Heart Meditations

Scripture – Acts 2:36 “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Observation – The words “Lord and Christ” and “whom you crucified” jumped out at me.

Application – Jesus is both Lord and Christ.  These dual titles are in tension with each other.  As Lord He is the one who we ought to obey, but as Christ he became obedient even unto death.  As Lord He is exalted above every name, but as Christ He humbled himself and became as servant.  As Lord He is the one who anoints but as Christ He is the anointed one.  As Lord He is the good shepherd but as Christ He is the compliant lamb who takes away the sins of the world.  As Lord He is without sin but as Christ He became sin.  As Lord He will never leave us or forsake us but as Christ He questions why He was forsaken.

I have never thought about the fact that it must have been difficult for Jesus to be both Lord and Christ.  I started this blog thinking I was going to talk about my struggle to accept Jesus as both Lord and Christ in my life but I have now realised how insignificant my discomfort is in comparison to the discomfort that Jesus had to endure with His duality.  How claustrophobic must it have been for the Lord who made a universe that scientists can’t find the edges of, to become Christ inside a virgins womb?  How frustrating for the Lord who gave the prophecies, to be the Christ who learned the prophecies at His mother’s knee?  How ridiculous must it have been for the Lord how created the law to become the Christ who was accused of braking the law?  How insulting must it have been for the Lord whom all heaven worships to become the Christ who was scorned and rediculed?  How incongruous for the Lord of life to become the lifeless Christ on the cross, blood and water draining from His side?

This tension He not only endured, as if it was something placed upon Him but He embraced it.  Philippians 2:5-8 says that Jesus choose to become a human and experience thug of war between divinity and humanity.  If Jesus embraced this tension, then who am I to choose of His roles over the other?

He can not only be Lord, my relationship to Him can not only be about what He would have me do, about understanding and implementing His will for my life, about reminding myself and teaching other ‘all that He has commanded’.  But Neither can He be only Christ, it can not only be about how I get off scott free.  It can not only be mercy with no justice.  It can not be grace without transformation, forgiveness without accountability.

This is a tension and even writing this I have watered down what I wanted to say because it seems so heretical to say, ‘it can only be about mercy, grace and forgiveness’.  I know these are issues that Christians have wrestled with for centuries.  We have become divided over our attempts to resolve this tension.  Our understanding of God’s sovereign will and our free choice are actually attempts to understand Jesus as Lord and Christ and to resolve the tension.  But Jesus does not resolve the tension, He embraces it.

Perhaps we have wrongly assumed that tension is bad, that things ought to be black or white.  That it should be either A or B, but tension can be a good thing.   It is tension of the strings what allows for the beauty stringed music.  It is tension that keeps bridges from collapsing.  Tension between lift and gravity allows for flight.  Tension is what keeps atoms together.  The beauty and grace we enjoy as a dancer spins and leaps is created by tension is her muscles.  So it is the the beauty and grace of Jesus in my life will be created only by accepting the tension of Lord and Christ.  After all it was God who ‘made Him both Lord and Christ”.

Perhaps this is the key, perhaps it is only God who can make Jesus both Lord and Christ in my life.  What does it look like to live a morally righteous, scripturally faithful life, that is grace filled and self-sacrificing?  After accepting the Lordship of Jesus in the area of diet and exercise for example, how do I stop myself from believing I am better than the person I was 50 lbs ago?  When I worship on the Lord’s day, how do I do so in the Spirit of Christ?

Prayer – Jesus, my Lord and Christ.  I need your grace and your commands, your love and your doctrine.  I need your peace and your conviction.  I need your mercy and your chastisement. I need your truth and your wink at my ignorance.  I need your transforming power and your accepting forgiveness.  I need your Spirit that comforts and that judges.  Father make Jesus Lord and Christ in my life.  I admit that I crucified Him.   Like Israel of old who rejecting Jesus both as the Messiah and the King of the Jews, I have crucified Him at times for being Lord and at times for being Christ..  Father be with your church was we wrestle with this tension, help us not to deny anything that is true about Jesus in an attempt to make Jesus known to the world.

Amen