly armies, God our provider, the Lord our peace, the sovereign God, the Lord our righteousness, God our shepherd, the Lord our shelter, God our salvation, the Lord who is present.

He's told us who He is. But what about you? Who do you say that He is?

Who does He say that He is? (Part X)

We're nearing the end of our study. This week took us to Gethsemane, at the time of the arrest of Jesus. Here is a stark example of Him acting as our substitute, or our representative.

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?" "Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, "Who is it you want?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." "I told you that I am he," Jesus answered. "If you are looking for me, then let these men go."

I wonder if this "I am" carried the force of one of His previous uses of I AM? Could that be why the angry mob drew back and fell to the ground? Did He perhaps reveal a little bit of His glory to them at this time? Or were they shocked that the supposed Messiah didn't fight or run, but rather surrendered?

Who does He say that He is? (Part IX)

As the Jesus continued His discourse with the disciples at the last supper, He reminded them that He was the very source of their existence:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

The word translated as prune in the section above is the same Greek root from which we get the word catharsis, bringing a sense of purgation and purification to the process of bearing fruit. The fire of punishment is reserved for those who bear no fruit; the fire of purgation is reserved for those that bear fruit to make them even more fruitful. One fire leads to an eternal weight of perdition; the other fire leads to an eternal weight of glory.

So how do we bear fruit? By remaining (abiding, residing, dwelling, living) in the vine. And how do we remain in the vine? By obedience to His command. And what is His command? To love one another. Yet apart from Him we cannot even do that.

Of course, fruitfulness is not without its costs. I already mentioned the fires of purgation (burning off the dross, purifying our hearts). But to be truly fruitful is also to incur the hatred of the world. The costs fade when compared with the benefit of joy -- His joy in us, and our complete joy in Him.

Who does He say that He is? (Part VIII)

Continuing on our journey through John's gospel, we come to the final meal of Jesus and His disciples. In the course of their conversation, He tells them that He is the way and the truth and the life.

He says this in response to some of the questions His disciples posed. Peter said, "I'll follow you wherever you go. Where are you going?" Thomas asked, "We don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?" They still didn't really get it. They couldn't get their minds around God in the flesh. They couldn't get their views in sync with a suffering servant as their King. Add all that to the buzz of betrayal, Judas slipping out into the night, Peter being informed of his impending denial, and the overall significance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and these must have been some pretty confused guys.

Who does He say that He is? (Part VII)

In the next stop on the journey, we discovered that even in the midst of death and grief and suffering and fear, Jesus comes right out and proclaims that He is the resurrection and life.

There must have been a bit of fear among the disciples, for they were heading back toward Jerusalem. The last time they were there the residents got a bit antsy and tried to stone Jesus for blasphemy. Lazarus had been sick for a while before he finally died, leaving grieving relatives and friends, including his sisters Mary and Martha. It's Martha who confronts Jesus when He finally arrives, insisting that Lazarus would not have died if Jesus had been there.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

And she says that she does. She was looking ahead to the resurrection on the last day, but I suspect Jesus was talking just as much about the resurrection now. The old man dies, the new man rises. That's now. The new man dies, the perfect man rises. That's later. If I look to the resurrection of the body in the future (and I do), should I not also look to the resurrection of the heart?

But even after He says this to Martha, He weeps when confronted by the grief and agony of death. Was it the death of a friend that brought His tears? Was it empathy and sympathy with the mourners that caused Him to weep? Was it the knowledge that He soon would be forcing Lazarus (and everyone else) into the same experience a second time? Was it tears of frustration that death still had its power? The reason doesn't really matter. What matters is that He is a Man of sorrows who weeps with us, a God who feels our pain and frustration, a God-Man who loves us unreservedly. He wants to raise us up and give us life ... temporally and eternally.

Who does He say that He is? (Part VI)

So last time Jesus said He was the gate for the sheep. Just a few lines down from there, He continues to expand the metaphor (for the folks who didn't get what He was saying) to call Himself the Good Shepherd.

A shepherd is one of those things that's culturally alien to most of us. I grew up in the 'burbs. What the heck would I know about what a shepherd does? I can pull a lot out of Psalm 23 ... leader, guide, provider, defender, protector, constant companion. (I got some good-natured ribbing from my men when I suggested that Tolkien's ranger characters had some of the characteristics of a shepherd ... guides who knew all about flora and fauna, who could defend against man or beast, who could track through any environment to find the lost. Now that's something I can get my mind around!)

Who does He say that He is? (Part V)

This week we hit one of the stickier instances of self-identification. In it, Jesus said that He was the gate for the sheep. A gate? What do we make of that?

We spent a little bit of time discussing the whole shepherding thing. This is where commentaries and study notes are useful -- historical and cultural context. When sheep were brought in for the night, they were brought into something like a cave or a building or a walled-in area of pasture. The entrance was guarded by a gate in order to keep out undesirables (wild animals, thieves, robbers). The shepherd himself would often sleep near the gate in case of trouble. And there was a watchman who would open the entrance gate for the shepherd to bring the sheep in and out.

So the gate itself served as protection. But it also served as entrance into protection (the sheep pen). We enter the security right relationship with the Creator through Christ, and we dwell in the security right relationship with the Creator in Christ.

Who does He say that He is? (Part IV)

We've had a few weeks off due to a pub night and a night at The Passion. But we finally managed to jump back into it this week. The next stop on our tour was the bold claim to eternity, "Before Abraham was, I AM!"

So there He was, a guy in His early thirties, formerly of the carpentry trade and later an itinerant teacher. The crowd looked at Him and scoffed, "Pfft, you're not even fifty yet, and you saw Abraham?" That part always makes me wonder if Jesus looked a lot older than His years. Was there a depth of eternal wisdom in His eyes, an ancient sadness over all the lost sheep? Could life on the road have aged Him that much? Maybe it was the forty days in the desert without food or water, or some combination of the above.

Regardless, what He declared had quite an effect on the crowd. Everybody who was listening to Him got the point -- that's why some of them picked up stones to kill Him. But then I have to think, would I have acted any differently if I was in that situation? Not very likely. Even knowing the rest of the story, my hand still strays toward the stone (the same hand that He grasped when He lifted me out of the dust, saying, "I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more.").

In the English language, what He said is a scant three letters. Two one-syllable words. But as spoken to the crowd, it carried a weight of meaning that was far beyond the phrase itself. It was an identification with God as He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. It turned everything on its head. He wasn't just a good teacher healing the sick and preaching good news to the poor. He was God in the flesh giving sight to the blind and proclaiming His kingdom.

These aren't the words of a gentle teacher or a religious leader or a political revolutionary. These are the very words of God Himself. That is what sets Him apart from the other religious teachers -- God in the flesh teaching, guiding, dying and rising to bring His people to Himself. How mind-blowing is that?

Who does He say that He is? (Part III)

The "I AM" of the week for this week -- Light:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

I was immediately reminded of something C. S. Lewis wrote ... and I actually managed to find the attribution (the essay "Is Theology Poetry?" from The Weight of Glory): "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." Other metaphors that came up during our discussion were the red pill in The Matrix (of course), the sunglasses from They Live, and an episode of Samurai Jack in which Jack fights as a "light ninja" in order conquer another (dark) ninja. (As an aside, this was one of the most stylish and artistic episodes I've ever seen).

All of which is really beside the point. But it's something that our imaginations can grasp, even as our minds grasp at the concept of "light" as something that illuminates and banishes darkness. So what does it mean for walking the path? The goal should be, I think, to reach the point where Christ is the light of my life, to reach the point where I put up no shadow-casters in his way, to reach the point where I'm not hunching over trying to hide something from being exposed by Him. The conclusion: apart from Him, we are all in shadow. Our beings, our doings, our feelings all reside in darkness apart from His light.

Shutting my eyes to Him won't keep the light away. It'll only make me more of a liar. But there's an internal cost to opening the eyes of faith. The more I seek to hide in the Light, the more I'll realize that there is nothing that can be hidden from Him. More of His light means less of my own darkness. And that is certainly a welcome thought.

Who does He say that He is? (Part II)

After a week off due to various reasons (25% of us couldn't make it, predictions of ice on the roads, etc.), we got back into the study mentioned previously.

The next stop in the "I AM" thread of the Gospel according to John:

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."

Bread is one of the dietary staples of a good part of the world. I suppose it could just as easily have read "rice of life" or "potato of life" depending on the geographical regions (and in the various translations for those regions, it probably is). So in using the metaphor of bread Jesus centers on the necessity for spiritual sustenance. He goes so far as to say that He is the staple, without whom spiritual nourishment is impossible.

So what if I like Reese's peanut butter cups more than I like bread (and I do)? What's that going to do to my diet? Junk food is only going to get in the way of the good stuff ... so how much spiritual junk food do I consume? How do I even figure out what's spiritual junk food and what's not? Is this diet distributed across the attributes of personality? Is there one for the rational mind, one for the emotions and one for the imagination? Or is it one diet that feeds the whole person? Is the spiritual diet the same for everyone, or is it like a physical diet in that it must be tailored to the person?

I think there is but one diet: the Gospel of Christ. And I think that the end goal is to find the balance of the rational, the emotional and the imaginary such that I am truly fed and captured by Him.