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DOGMATICS 2
LESSON 32
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>> Whenever my Bible class members mention the word
humiliation in reference to Christ, they always link it to his
becoming human. In my mind, this seems to demean humanity. Is
that how we are to think about Christ's humiliation? Exactly
what constitutes his states of humiliation and exaltation?
>> DR. DAVID SCAER: Eric, here is another question which may
be reminiscent of your own Confirmation instruction. I think
it's very important that those preparing for Confirmation hear
the technical terms, even though we cannot assume that just
because they used the technical terms they get the full meaning
of it. However, when the terms are in their mind the meaning
can be added on later in life. So it's very valuable.
The states of humiliation and exaltation are referred to
in the Apostles Creed. Maybe your experience is the same as
mine with Confirmation classes. "Children, tell us the states
of Christ's humiliation."
He was conceived of the holy ghost. Born of the Virgin
Mary. Suffered under Pontius Pilate. Was crucified, dead and
buried. He descended into hell. Oh, no. That's not the way.
You're supposed to stop. He was buried."
"Okay. Let's try it again." "Conceived by the Holy
Ghost. Born by the Virgin Mary. Suffered under Pontius Pilate.
Dead and buried." That is the state of humiliation.
The state of exaltation in the Lutheran Church -- and we
may be the only ones to think about this and we're right -begins he descended into hell. He rose again from the dead. On
the third day he ascended into heaven and sat down on the right
hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he will come to
judge the quick and the dead.
I think it's very important that our churches in every
service use the Apostles Creed. The Episcopal church is much
better on this than we are. They have a service of even song in
the evening and mat tins in the morning and they have to say the
Creed. I don't think we can ever say the Creed enough.
I know some of my colleagues who are very much committed
to the Lutheran Confessions, want the people to memorize
everything in the small catechism and to know the Augsburg
Confession and the apology and the small called articles and so
forth. Let's be realistic. They are not going to do it. It's
far into their experience. How many people even know the Lord's
Prayer?
And how many people know the Apostles Creed? And every
time they say the Apostles Creed and this is the way -- you're
looking for material to preach on. Why not have a sermon on the
Apostles Creed just like we're doing now. And then tell them
about the humiliation and the exaltation. Some of them might
have heard it in Confirmation and forgot. Or maybe they never
even understood it and others never heard it at all. So this is
an extremely valuable thing.
Now, when we speak about the humiliation, we want to make
a distinction between humiliation and incarnation. It's very
difficult for us to think of a human being as being holy or in a
neutral state in which he is neither good nor bad. That simile
does not exist. So when we think that Jesus became incarnate,
that he took on our existence, it appears that at that time,
that's almost the same as being humiliated. We do not want to
say that.
Because after his resurrection, in his state of
exaltation, Jesus does not give up his humanity. In fact, he
becomes what humanity used to be in the person of Adam and what
all of humanity would be. Maybe we can add a new dimension to
that in that Adam was not the way that humanity was supposed to
be.
There was another step for Adam to be. Adam was not in a
state of perfection. Adam had not gone through the period of
being tempted and tested to see that he would be loyal to God.
That's what faith is. And he failed. There was another state
much better than paradise.
And when Jesus was entered into a state of exaltation, he
didn't become any less human. He didn't disappear. He didn't
become a Spirit. He -- he said to his disciples when they
thought he was a Spirit, he says, "Come and touch me. Because a
Spirit doesn't have flesh and bones like I have." He maintains
that.
That's one of the most amazing things that Christ in his
exaltation still bears the marks of his crucifixion and
humiliation. There's a continuation between the life that Jesus
had on earth and the life which he has now before God. The
crucifixion may be past tense. But the atonement is never past
tense. The atonement which is presenting himself as a sacrifice
to the Father is an eternal reality under which the entire world
comes.
St. Paul says about Jesus in the moment of his conception
that he had the outward form of God. That one cell had all the
glory of God. And by a free decision, he decided not to use it.
And when Jesus appeared as God, he didn't feel that he was doing
something which was illegal or was uncomfortable.
We should also discuss the transfiguration. The
transfiguration is a very -- is very valuable. Because it tells
us what Jesus would have looked like -- in fact, looked like if
he were not humiliated. That's the way -- he didn't have to
decide to be exalted. That's the way he is.
Because when God comes, he doesn't have to make a
decision to show his glory because God is by definition glory.
It says here he existed in the form of God and he didn't think
that he was doing anything illegal to claim the quality of God.
I always like to use this illustration: That sometimes
some of us pretend to be things or people we are not. So you're
walking through a hotel lobby and you see a nice reception going
on for architects. You figure "Well, the food looks good.
Well, maybe I'll just go in there. And the entire time you're
in there you're afraid that you might be caught. Your speech
portrays you. You could say something and you would be thrown
out.
Jesus had no fear of that at all. He was perfectly
comfortable in being God. And then St. Paul said this: He did
away with the outward form of God and he took the outward form
of a slave. And he was made like us. And he had the appearance
of a man. And that's very significant.
He was not really the way we are. He was like us. He
never was a sinner. He never was in a state of rebellion
against God. It's amazing how carefully Paul speaks about this.
And then Paul goes on to speak about Christ's humiliation. And
that is he became obedient unto death. And it wasn't an
ordinary death because all Christians were to say they know --
everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. That's
the old proverb.
But he faced death. And he didn't face it calmly like
Sacrotes did. It was is something from which he ran away.
Otherwise, what does it mean "Father, remove this cup"? And it
wasn't an ordinary death. It was a gruesome death by
crucifixion.
Then St. Paul goes on to speak about his exaltation.
Because he remediated himself. God highly exalted him. I would
like to say something about the burial of Jesus.
Because I have an idea that is a topic which is not
preached upon very often in Lutheran Churches. Maybe it is.
In the Roman Catholic Church the burial of Jesus is very
prominent, especially in Latin countries. If you go into
Italian churches or the old Spanish churches out on the West
Coast, you will frequently see the corps of Jesus in the altar.
And somebody recently pointed out to me between the
crucifixion in the Lutheran Church and the Catholic church -because in the Lutheran Church Jesus is still alive on the
crucifix while on the Roman church, he is dead, now, that's the
type of division which is probably wrong. Nevertheless, it's
very helpful.
Probably the humiliation of Jesus is that he was buried.
He had to go through all the stages of life that we did. Burial
means hopelessness. It has to be hopelessness. It has to be
human hopelessness.
Because only when there is hopelessness -- is it possible
for God to take all the credit in raising him from the dead and
raising us from the dead.
Of course it was different. You know when they -- the
people who buried Jesus did it as an act of faith.
Now, we know they did not expect him to be raised from the dead.
And I suppose the preaching of Jesus suffers the same kind of
problems that we do. And that is we preach things. Sometimes
we don't believe it ourselves. Sometimes the people don't
believe it.
We know that the followers of Jesus didn't believe it.
Otherwise they wouldn't have shown up at the tomb with the
ointment. And they were going to rewrap the body.
I think this all has to be -- I think this all has to be
preached upon. Because the common human experience of all
people -- and especially out of concern for our own people -- is
that we will bury our church members and we ourselves will be
buried. And in defense of the followers of Jesus who didn't
expect him to be raised, they prepared his body for burial
because they expected in the final day that God would raise him
from the dead. They were not ago Gnostics they were not
Atheists they were not totally unbelievers. What they did was
an act of faith. But they didn't realize that God was going to
do it right away or as Jesus said on the third day.
That's a very important proclamation in the preaching of
Jesus. He never says he's simply going to be raised from dead.
He says specifically he's going to be raised on the third day.
And now we go back to the question that we discussed
before about our Creeds. Are our Creeds something which is -we add to our Bibles. So we believe in Bibles and Creeds. And
Creeds are human.
Let's go back to Paul in I Corinthians. "I deliver to
you of first importance that Christ died according to the
scriptures; that he was buried and that he rose again on the
third day according to the scriptures."
That is a -- that fact that the Creed -- that phrase from
St. Paul in I Corinthians said it happened on the third day
indicates that's a very ancient phrase coming from Jesus
himself. So when we get together on Sundays and for other
services and we recite the Creed, we are going through the same
steps that we ask our children: What are the states of
humiliation and what are the states of exaltation. And I think
we're very fortunate in our Lutheran Church to have Creeds.
Because those churches which do not have Creeds do not have
these things rehearsed for them.
And so people can say, "Well, the people aren't paying
attention" or "The people aren't understanding." "Well, I wonder
how." You know that they don't understand it. And I wonder how
you know that they are not hearing it.
I always like to have -- be sitting around children who
are playing or fooling around or not paying attention. All of a
sudden they chime into the Lord's Prayer. All of a sudden their
mind is wavered. All of a sudden they chime into the Creed.
And this is what -- this is -- our faith is based upon
the life, death and resurrection of Christ. And we can never
repeat these things too often.
ROUGHLY EDITED COPY
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AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
DOGMATICS 2
LESSON
Captioning Provided By:
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800-825-5234
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This text is being provided in a rough draft format.
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order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a
totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
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