THE APOSTLES' CREED
"JESUS CHRIST...OUR LORD"

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"I believe in God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary..." After all, we call ourselves CHRISTIANS...CHRIST-ians. Of course, we believe with Simon Peter that Jesus is the Christ.

Let me press you on that. Be specific. What exactly do you believe about Jesus? Some years ago, in my seminary days, our first course in Systematic Theology dealt with that question. Our professor described Jesus as "the proleptic, salvific, hidden appearance of the eschatological kingdom of God." Did you get that? Take notes; there might be a test at the end of this. "The proleptic, salvific, hidden appearance of the eschatological kingdom of God." On our way out of class that morning, with the words of our gospel in mind, we chuckled at the whole thing: "Jesus said to them, `Who do YOU say that I am?' Simon Peter replied, `You are the proleptic, salvific, hidden appearance of the eschatological kingdom of God.' And Jesus answered him and said, `WHAT???'"

What, indeed! What about Jesus? When it comes right down to it, we know rather little, at least concerning the details of Jesus' life. Jesus left no record. He kept no diary. He wrote no book. All that we know about him is crowded in a few pages at the opening of the New Testament. You can read it through in a few hours.

The story opens with the birth of a baby in an out-of-the-way town called Bethlehem with his first cradle a manger for the feeding of livestock. He grew up in the unsanitary mountain village of Nazareth with a reputation only for the fact that nothing "good" had ever come from that town. As far as we can tell, it was a normal home; Jesus would have shared normal duties with his brothers and sisters. He knew how to fill lamps and to trim wicks. He knew what housecleaning involved. He knew how to build a fire and could prepare a fish fry. He learned the trade of a carpenter.

What we are saying here is that we believe Jesus is a real person, not some figure out of ancient mythology. Flesh and bone, muscle and blood. REAL!

That, by the way, is the point of those phrases, "conceived by the Holy Ghost," and "born of the Virgin Mary." To the early church, the miraculous nature of Jesus' birth was not that big a deal - it is only mentioned twice in the gospels, Jesus never refers to it, the Twelve never discuss it, Paul never mentions it. The truly big deal was that he was born at all! This divine character actually took on human flesh, laid aside the "perks" of heavenly office, and became a man.

This affirmation was never meant to prompt or encourage non-Christians into joining the band of believers in response to Jesus' supernatural origins. It was actually to slap down an argument that some Christians had put forward denying that Jesus was the same kind of human being that you and I are. They wanted to say that, if Jesus were truly divine (as everyone believed), then he was fundamentally different from the rest of us. Rumors even started that he made no footprints when he walked, cast no shadow in the sun. Jesus could not have really died on Calvary, because Jesus is God incarnate, and God cannot die. Tough issues. But the church insisted from the beginning that this Jesus of Nazareth whom we come to know in the gospels, is not only truly God, but truly human as well.

As those early Christians repeated the phrase, "conceived by the Holy Ghost," they affirmed Jesus' divinity. As they repeated "BORN of the Virgin Mary," they affirmed his humanity.

So saying, I cannot move beyond those words without noting the difficulty and even pain they have caused in recent years. Some well-meaning defenders of the faith have chosen the affirmation "born of the Virgin Mary" as a litmus test for orthodoxy. Noting that some teachers and preachers have expressed doubts about the historicity of the virgin birth, "true believers" have gone ballistic and started incredible and bitter ecclesiastical wars in an attempt to defend the veracity of scripture and the deity of Christ.

Well, as we noted last week in our study of Genesis, chapter one, "truth" may be one thing to one person and something entirely different to another - to one it may be that God created light on the first day and the sun on the fourth day; to another it may be simply that God created. In the current discussion, the word we translate as "virgin" from scripture can just as easily be translated "young woman," so to make a dogmatic case one way or the other is impossible.

To defend Christ's deity, there are better ways than by using this phrase. The creed itself affirms it in calling Jesus God's "ONLY SON." True, we believe in "God, the Father..." and that, in a special way, we are all God's children. But we also insist that Jesus is unique. Listen again to the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews:

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, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.⁽¹⁾

One last aside on this virgin birth question - for myself, I prefer to believe the traditional understanding about Jesus' miraculous birth - "conceived by the HOLY GHOST, born of the VIRGIN Mary" - that feels more comfortable than an admission that Jesus was born out of wedlock to folks who could not control themselves. To those who cannot believe as I do, take heart...I do not consign you to unending Hell.

Back to Jesus. We believe he was a real person, both human and divine, God's ONLY Son. We also believe he was Jesus CHRIST. At about 30 years of age, Jesus laid aside the tools of his trade and began to teach and preach and heal. From the beginning people reacted to him. Little children ran at the music of his voice, the aged found comfort in his presence, the sick found healing by merely touching the hem of his garment. He had his hours of popularity when the multitudes crowded about him. He had his moments of quiet reflection, either alone, or with those closest to him. It was on just such an occasion that we encounter the dialogue of our lesson: Jesus said to the Twelve, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon answers, "You are the Messiah (from the Hebrew), [or] the Christ (the Greek equivalent of Messiah), the Son of the living God."

CHRIST is not Jesus' surname. It is a title. It indicates "the anointed one" - someone set apart for God's service. This was God's representative. In the Old Testament the title was regularly applied to the king. By the time of Jesus, the Jewish people were looking for a Messiah, a Christ, to come who would lead them in victory against their oppressors, a conquering hero who would overthrow the hated Romans. As soon became evident, this was not God's intention in Jesus. For those who had their hopes pinned on a military Messiah, this was a devastating blow. Indeed, some have speculated that this was Judas' problem - once he found out that his dream of conquest was over, he bolted ranks. And the rest of the story we know too well.

Jesus was betrayed by those he trusted, abandoned by those he loved. A purple robe was thrown contemptuously across his shoulders, a crown of thorns jammed down upon his brow. He carried his own cross, as far as he was able, to an outlaw's execution. The life which had begun in humble obscurity ended in public shame. He who, at birth, had been laid in a borrowed manger was now laid away in a borrowed tomb.

But we know the story does not end there. And that is why we can continue to affirm, "I believe in Jesus Christ...our LORD!"

LORD. What does the name mean? To the ancients it meant master or owner and was always a title of consummate respect. In the modern world, to call Jesus "Lord" is to say he is the chief, the boss, the main man, the head honcho. The buck stops with him; his decisions are final. Hear the "Declaration of Faith" written by the Southern Presbyterians a few years ago:⁽²⁾

          We declare that Jesus is Lord.
          His resurrection is a decisive victory over the powers 
                    that deform and destroy human life.
          His Lordship is hidden.
          The world appears to be dominated by people and systems 
                    that do not acknowledge His rule.
          But His Lordship is real.
          It demands our loyalty and sets us free 
                    from the fear of all lesser lords who threaten us.
          We maintain that ultimate sovereignty now belongs 
                    to Jesus Christ in every sphere of life.
          Jesus is Lord!          
          He has been Lord from the beginning.
          He will be Lord at the end.
          Even now He is Lord.

All along we have been insisting that as we believe, so we behave:

• If we say that "Jesus Christ is Lord," it means that, for us, Jesus Christ is uniquely in charge - we are prepared to obediently follow in whatever direction the Lord chooses to lead, even if he goes where we might rather he did not.

• If we say, "Jesus Christ is Lord," that means his priorities will become our priorities. We will be drawn to those on the margins, the outcasts, and even those society (and sometimes even the church) suggests we stay away from.

• If we say, "Jesus Christ is Lord," we will take religion seriously - we will worship, we will fellowship, we will pray, we will even sacrifice...just as Jesus did, and we will never let religion become an end in itself; it must never get in the way of people.

• If we say, "Jesus Christ is Lord," it means we are prepared to give to Jesus a love and a loyalty that will be given to no other person in all the universe.

"Jesus Christ is Lord." It may be that you cannot put into words who and what you believe Jesus to be, but so long as there is in your heart this wondering love, and in your life this willingness to obey, you are a Christian.

Millions upon millions of words have been written and spoken about Jesus. As Emerson once noted, "The name of Jesus is not so much written as PLOUGHED into the history of the world." But none of that history has ever been able to tell the whole story. As that great preacher of the last century, Horace Bushnell once said, "Who can satisfy himself with anything he can say concerning Jesus Christ?"

Malcolm Muggeridge, for most of his life a skeptic, following his conversion became wonderfully reflective. In his book, Jesus Rediscovered, writes,

Beneath the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a silver star marks the alleged precise spot where Christ was born. A stone slab nearby is supposed to mark the exact site of the manger wherein he lay. The Holy Land is littered with such shrines, divided up like African territories in the old colonialist days, between the different sects and denominations--the Greeks, the Armenians, the Copts, the Latins, etc.--and often a cause of rancor among them. Most of the shrines are doubtless fraudulent, some in dubious taste, and none to my liking. Yet one may note, as the visitors come and go, ranging from the devout to the inanely curious, that almost every face somehow lights up a little.⁽³⁾

"I believe in God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord..."

Amen!

1. Hebrews 1:1-3a

2. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1990), p. 101-102

3. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 74

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