Good Morning!
The main purpose of these Tuesday essays is to help us better worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Through learning about certain concepts of the Faith we can understand more about why we can, for example, lift our needs to Him in prayer. In the Thursday posts, we are using our Shorter Catechism, one of the summaries of what we believe, to gain a deeper appreciation for God’s work in our lives in a more “organized” way. Last week in Question 27 the matter of Christ’s humiliation (not His being made fun of, but His leaving Heaven to come to Earth) was covered in that section. In Adult Sabbath School I’ve been taking a couple minutes at the beginning of class to give some background on what the Q/A’s are talking about and how they fit into the larger project of the WSC. In last Sunday’s time I went a bit longer because I think it is very important for us to see what the Incarnation means to us. As some more mental time is brought about because of the season of the year it is worth contemplating Christ’s being born of a virgin in the sleepy little town of Bethlehem. It is a perfect time given our cultural providences to think about how the particular truth of Christ’s taking on flesh helps us in relating to our God.
There are a lot of things that happened to Christ in His earthly ministry. Each of them in their own way can illustrate what it means for us that He gave up His place in the throne room of God to lay down His life for our sins. One of the ones that always comes to my mind is Matthew 8:20. Here we see Jesus reacting to a man who claims to want to be His disciple, but is unwilling to come at the time at which He calls him. In response Christ says, “And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head’”. Our concern here isn’t so much with the situation, but the content of what our Lord says there. The Son of Man is Jesus’ favorite way to talk of Himself and it basically is His way of saying He is the Messiah. The Old Testament when it speaks of one such as the Son of Man it is meant to be representative of the covenant people of God. For instance, in Psalm 144:3 we read David say, “Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?”. Israel is a sinful and dirty people, yet Jehovah had mercy on them, and in light of how God had treated the sons of Abraham David makes the application to himself. If God had had mercy on the nation He would have mercy on him, and likewise if God would show love to David it means He would love Israel. Psalm 144:3 is quoted in Hebrews 2:6 where the Apostle makes the point that Christ Jesus came into the world not as a conquering king, but as the adopted son of Joseph of Nazareth, a carpenter’s boy. The meekness of our Savior teaches us much about what we are to expect in the Christian life. Jesus has come to make us rich and give us a home, but it’s not the Biltmore and Vanderbilt’s wealth He has in mind. It is His very person and work which will be and is our treasure and our place of security, the rock which will never falter no matter how hard the waves crash against Him.
Another way to look at Matthew 8:20 is that the God-Man, the one who did not consider it be robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, has taken on our flesh and now has need of somewhere to live, yet as the Scripture notes He has no place to go. At best His only conceivable hope is to go back to His mom and dad’s house in Nazareth. This does not mean He is homeless, despite contemporary attempts to say that He was. It, however, does show us that the person who is very God of very God understands in a very deep sense the struggles of daily life in a way that does not look like a tourist paying for an “experience”. Also He is also not someone who is on a short-term mission trip and thereby only gets a brief understanding of what life might be like there. That lack of permanent housing was how He would be for His entire ministry here on Earth. Yet it also gives rise to something very important that we can learn from His example. The Lord Jesus did not ever use His divinity to make life easier for Himself. As one of the temptations of Satan attempted to do it would have been possible for Christ to just ex nihilo Himself a house as they moved along, but He didn’t for myriads of reasons, and the chief among them is that He came not to be served, but to serve and give Himself as a ransom for many.
The laser-like focus of Jesus upon His purpose despite all the attempts of the world to move Him to deny His call and take up another was accomplished because again He understood that He was about something bigger than Himself…and for something to be above the very second person of the Holy Trinity makes it astonishingly wonderful, because remember what David said in Psalm 144. Who are we to deserve such a mighty work? Who is man that the Lord is mindful of him? I can’t think of a better word that astonishing. It is so perfect to describe the nature of what has been done for us by Christ’s earthly ministry, His being made under the law, being born of a virgin, of a low estate, so that we who could not keep the law, who could in no way improve our lot in our spiritual rebellion would no longer be enemies, but friends of the King Most High.
Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
There is nothing more to say.
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church