Micah 5:2-5a Psalm 4:1-8 Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45
I love my Scorpio
Mahindra, otherwise known as the Godmobile…I really do. In fact, I would go so
far as to say it is one of the best vehicles I have ever had the privilege of
driving. Not only do I like the design and the comfortable interior, but also I
love the solidness of the vehicle, her powerful engine, her manoeuvrability and
4X4 capabilities, and her excellent fuel consumption. Not to mention the
affordability of the Mahindra in comparison to others in her class.
But woe is me…I
have had to take her in to the dealership to have an electronic problem
repaired repeatedly…the indicator signal’s sound does not always work and,
together with that, the alarm sound that warns you if you have left your lights
on also doesn’t work…until I take her in to the dealer. Then all of a sudden
the sounds click and buzz away as if I have a hearing problem…which I do, but
that’s not the point.
Clearly if I have
to return to the dealership often with the same problem, they have not
succeeded in fixing it, have they?
The same thing is
true for the Old Testament sacrificial system…if the priests and the High Priests
had to offer sacrifices to atone for the sins of Israel repeatedly, day after
day after year after year, then clearly they were not succeeding in fixing the
problem. Instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year
after year, because, the author to the Hebrews tells us, it is not possible for
the blood of bulls and goats to take away the sins of humanity. Something more
was needed…something better or, in this case, Someone. When Jesus came into the
world He said to God, “You have given Me a Body to offer.”
Now, to understand
the need for Jesus to have a body (what theologians call the doctrine of the
incarnation), we have to go right back to where the idea of sin is first
introduced in the Scriptures. When God created humans and placed them in His
Paradise, because He wanted their relationship to be based on choice and not
puppetry, He gave them the option to live in harmony with their Creator or not.
This is not hard to understand. If I drive the Godmobile according to the manufacturer’s
specifications, she ought to serve me for years to come. If, however, I choose
to put water in the tank instead of diesel, or if neglect to take her in for
her regular services, I will suffer the consequences. It is not that the
manufacturers are deliberately trying to manipulate me or exercise undue
authority over me…it is simply the way the vehicle has been made to function.
Likewise with us…we are made to live in harmony with our Creator…according to
His rules…according to our Manufacturer’s specifications…
Disobedience or rebellion
is essentially foolish…it is like cutting off your nose to spite your face,
because rebellion or disobedience cuts us off from our source of life. The
moment Eve gave Adam the fruit and he said, “Yes ma’am” and bit into it,
humanity erected a wall between our manufacturer, and us, if you will. And,
like the Godmobile would with water in her tank, humanity spluttered and died.
And this disregard
for the manufacturer’s specifications was passed on from parent to child down
through the ages…it was like a defective gene or like an HIV virus…we all got
it. All have sinned, the Scriptures say, and fallen short of the glory of God. The
separating wall is inescapable for all of us…as in Adam…or as we are part of
the body corporate…the body of Adam, if you will…we all die. But herein lies
the problem: no animal can deal with the wall or with the defective gene or
with the virus…the animal sacrifices were just awful reminders to the offspring
of Adam and Eve of the result of sin…death. But as the animals were not part of
the body corporate, they could not remove the wall.
That is why Jesus
needed a body to offer…He needed to be the first human being to live without
that separating wall between Him and the Creator…the only source of life. And
as death was linked to the wall…or to sin to give it its biblical name…it
couldn’t hold Him…it had to let Him go as He was still linked to the life
source…because He was sinless.
So by offering
Himself, Jesus could effectively start a new humanity. All who are “in” Him are
free from the Adamic body. That is why baptism illustrates a death…our death as
part of the old body and our rebirth as part of the new body…by believing in
Jesus and by being symbolically buried with the sinless one and resurrected
with the sinless one.
At Christmas time,
we remember that Jesus came to earth to do God’s will…and God’s will was for us
to be reconciled to Him…to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus
Christ, once for all time. There is no need to repeat the sacrifice over and
over again as Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself was sufficient for all who obediently
eat from Him as the Tree of Life.
For this reason,
the Scriptures speak of the Eucharist in terms of eating His body and drinking His
blood. It is a rather earthy yet graphic way of spelling out our becoming one
with Him. It is sacrificial language…the sacrifice that bought peace between
rivals was eaten together as a sign of the cessation of hostility between the
two parties…and Jesus is our source of life and peace…
Likewise, every
time we eat of this bread and drink of this cup we declare before heaven and
hell that Christ has died and we have died with Him…that Christ was raised from
the dead and we are raised together with Him…we are now one with Him and
therefore we are no longer dead in Adam, but alive in Christ. Jesus has given
us free access to the very throne room of the Father, the one and only true
source of life, and He has fixed the cause of the malfunction for all time.
© Johannes W H van
der Bijl 2018-12-16
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