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John

12:20-33

 

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

 

Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them,  "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

 

"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.  (ESV)

 

 

 

What He Did

Ambrose of Milan, Pastor and Hymnwriter

7 December 2012

Ambrose of Milan, was a Bishop of the church, a writer, a preacher, and an aggressive evangelist. He was able to take up politically unpopular subjects in his homilies and expositions, facing down the prevailing prejudices of the imperial court and its glittering purveyors of public opinion. On one occasion, he survived a stand off against imperial troops who surrounded his church. He is thought to have fought back by writing a hymn and teaching it to the congregation gathered there with him. They repeatedly sang "O Splendor of God's Glory Bright" (LSB 874) with such gusto that the emperor finally recalled his investing force. What a marvelous weapon of war singing is. Ambrose honed the skill for swimming upstream against ancient political correctness to a high art.

 

He also wrote against the politically well-connected Arians, who denied that Christ was fully and completely God. In the face of constant mockery, Ambrose continued to confess the full divinity of Christ. He pointed out that the Arian position could not be maintained against our desperate need for salvation and that the Arians had read the Bible in a way that was faulty, picking and choosing what they wanted and conveniently ignoring the rest. This is not unlike the modern Arians who doubt the full divinity of Christ and who mock those who believe that Jesus Christ is substantially God from God. They teach that Christianity is rather an ancient salvation myth intended to point the way to our own divinity. What conforms to this view is accepted and honored. What does not is mocked, rejected, or reinterpreted as myth and superstitious nonsense. Often such thinking focuses on the words of Jesus over His acts. If we focus on His words, then there is some chance that we might mistake Him as a philosopher king, who improves human ethics by calling on us to imitate his selfless ethic. Things get a lot messier when we want to know why Jesus does what he does. Why does He die the tragic and bloody death of the slave-criminal? Only when we let the Bible tell us will we know the answer to that pivotal question.

 

Ambrose sought to let the Bible speak for itself in the matter of Christ's humanity as well as His divinity. The Arians paid attention only to those passages that highlighted His full humanity and ignored those that highlighted His full divinity. Ultimately, if Jesus dies only as a man, perhaps even as the best of men, His death has no value for the rest of us, except as an exemplary death. That reduces Jesus to the WWJD slogan of a few years ago, "What Would Jesus Do?" The issue is not to figure out what Jesus would do, but read what Jesus did do for us men and for our salvation. Ambrose hits upon this when he chides the Arians for being interested in the speech of Jesus but not His acts. Christ's doing is the more important, because it is His doing. He is doing for us that we might be saved. Let's read what He did, because He did it in our place.

 

Ambrose of Milan

 

"It is profitable for me to know that for my sake Christ bore my infirmities, submitted to the sufferings of my body, that for me, that is to say, for every man, He was made sin, and a curse (Gal 3:13; 2Co 5:21), that for me and in me was He humbled and made subject, that for me He is the Lamb, the Vine, the Rock (Jn 1:29; Jn 1:36; Jn 15:1; 1Co 10:4), the Servant, the Son of a handmaid (Mk 10:45; Jn 13:4-5; Ps 86:16; Ps 116:14; Lk 1:38), knowing not the day of judgment, for my sake ignorant of the day and the hour (Mt 24:36).

 

"For how could He, who made days and times, be ignorant of the day? How could He not know the day, who declared both the period of the judgment to come, and its cause (Mt 24:22, 29; Ps 96:13; Ps 98:9)? A curse, then, He was made not in respect of His Godhead, but of His flesh; for it is written: 'Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree' (Gal 3:13). In and after the flesh, therefore, He hung, and for this cause He, who bore our curses, became a curse. He wept that you might not weep long. He endured insult, that you might not grieve over the wrong done to you.

 

"A glorious remedy-to have the consolation of Christ! For He bore these things with surpassing patience for our sakes-and we truly cannot bear them with common patience for the glory of His Name! Who would not learn to forgive, when assailed, when he sees that Christ, even on the cross, prayed for those that persecuted Him? Don't you see that those weaknesses of Christ's, as you call them, are your strength (2Co 12:9; 2Co 13:4; 1Pt 2:24; 1Pt 4:13)? Why call into question His remedies for us? His tears wash us. His weeping cleanses us. There is strength in this doubt, at least, that if you begin to doubt, you will despair. The greater the insult, the greater is the gratitude due.

 

"Even in the very hour of mockery and insult, acknowledge His Godhead. He hung upon the cross, and all the elements worshiped Him (Mt 27:51). The sun withdrew his rays, the daylight vanished, darkness came down and covered the land, the earth trembled; yet He who hung there trembled not. What was it that these signs meant, but reverence for the Creator? That He hangs upon the cross-in this He gives the kingdom of God- for this, you Arians have no regard. That He tasted of death you can read, but that He also invited the robber into paradise (Lk 23:43), to this you give no heed. You gaze at the women weeping by the tomb, but not upon the angels keeping watch by it (Jn 20:11-12). You read what He said, but what He did, you do not read." 

 

Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Christian Faith, 2.11.93-96 

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus, through the prophets and the apostles You have been revealed to the world as the God-Man, who becoming incarnate of Mary, bore our sins in Your own person on the tree of the cross. We thank You that You have condescended to bear the signs of humility, that you might bear the sins of the humble. Grant us in our day to fully and faithfully confess Your true divinity and humanity. Amen.

 

For Diane Garner, that she would continue to receive the gift of healing from her heavenly Father

 

For all church musicians and hymnwriters, that God might give voice to His new song through the gifts that He gives to His bride the church

 

For Michelle Kleb, who will be undergoing open-heart surgery on Monday, that the Lord Jesus would grant her healing and a full recovery

Art: DAVID, Gerard  Triptych of Jean Des Trompes (1505)

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