I’m enrolled in the Saint Irenaeus House of Orthodox Studies (SIHOS.org), a program of study to become an Orthodox Christian priest. My first course was Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. Fr. Mark Rowe, administering the course, announced that the final exam question would be just four words: “Tell me about Jesus.”
It’s so simple and yet it encompasses everything.
TELL ME ABOUT JESUS
Jesus Christ is the Person from whom all persons originate and derive meaning. The Bible teaches that he “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And he is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:15-17).
How can something personal—which means having thoughts, telling stories about ourselves, and having emotions based on thoughts and stories as you and I do—come from something impersonal, such as a rock or a star in the sky, made of compressed gasses?
If we begin the story of ourselves with matter (physical substance which takes up space) and with the various processes that act upon matter, supposedly over billions of years—“long ago and far, far away,”—we may be able to tell a story of how complex organisms such as you and I came to be, but will these complex organisms be persons in this story? Do you really have your own thoughts? Can these thoughts be said to good or evil? Or are they just synapses firing in your head in a way that has been successful for you, helping you to adapt to your environment? In other words, do you, yourself, and I have meaning? Or are our thoughts not really any different from a pop can that I can shake up and throw against a brick wall to watch it explode and then slowly fizz like an action movie with a predictable ending? Again, how can something meaningful, a person, come from something impersonal? I don’t think it’s possible, nevertheless that is a theory many people claim to believe.
There are just two theories presented to every thinking person leading to two different paths in life, (1) either the universe came from time and chance acting on matter or (2) it came from God who is a spirit. Neither one of these theories is provable by the scientific method. They are both accepted on faith. If we assert the former, then we are obliged to spend our lives explaining away God and explaining why human behavior (which may appear to be based on the unique thoughts of spiritual individuals made in God’s image) is really based on material processes which determine behavior. If we assert the latter, then we are obliged to spend our lives explaining God and why he made us the way we are.
Which would you rather do? Explain away God or explain God? If you explain away God, you are obligated to explain away yourself. If you seek to explain God, you may come to know God and to know your own self. The latter is the hope of the Christian.
Who is God? To ask the question is to begin a journey. Again, the Bible teaches that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. If you have any kind of spiritual awareness at all, whether gained by following this or that spiritual group or just by living a long time, you know that we’re not alone. We are being watched by invisible powers. You may have seen things happen that can only be explained by spiritual powers. You may have prayed and received an instantaneous answer to prayer. As an Orthodox Christian I believe that there are many spirits in the world, but only one Lord of all spirits, only one God who created all things and this God has revealed himself to us by sending us his own Son, born of a virgin, Jesus Christ.
JESUS THE SON OF GOD:
The story of Jesus Christ usually begins in Bethlehem of Judea during the reign of Caesar Augustus, emperor of Rome. Although, as I have already suggested, Jesus is a person whose story cannot be contained within the brief span of his life on earth from approximately 0 – 33 AD. Because of his miraculous birth to a Virgin, his claim to be the Son of God, and his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, as attested by his disciples who died defending that truth claim, I believe Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who was in the beginning with God the Father and through whom God made the heavens and the earth (John 1:2-3).
After his disciples had been walking with Jesus for some time, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is” (Matthew 16:13)?—He used this term, “Son of Man,” to refer to himself; It can be translated “someone who is a son of Adam,” because ‘Adam’ and ‘man’ are the same word in Hebrew; and it was used by the prophet Daniel to describe the Messiah (Daniel 7:13). His disciples told him what people were saying, that he was Elijah or perhaps one of the other prophets of Israel come back to life. And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said, “You are the son of God” (Matthew 16:16). And Jesus replied that only God could have revealed this to him. Thus in the space of four verses it is revealed that Jesus is both man and God.
Then in Gospel of John we get a further glimpse of Jesus’ identity. In a heated exchange with the Pharisees, Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM,” (John 8:58) “I AM” being the name of God in the Old Testament.
In this way the disciples and early Christians came to believe that Christ was more than just a man. He was God and yet he was a distinct person from God the Father. He was and is God’s Son, fully man and fully God. He was the same Lord who had spoken in times past to the patriarchs and prophets, to progressively reveal the character and intentions of God the Father, and now he had come in the flesh! “No one has ever seen God,” Jesus said. But he continues, “The only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).
St. Irenaeus in the second century makes this very argument, that it was Christ himself who spoke to the patriarchs and prophets:
“For if ye had believed Moses, ye would also have believed Me; for he wrote of Me” (John 5:46). [Jesus says this,] no doubt, because the Son of God is implanted everywhere throughout his writings: at one time, indeed, speaking with Abraham, when about to eat with him; at another time with Noah, giving to him the dimensions [of the ark]; at another; inquiring after Adam; at another, bringing down judgment upon the Sodomites; and again, when He becomes visible, and directs Jacob on his journey, and speaks with Moses from the bush. And it would be endless to recount [the occasions] upon which the Son of God is shown forth by Moses. Of the day of His passion, too, he was not ignorant; but foretold Him, after a figurative manner, by the name given to the passover; and at that very festival, which had been proclaimed such a long time previously by Moses, did our Lord suffer, thus fulfilling the passover.” (St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies and Fragments, Kindle Loc. 5535-41)
Continuing then with St. Irenaeus’s reasoning, I believe it was the voice of Jesus Christ which spoke the world into being and it was His Spirit that hovered over the waters. I believe it was his voice which said, “Let us make man in our own image.” And I believe it was Jesus who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). I believe it was Jesus who told Noah to build an arc to save his family from the great flood and Jesus who called Abraham. It was also Jesus who wrestled with Jacob, whom Jacob asks to bless him—Jacob learning through this encounter that all his struggles in his whole life full of struggles were to receive God’s blessing.
I believe all this because, although the Old Testament does not say that it was Jesus Christ appearing to the patriarchs, again, Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He came to make God the father, who is invisible and incomprehensible, known to us by progressive revelations of himself throughout history, culminating in His birth to the virgin Mary, when He took on human flesh. Jesus himself said, it is the scriptures that “bear witness to me,” (John 5:39). So the events of the scriptures bear witness to Jesus and Jesus himself bears witness to God the Father, to his character and to his love for mankind. “For God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). As Jesus says in what is known as his High Priestly Prayer, “I have manifested your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world” (John 17:6). And as he said to Philip, “He who has seen me has seen the father” (John 14:9).
To state this in another manner, Jesus Christ, whether hidden in the Old Testament or revealed in the New Testament, teaches us kataphatically about God the Father who can only be properly understood apophatically.
Thus, I believe it was also Jesus Christ who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and sent him to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. And it was Jesus who inscribed the ten commandments on the tablets of stone with his finger. And it was Jesus who appeared to Joshua as the commander of the hosts of the Lord, to whom Joshua fell face down and this “commander” did not prevent him from doing so. Because Jesus is God.
Furthermore, as an Orthodox Christian in the 21st Century, I will continue to believe in Jesus and his divinity and presence from the beginning of history because, however these Old and New Testament stories sound to some modern ears, these are the stories which have shaped us and made us who we are. They are even more relatable since Jesus came in the flesh. And who can prove these stories wrong without destroying our common identity and replacing it with an inferior identity? Who can regard these stories as irrelevant without making themselves irrelevant? Regardless of who tries to attack these stories, they are proved right by the Holy Spirit for those who follow Christ.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF KING:
So if Jesus is God’s Son who came to reveal God the Father, how did he do that? What did the eternal Son of God do when he took human flesh? How did he live? Did he raise an army to deliver Israel from the Romans like a new Joshua? No he did not, contrary to what many of the Israelites expected from their Messiah.
He worked as a carpenter with his adoptive father and the guardian of his mother, Joseph. He also visited the temple and spoke with the teachers of the law. When he was only 12 years they were amazed at his understanding (Luke 2:47). Then when the time was right he began his ministry preaching the Kingdom of God of which he was the King. But his kingdom was a different kind of Kingdom than that of Rome, ruling by a different principle, instead of cruelty, compassion.
He told his disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:25-26). And that is just what he did. He served his countrymen, miraculously healing diseases and casting out demons, feeding the crowds that followed him. He even washed his disciples feet to show them how they must serve one another.
He also preached as no one had ever preached:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3-10).
People were astonished at the grace of his words and His wisdom. He answered all the trick questions of the Jewish elite, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, who were jealous of his large following.
He was neither a friend nor enemy of Rome. Yet Rome couldn’t help but be threatened by his followers, because they would not bow the knee to Caesar, but proclaimed Christ as the King of Kings in direct opposition to Caesar who claimed that title for himself.
When the Jewish elders betrayed him to the Romans as yet another king for them to crush, the Roman prefect Pilate asked Jesus if he was a king, but he did not confirm or deny the question, because he was and is much more than a king. He said, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37).
He was the promised Messiah of Israel, foretold by the prophets, destined to crush the head of the serpent, exposing his lies, such as that (1) God had abandoned mankind, (2) giving us over to wickedness from which there is no cure, and that (3) there is no reward for either the righteous or the wicked besides death, no authority above that of the fickle gods of Greece to favor the innocent and save them from Sheol. Truly, God had not ever abandoned man, but man through pride had become insensitive to God’s voice, losing his own soul! And God had not given us over to wickedness, but it was our own choice, albeit one that was impossible to reverse by ourselves! And we were not abandoned to death, but if Jesus hadn’t come we would have been! Jesus (1) overcame the separation of man’s soul from God through his incarnation. And he (2) overcame sin and wickedness through his righteous life. And he (3) overcame death through his resurrection from the dead, making it possible for all who believe in him and follow him to also overcome sin and death.
Thus he was the rock of Daniel’s vision which toppled the statue representing the beast empires in all their pride. He triumphed not only over Rome, the feet of iron and clay of the statue, but over all the great beast empires of which Rome was just the last manifestation. Again, he was able to do this by his incarnation, his works, and his resurrection from the dead, showing that there is a God in heaven who desires mercy more than sacrifice. The challenge which he gave to the Pharisees quoting the prophet Hosea: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire Mercy, not Sacrifice,’” (Hosea 6:6) he now gives to the whole world. And no kingdom can exalt itself against His. He is forever the King of Kings. This is why Naziism fell and why Communism fell and why any other imitation of His Kingdom is destined to fail, including global progressivism.
To repeat as many people do regarding Jesus, that he died to pay the penalty for our sins is true, but it doesn’t capture the fullness of who Jesus is and what he did. It’s true that Jesus paid the penalty of a transgressor of God’s law even though he was not a transgressor of the law. But he didn’t die to appease an angry God who needed an object of wrath even if it was his own son. Why would the God who provided a ram to save Abraham’s son require the blood of his own son? Truly, Christ died to join us in death and thereby raise us from the dead with himself! Apart from dying with us he was not able to redeem us from death. As St. Athanasius has stated, what is not assumed is not redeemed. Thus it was not the necessity to appease God’s wrath, but the economy of healing mankind that motivated Christ. And truly his death is a sermon to us showing us how we also must be prepared to die for the truth. He literally went to Hades to preach to us and then free all who believe in Him.
In other words, Yes, our sins put Jesus on the cross and Christ certainly took the just penalty for them. But the story doesn’t stop there. He died to fully deliver us as whole persons from the power of sin and death. The one God who created us in the first place as spiritual persons by his wisdom and his own breath is the same one who came in the flesh to speak to us face to face and show us the way back to life—not merely a legal reconciliation with God the Father, but a return to paradise and to our own redeemed personhood, back to our true selves.
Truly, it is so difficult to tell all that Jesus means because Jesus Christ is everything. This song by Phil Keagy captures the wonder of who Christ is and what he did:
The Maker of the universe,
As Man for man was made a curse.
The claims of Law which He had made,
Unto the uttermost He paid.
His holy fingers made the bough,
Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.
The nails that pierced His hands were mined
In secret places He designed.
He made the forest whence there sprung
The tree on which His body hung.
He died upon a cross of wood,
Yet made the hill on which it stood.
The sky that darkened o’er His head,
By Him above the earth was spread.
The sun that hid from Him its face
By His decree was poised in space.
The spear which spilled His precious blood
Was tempered in the fires of God.
The grave in which His form was laid
Was hewn in rocks His hands had made.
The throne on which He now appears
Was His for everlasting years.
But a new glory crowns His brow
And every knee to Him shall bow.
Jesus Christ is Son of God, the Person from whom all persons originate and thus derive meaning. And he is the one who also came down to us from heaven to save us when we had separated ourselves from God, reuniting us with himself and God the Father and a meaningful life in him. He is the image of the invisible God.
After his resurrection he appeared to his twelve disciples and to many others besides and then ascended into heaven as his disciples watched. And today he sits at the right hand of God the Father ruling until the nations are made his footstool. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). And at the end of history at a time known only to God the Father the dead shall be raised, both those who lived for Christ and those who refused his yoke, and shall stand before Him to judged by Him as to whether they shall receive eternal life or eternal separation from himself and from God.
Never has one person inspired so much fear and love. As St. Simeon the God receiver said to Mary, “Behold, this Child is appointed to cause the rise and fall of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34). Indeed throughout the whole world Christ is the central person, the cornerstone of all creation, “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).
Thus concludes the answer to the exam question. What would you do for Jesus Christ? Please help us to start a mission parish in Brookings/Harbor, Oregon. May God bless you!
