Chapter 5 – Word Made Flesh: The Christlike God
Jesus is the perfect representation of God; indeed, he is God incarnate (Jn 1:14).
In the Nicene Creed, the Church confesses:
This is consistent with Paul’s teaching in 1 Cor 8:6.
The NT writers insist that Jesus:
The story of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life (‘Holy Week’, or ‘Passion Week’) is told in great detail in the four Gospels.
But there are some apparent discrepancies which sceptics seize on in order to undermine the historical accuracy of the narrative.
For example, Judith Redman supposes that she is speaking for many when she states that
We are often told that ancient societies, such as Israel, were ‘honour-shame’ cultures.
How does the relate to the crucifixion of Jesus?
To be sure, crucifixion was not only a terribly painful death, but also a shameful one.
We see something of the humiliation of Jesus’ death in Mark’s Gospel. Abandoned by his friends, tortured, and hung up (probably naked) to endure a lingering death in full public view. And yet Mark communicates a certain honour to that which most would have found utterly shameful. …
I confess that I struggle a bit with attending church on Good Friday. In my experience, we come into church with long faces because we remember that this was the day on which our Lord suffered and died, and then return, two days later, full of smiles because – surprise, suprise! – he’s not dead, but alive!
It’s not a great idea to separate Good Friday from Easter Sunday in this way, as though Friday is ‘bad’ and Sunday is ‘good’? …
Given the reticence and reserve with which the NT dwells on the physical aspects of Christ’s sufferings, it is certainly possible for Christians themselves to dwell too much on them.
F.F. Bruce comments on this subject in his fascinating book, Answers To Questions (p249f).
He contrasts this, by Charles Wesley…
1. O Love divine, what has thou done!
The immortal God hath died for me!
The Father’s coeternal Son
bore all my sins upon the tree.…
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46)
Here is a summary of Ch. 33 of John Flavel’s great work, The Fountain of Life.
Here, says Flavel, ‘are words that might rend the hardest heart.’
The manner of the complaint
Note what our Lord complains of. ‘It is not of the cruel tortures he felt in his body, nor of the scoffs and reproaches of his name; he mentions not a word of these, they were all swallowed up in the sufferings within, as the river is swallowed up in the sea, or the lesser flame in the greater.’…
Matthew 26:57-68
This sermon was preached in two parts. The first part was followed by a time of sung and spoken confession.
This Powerpoint presentation was used:-
Part 1 – Four portraits
(a) Caiaphas – perverted justice.
‘Looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death,’ v59.
Looking for the expedient solution – Jn 11:49f “It is better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”…
Mark 15:34 ‘At the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” – which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”‘
Six hours after he was nailed to his cross, the dying Jesus shouted out these awesome words.
The cry is also recorded in Matthew 27:46. Mark’s quotation from Psa 22:1 is in Aramaic; Matthew’s mainly in Hebrew.
The difficulty of this saying
According to Hard Sayings of the Bible,
I’ve been going through Tom Wright’s important new book The Day the Revolution Began: Rethinking the Meaning of Jesus’ Crucifixion (SPCK, 2016) with a fine tooth-comb. Here I offer a synopsis of what I think Wright is saying.
Mark 14:32-42
It took place in Gethsemane, an olive grove at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
It happened after supper, and before Judas identified Jesus with a kiss and the soldiers arrested him.
Jesus had a few short hours in which to pour out his soul to his heavenly Father.
‘The shadow of Calvary’. A place of
1. Anguish
V33 – ‘He began to be deeply distressed and troubled.’ To the point of death, v34.…
