LifeLog - 12.13.05 - Ordinary People Becoming Royalty

Christmas; the celebration of the birth of Christ. A celebration under siege, these days, by a growing force of secularists, bent on removing anything Christian from public life. (I’ve referenced Christianity rather than religion in general because there is a definite disparity, in the secularist crusade, between the treatment of things Christian and those of other religions.) A celebration that will continue around the world because of the perennially growing numbers of people for whom Jesus really is “hope.”

Perhaps the greatest Christmas selection in all of Christian Scripture is one found in a letter from St. Paul to the followers of Jesus in a Roman Province, Galatia. It’s a simple statement. Its implications are profound. “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (See Galatians 4:4 & 5.) This is what Christmas is all about. In “the fullness of time” – humanity’s defining moment – God “sent his Son” – the Divine and human re-united – “born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the rights of sons” – that humans might participate in the Divine.

“Born under the law.”

What does this mean? Obviously, since it’s written by St. Paul, himself a Jew, it is a reference to Jewish law. It implies that Jesus was born into a community where such laws were important; where he was expected to live by those precepts. And so he was. By the time he was eight days old it was very apparent that his home life would be defined by Jewish law. St. Luke tells us that, “When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons. … When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.” (See Luke 2:22 – 39.) You can see, from the repeated references to “law,” in this brief summary of that eighth day in his life that Jesus was in a home where the “Law of the Lord” would be kept. When he was 12 years of age a further series of events illustrates, even more pointedly, the place that “the law,” would have in his life. Luke tells about these events in this same second chapter. (See Luke 2: 41 – 50.) He first explains that Jesus parents customarily went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. He specifically notes that, when Jesus was twelve, they went to Jerusalem for Passover, “according to the custom.” What was so special about this trip to celebrate Passover? Was it the experience Jesus had with the religious leaders in Jerusalem? Was it the anxiety his parents suffered when the feared they’d lost him? Perhaps his age and traditions that surrounded young men of that age made this visit special. Some students of the Bible suggest that, at least symbolically, this visit to Jerusalem became, if it wasn’t intended to be, his “bar Mitzvah.” Aramaic for “son of the commandment,” the ceremony surrounding a Jewish boy’s becoming a mature keeper of “the commandments,” “the law,” is known as his “bar mitzvah.” While custom specifies the age of 13 as the time for this rite, there is Rabbinic tradition allowing it be observed one, even two years before the boy’s 13th Birthday. The celebration of this “coming of age,” is marked by ceremonies in which the young male is initiated into the religious community, … and performs his first act as an adult, saying the blessing for the reading, in the synagogue, of part of the weekly portion of the Torah, or, more traditionally, performing the actual reading.” The performance of this solemn duty established that, from then on, the boy was a man; a “son of the commandment.” The “law” and his adherence to it were now his responsibility. Was Jesus conversation with the “teachers” during this visit to Jerusalem his official “coming out”? Granted most of what characterizes the modern “bar Mitzvah” has developed since the Middle Ages. Still one thing is certain. Jesus, at the age considered to be the time when a boy became a man, had become so immersed in the traditions and “commandments” governing Jewish life in his day that “everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” He had become a true “son of the commandment.” And for him it was more than just a matter of the head. When the confusion and misunderstanding that surrounded his separation from his parents had settled, Luke tells us, he “went home to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.” He was shaped by the “law.” It became a matter of his heart as well. As a result he, “grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men.” (See Luke 2:52.) The law of God, and parents guided by that law, formed Jesus into a healthy, wise, likable man who brought pleasure to the Lord; someone he discovered, through those same sacred writings, to be his Father. And his life was daily elevated to an unparalleled level of excellence as he lived out these principles of his Father.

When Jesus left home to begin a more public life his very first decision demonstrated that these principles would continue to be the foundation of his life. This decision also revealed new things about the nature of the “law” under which he would live the rest of his life. He went to meet his cousin John the Baptist. While with John, Jesus asked to be baptized. John was astounded at his request. He knew that Jesus was the one he had been appointed to prepare people for. John insisted that if any baptism was to take place he was the one who needed it not Jesus. “I,” he said, “need to be baptized by you.” (See Matthew 3:14.) Jesus response is most revealing. John had to baptize him. It was, he said, “necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” The “righteousness” he was talking about was a quality of life that “fit” in God’s world. John’s message to the people coming out to the desert to hear him and be baptized, was, quite simply, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (See Matthew 3:2.) The rule of God is becoming personal. Prepare for his coming by changing your mind and subjecting your will to God’s. His baptism was a symbol of that change of mind and heart. Jesus decision to submit to John’s baptism was a declaration of submission to the ways and will of the King of the kingdom of heaven. The would be King was, himself, submitting deliberately to the principles of his own kingdom. In doing so he was “fulfilling” the “righteousness” of God. Furthermore he was leading all humanity on a path of elevated living that would “make sense” of their existence. And God was pleased with him. He said so. When Jesus was being baptized God spoke. “This is my Son, my beloved. He brings me great pleasure!” (See Matthew 3:17.) With this affirmation, and in the strength of the Spirit of God, Jesus began the final stage of his life. Over a grueling 40 days of intense, personal, spiritual discipline he engaged the devil in a battle of mind and will. Again and again he invoked the “Word of God,” – the “law;” what was “written” – and resolved to be lead by no other principle than that of the “Lord,” his “God,” and “Father.” (See Matthew 4:4 – 10.) When he preached his message was the same as John’s. “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (See Matthew 4:17.) He offered, in this call, a revolution of mind and heart to his listeners. He introduced a radically new possibility that human minds and wills could be elevated to the mind and will of God himself. “I did not come to destroy the law,” he insisted. I came to “fulfill it.” He came to live the life the law prescribes. He came to elevate ordinary people to a life like his own.

Here we discover the meaning of St. Paul’s insistence, in Galatians 4:4, that God’s “Son,” was “born under the law, to redeem those under the law … .” To redeem someone is to buy their freedom. It is about deliverance. Jesus declared this to be part of his mission when he took the mission statement of Isaiah – Isaiah 61: 1, 2 – and made it his own. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,” he said. “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners … .” (See Luke 4:18.) The “law” had become oppressive by the time Jesus came. Though its principles were, for him, the guide to an elevated existence – the first “Psalm 1 man” – it had been abused. Like every other “good” thing God provides the “law” can be used for evil. Jesus explained how this had happened by showing that the “righteousness” of God was a way of life superior even to that of the “Pharisees and teachers of the law.” ( See Matthew 5:20.) These “Pharisees and teachers” were, at first glance, good people. In fact they were people who could truthfully claim to be living “blamelessly.” By every acceptable standard of the day they were living according to the “law” as they’d interpreted it. Anyone hearing Jesus say that they must be more “righteous” than such people must have thought, “How is it possible to live better than them?” Dallas Willard, in his book, The Divine Conspiracy, pgs. 166 & 168, responds. Jesus, he notes, was identifying the “typically Pharisaical mistake of trying to control the act instead of changing the source … .” In “contrast,” he writes, “the goodness of the kingdom heart … is the positive love of God and of those around us, which fills it and crowds out the many forms of evil. From that goodness come deeds of respect and purity that characterize (all loves as they were) meant by God to be.” The “pharisaical mistake” had made the Judaism of Jesus day an oppressively legalistic society. And Jesus condemned them emphatically. “Woe to you teachers of the law, Pharisees,” he declared, “You travel over sea and land to make one convert. When he is converted to your way of life he is twice the child of hell that you are.” (See Matthew 23:15.) Jesus knew and preached that wherever the “law” is prescribed apart from the deeper need for a changed heart oppression will follow. When someone asked him to clarify the intent of the “law,” Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” (See Matthew 22:34; Mark 12:28; Luke 10:25.) While every Pharisee and Teacher of the law who heard him say this recognized it as directly from their “law” (See Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.) they had failed to “get it.” And so their interpretation and practice of it became oppressive and legalistic. Still Jesus pressed continuously for an understanding and application of the law that looked beyond what he called the “letter” or legal aspects of it to the “spirit,” the heart of it. As I heard someone say a long time ago, “for Jesus the ‘law’ was not about ‘religion’ but about a ‘relationship.’” To “get” this is to experience the liberation St. Paul says Christ came to provide for us. As Jesus Spirit changes our hearts and empowers us to love we become elevated to the sort of person he is.

In a rather lengthy conversation with his friends, the night before he was crucified, Jesus explained the relationship between “law” and “love” to them. The conversation is recorded by St. John in chapters 13 to 17. Particularly in chapters 14 & 15 the connection becomes very clear. Jesus says, in chapter 14, verse 15, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Human as we are, our first inclination is to hear this as conditional. Doing what “I command,” proves you love me. Jesus intended it to be confirmational. Your love for me will express itself in heartfelt desire to please me. The love comes first. It is a gift of God not a contrivance of our will. And, when that gift is present, people will do what pleases their Lord. They will “obey.” When it happens it will spring so naturally out of their changed hearts that they’ll be as surprised and pleased by it as any observer would be. So, love is the critical matter here. “Law,” is, for Jesus, a matter of the heart as much as it’s a matter of the head. Willard said, in the earlier quote, “the goodness of the kingdom heart … is the positive love of God and of those around us that fills it and crowds out the many forms of evil.” Now notice that earlier in chapter 14 Jesus had already made this point that obedience follows love. There he tells us that something more follows. “My Father will love (you), and we will come to (you) and make our home with (you).” Even earlier in chapter 14 he had said that the “Counselor,” … “the Spirit of truth,” would come and “live with you and … in you.” This is profound. He is teaching that God will live in us. Back in chapter 15 verse 9 he urges his friends, and now us, to “remain” in his love. I prefer the MESSAGE interpretation of the word “remain.” “Make yourselves at home in my love.” Do you get the relational tone of all of this. Making oneself “at home” with someone is intimate and personal. Loving them you want to please them. So you make every effort to know them and understand what pleases them. You look for information that will help you do so. And the more you do for them the stronger your love for them grows. This is Jesus path to redemption and the intimacy with God that he enjoyed. Once more – follow the sequence – Love, a quality produced by the Spirit who has come to live in us, inspires obedience; the Spirit of God also provides guidance and aid to empower our obedience; his influence produces both the love and the obedience which grow out of genuine love; Jesus and the Father respond to this growing love and the desire to please by coming to make their home with us; as we “make ourselves at home” with them we discover that we are becoming more and more like them. Why not? They’ve not only made their home in us. They’ve adopted us. We are “sons” and “daughters” of God. Furthermore, we’ve been “redeemed” – “liberated.” We are now beginning to experience what St. Paul describes as the “glorious freedom of the children of God.” (See Romans 8:21.) Children are heirs. The possibilities are now endless! We are royalty. And each day that we live with God we are being elevated to a way of living that appears more and more like Jesus lifestyle.

This is the Christmas story in a nutshell! The Son of God came down to where we are, lived our life the way it was designed to be lived even though it cost him his own, and, in the process, set us free to be sons of God too. Because he came we are now, though human, becoming Divine. I have never read a more vivid; more moving word picture of this than what C.S. Lewis wrote in Miracles. “In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human phases of life; down to the very roots and seabed of the Nature He has created. He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders. Or one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and old decay; then up again, back to color and light, his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks surface again, holding in his hand he dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. He and it are both colored now that they have come up into the light: down below, where it lay colorless in the dark, he lost his color too.”

We are now, as Lewis further notes, in Mere Christianity, Book 4, chapter 7, “begin(ning) to see what the New Testament is always talking about … being ‘born again’ … ‘putting on Christ’ … Christ ‘being formed in us’ … .” We are discovering “that a real person, Christ, here and now, … is doing things to (us). … a living Man, still as much a man as you (and me), and still as much God as he was when he created the world, really coming and interfering with (our) very self; killing the old natural self … replacing it with the kind of self He has. At first, only for moments. Then for longer periods. Finally, if all goes well, turning us permanently into a different sort of thing; into a new little Christ, a being which, in its own small way, has the same kind of life as God; which shares in His power, joy, knowledge and eternity.”