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A Christmas Conundrum (Advent 2012)

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Introduction

Christmas is the time of year when we celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus. But lest this become an exercise in jargon, we need to think through what we mean by it. If we were to reapply the apostle Paul at this point, we should celebrate with the fudge, but celebrate with the mind also (1 Cor. 14:15).

The Text

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:1-4).

Summary of the Text

The apostle Paul was a servant of Christ (v. 1), called as an apostle (v. 1), and separated for his service in the gospel of God (v. 1). This gospel was promised to us all beforehand through the prophets in the holy Scripture (v. 2), and the gospel concerned the person of the Lord Jesus. Whenever we think about the gospel, we must think in two categories—in terms of the person of Jesus, and in terms of the work of Jesus. Paul here alludes to His work by referencing the resurrection (v. 4), but he is emphasizing the person of the Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ was made according to the flesh of the seed of David (v. 3). He was a Davidson. And He was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead (v. 4). Now Jesus was the Son of God the entire time, but He was not declared openly to be such until the resurrection established him as the first born from among the dead (Ps. 2:7; Acts 13:33; Col. 1:15, 18).

A Delayed Fuse

So what we find is that God placed certain truths in His Word, and the ramifications of these truths took some centuries to work out. The Church finally settled them in the Council of Nicea (325) and in the Definition of Chalcedon (451). Nicea settled that Jesus is God, and Chalcedon settled what that has to mean since He was also a genuine man.

So Start With Jesus of Nazareth

We know from Scripture that Jesus was a true human being. John makes a point of saying it bluntly. Their eyes saw Him (1 John 1:1), and their hands touched Him (1 John 1:1). He had a true body—He had bones (Luke 24:39). He got thirsty (John 4:7). He knew what it was to be hungry (Matt. 4:2). One time He was so exhausted that He slept through a storm (Mark 4:38). Scripture makes the point in countless ways—Mary gave birth to a baby boy (Luke 2:7). So whatever else we are dealing with here, we dealing with a fellow human being, someone who is not ashamed to call us brothers (Heb. 2:11). Jesus was a true man.

Start With Jesus Again

But He was such a remarkable man that to say He was just a man does not begin to cover it. This reality extends beyond His miracles—many of which had been done in the power of the Spirit by prophets before Him. From the very first, Jesus was identified by His followers as God. When Thomas saw Him after the resurrection, He said “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28). God the Father speaks to the Son, and says, “Your throne, O God . . .” (Heb. 1:8). The Word was with God in the beginning, and the Word was God (John 1:1) and, lest there be any confusion on the point, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The Word created everything, including the world He was born into (John 1:3). The fundamental Christian confession is that Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9-10). Further, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:13; Joel 2:32). The Hebrew in the passage Paul cites is talking about YHWH. Jesus is YHWH.

Jesus Himself had made this identification, and the fact that people still want to call Him a great moral teacher (only) is simply another argument for how remarkable He was. As Lewis points out, this is actually like claiming that you are a poached egg. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders that “Before Abraham was, I am.”They got His point, and picked up stones to kill Him for blasphemy (John 8:58-59).

Yet Another Antinomy

Some people want the object of their worship to be fully in accord with common sense. But one of the first things common sense tells us is that this is an impossibility. Is God infinite? Yes, of course (Ps. 147:5). But can we conceptualize that? Of course not. Did God make everything out of nothing? Yes, of course (John 1:3). But can we imagine nothing and then something, on the basis of a Word? Did God ordain every word that we speak, before we speak it, and yet we are the ones who speak? Yes, of course (Ps. 139:4). It is the same here—we cannot do the math, but we can bow down and adore. This is not contrary to logic, but it certain goes well beyond our abilities in it.

Right Worship

So what are we to do? We begin with right worship, which in its turn—just as it did with the early church—will lead to right definitions. Right worship shapes our theology. In this case, we echo what our fathers at Nicea and Chalcedon said. Jesus of Nazareth is one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. This one person had, unlike us, two natures, one divine and one human. These natures were not blended together, but were rather united in a person. They were not mixed up. They were not parceled out. The Incarnation was not God in a man-suit. It was not as though He had a human body and a divine soul. No—He had a complete human nature, and He was fully God.

As Chalcedon put it, that which can be predicated of one nature can be predicated of the person. That which is predicated of the other nature can be predicated of the person. Jesus is true God. Jesus is true man. But that which is predicated of one nature cannot be predicated of the other nature. Humanity is not divinity, and finitude is not infinitude. And glory goes to God in the highest.

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Concentric Circles (Advent 2012)

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Introduction

This might seem an odd Advent text, a text more in keeping with Ascension. But as we remember the Lord’s life, we want to remember the beginning at the end, and the end at the beginning. In the blessing of Simeon, Mary was told that her heart would be pierced through, and here, when Jesus departed, He told them that they would be witnesses “unto me”—witnesses of the whole story, as we can tell from the story these men went out and told. When they served as these witnesses, they started with the Lord’s birth.

The Text

“And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:7-11).

Summary of the Text

When Jesus came to earth, the shepherds were on the ground, the angels were in the sky, and the Lord Jesus was in a manger. When He left this earth, the angels were on the ground, the future shepherds of the Church were on the ground, and the Lord Jesus was ascending into the sky.

The disciples asked when the kingdom was going to be established, and the Lord told them that it was not for them to know the times and seasons, which the Father kept in His own power (v. 7). At the same time, they were going to receive power when the Spirit was poured out upon them (v. 8). They were going to receive power, not talking points. When they received power, the gospel was going to spread in concentric circles outward, as when you throw a large rock in a pond—the splash was Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and then out to the rest of the globe (v. 8). After He spoke this, He was taken up (v. 9). As the disciples were gazing skyward, two men in white appeared next to them (v. 10) and asked why they were doing that (v. 11). Jesus is going to come again, the same way that He left (v. 11).

You can take this passage as almost a table of contents for the book of Acts. The Spirit falls in the next chapter, in Jerusalem (Acts 1:12; 2:1ff). That initial splash reached the men of Judea (Acts 2:14). We see by the ninth chapter that there were churches throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria (Acts 9:31). The rest of the book takes us out through the rest of the Roman world, with intimations of more to come after that—and here we are, on the other side of the world entirely.

Power and Place

The angels didn’t tell the disciples to hit the road as soon as Jesus left. They were to wait for His divine replacement, the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God, when He manifests Himself, is not shy and withdrawn. In the Christmas story, He overshadows Mary so that she conceives, and here He overshadows the 120 in the upper room in Jerusalem, so that the world might conceive. The power and Spirit of God came upon Mary (Luke 1:35), and the power and Spirit of God came upon the disciples (Acts 2:1-2).

Places don’t give you power. Power takes you places. Your spirituality is not a function of your GPS coordinates. The first place it takes you is right where you already are, the way you are. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that becoming a missionary will fix your problems—in many cases, it will only amplify them. Mission-heartedness will address your selfishness problem to the extent that such a heart gives itself away to people here. The power falls where you are first, you see the results of it there first, and then you take the show on the road. Power is in the drive train. Place is just the steering wheel.

The Church and Mission

The church does not do missions; the church is missions. So what is the assigned task? Think about this for a moment. Jesus did not say to go out into the world and get a representative sampling. He did not say to get a smidge from here and a smidge from there. He said to disciple the nations (Matt. 28:18-20). How discipled is discipled? Well, how wet is the ocean floor under the Pacific (Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14)?

Mission Accomplished?

One of the dangers in sending out church planters and missionaries to Judea and Samaria is that this might make you think you can check Jerusalem off the list. But it doesn’t work this way.

You send out church planters and missionaries to establish a foothold or a beachhead in a new place as soon as you have consolidated a foothold or a beachhead in the old place. The fact that we are ministering in places like the Ivory Coast, or are involved in planting churches in other places in the Pacific Northwest does not mean that we have become a sending church in distinction from a mission church. We remain a mission church (as well as a sending church), and we must remain a mission church so long as a mission remains.

Resisting Mission Drift

Mission drift occurs in different ways. One of them is when the mission is redefined. Why are we here? What is the point? The point of the church is two-fold—birth and growth. But if we get our building (as we may in the foreseeable future), how easy would it be for the mission to change, and turn into “pay for upkeep on the building,” “keep attendance at acceptable levels,” and “become a community fixture?” No—building are staging areas for the next offensive. The mission is not done here until there are only three unbelievers left in town, and they are acting pretty worried.

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Treasure and Pearl

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Introduction

We come to two short parables, given to us side-by-side, and with the same basic point. Given their length, teaching, and placement, it only makes sense to treat them together. As with the parable of the leaven, we first have to decide on which way we shall take it. Some interpret this with the treasure/pearl representing the church, and the discoverer of them as being Christ, sacrificing all for His people. The other way to take it, and the way I will be handling it, is to represent the treasure as Christ, and the discoverer as the disciple who gives up everything for the sake of what he has found.

The Text

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matt. 13:44-46).

Summary of the Text

The treasure parable is about hidden treasure (v. 44). A man comes across it (apparently by accident), and then he hides it again. Having done so, he goes out in joy and sells everything he has in order to obtain the field the treasure is in (v. 44). The next parable comes hard after, with the same basic point. The difference here is that the merchant traffics in pearls—that is what he is looking for in the first place (v. 45). When he comes across the sort of object he seeks, a pearl of great price, he goes and sells everything he has in order to get it (v. 46).

Parables, Not Allegories

We treat parables as though they were allegories when we try to assign a meaning to every last detail in the parable, and by so doing distort the central meaning of parable. What does the field containing the treasure in the first parable represent? Some have said the church, some have said the Bible. I think it would be better to key off an earlier parable and say it is the world, which would include any place where you found the treasure, even though that might be a tract in a laundromat. And if we insist on a meaning for every detail, does this mean that the gospel can be purchased for ready money? Not at all—although there is an exchange based on an understanding of value that we shall see in a moment. Chaucer rightly mocked the idea of “pardons, come from Rome, all hot.”This also means that we don’t need to get sucked into discussions of the ethics of hiding a treasure you found in somebody else’s field. That is not the point. The parable of the unjust judge does not commend injustice in the judiciary, and the parable of the dishonest steward does not teach us to pilfer from our employers. The fact that the Lord will return like a thief in the night does not mean that He is returning to steal something.

Going All In

What is the point then? The point is the surpassing value of our salvation, a value not immediately obvious to other onlookers. That surpassing value, once seen, makes every sacrifice a joy. The man who stumbles across the treasure in the field goes and sells everything he has, and he does so impelled by joy. He does not mope around because of the “sacrifices” he now has to make. As Jim Eliot put it, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Because he did not see this, the rich young ruler went away sorrowful (Mark 10:22).

Just as faith is the natural response to the perceived faithfulness of God, so sacrifice is the natural response to the perceived value of salvation. But you fall between two stools if you do not see the surpassing value of Christ, and yet are guilted into giving up a bunch of stuff anyway.

The man who finds the treasure sees what he needs to do instantly, and he does it with joy. The merchant looking for good pearls knew all along what he needed to do, and only needed to find the appropriate opportunity to do what he knew all along.

More Than Much Fine Gold

So Jesus is not talking about giving up everything, and then groaning over it. We are simply talking about the natural functioning of a value system. Which do you value more? Gold or God’s commands? The psalmist much preferred the law of God to gold (Ps. 19:10). God’s commands are worth more to us than gold (Ps. 119: 27- 128). All your choices proceed naturally out of your value system. The response from Heaven will reflect God’s value system. This is why the one who prefers the world over God will lose both. The one who prefers God to the world will gain both. Why is America losing all its dollars? Because we worship dollars—you cannot serve both God and Mammon.

False gods are impotent. The gods of green give us brown. The gods of pragmatism don’t work. The gods of wealth breed poor people. The gods of liberty are slave-drivers. Our national election last Tuesday demonstrated that we love our false prophets (Jer. 5:31). This will not be changed without a massive religious reformation and revival.

Where You See Excellency

The one excludes the other, and the choice is an easy one for every one who actually sees the choice.

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:8-9).

You set your hand to the plow. You don’t leave behind your goods like Lot’s wife did with Sodom, with many long, lingering glances . . . and more than a few sighs. And so what is it that we are to see as surpassing all other value? It is the righteousness of another. It is the rejection of our own performance. It is to see, truly see, the worthlessness of our own goodness. It is to treat homemade piety with contempt.

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The Leaven in Three Measures

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Introduction

We come to a parable that has traditionally been interpreted in two diametrically opposed ways. One view sees the leaven as representing corruption, making this a parable of how the kingdom of God is going to go from bad to worse. The other sees the leaven as a good and positive image (representing the growth of the kingdom), and this then is a parable of God’s saving purpose for the whole world. We will be considering the parable with this second meaning.

The Text

“Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Matt. 13:33; Luke 13:20-21).

Summary of the Text

This is a very short parable about growth, in the midst of other parables about growth. In most of these parables, the kingdom is growing, and alongside it an anti-kingdom is growing as well. In this parable, the only growth that is mentioned is that of the kingdom itself. Matthew says that Jesus spoke another parable to them (v. 33). Luke has the Lord introducing the parable with a question—to what shall I compare the kingdom? The kingdom is like leaven, Jesus says, which a woman took and placed in three measures of flour (v. 33), and the result was that “the whole” was entirely leavened.

Leaven Biblically Understood

Those who take leaven as an image of sin do have a lot of material to work with. This is the predominant meaning of the image in Scripture. Their mistake is in taking it as a necessarily negative image. We are warned against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). We are warned against the leaven of Herod (Mark 8:15), which is best understood as a hard-bitten sensualism. We are warned against the leaven of the Saducees (Matt. 16:6), which was the arid rationalism of liberalism. Within the church, Paul uses leaven as an image of malice and wickedness (1 Cor. 5:7-8). Elsewhere he describes legalism in these same terms (Gal. 5:7-9). The meat offerings that Israel would present to God needed to be without leaven (Lev. 2:11).

There is a possible reference to leaven as a good potency in Romans (Rom. 11:16). They used to leaven a new batch of bread with a small lump from before, much the way we do with sourdough. After atonement had been made through the blood offerings, and it came time to offer the peace offerings of thanksgiving, the offering required leavened bread (Lev. 7:13; cf. Amos 4:5). The law required leavened bread to be presented at the festival of Pentecost (Lev. 23:17). Incidentally, though Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper at Passover, meaning that unleavened bread was the only bread available, the first instance of His followers celebrating the Supper was on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:46), which was a day not purged of leaven.

Weights and Measures

How much flour are we talking about? In the ancient dry measures, a measure was about three omers. Ten omers made up an ephah, which means that our “three measures” were approximately an ephah. In modern terms, we are approaching a bushel. This is not a mom baking a little kiddie loaf—this woman is a serious baker.

Gideon made this much (unleavened) bread for the angel of the Lord (Judges 6:18-19). Hannah brought this amount of flour up to the tabernacle at Shiloh when she brought Samuel there (1 Sam. 1:24). This is an amount Ezekiel mentions presented in sacrifice (Eze. 45:24).

Why a Good Image?

We have seen that leaven can represent both good and bad. It is like Jesus, the lion of the tribe of Judah, or the devil, a lion seeking whom he may devour. Leaven represents potency and growth, but the growth of what? The Israelites were not to take with them any of the leaven of Egypt, because they were to make a clean break. Taking the leaven of Egypt would simply have grown them another Egypt. But once they had made that clean break, and had entered the promised land, they were to present leavened offerings in thanksgiving. Leaven is potent, whether for good or bad. In our surrounding parables, we have both possibilities. The mustard seed grows, the wheat grows, the darnel grows, and so on. Why should we take the leaven here as being a good thing?

First, Jesus is announcing and preaching the kingdom, and He says that the kingdom is like leaven. Second, we have the way the parables are paired. This parable is next to the mustard seed parable, and is paired up with it. The man and the woman are paired, as Jesus does elsewhere (Matt. 13:44-46; Luke 15:1-10). We are not out of line to take them as making the same basic point. Third, we have the “law of first mention.” The first mention of bread baking with three measures of flour (Gen. 18:6) shows Abraham and Sarah showing hospitality to the Lord and the angels, who were on their way to judge Sodom. Abraham tells them that he wants to fetch “a morsel of bread,” which they agree to, and then Abraham has Sarah make enough bread for a hundred people. Abraham does this, and they promise Sarah a son, who will be the child of promise—the ancestor of the one who told a parable about the kingdom being like a woman working with three measures of flour.

Resistance is Futile

Abraham did not serve the Lord hipster bread, full of whole grains, Ponderosa bark, and pure thoughts. It was three measures of refined flour. Think about this for a minute. Abraham served the Lord bread made from fine flour (Gen. 18:6), red meat from a tender calf (Gen. 18:7), butter (Gen. 18:8), and whole milk (Gen. 18:8). Abraham is apparently trying to give the Lord a heart attack. And there is absolutely no reference to them attempting to extract the gluten.

This process of leavening is mysterious, secret, inexorable, and impossible to thwart. The birds of the air can pick seeds off the path, but here the leaven cannot be extricated from the loaf. The thing is done, and the only thing required is time. What do you tell yourself when you read the terrible headlines, or you read about the prospect of so-and-so getting elected? Tell yourself that this woman knew her business, and the leaven is in the loaf. We can’t get it out. Sorry.

How does leaven work? It works by releasing carbon dioxide as the loaf warms, filling the loaf with thousands of little pockets of air, breath, wind, carbon dioxide. Bread that has risen is bread that is filled with the Spirit. And the loaf that will rise in this way is the entire world.

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The Mustard Seed Kingdom (Reformation Sunday)

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Introduction

In this parable, the Lord Jesus teaches us not to despise the day of small beginnings (Zech. 4:10). We see a disproportionate result from the tiniest of garden seeds—an herbal plant that can grow to twice a man’s height. When this happens, it is not an instance of things going terribly wrong—the seed is the kingdom.

The Text

“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Matt. 13:31-32).

Summary of the Text

Jesus put forward a third parable in this series of seven, and this parable and the following one about the leaven are found in between the telling of the wheat and darnel and the interpretation of it. Jesus says here that the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed (v. 31). A man (unidentified) takes the seed and plants it in his field (v. 31). Mark’s version of this parable says that the seed was sown “in the earth” (Mark 4:30-32), and Luke’s version says that the man sowed the seed in “his garden” (Luke 13:18-19). The Lord says that the seed is the smallest of the seeds and yet results in a plant that is the greatest of all the herbs—treelike. The result of this phenomenal growth is that the birds of the air come and take up residence in the branches (v. 32).

Remember that Jesus gave us an answer key with the parable of the sower so that we would know how to handle all of them. But what use is an answer key if you don’t use it? The sower is clearly Jesus. And since the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, it is clear that the mustard plant is that same kingdom grown to a remarkable size, especially considering its insignificant beginning. The previous parable was meant to teach us not to be thrown by the presence of evil in the kingdom, and we see the same thing here. The birds of the air represented the devil in the first parable, and there is no reason to change anything here. The kingdom grows to a size that allows for evil to take up residence. But just as darnel is not wheat, so also birds are not mustard branches.

Reformations Come from Dead Reformers

Jesus teaches us here that in His kingdom the effects are disproportionate to the causes. The cause is a small seed, and the result is a large plant. Don’t think with simplistic carnal categories. The Lord Jesus elsewhere adds another detail, which is that seeds are not just small in comparison to the plant, they are also dead (John 12:24). There is a sharp contrast with regard to size, and also a sharp contrast with regard to death and resurrection.

Jesus set the pattern in the way He established the kingdom in His death and resurrection. He is the seed . . . and He is the resurrection and the life. He died, and the whole world is quickened as a result. But He did not just die —He also died and rose to set the pace for all who would come after Him. This is how it is done. Take up your cross daily, and come follow Him.

This is why the Reformation was the glorious event that it was. It was this because at the time it was nothing of the kind. Think of it this way—every society lionizes its dead troublemakers and its living conformists. Which prophets have memorials built in their honor? Why, the dead ones! At the time of the Reformation, the Reformers did not walk to their churches, or their meetings, or their homes, past great big statues of themselves. They were not there yet. At the time, they were being hunted. Prices were on their heads. Luther describes the Christian as a solitary bird, sitting on the rooftop and warbling his little song. Nothing great was ever accomplished by a reasonable man. Part of this unreasonableness is that he expects greatness to arise out of insignificance, out of his insignificance. “How do you know you will conquer the world? How will you manage to fill Jerusalem with your doctrine?” “That is easy—I know we can do it because we are nobody.” Faith is what overcomes the world, and faith can fit in a mustard seed.

Walking It Back

The number of commentators who do not want Jesus to have told this parable (and the next one, about the leaven) is quite striking. We are like the handlers of a political candidate who uttered some gaffe in front of the microphones, and our job is to go into the spin room in order to “fix it.”This parable of small beginnings and enormous results sounds a little bit too much like Constantine did a good thing. And we then set up shop to argue that Constantine did a terrible thing, and our argument in favor of this idea is that birds came and nested in the branches of the mustard plant. But . . . isn’t that what Jesus said would happen? How is this an argument for not planting the mustard seed in the first place?

When Things Go Wrong

In the world the Lord is talking about, when things go wrong, that means we are right on schedule. Someone has once wisely observed that the kingdom of God proceeds from triumph to triumph, with all of them cleverly disguised as disasters. Begin with the greatest of them—the crucifixion. Chesterton once put it this way: “Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a god who knew the way out of the grave.”

Thinking Like Seed

Jesus is the Lord of history, and we are not. What is the job of the seed? It is to go in the ground and die, expecting great things to result from it. But if we are too busy to do that, if we are re-explaining the parables, or keeping children away from Jesus because He is a busy man, or otherwise making ourselves useful, we are being too busy to think like seed.

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