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| Crucifix in St Mary's Church, Peterborough |
When we look at the vast expanses of space and recall that
an infinite God is even greater than an infinite universe we may wonder with
the Psalmist “what is man that you [God] are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4). And
when we see the headlines about crime and corruption, war and violence, we may cry
with the prophet, “Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate
wrong?” (Habakkuk 1:2).
The creed offers a clue: “for us”; “for our salvation”; “for
our sake”. God is people-centred. He
has our interests at heart. Jesus wept over social corruption and religious
distortions and over the indignity of death and bereavement. He gave immoral
women a fresh start, restored hope to grieving families, warned a rich man to give
rather than hoard and told pompous clergy to stop harassing faithful
worshippers.
He did it for us, but not as some might wish. God made one
attempt to summarily rid the earth of wrong-doers through the almost total
destruction of the flood. He then vowed never to repeat the exercise. Instead he
used a more subtle and costly approach. Over centuries he sought to woo people
back to himself before finally becoming human to show as well as tell what he
is like and what he requires.
The death of Christ
In order to rescue a human race drowning in a turbulent sea
of self-will God himself jumped into the water to offer a lifeline. In the
process, the waves pulled him under and he died in the attempt. “God so loved the world that he gave his one
and only Son…” (John 3:16). By doing so he fulfilled the Old Testament
religious requirements (“without the shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness”, Hebrews 9:22). The sinless God-man, judicially murdered by
jealous leaders, made it possible for fallen humans to be reconciled to a
perfect God. There’s no easy way to explain how his death “atoned” for human
beings in this way, but it was the way God chose to demonstrate the extent of
his love.
The creed names Pontius Pilate, who cynically washed his
hands of the affair and allowed the man he believed to be innocent to be
crucified in order to avoid further conflict with the baying crowd of local
leaders. It reminds us that these events
took place in real time in recorded history. Pilate is known from other
sources; he was later sacked for misgovernment, which is saying something in
the ruthless Roman empire.
The birth of Christ
The previous clause may give us problems: “incarnate from
the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary”. The Christmas crib is one thing; virgin
birth another (technically it is “virginal conception”). There are other hints
in the New Testament that Jesus’ birth was unusual. The Pharisees called him illegitimate
and he was described as “Mary’s son” which was derogatory in a patriarchal
community.
Virgin birth is not unknown in the animal kingdom but
usually results in female offspring; the Y chromosome needed to develop a male
foetus is passed only through the male parent. There are rare cases of genetic
abnormalities with women carrying the Y chromosome yet remaining fully female,
and of men without it yet who are fully male (although sterile).
A person born normally has two natures but is a single
person: he or she contains the natures of both parents derived from the union
of their chromosomes. If Jesus was the pre-existing Son of God, fully human yet
also fully divine, a simple divine exercise in genetic engineering or special
creation would perfectly fashion the unique person of Jesus and demonstrate the
fact. He would have both human and divine natures, fused into one person. It’s the
sort of thing God would do to enable a one-off intervention in history. For us.
Think and talk
1. How New Testament
writers explain Jesus’ death: Mark 10:45; Romans 3:21-26; 5:6-11; Colossians
1:15-23; Hebrews 7:26-27, 10:19-22; 1 John 2:2.
2. Suggestions that
rumours about Jesus’ unusual birth were circulating: he was accused of being
illegitimate, John 8:41; he was called Mary’s son, Mark 6:3 (but in parallel
passages in other Gospels the paternal line is noted without comment; note too Luke
3:23, “he was the son, so it was thought
of Joseph”); Galatians 4:4 refers to Mary, not Joseph. Ignatius (about AD 110)
also refers to the virgin birth.
3. “God waits for the chances we give him to
show his great generosity” (John Chrysostum, 4th century Archbishop
of Constantinople). “God often visits us, but most of the time we are not at
home” (French proverb). Why are we slow to respond to the Gospel challenge to
trust Jesus because of his loving sacrifice?
© Derek Williams 2015
Material from these
posts may be reproduced with appropriate acknowledgment for local and small
group study
