Tag: son of god

Remember Your Baptism (Matthew 3:13-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (New Revised Standard Version)

Today is the Sunday on the Christian Calendar in which the baptism of Jesus is annually remembered. It also marks the first Sunday of the season of Epiphany – a celebration of God’s salvation being extended not only to Jews, but also to Gentiles. In other words, everyone on planet earth is within the scope of Christ’s work of deliverance.

Baptism is important. Remembering is important. Put together, remembering our baptism is highly important. Here’s why….

Baptism is important to Jesus

Baptism is the distinguishing mark or symbol of being a Christian. 

The New Testament knows nothing of an unbaptized Christian – it’s biblically oxymoronic. That’s because baptism is tied to our identity as believers. Each individual baptism is based in the baptism of the Lord who, in his Great Commission, told us to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. 

The absence of baptism is like a bride without a wedding ring; or a football player not wearing a uniform; or a motorcycle gang without tattoos; or like an Iowa farmer without a Pioneer seed corn hat!

Baptism is the outward sign that we belong to God. It is the distinguishing symbol that we have been adopted by God and will receive all the promises of salvation in Christ.

Christ’s baptism fulfilled all righteousness through identification with repentant people

John the Baptist was understandably hesitant to baptize Jesus; he knew Jesus had no need of repentance. Although Jesus had no sin to confess, his baptism is a powerful symbol of his humility. It anticipates his ministry to people who recognize their need for God. 

It was necessary for Jesus to be baptized in order to communicate solidarity with people who are coming to God. “Righteousness” means having a right relationship with both God and other people. By being baptized, Jesus is proclaiming that a renewed and right relationship with God will become a reality through himself.

Baptism is the sign that we belong to God and that our righteousness is tied to our union with Jesus.

It was important for Jesus to identify with sinners; and so, it is important for us, as well. We remember our baptism – that we belong to God – by identifying with “sinners.” We do this by:

  1. Practicing hospitality (love of strangers)
  2. Using our spiritual gifts of speaking and serving on their behalf
  3. Getting to know people very different from ourselves
  4. Meeting people on their turf (not just ours)
  5. Showing respect and upholding dignity
  6. Asking thoughtful and caring questions
  7. Listening with focused attention

It isn’t what we “do” for people that’s as important as affirming our shared humanity with them. We thus lead folks to the ultimate person who can address the needs of their heart: Jesus.

Christ’s baptism fulfilled all righteousness through the affirmation of witnesses

Before Jesus began his ministry, it was necessary to receive validation of what he was about to teach and do. In ancient Judaism, one of the protections guaranteeing that Scripture would be taught according to the way of God, was through an ordination, of sorts. In order for a new rabbi to become a new rabbi, he needed the laying on of hands from two other rabbis who had authority to do so. 

That’s why Christ’s baptism is important. John the Baptist was a powerful teacher and prophet who was recognized by the people as such. John publicly said he wasn’t worthy to carry Jesus’s sandals, that Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. So, a baptism by John validated Jesus and inaugurated his ministry. 

And a second voice – another witness from heaven – affirmed Jesus: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Then, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, came upon Jesus. This further affirmed that Jesus would save people, not through arm-twisting and great shows of power, but through humility and gentleness.

Baptism was Christ’s first recorded act as an adult. In some ways, it was his first miracle – the miracle of humility in identifying with sinners.

Remember your baptism

“Baptism” by American artist Ivey Hayes (1948-2012)

Baptism is a sign and a seal of God’s grace. Just as Christ’s baptism focused all the promises of God in salvation as being fulfilled in one person, so in our baptism we claim all the promises of God as found in Jesus. Water symbolizes new life, God identifying with us – Immanuel, God with us.

In baptism, God promises and seals to us our union with Jesus so that identity is not found in my past and my profession of faith, but in Christ’s past of bringing redemption to us. Baptism does not so much express faith as call one to a life of faith and sets us apart as belonging to God.

Baptism is a visible declaration of an invisible reality: union with Christ. Just as circumcision was the outward visible sign of the old covenant, so baptism is the sign of the new covenant in Christ – available to both male and female – thus opening the way for women to participate fully in the ministry of the gospel.

In particular, infant baptism confirms that salvation is not initiated by us, but by God. It affirms that one is betrothed to God. As a child, then an adult, grows into the faith, it is our task to remember our baptism, to be reminded that God’s mark is upon us, that we belong to the Lord. 

God has set us apart to be a holy people, given to Jesus to live as he did. We must never forget that baptism is God’s identifying mark upon us; that our union and solidarity with Jesus is affirmed through this practice.

We are not solitary Christians; we belong to Christ and to one another. Baptism is the initiation rite that takes a lifetime to complete. Therefore, we must struggle together in working out our salvation.

Because of our union with Jesus Christ, we must remember:

  • I do not belong to the world. So, I will not live selfishly, only seeking my own comfort agenda. Instead, I will give and serve others from a pure and humble heart.
  • I do not belong to sin. So, I will not give myself over to shameful words or actions, to bullying or manipulating people, to throwing fits and pity parties to get my way, nor using my tongue to speak gossip, slander, or suck-up to others. Instead, I will use my speech wisely, building up others through thoughtful and heartfelt encouragement.
  • I do not belong to the devil. So, I will not seek his agenda of lying, cheating, stealing, and being bitter. 

I belong to Jesus, so therefore:

  • I will uphold biblical justice by championing the cause of the fatherless and the widow, the poor and the needy, the least and the lost among us.
  • I will love others with all the grace God gives me.
  • I will forgive others because Christ has forgiven me.
  • I will consider others better than myself by embracing the humility of Christ.
  • I will hunger and thirst for righteousness by seeking and maintaining right relations with others.
  • I will seek peace and pursue it.
  • I will, give myself to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord – completely and thoroughly, unabashedly and unreservedly.
  • I will live into my baptism and remember it always, because I belong to Jesus!

Creator God, our soul’s delight, your voice thunders over the waters, liberating the future from the past. In the Spirit’s power and the waters of rebirth, Jesus was declared your blessed and beloved Son; may we recall our baptism, and be disciples of the Anointed One. Amen.

The Holy Name of Jesus (Luke 2:15-21)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Orthodox depiction of the circumcision and naming of Jesus

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them, and Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.

When the eighth day came, it was time to circumcise the child, and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. (New Revised Standard Version)

“The Holy Name of Jesus” is a celebration, observed by some Christian traditions, each year on January 1 – which is the eighth day after the birth of Jesus, when he was named and circumcised at the temple in Jerusalem.

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21, NRSV)

In the Law of Moses, all male infants are to be circumcised on the eighth day after their birth (Leviticus 12:3). Throughout most of the history of the Christian Church, January 1 has been celebrated as a feast day devoted to the naming of Jesus.

The name “Jesus” comes from the Hebrew Yeshuah (Joshua) which means “Yahweh will save.” It is a name fitting for the person and work of Christ.

Therefore God exalted him even more highly
    and gave him the name
    that is above every other name,
so that at the name given to Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11, NRSV)

Faith is always followed by obedience. So, the faith of Joseph and Mary in believing the words of the angel Gabriel, translated into the obedient naming of their son as “Jesus.” (Luke 1:31-32)

Jesus, bearing the name of savior, is holy in every way. Not only does the name of Jesus point to his divinity – because of his miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit – but it also directs us toward the special mission for which he entered this world.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Son of Humanity, is God’s agent of deliverance for both Israel and the whole world.

“Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord….” (Luke 2:10-11, NRSV)

The Gospel writer Luke provides us with a birth narrative “pregnant” with theological information and importance:

  • Jesus has divine sonship, and possesses the status of king (Luke 1:31-35)
  • Jesus comes from the city of David, which is Bethlehem, not Jerusalem (Luke 2:4, 11)
  • Jesus is described by the angel Gabriel as Son of the Most High, Son of God, Savior, Messiah, and Lord; each of these titles direct us to his identity and mission (Luke 1:32, 35; 2:11)

I like the collective response of the shepherds, after they received heavenly good news from a group of angels.

They could have dismissed the entire thing as having drunk too much brandy on a brisk winter night. They could have kept the whole affair to themselves, reasoning that nobody would believe a bunch of stinky shepherds.

Instead, much like Mary who hurried off to Elizabeth after receiving the angelic message, the shepherds dropped everything to go and see the feeding trough with a newborn baby wrapped in swaddling cloth.

In other words, the shepherds belief in what they heard and experienced, quickly translated into action. It was only appropriate that it was shepherds who discovered the newborn king, the Son of David, himself a shepherd who was anointed by God.

The shepherds went and followed the signs given to them by the angel. And they believed. A motley group of shepherds returned to their fields, kicking up their heels, praising and glorifying God. They knew that things would never be the same again.

The name of Jesus is holy, simply because the Lord Jesus Christ is the Holy One. Christians recognize Jesus as Savior, the fulfillment of all God’s promises. His singular birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension is exactly, I believe, what this old fallen world is most in need of.

It is never too late to resolve knowing Jesus. At the beginning of this year, there is perhaps no better resolution to make, again and again, of knowing Jesus Christ and honoring his holy name.

Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation. Plant in our hearts the love of Jesus, truly God and truly human, and grant that we may praise and bless your Holy Name with our whole mind, heart, body, and spirit, that we may know your boundless compassion and mercy. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.

The Lord of Life (John 6:56-69)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Bread of Life, by Kennedy Paizs

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things while he was teaching in a synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.”

For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and who was the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (New Revised Standard Version)

This is a hard teaching – which is why a fair number of Christ’s disciples unfollowed him, literally, and not just socially and virtually.

Perhaps they believed they were following a great moral teacher, only to find Jesus prattling-on about being bread from heaven and divinely related to God.

The late great C.S. Lewis commented on Jesus, saying this:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

It seems Jesus cares little about whether we think of him as a moral teacher or some monstrosity. But he does care about moving people to a spirit-filled confession, a settled claim of faith, and a bold proclamation of his person and work.

Indeed, Jesus Christ, Son of Humanity, Son of God, leads us to hear his own confession, claim, and proclamation: “I Am.”

The crowd of people listening to Jesus were having a hard time wrapping their heads around his message. There were simply no existing categories of thought to which they could put Jesus neatly into. Everyone was rather puzzled with Christ’s words.

Jesus was in the Capernaum synagogue, a village on the Sea of Galilee, 30 miles from where he grew up in Nazareth. Any talk of eating and drinking and religion within any faith community is likely to be a charged discussion. Typically the politics of faith is not for the faint of heart.

We are to abide in Christ, to be in vital union with him. To have Jesus close, to have his words and ways within us, is akin to eating a satisfying meal that goes throughout our entire body and effects our being. Connecting and remaining with Jesus is true living and abundant life.

But the synagogue crowd wasn’t having any of this crazy talk of eating flesh and drinking blood. The lines between meat and metaphor were severely blurred for them. They did not accept the wedding of the spiritual and the material, of word and flesh, of God and Jesus together as Father and Son.

Jesus was causing the men to fold their arms in disgust, and the ladies to squirm in their pews with agitation. They looked upon this Jesus in front of them as causing a religious scandal of the first degree.

Rather than back off the scandalous words, Jesus stuck with them. Furthermore, he intensified what he was saying. At the heart of it was a claim to be the ladder between heaven and earth, the one who is manna from above, given for the life of the people.

His flesh is bread, and his blood is drink. He is life itself. He is even spirit, the one who breathes new life into people. At this point, Jesus was being as scandalous as it gets for his audience in the synagogue.

All of Christ’s talk is meant to bring people to consider him, to contemplate God, and to come to a point of response. Because nobody encountered Jesus without deciding if he is a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord who is life itself.

Many of Christ’s own disciples bailed on him. The scandal was too much. They didn’t sign up for this. To stay with Jesus means to really stay, to abide, to believe and know who he is.

Throughout the New Testament Gospels, Jesus honors people with questions and choices – and does not simply bypass human dignity and worth. He asked his closest twelve disciples if they also wanted to retreat from the scandalous message and messenger they’d been following.

Peter, of course, still had to learn this lesson of respect; he answered for the entire group. Jesus is where, and in whom, he found life, along with the rest of them. They didn’t know how all of the scandalous talk was going to shake-out specifically, although I think each of them had a pretty good idea.

But it didn’t matter. The twelve disciples were stuck on Jesus. Or, to be more accurate, the eleven disciples. Perhaps it was at this point that Judas Iscariot no longer had to wonder what was going to happen, and what exactly Jesus was up to.

Abiding in a movement that did not include a Roman takeover and a glorious wealthy kingdom was something Judas was unwilling to invest in. Maybe it was here that he began considering his exit plan.

Recognizing Jesus as Son of Humanity, Son of God, and the Word made flesh for us, requires both belief and knowledge – because you must have the one to have the other. C.S. Lewis discovered this. So did I. And may you, as well, my friend. For Jesus is the Lord of life.

Gracious God, although we once were strangers, you receive us as friends and draw us home to you. Set your living bread before us so that, feasting around your table, we may be strengthened to continue the work to which your Son commissioned us. Amen.

I Am the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 41-51)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Ethiopian Orthodox depiction of Jesus sharing with the disciples

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 

Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (New Revised Standard Version)

The lesson for today begins with the first of seven “I am” statements in John’s Gospel from Jesus:

  1. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)
  2. “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
  3. “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.” (John 10:9)
  4.  “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
  5. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
  6. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
  7. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. I am the vine.” (John 15:1-2)

Also, for the first time in the Gospel of John, the Jews are named and identified as the ones who cause conflict for Jesus. John, of course, did not mean every single Jew; he was referring chiefly to the Jewish religious establishment, the leaders. And even then, he, of course, was not making reference to every single rabbi or person in the ruling council.

It’s important to say that, because Jews throughout the centuries have had far too much persecution from Christians who think all Jews have it in for Jesus. So, please, exercise some plain common sense and basic human kindness when it comes to reading the New Testament Gospels; they are most definitely not anti-Semitic.

The religious leaders were taking issue with the claims of Jesus, his “I am” statement. They argued that Jesus was a plain ordinary Jew from a typical Jewish family. There’s no need, the authorities contended, for Jesus to think of himself any other way than a common Jew.

Instead of entertaining the complaint against him, Jesus pointed to God the Father. God initiated the action by sending Jesus; and takes action by drawing people to Jesus. And Christ does his part by raising those people up at the last day; and teaching them about God’s actions of deliverance.

When it comes to the earthly ministry of Jesus, seeing is believing, and hearing is learning. Trust what you see with Jesus; and believe it. Have faith in what you hear from Jesus; and learn from it.

I Am the Bread of Life, by Joseph Matar

I like Jesus. I like metaphors. Jesus is a metaphor guy. I like that. Jesus said that he is the bread of life. Those who come to Jesus are satisfied. Those who eat him, live forever. This isn’t cannibalism, it’s a metaphor. The bread that Jesus gives for the life of the world is his flesh.

Metaphors help us relate to the concept, and grasp the message. If you’re hungry, just looking at a loaf of bread isn’t going to help you be satisfied. Obviously, you have to eat the bread and do more than see it, smell it, and touch it.

What’s more, people do more than eat once. We eat repeatedly, every day, at least a few times a day, in order to be healthy and alive.

Come and see Jesus. But do more than that. Ingest him. Take Jesus into your life. Let the bread of life come into you and thoroughly satisfy you. And do it every day. Do it several times a day. Make sure your soul is continually full of Jesus.

Then, you will have life to the full, an abundant life, filled with good things and right relationships.

Jesus is the bread of life. He is the great “I am.” And so much more.

Yet, perhaps at first glance, Jesus is just one person amongst a panoply of historical characters and religious figures. However, if we will but taste Jesus, we will come to see something very different about him. He’s more than a human being, more than a compelling teacher, and more than a miracle worker.

Jesus may appear, to many, as nothing more than a common person. But there’s really nothing ordinary about him, at all. Taking the time to have a good look at the Gospel of John, and watching Jesus move from village to village, and person to person will help us see a rather uncommon person who was no ordinary human being.

He moved to the beat of a different drum, and danced an alternative jig. And if we observe more closely, we can see the other two dance partners with him.

And with our two ears, when he says, “I am,” we can respond with an emphatic, “He is.”

Merciful Father, you heard the prayers of your people in the wilderness and fed them bread from heaven despite their sin. Graciously hear us today and feed us, too, with the Bread of Life from heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.