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Showing posts with label Bible - 2 Corinthians. Show all posts

Thursday, November 04, 2010

The Exodus and the Cross

On the mount of transfiguration Moses and Elijah appear and speak with Jesus about the coming "Exodus" that He will accomplish at Jerusalem (Lk. 9:31). While this is commonly translated "decease" (e.g. NKJV), the word in the Greek is "exodus" which, incidentally, means "exodus." The word is used throughout the Septuagint to mean "going out" or "going forth" beginning with the Exodus from Egypt (e.g. Ex. 19:1, Num. 33:38).

Interestingly, the word is only used in two other places in the New Testament: first, in Hebrews 11 where Joseph is remembered as prophesying the coming Exodus of Israel out of Egypt, and secondly, it is used in 2 Pet. 1:15 where Peter does seem to be speaking about his coming death. But even there, this reference comes immediately after him speaking about his "tent" that he will soon be putting off. Obviously "tent" is used elsewhere to refer to the body (e.g. Jn. 1:14, 2 Cor. 5:1-4), but a form of the same word is also used for the tabernacle. The Exodus story moves from one house to another, from the house of bondage to the tent of Yahweh. Similarly, later in Israelite history, they will be freed from the tent in Shiloh under Eli's wicked sons and David will construct his tent on Mt. Zion. Still later, Ezekiel will see the entire exile story as an exodus, freeing Israel from the bondage in Jerusalem and the Solomonic temple and bringing them to a new, heavenly temple.

Thus, the death and resurrection of a human is this exodus story. We put off the old tent of the body, the body that is in bondage to sin and death, and we go into the "wilderness" in the heavenly presence of Christ until we are re-clothed with a new, heavenly house in the resurrection of the body (2 Cor. 5:1-8). In this sense, Israel "died" in the Passover/Unleavened Bread/tenth plague. They were putting off the "tent" of Egypt so that they could put on a new, heavenly tent, a new resurrection body in the tabernacle. They "went to heaven" in the presence of God at Mt. Sinai, and they were finally "re-clothed" in the body of the tabernacle.

And this makes sense of Christ's description of His own death and resurrection as an Exodus. His death is the great Passover/Unleavened Bread/tenth plague all wrapped up into one. And His body is the temple, the old tent of Israel, which is being destroyed so that it can be rebuilt in three days. In His body on the tree, Jesus became the old Israel in the tent of bondage, the tent of Egypt, so that He could free us from that tent, free us from that house of death, and re-clothe us with a new heavenly tent, a new body, a new temple in Him.

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Table of Reunion

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says that in Christ all things are being reconciled. The Spirit has been poured out as the guarantee of this, the down payment of this reconciliation. Paul says that having the Spirit means that he and the other apostles are ambassadors for Christ pleading with all men to be reconciled to God. This table is the enactment of this word of reconciliation. At this table, God invites all of his people to eat together, to fellowship in the communion of the body and blood of Christ by the working of the Spirit. And it’s important to point out that the Passing of the Peace is not this sacrament of reconciliation. The Scriptures urge us to greet one another in the peace of the Lord, and the Church has wisely kept a custom of sharing that peace before coming to this table and it may be an important part of reconciliation, but the point is that this table is the act of reconciliation. Just as an engaged couple may hug or kiss before the wedding day, that does not mean they are married before the wedding ceremony. It is the ceremony that affects the marriage. Of course a ceremony doesn’t guarantee faithfulness; the Spirit is the guarantee. It’s possible to lie at this table. But that doesn’t change what this meal is. This meal is an act of communion, an act of fellowship. And in that sense, every week it is an act of re-union, renewed fellowship, reconciliation. This body was pierced for the reunion of all things in Christ; this blood was shed for the reconciliation of all men to God. You are eating reunion. You are drinking reconciliation. And for those who eat and drink reconciliation while harboring bitterness and unfaithfulness, this table is poison. But for those who in brokenness and weakness know that what they need most of all is forgiveness and healing and reunion, this meal is grace and healing and reconciliation. So come, eat and drink in faith, and rejoice in the goodness of God.

The Spirit of the New Creation

In our sermon text today, Paul says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away and all things have become new. One of the things this means is that every new life, every new generation of believers is a new act of creation by the Spirit. There is continuity in history just as we might see continuity in the original creation week: God creates the firmament, places stars in it, and then makes birds to fly across it. It is the same overall project of creation. But there is another sense in which stars are completely new, birds are completely unexpected, and who could have anticipated Zebras? Being a new creation in Christ is a promise and blessing to every new creature in Christ. Just as God created Adam and Eve, showed them the new world, and then set them free to work it and make it beautiful, so too every new creation in Christ by the working of the Spirit is set free to make this new world beautiful and glorious. But this also means that this Spirit of new creation continues to be the Spirit of newness throughout our lives. This means that there is never a point in a believer’s life when the Spirit stops being the Spirit of the new creation. Individuals may harden themselves in sin and grieve the Spirit of God. The are real warnings about that. But for believers who stumble and fall, believers who make enormous mistakes and regret it, believers who wonder if they have spent many years of their lives well, believers who may wish they could do some things over again, for you, there is all kinds of hope because you have been given the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of resurrection life, the Spirit of the new creation. And the mercies of God are new every morning. Every morning is another day of the new creation. Do not say it is too late. Do not fret away hours or days or months wishing you might have done it differently. You have the Spirit so that you can begin again every day. Confess your sins, ask for forgiveness, do whatever restitution is necessary, and then get started. There’s a world before you, and God loves to do new things.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Funeral Meditation: 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9

The words from 2 Corinthians come from a letter, one of several, where St. Paul is defending himself to Christians who were converted under his preaching but who now have various doubts, concerns, and questions. While the specific questions and concerns that Paul faced leading up to the writing of 2 Corinthians are no doubt different than the situation we face today, there is an important parallel.

Faithful ministers ought to frequently find it necessary to defend themselves. And this is because Christian ministers are called to declare good news in the face of a world full of bad news. Pastors and ministers are tasked to tell people what Isaiah foretold has begun to come to pass. The one upon who the Spirit rested has come. He did preach good news, he did free the captives, he did bring healing and restoration to the world. And we must solemnly read and proclaim that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and anyone who believes in him will never die.

And then people die. Children get sick and die. Diseases and deformities and disorders wreak their havoc on the bodies of men, women, and children, and the question that ought to occur to us once in a while is, how is this possible? How can it be that in a world where Jesus has come to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord that we have so many who are slaves to wheel chairs and oxygen tanks? How is it possible that Jesus has come to heal the brokenhearted, to comfort those who mourn, and yet we are pummeled by heartache and hardship? And we really only have two options. We either turn the gospel into a fairytale, we moralize it, and we gently wave it away as a nice idea, a symbol of human hope; or the only other option is to turn on the people who keep saying this stuff. If we take these words seriously, if we take the gospel seriously, then Christian ministers should have a lot of answering to do.

Paul was a missionary who went from town to town convincing people of the gospel, and as life went on, as people suffered from sickness and persecution and death, they had questions for Paul. Wait who are you again? Can we see some proof of your apostleship? How do we know you’re really from God? Are you just trying to make a buck? Are you on some kind of power trip? Are you after glory and fame? And Paul has to respond to these questions and ultimately defend how he can keep preaching the gospel in spite of all appearances. How can he preach that the resurrection of Jesus has changed human history in the face of the way human history seems to be going?

And really every Christian has to do deal with these questions too. If you say you believe this gospel, someone ought to ask that simple question why? Cause it makes you feel good? Well there are all kinds of other options out there for that. Because it makes sense? What about all this death? What about wars? What about tragedy? What about disease and natural disasters? It should not be too difficult to identify with Paul’s need to defend himself.

And this is why earlier in 2 Corinthians Paul says that ministers (and really all Christians) are the aroma of life leading to life for those being saved, and they are the aroma of death leading to death for those who are perishing (2:15-16). Either this gospel is profoundly true and can answer these questions and it is the aroma of life or it’s a pack of lies and deception, piling on with more death and tragedy.

And Paul realizes this, and sets out to answer the questions, the doubts, the frustrations of the Corinthians. And to their request for some references for his apostleship, he says he doesn’t need a letter of commendation because the Corinthians are his letter, his epistle written by the Spirit of God (3:1-3). Paul turns the question around and says that the Corinthian church is proof that his gospel was authentic and true and without a doubt. The suffering, doubting, questioning church is Paul’s proof, his qualification for ministry.

Paul goes on to explain that the Old Covenant under Moses was in the form of letters and a ministry of death, and its glory was rendered ineffective as illustrated by Moses’ veil. Moses covered his face so that the people could not see the glory radiating off his face. But Paul says that the Spirit gives life, and the Spirit is a ministry of righteousness. He says that the glory of the Spirit is greater because we all with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror. And through that glory, we are being transformed into the same image of Jesus Christ, from glory to glory (3:7ff). And Paul says that this light of the gospel of Christ, this image of God, this glory shines through preaching (4:3-4).

When Jesus is preached, the face of Jesus shines the glory of God into the darkness of human life (4:6). And this treasure is in earthen vessels so that we might carry around the life of Jesus in our bodies for one another (e.g. the apostles are doing this for the Corinthians) (4:12).

And this is where Paul says that this is why we don’t lose hope. We don’t lose hope because these afflictions are working in us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” What is that weight of glory? Paul says it’s the Spirit working the life of Jesus into our bodies.

And then Paul starts talking about houses: earthly houses compared to eternal houses not made with hands. Then he changes the metaphor and starts talking about clothes and being clothed. Paul starts talking about resurrection, the need for our bodies to be renewed. Paul says that we groan in these bodies looking forward to new ones. These ones are weak, mortal, and breakable. They die, and we need new ones.

And that’s the point. The fact that we live and experience constantly the need for new bodies is Paul’s proof that his ministry is valid, that the gospel is true. If we didn’t need resurrection then why would we need Jesus? Even in perfection there is glory that yields itself to further glory. Even God goes from glory to glory. And so must we.

The point seems to be this: When the gospel is declared and believed, God makes light shine into our situations, our circumstances, and we catch glimpses of Christ. And the mind blowing thing is that Paul says by the power of the Spirit, it’s actually like looking into a mirror and somehow seeing glory in our own faces. It’s the life of Jesus being manifested in our bodies through the working of the Spirit. And Paul says we have this treasure, the glory of Jesus, in earthen vessels. In our questions, in our doubts, in our heartache, the gospel comes to us and says this is why Jesus came, this is why Jesus was mocked, this is why Jesus suffered, this is why Jesus died. And in our weakness, in our suffering, and even in our death, we find the life of Jesus being worked out in us. And we come to know the need for Jesus, we taste the suffering, and the death, and we look for the resurrection. We groan with Jesus for new bodies, for new glory, for resurrection.

This is how God manifests his glory in us: by making us partakers of his glory, by making us partakers of the life of Jesus. He gives us the same Spirit who led Jesus into trial, into challenges, into Gethsemane, and finally into Jerusalem where he was crucified. We have been given that Spirit, and therefore the proof of the gospel is in us. When we know that we need deliverance. When we know that we need resurrection, then we know that we have the Spirit working the life of Jesus into us, and we can be fully assured that the end of his story will be the end our ours. His death yielded resurrection and glory. And there can be no doubt that our lives and the lives of all who trust in Him will result in the same. And so we do not lost hope, but we see this glory, this eternal weight of glory, hid in earthen vessels, awaiting the resurrection of the body. This is our garment of praise for our spirit of heaviness.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!

Monday, November 03, 2008

The Image of God, Suffering, and Icons

Not necessarily something new here, but still a few thoughts that occurred to me.

One of the ways Jesus saves us and redeems our lives is by turning our stories of pain, suffering, and hardship into pictures of Jesus. Our epistle lesson in the liturgy yesterday was from 2 Cor. 4, and Paul seemed to be making that very point about his own apostolic ministry. As the apostles preach the gospel they are proclaiming the "light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God..." When the apostles preach, they preach Christ Jesus, and that declaration somehow participates in the original creative command that "light shine out of darkness" such that hearts that are filled with darkness can at the proclamation of the gospel be suddenly filled with the "light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:4-6).

The very next line is Paul's point: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us" (2 Cor. 4:7). Paul goes on to describe the sufferings and hardships of the apostolic ministry, but he insists that it is through these hardships that God is "working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). In the present circumstances of life whether there be pain or suffering or confusion or heartache, Paul insists that the face of Jesus is being revealed so long as the gospel is being proclaimed and the resurrection is kept in view (2 Cor. 4:4, 14).

And this has two implications: First, it is because of the incarnation that this is even possible. That our lives can be pictures of the life of God is only possible because God has become flesh and dwelt among us. He has a story of suffering, hardship, rejection, and death. Because of the incarnation, our stories of hardship become icons of Christ.

And the second point has to do with icons. Paul tells us here that the glory of Christ, the face of Jesus is seen in "earthen vessels" that are hard-pressed, perplexed, forsaken, struck down, in individuals who carry about in their bodies "the dying of the Lord Jesus" (2 Cor. 4:10). Paul says "for we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." Here again, we have the apostle insisting that if you want to see Christ, if you want to see the face of Jesus, look at faithful missionaries who are persecuted throughout the world, watch a faithful wife who dies for her husband and children, watch a faithful deacon whose life is poured out for the sick, the disabled, and the poor of his community.

True icons are not serene, glowing faces of men and women floating in a sea of warm, ethereal gelatin. Icons have scars and fears, they are earthen vessels with bodies that are perishing, and most importantly, they are alive, carrying around in their bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in their mortal bodies (2 Cor. 4:10-11).