Yearly Archives

15 Articles

Aleph

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

(Psalm 119:1-8)

All are blessed who wend the perfect way

who walk in the law of the Lord

All are blessed who tend to his testimonies

they pursue him with all their heart.

Acting upon evil, indeed, never are they!

but always walking in his ways.

At last you’ve prescribed your precepts

to be kept; indeed to be kept!

Alas! Would that my ways were steadfast

so your statutes might be kept.

Attending to all your commandments

I shouldn’t ever again be ashamed.

Aright in heart would I then acclaim you

as I learn of your just judgments.

Abandon me not entirely;

I will to your statutes steadfastly!

Temptation and Baptism

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then he can do anything and no thing is harder than another.

If God can do anything then he can prove himself when tested.

If Jesus is the Son of God then he has God’s power.

Therefore, Jesus can prove himself when he is tested and it is no harder for him to do so than it is for him to open or close his eyes.

This is the line of argument that Satan uses toward Jesus when he tempts him in the wilderness.

Here is the argument that we would be tempted to add:

True temptation implies a struggle

Jesus could prove himself to be God, as Satan asked, or resist the temptation with equal ease and without a struggle.

Therefore Jesus was not truly tempted.

This argument is equally flawed. Jesus treats it the same way as he does the argument of Satan, ignore it and continue to bear witness to the truth of who he is and why he came.

Preceding the temptation of Jesus in Luke’s narrative, he is baptized by John the Baptist and God testifies to who Jesus is. He says that Jesus is his very Son. Now both Satan and our curiosity would like to find out exactly what that means. Satan thought he could use the testimony as a weakness in Jesus, causing him to inadvertently obey Satan in the very act of proving that he was God’s Son. And we would like to make Jesus’ experience as a human to be fundamentally different from our own. In some ways we want an excuse for the fact that Jesus resisted temptation where often we fail to do so.

Jesus’ life condemns both arguments. Jesus did not allow the divine will to be bent by Satan’s schemes, but rather he remained hidden to the eyes of Satan, causing him to think he had defeated him even unto causing Jesus to die. But in fact Jesus was entrusting himself to the divine will, and through it, defeating Satan and all of his tricks for eternity!

Luke unabashedly states that Jesus ‘grew’ in wisdom. Now we would have no means of understanding a ‘growth’ in God. But only as a real human does this statement make sense. Jesus went through a progression of wisdom going from one level to another level of wisdom

Jonah

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

Where might be found the presence of divine

There found is calling burdensome to me.

What he would have beyond the pow’r of mine

Has driven far upon the pagan sea

This heart from love and tender conscious faith

Unto that fiery sermon of the deep,

Unto the very throat which right portrayeth

Mine own engorging habits where I sleep

Unknowing quite the storms which rage without

On me and on those of like fearsome plight

Unknowing or unwanting but to doubt

The worth of other man in heaven’s sight.

Now fall from God of earth and sea and land

On all who sin what mercy’s willed ‘forehand.

Baptism, Illustrated Edition

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

Jesus baptism is ours. To understand our own baptism we have only to look at that of Jesus for its illustration and explanation.

The Law and Prophets all spoke of the coming redemption of Israel, the Savior of Israel. For her sins God provided a sacrifice. As Isaac, in whom all of Israel was represented, was saved by the death of the sacrificial lamb, so all of Israel in her vast numbers were covered by the blood of lambs at the Passover. Both of these events illustrate how Jesus, as the Lamb of God, himself covers Israel.

In addition to being the Lamb, Jesus is also the high priest who represents the people. In him is all of Israel, for he is the seed of Abraham. All who believe in him are the children of Abraham by faith. In Christ is both Israel, and her sacrifice. For what did God demand but Israel herself as a living sacrifice. This relationship is typified by the Sabbath day, where his people are his and his alone, enjoyed by him (his “rest”).

When Jesus goes to the waters of baptism he is uniting these two images, that of Israel, and that of Savior of Israel. He is baptized by John, the last and greatest of prophets. John called the people to repent of sins. Jesus had no sins of his own, yet he identified with the people as their representative head