In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul says that he didn’t come to them using lofty words or wisdom, but instead to make known amongst them only Christ and him crucified. And yet, that term Christ had a lot of meaning that eventually would have to be unpacked. Because Christ is a specific term. Even though we talk all the time about Jesus Christ, Christ is not his last name, and H is not his middle initial. Christ is a title, coming from the Greek word Christos which is the Greek word used for the Hebrew word Messiah, which means the anointed one. And so in proclaiming Jesus as Christ, Jesus as messiah, Jesus as the anointed one, there was a lot of understanding that went along with that. Or we might say that there was a lot of explanation that the early church had to do to come to understand who Jesus was that encapsulated his life, his death and most especially his resurrection. Jesus did not match the role that people expected of the Messiah, and so a new interpretation had to be given about Jesus, and one of the first titles was that of Christ. But when people asked “who is Christ”, or when the disciples and apostles set out to explain who Christ was, they didn’t seek to talk about his nature, but instead about his function. What does Christ do? Why is he important? How do we find salvation in his acts? How do we understand him as the Messiah?
And so the church spent years and years trying to answer some of those questions. And one of the ways that explanation was done was through assigning certain offices, or positions to Jesus, namely that of prophet, priest and king. And we have these titles and ideas appearing early on in the church. In the mid-first century, Justin Martyr was writing about these three offices, and just as an aside, like Jesus, Martyr was not Justin’s last name, that was given to him after he was martyred, otherwise that would be a rather unfortunate circumstance and heavy burden to carry. Later, Eusebius, the father of church history, would do the same. In the middle ages, Thomas Aquinas took up the topic, as did John Calvin in the Protestant Reformation, and John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement encouraged the preaching of Christ in all three of his offices.
And so, we are going to be spending the next three weeks
looking at these three offices of Christ. And before we dive in, just a couple
of stipulations. The first is that I choose to do this sermon now, immediately
after the election, for a specific reason and that is because I hoped it would
remind us and help us to remember that as important as elections are and who we
elect is important, our hope and our salvation do not reside in them. Our hope
and our salvation rest in Christ, and our allegiance is to God, not to
political parties, as well as remembering to whom we ultimately belong. The
second point is that there is no way I can cover everything there is to say
about whom Jesus is, or even the entirety of these offices, in three weeks.
Indeed, we could say that every single worship service we are seeking to
understand who Jesus is for us, what he means for us, and how we are to live
differently because of that. And the third piece is to know that there are not
hard and fast boundaries between the three offices, that there is considerable
overlap, but we’re going to try and understand each of them as they are.
One of the reasons why these three offices were given was
because they all fell under the understanding of whom the Messiah would be and
who Christ was, in addition to the fact that in ancient Israel all three had
people being anointed, either by oil or by the Holy Spirit, as they were
recognized for their office. Now of the three offices, that of prophet is
probably the least covered and the least understood. As I said, John Wesley
said Methodist preachers were to preach Christ in each of them, but prophet was
the one on which he himself has the fewest writings. Rev. Richard Rohr, a
world-renowned Franciscan priest who lives in Albuquerque, says that he has
seen lots of statues and stained glass to Christ the King and even Christ the
Priest, as well as accompanying celebrations, and we will celebrate Christ the
King Sunday, which is the last Sunday of the Christian year before Advent
begins, in three weeks. But, he said, he has never seen a celebration or a
statue or a stained-glass window to Christ the Prophet, and that, he says,
means something’s out of balance. When we don’t see or understand Jesus as a
prophet, then we are actually missing a crucial piece of his ministry, and how
we should see and understand his words and actions, but even more importantly
we should be seeing him not just as a prophet, but as the prophet, and I’ll
explain what I mean about that in a few moments.
But, first we have to understand the role and purpose of
prophets in Israel. And we can first state that technically there were no
prophets in ancient Israel because that is a Greek term not a Hebrew term. In
Greek the term meant a spokesperson, which means they were not speaking for
themselves, but they were speaking for God. And thus a prophetic statement
often begins with the phrase “thus says the Lord.” They are not reporting their
own ideas, but instead are saying what God has told them to say. These are
God’s words and they should be taken and treated as such. In Hebrew the word
used to describe such people was Na’vi, which means someone who proclaims, but
more importantly it also has an understanding of someone who is called or
summoned. God has called them out to act on God’s behalf, and there are both
male and female prophets named in scripture. Now one other misunderstanding is
that often when we think about prophets or prophecy, it’s about someone
predicting something that’s going to happen sometime in the future. While there
are certainly some prophets who occasionally did that, that was not their role.
For the most part, prophets were talking about what was
happening right then. They would call out the powers and principalities for
where they had gone astray from God, and call people to repentance, or give
judgment from God for what they had done. But, they also could offer words of consolation,
forgiveness and even of hope. They could build people up, especially after a
calamity, and remind the people of God’s faithfulness to them, even if they had
not been faithful to God. And then it was not just words, but prophets were
also known for prophetic acts, or deeds representative of their prophetic
powers. Sometimes this involves performing miracles, like Elijah raising a boy
from the dead, but more often it is sign acts which match their witness. So,
for example, Jeremiah wears an ox yoke as a symbol that the people will also be
in bondage to the Babylonians. Or when Hosea marries Gomer, who is a prostitute,
to symbolize God’s faithfulness and Israel’s unfaithfulness. So we might begin
to see some of Jesus’ actions as prophetic witness, such as him washing the disciples’
feet or the feeding of multitudes or the raising of Lazarus. Prophecy through
action, rather than words, or actions that reinforce the words.
Now this
is sort of a tricky question, but who is the greatest prophet in the Hebrew Scriptures?
And let me give you a hint that it’s not those who we normally think of for
prophets, like Isaiah or Jeremiah or even Elijah. It’s Moses. Now we normally
don’t think of Moses as a prophet, but as the person who is called by God, who
speaks with God to the people, and from the people to God, and then also is the
great law giver he definitely holds a prophetic office. And he even is quoted
as saying in Deuteronomy “The Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a
prophet.” (Deut 18:15) and so there was expectation about a coming great
prophet, and then we add in thinking around the prophet Elijah, who was seen as
the second great prophet, with a special twist. You may remember that according
to scripture Elijah never actually dies. Instead he is taken up to heaven at
the end of his life, remembering the song swing low sheet chariot, and so a
second idea arose that Elijah would return in order to prepare the way, to be
the harbinger of, the coming messiah. We see this in scripture as at the end of
Malachi, which is the last book in the Christian Hebrew Scripture, although not
in Judaism, which ends with an instruction from God to remember the teaching of
Moses, and then says “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great
and terrible day of the Lord comes” (Mal 4:5), then you turn the page to the
beginning of Matthew which begins with the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, and
then after his birth narrative, we hear about John the Baptist, who Matthew
quotes from Isaiah, is the one who prepares the way for the coming of the Lord.
And so we see in the gospels this conversation about prophets, remembering that
biblical prophecy had sort of ended by the time of Jesus, and over who is who,
and so let me say that we don’t have time to go into all the nuances and
arguments around this, but that the gospels writers go to great lengths to say
that John the Baptist was a prophet, perhaps the one who was preparing the way,
but that he is not the prophet. That Jesus is the prophet. The prophet who
would come to complete the creation, and this prophet could also be the
Messiah.
And so think of the story of the transfiguration, when Jesus
goes up to the mountain top, setting off bells, and when he is transfigured, who
are the two figures who appear with him? Moses and Elijah. And so if Moses and
Elijah are there with him, does that mean Jesus can be either one of them? No,
which means he is the one who comes after them, and is at least equal to them,
although the gospel writers, and the early church, wanted to make the case that
Jesus was greater than them, and the best example is found in the gospel of
Matthew where the comparisons to Moses are obvious, at least if you are looking
for them. But it’s not just the comparison, but also to show Jesus’ superiority
to Moses. Again, thinking of the last few weeks in hearing from the Sermon on
the Mount, more bells, and what does he say, “You have heard it say,” and then
he quotes some law, given by Moses, and then he says “But I say to you,” and he
reinterprets the law. These are prophetic statements, and important ones. That
is not something that any prophet does, that is something reserved for the
person who will fulfill the prophecies, and so Jesus is not just like Moses, he
is better than Moses. He is now the greatest prophet because he is the prophet,
the one who brings in the coming age, the one who announces the reign of God.
And we see that in the passage we heard from Luke today, and
it’s certainly Luke’s understanding of who Jesus is, that he picks up the
scroll of Isaiah, and it does appear that Jesus has specifically chosen this
passage, rather than it being an assigned reading for that worship service, and
he says “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” which is his anointing, a
remembrance of the Spirit coming to him at his baptism,” and then he gives out
the vision of the Kingdom of God, and what his coming means, not just for Jews,
but for the world, and then sitting down he says, “Today this scripture has
been fulfilled in your hearing.” This is the proclamation that Jesus is the
prophet who has been expected, and also the Messiah, he is both proclaiming the
good news of God’s kingdom, preparing the way, but he is also the one who will
bring about that fulfillment as the Messiah, also through his roles as priest
and king.
And so here is the point of all of this and why it’s
important to see Jesus as a prophet and to understand his teaching and deeds as
being prophetic. The first is that one of the things that prophets due is to
call people back to God, often as a call of repentance. And how does Jesus
begin his ministry? He says “repent, for the Kingdom of God has come near.”
This is not only to come into relationship with God, to turn to God, but it’s
also a call to participate in the Kingdom. But, this is a call that requires a
final decision, and even more importantly, Jesus, this prophet, unlike any
other prophet, is the only one who can do something about it, the only one who
can truly reconcile to God, which we will get into this week, but even more it
requires us to respond to the call of this prophet, the prophet.
In the opening to Hebrews we heard the author tell us “Long
ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the
prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.” And so if
we understand Jesus as both the Son of God and also the prophet, that should
fundamentally change our understanding of the words of Christ. Now you may have
already known this for a long time, but I can say that when I first thought
about Jesus as Prophet it caused me to see him in a new way. We certainly believe
that Jesus is the son of God, and as the second part of the trinity of
father-son-holy ghost, is God, but when we are talking about what Jesus says do
we think of those words in the same way as God saying it? That is the claim we
make for prophets, that they are not saying things for themselves, but instead
it is the word of God, but when we hear Jesus saying things do we say to
ourselves “That is God speaking”?
Maybe all of you already do that and if so congratulations, because it took me thinking about Jesus as a prophet and looking at all his statements as prophetic utterances to make me see not only the tone that they carry when you hear them differently, but also the weight that they carry as the words of God. But not just any words of God, for Jesus is not just any prophet. He is the prophet, the promised one, the Messiah, the Son of God, and God, and thus it is not just Jesus who says “You should love your enemies as yourself,” or “You will be known as my disciples by the love that you show,” or “love God and love your neighbor” that is God who is making those statements. Christ’s prophetic works are grounded in his relation to the Father, and he is not called to be a prophet, as all the others, but he is sent by God to us to redeem the world, to bring healing and wholeness and forgiveness. To bring us back into right relationship with God and with each other, and his word cannot be distinguished from the words of the Father or the movement of the Spirit. That perhaps puts them in a fundamentally different light, and we should therefore treat them with the seriousness and gravity that they deserve, not as mere suggestions, but as commands from God for us to carry out not when we like, but every day. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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