3/19/21
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.
Psalm 118:23 speaks of "the stone that the builders rejected." This chief cornerstone, rejected by the experts, has always been understood by Christians to be Jesus, the Christ. In this Psalm, then, all our reason for trusting in God, all the calling out to God, all the thanksgiving and rejoicing, is because Jesus, the Christ, is the one who holds the Church, God's kingdom on earth, together.
This is a radical claim. It implies that Jesus is not just a man. While we will confess that his humanity is absolutely real, at the same time, we confess that he is God of all. And herein lies the misunderstanding. Is he God or is he man? The Scripture answers, "Yes."
When we try to explain the two natures in one indivisible person, we quickly go astray. We can't understand how Jesus can be God and man. We don't understand how the one who has infinite and perfect knowledge of everything can become someone who needs to be taught how to speak, read, and write. We can't grasp the one who is infinite being contained by the fine. We have no clue how the immortal God dies.
These ideas are quicly discarded by our unbelief. We think there must be some mistake. In this way, Jesus is the stone rejected by the builders. There's got to be something wrong. It isn't a trustworthy idea. There's some sort of impossibility going on here.
Christianity, however, deals with impossibility, and makes no apology for it. The infinite is contained in the finite. The timeless enters into time. The one who can be everywhere walks around Palestine. The one who never sleeps or slumbers falls asleep on a cushion in the back of a boat. The eternal is born. The immortal dies.
In doing all this, a more important impossibility is brought to bear. Your sin and my sin, which we cannot take away even by dying, is taken away by Jesus who dies for us. How can this be? It's a miracle.
God remains the God of miracles. Our only reasonable response is to give him thanks and praise, to sing his glory, and to ask him to show himself as our savior. This he does by his mercy and his grace.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.
Psalm 118:23 speaks of "the stone that the builders rejected." This chief cornerstone, rejected by the experts, has always been understood by Christians to be Jesus, the Christ. In this Psalm, then, all our reason for trusting in God, all the calling out to God, all the thanksgiving and rejoicing, is because Jesus, the Christ, is the one who holds the Church, God's kingdom on earth, together.
This is a radical claim. It implies that Jesus is not just a man. While we will confess that his humanity is absolutely real, at the same time, we confess that he is God of all. And herein lies the misunderstanding. Is he God or is he man? The Scripture answers, "Yes."
When we try to explain the two natures in one indivisible person, we quickly go astray. We can't understand how Jesus can be God and man. We don't understand how the one who has infinite and perfect knowledge of everything can become someone who needs to be taught how to speak, read, and write. We can't grasp the one who is infinite being contained by the fine. We have no clue how the immortal God dies.
These ideas are quicly discarded by our unbelief. We think there must be some mistake. In this way, Jesus is the stone rejected by the builders. There's got to be something wrong. It isn't a trustworthy idea. There's some sort of impossibility going on here.
Christianity, however, deals with impossibility, and makes no apology for it. The infinite is contained in the finite. The timeless enters into time. The one who can be everywhere walks around Palestine. The one who never sleeps or slumbers falls asleep on a cushion in the back of a boat. The eternal is born. The immortal dies.
In doing all this, a more important impossibility is brought to bear. Your sin and my sin, which we cannot take away even by dying, is taken away by Jesus who dies for us. How can this be? It's a miracle.
God remains the God of miracles. Our only reasonable response is to give him thanks and praise, to sing his glory, and to ask him to show himself as our savior. This he does by his mercy and his grace.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
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