Enduring the Cross

Holy Week helps us rehearse annually the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ for us. This morning, while reading through Matthew's account of Jesus' last week, my mind turned to what must have been on the Lord's mind those last few days before his cruel death. Walk with me for a bit, will you?

Crucifixion was a horrifying death, yet Jesus knew that was

An Apprentice of the Carpenter

Preachers talk about "following Jesus" but what does that mean? We could use technical language and give a 100-word definition. But simply, it means to be his apprentice in living. Learning what he does and how he does it, learning to pay attention when he teaches, practicing and getting it sort of right, and practicing some more. Since Jesus was a carpenter, maybe

Worse than I Thought

Turns out the work on my house is going to take longer than I thought. Not because the permits office takes longer, or that the workers

Jesus: Expert Consultant

The Lovely Joanne, in her systems-auditing business, sometimes visits client companies that have very complex manufacturing processes.  Sometimes she hires
an expert consultant to come in and handle the more technical parts of the visit.  That consultant has a high standard of training and experience, and knows whether the client is performing the proper tasks, and whether they're doing them properly.

How about you and me?  At home, sometimes we have to call a trained plumber or electrician for repairs we can't do on our own.  But when we run into trouble with relationships, what can we do?  I'll admit it -- my first reaction as a human is to get tense, blame it all on the other person and keep finding more reasons he or she is at fault.  That doesn't work well in my marriage, nor in any other relationship I have.  I need help!  Likely, so do you.  (There are important times when we need to call on trained human counselors who can give us specific tools for understanding others and responding to them, but right now, let's focus on what God has given us in himself.)

Rather than giving you "Three Simple Keys to Better Relationships" let me point you to Jesus himself. Jesus is the "Expert Consultant on Relationships" whom we can call in for help.  Let's look at his credentials, in the book of Hebrews.  Jesus:

• Is "the champion who initiates and perfects our faith" (12:2)
• Is the high priest "who is able to empathize with our weaknesses; and was tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin" (4:15)
• Had to endure "hostility...from sinful people" (12:3)
• Is the One who could, once and for all, "remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice" (9:26)

Jesus is the only one who is fully God and fully man. He knows the heart of God for us, and he knows human weaknesses.  He is the only one who can help us through every mess we get ourselves into.  The Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ Jesus promised, "will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."  What is the mind of Christ that the Holy Spirit teaches and reminds us of? It's love and forgiveness toward the other person, giving and forgiving -- even while enduring "hostility from sinful people" just as he did. 

As I said, my first reaction is to defend myself and blame the other person.  I have to stop and ask Jesus to help me see the other person from his viewpoint, not my own.  Jesus helps me see the person he loves, not the person I'm upset with.  Jesus gives me his compassion and forgiveness, and helps me learn how to give it away freely.  Jesus is my "Expert Consultant on Relationships" and I call him in a lot.  If you need that same help, I can highly recommend him.  Give him a call -- why not right now?

A Union Carpenter

Jesus, son of God and son of man, was a carpenter by trade (Mark 6:3). I guess that makes sense, because the Logos was the builder of the universe (John 1:3) so maybe it made sense for him to be a builder when he was a human (John 1:14) also. But did you know he was a union carpenter?

Okay, not like a labor union. But he was the perfect union of God and humanity, and that's very important. It surprises me to realize that it took four centuries for the church to decide this question. But there are a lot of crucial issues hanging on the answer.

Here's the background: Jesus was obviously a man. But he claimed the title "Son of Man" from Daniel 7:13, which everyone of his day recognized as a claim of divinity. Matthew 1:22-23 says that he was Immanuel, God with us, fulfilling Isa. 7:14 and 8:8-10. Scripture gives the Messiah divine (meaning Godly) titles in Isa. 9:6. The early church recognized him as divine/authoritative/Lord/Savior, for instance in 1 Cor 8:6.

The argument arose over whether the Son of God was only divine, so that the human form he assumed was only an illusion; or whether he was only human, which kept God away from being polluted by flesh. There were good-sounding arguments for both sides, yet both sides also had scriptures contradicting them. But what became more and more clear was that Jesus had to be fully God and fully human, even though that sounds impossible to us.

Gregory of Nanzianzus wrote it this way: "What has not been assumed has not been restored; it is what is united with God that is saved." That is, if flesh had not been completely 'assumed,' or taken on, by Jesus, then flesh -- that's all of us -- could not have been saved. In 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon decided that "Only God can save; only that which God has become is saved." So if Jesus the Messiah had not been fully God and fully human, salvation wouldn't have worked. Jesus had to be a 'union carpenter' as it were.

So by fully 'assuming' flesh, Jesus became our perfect representative before the Father; and the Father's perfect representative to humanity. Isn't that amazing? Because of Christ, our broken flesh is fully reconciled to the Father. Though we still have human weakness and sin, those don't exclude us from the Father's presence, because Immanuel (God with us) is our eternal advocate before the Father (Heb. 7:25), and his perfect death paid for all our sins. (And he's still Immanuel, God with us, by the way -- see Matthew 28:20.)

Can we fully understand that? Not really. But we can look with awe on the God who figured out how to do it, and thank him that he did it for us. And keep thanking God for a certain 'union carpenter', forever.