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At the end of an intense teaching about putting him in first place (Lk. 14:26) and carrying ones cross and following him (v.27), Jesus gives two “teaching illustrations” which, on the surface don’t seem very helpful in unpacking the call to discipleship:
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In reflecting on the first two of The 39 Articles of Religion, Oliver O’Donovan notes the curious way in which the biblical and creedal claims about Jesus offend our contemporary sensibilities. “Curiously” it is not the sheer statement that Jesus was divine or that God was in Christ or anything like that —many people are willing to admit as much (I remember watching a lecture in which Gregory Nagy referred to the historical transmission of the works of Homer as “divine” so its a fairly wide-ranging term). What offends the modern mind is “[t]he statement of Christ’s pre-existence as the eternal Word of the Father” (20). O’Donovan adds that “other difficulties” about Christology “appear no more than symptomatic.”
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In the beginning humans are created in a state on deep and utter union: Adam and Eve share communion with God, communion with one another, a kind of communion with the rest of the created world, and —often forgotten in theological accounts of prelapsarian life— unified within themselves. This is, in God’s words, “very good” (Gen 1:31). It is a blessed state (Gen 1:28). Union is, also, not just how we are made, it is what we are made for.
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We should recall from Exodus (25:31–39; and 37:17–24) that the lampstand in the Tabernacle, which was a picture, a microcosm, of the heavenly throne-room, was made in the likeness of a tree. Each of its arms were branches that bloomed into almond blossoms on which were set the seven lamps. It was a tree whose fruit was light. It was another burning bush, but a burning bush that had grown into full maturity.
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This Tuesday is the Feast of the Annunciation —the annual celebration of the day, nine months prior to Christmas, that the angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce the conception of the infant Christ in her womb. We confess in the Creeds and in the words of the eucharistic liturgy that Christ became incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary and yet we often fail to marvel at the wonder of this. For it is not as if Christ was merely born Christ was conceived —The second Person of the Godhead not only underwent mammalian birth but also mammalian gestation. Oh the long-suffering patience and obedience of the Son to submit to fulfilling the whole span of human experience!
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Those in power here, both the pharisees and Herod, are afraid of the power of Jesus. And the best policy for those who rule in fear is to exercise dominion and control over others by spreading fear. Spread the worry and bring the upstarts to heel in being anxious about tomorrow’s troubles.
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I remember being pushed in a stroller by him through the wild labyrinthine corridors of queues of Disneyland; I remember being asked “are you buckled in?” and “are you hungry?” by him when I was a kid. And now here I am asking similar questions of him. Now I am pushing the cart around. Now I get the valet ticket, now I grab the car, now I have to remember where the car is, etc.
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“The Last of the Spirits”, illustration for Charls Dickens’ Christmas Carol by John Lech
The word “nice” is a rotten term. Originally it meant “foolish,” being an English word composed of two Latin terms: “ne” (“not”) and “scire” (“to know”). Over time it developed in meaning to its current form meaning something like “kind” or “good” but without any of the substance of kindness or goodness (see the entry for “Nice” at the Online Etymology Dictionary).
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Listening to Dcn. Ben chant the Magnificat on Sunday, after hearing the whole story of redemption from Genesis to Revelation, I was reminded of a scene from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King:
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