Suffering with Christ

How does one truly, learn, and understand the Gospel of Jesus?
Here is a letter from a Soviet forced labour camp. 

It is only by being a prisoner for religious convictions in a Soviet camp that one can really understand the mystery of the fall of the first man, the mystical meaning of the redemption of all creation, and the great victory of Christ over the forces of evil. It is only when we suffer for the ideals of the Holy Gospel that we can realize our sinful infirmity and our unworthiness in comparison with the great martyrs of the first Christian church. Only then can we grasp the absolute necessity for profound meekness and humility, without which we cannot be saved; only then can we begin to discern the passing image of the seen, and the eternal life of the Unseen.  

 On Easter Day all of us who were imprisoned for religious convictions were united in the one joy of Christ. We were all taken into one feeling, into one spiritual triumph, glorifying the one eternal God. There was no solemn Paschal service with the ringing of church bells, no possibility in our camp to gather for worship, to dress up for the festival, to prepare Easter dishes. On the contrary, there was even more work and more interference than usual. All the prisoners here for religious convictions, whatever their denomination, were surrounded by more spying, by more threats from the secret police.  

 Yet Easter was there: great, holy, spiritual, unforgettable. It was blessed by the presence of the risen God among us – blessed by the silent Siberian stars and by our sorrows. How our hearts beat joyfully in communion with the great Resurrection! Death is conquered, fear is no more, an eternal Easter is given to us! Full of this marvelous Easter, we send you from our prison camp the victorious and joyful tidings: Christ is Risen!

This letter is quoted at the end of chapter 4, ``God as Man" in The Orthodox Way.

Interactions with such Christians while in a camp, led Alexander Solzhenitsyn to embrace faith in Jesus.

Three amazing and unbelievable things about Easter

Today I am giving a talk at our churches' Easter Eggstravaganza, an event for children and families. Here is the talk.

Just because something is hard to believe does not mean that it is not true. My experience as a scientist tells me that. Many scientific discoveries have been unexpected, surprising, and go against what people thought was common sense.
[Aside: for adults interested in science: examples include Schrodinger's cat (quantum entanglement), the Big Bang, Dark matter,...]
I still find some of these things hard to believe.

I will now do a simple science experiment to show this. Putting a skewer through a balloon and putting a flame on a balloon containing a small amount of water.

At Easter Christians celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
Here are three things that many people rightly find hard to believe about Easter.

Could an all powerful God die on a cross?
Can God really forgive sins?
Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Is that possible?

I find these three things amazing.

1. Could an all powerful God die on a cross?

The Bible tells us that Jesus was God's Son. God the Father and Jesus together made the whole universe. They both rule over it. Jesus was powerful. He could heal sick people, know what people were thinking, and walk on water. He taught about what God was really like, because He really knew God as His Father.
Yet if Jesus was so strong and powerful how could he be so weak and powerless that he allowed his enemies to falsely accuse him of wrongdoing and to kill him on a cross, a terribly painful and embarrassing death? Couldn't he stop them? He could not save himself. How could he claim to save others?

2.  Can God really forgive any and every wrong that someone has done?

Jesus told an interesting story about this. In the Bible you can find it in Matthew 19. There was a rich young man who really wanted to go to heaven. He told Jesus all the good things he had done in his life. But, Jesus asked him to do something that was very difficult for him: give away all his money. This was too hard for him. He loved his money more than he loved God. Indeed Jesus has very high standards. He wants us to be perfect. Jesus disciples, his 12 closest friends, wondered if anyone could be saved. It seemed no one could be good enough for Jesus or for God. In response, Jesus said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
Jesus death on the cross makes this possible. His suffering covers all of our failings and wrong doings.
This is fantastic news for us. It does not matter what we have done, God can forgive us, if we want to be forgiven.

3. Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Is that possible?
That is a miracle. Can a scientist like me believe in miracles?

After all, history and experience tell us once people are dead they are dead forever. But just because we have not seen something happen does not mean that it can never happen. Again, God can make the impossible happen.

I then do the following simple science demonstration.
Consider an egg and a small bottle. Who thinks that this egg can fit in this bottle? Before I saw this happen I never thought it was possible.

Just because we think dead people stay dead forever, does not mean that Jesus did not rise from the dead. If God, the ruler of the universe, what it to happen it could. It did.

On Easter Sunday Christians celebrate Jesus' resurrection. Jesus conquered death, came to life and appeared to many eyewitnesses, and now lives forever.

So, tomorrow on Easter Sunday when you are eating all your yummy chocolate eggs think about this egg in the bottle. It doesn’t look too yummy. But it does illustrate that something can be true even if we don’t expect it to be. God is not constrained by the laws of nature us scientists know all about. Jesus really did rise from the dead. He has power over death and sin. What is impossible for man is possible for God. God raised Jesus from death to life. We can be forgiven and we can have the gift of eternal life.

An argument for the resurrection of Jesus

Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Why should we believe it?

Charles Colson was involved in the Watergate scandal and became a Christian at that time. I find the following argument for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead quite compelling.

“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

Barth on the Resurrection of Jesus

The knowledge which the Apostles acquired on the basis of Christ's Resurrection, the conclusion of which is the Ascension of Christ, is essentially this basic knowledge that the reconciliation which took place in Jesus Christ is not some casual story, but that in this work of God's grace we have to do with the word of God's omnipotence, that here an ultimate and supreme thing comes into action, behind which there is no other reality.

Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline, page 117.

Easter sunday sermon

Tomorrow at church I am giving a sermon on 1 Corinthians 15, with the title, "Faith and labour that is not in vain." Here is the current version of my notes and the powerpoint slides.
I welcome comments and suggestions.

The outline is below

Frustration and pain
Gospel and resurrection (v. 1-11)
A futile faith (v. 12-34)
Resurrected bodies are not earthly bodies (v. 35-44)
A new identity (v. 45-49)
A glorious victory (v. 50-57)
Work in the LORD is not in vain (v. 58)
Two applications

In a slightly different twist, I will not exposit verses 52-54 but rather just play a recording of them being sung from the Messiah.

Easter is not spring time

In North America Easter occurs in spring time and so one sometimes hears parallels drawn between the new life of Easter Sunday with the new life occuring in nature (e.g. cute little puppy dogs). But are such parallels helpful and appropriate? [Not just because in Australia it is Autumn!]

I am preparing a sermon for Easter sunday, based on 1 Corinthians 15. I was reading the relevant section of Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline and found the following passage particularly interesting and relevant.

Easter is the breaking in of a new time and world in the existence of the man Jesus, who now begins a new life as the conqueror, as the victorious bearer, as the destroyer of the burden of man’s sin, which had been laid upon him. In this altered existence of His the first community saw not only a supernatural continuation of His previous life, but an entirely new life, that of the exalted Jesus Christ, and simultaneously the beginning of a new world. 

(The efforts to relate Easter to certain renewals, such as occur in creaturely life, say in spring or even in man’s awakening in the morning, and so on, are without any strength. Upon spring there inexorably follows a winter and upon the awakening a falling asleep. We have to do here with a cyclic movement of becoming new and old. But the becoming new at Easter is a becoming new once for all.)

Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline, page 113

5 types of argument for the existence of God II

The group discussion on this topic a week ago was helpful to me. Here are a few additional thoughts.

The moral argument.
People have an innate sense of right and wrong. Where does that come from?
Related to this is that people have a very strong sense of justice. Even atheists who deny an absolute sense of morality cry out about injustices, to them or to others, and demand that justice be done.
Where does this sense of justice come from?
Humans also have a strong desire for forgiveness and redemption. Sometimes this is only on the subconscious level, but it can be a strong force in many lives, featuring in many secular movies.

The argument from religious experience.
God exists because I have experienced him.
An alternative version is that many people have (or claim to have) experienced God in some way. What is the basis for those experiences? Could it be that God actually does exist?

A weakness and oversight of the 5 traditional arguments is that they do not consider and argument, that I actually consider to be the strongest argument for the exsitence of God.
This is the argument from history and the New Testament. It can be argued to contain reliable eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus. But, did he really rise from the dead? Consider how the lives of his disciples were transformed: from confused cowards to bold and courageous preachers who were willing to die for their belief that he did rise. A lie, conspiracy, or delusion is unlikely to produce such passion and perseverance.

Translating the meaning of Easter

I have been listening to my CD of the St. John Passion by J.S. Bach. I find I need to listen to it with the words. Since I could not find the notes that came with the CD I eventually looked online and found that the translation was quite different to the translations found online. Eventually, I did find the full notes from my CD, including the words of the Translation by Peter Pears and Imogen Holst].

I love the Aria [which you can listen to here].

To release me from this prison
of my transgression now my Saviour is bound.
From the scars of guilt's infection,
healing protection
we can find in his wounds.

This seems to me to be a much better translation than an earlier version:

From the bondage of my errors
Me to deliver
Is my Savior fettered.
He from all my body's torments, 
Fully to heal me, 
Lets himself be wounded. 


Soli Deo Gloria

Who will be the Judge?

How do you feel about God's judgement? Are you repulsed or comforted? How is God's judgement inextricably linked with the Resurrection of Jesus?
The sermon at church on Easter Sunday was based on Paul's speech in Athens recounted in Acts 17. Paul proclaims the identity of the "unknown God" who 

has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man [Jesus] whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

Jesus resurrection is a sign of judgement because in it he is setting things right in the world. The innocent Man no longer suffers unjustly but is vindicated. Man is freed from the sting and fear of death.

Popular post-modern culture may explicitly claim to dislike judgement. Being "judgemental" is the worst "sin" in a world that claims sin is just a social construct. But I contend that Western society today is actually schizophrenic in its attitude to judgement. Most newspapers articles and commentary implicitly cries out for "justice" and "condemns" the actions of others; whether corrupt politicians, ruthless businessmen, schoolyard bullies, vain pop stars, drunk football players, mindless bureaucrats, ....

On the other hand, our problem and dislike of judgement is that we just don't want it to apply to ourselves, those we love, or those we deem "innocent"! We want to be the judge and arbiter of who is judged and by what criteria!

Karl Barth expressed a balanced view of God's judgement [discussed in an earlier post] which critiqued our empathy with classical  "painters [who] imagined to some extent with delight how these damned folk sink in the pool of hell".

The Resurrection of Christ, Rubens (1611)

The miracle of Good Friday

Since it is Good Friday I re-read the chapter, "Was crucified, Dead, and Buried, He descended into Hell," from Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline [an exposition of the Apostle's Creed] which I have often posted about. One thing I came to a new appreciation is that God, not just Jesus, suffered on the Cross. Here are a few other highlights:

what first gives its significance to the humiliation and abandonment of this man is the fact that this man is God's Son, and it is none other than God himself who humbles and surrenders Himself in Him.

when we hold together [the humiliation and exaltation of Christ], then the picture before us is that of an inconceivable exchange, of a katalage, that is a substitution. Man's reconciliation with God takes place through God's putting himself in man's place and man's being put in God's place, as a sheer act of grace. It is this inconceivable miracle which is our reconciliation....

Do not confuse my theory of the reconciliation with the thing itself. All theories of reconciliation can be but pointers. But do also pay attention to this `for us': nothing must be deducted from it! Whatever a doctrine of reconciliation tries to express, it must say this....

....in view of Christ's Cross we are invited on the one hand to realise the magnitude and weight of our sin in what our forgiveness cost. In the strict senses there is no knowledge of sin except in the light of Christ's Cross. For he alone understands what sin is, who knows that his sin is forgiven him. And on the other hand we may realise that the price is paid on our behalf, so that we are acquitted of sin and its consequences.

The painting below is from the Isenheim Alterpiece by Gruenwald. A copy hung in Karl Barth's office for much his career.

The Cross of Jesus is a scandal

An innocent man suffered the horrendous death of a criminal.

A powerful King is humiliated by a brutal foreign ruler rather than delivering his people from their unjust suffering.

Guilty people who believe the innocent man died in their place escape punishment for their wrongdoing. They don't get what they deserved.

The Raising of the Cross by Rembrandt (1633).
n.b. He painted himself into the scene!

Evaluating the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus

At the conference on the Church and the Academy last night, Neil Foster from the University of Newcastle School of Law gave a fascinating lecture, A Lawyer looks at the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

In the context of Australian law, particularly what evidence is admissible in court, he argued that if it came down to a court case, a judge would rule that Jesus rose from the dead.

Our humiliation of God

To mark Easter, last night my family watched The Passion of Christ movie produced by Mel Gibson. This is the second time I have seen it. Both times I have been reluctant to watch it, probably because of its graphic depiction of the violence. Yet both times I have been glad I have watched it. Both times, I must thank my wife for her eagerness to watch it.

A few things I appreciate about the movie are the depictions of:

• the spiritual battle of Jesus, both in the Garden and as he goes to the cross
• the inner torment of Judas
• Mary's grief as she watches her son tortured
• the anger and self-righteous confidence of the religious leaders
• the brutality of the Roman rule of Judea
• Pilate's inner struggle to act justly, to maintain stability, and listen to his wife
• the complete humiliation of Jesus (and God)
• the mocking of Jesus by the crowds

The movie confronts the viewer to ask: which character in the drama am I?

There is no Good Friday without Easter!

Since it is Good Friday I read the chapter, "Was crucified, Dead, and Buried, He descended into Hell," from Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline [an exposition of the Apostle's Creed]. His summary is

In the death of Jesus Christ God has humiliated Himself and rendered Himself up, in order to accomplish His law upon sinful man by taking his place and thus once for all removing from him to Himself the curse that affects him, the punishment he deserves, the past he is hurrying to meet, the abandonment into which he has fallen.

Barth stresses the importance of not separating Good Friday and Easter, described as theologia crucis and theologia gloria. There is a tendency to gravitate more towards one than the other.

But we ought not to erect and fix any opposition. ... there is no Easter without Good Friday, but equally certainly there is no Good Friday without Easter!

New eyewitness accounts to Jesus life

Yesterday I heard a great kids talk for Easter which made use of one of these amusing and engaging short videos, R U Smarter than a Fly?, where "three flies and a maggot are eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus."

Jesus vs. the Easter bunny

I saw this item on Brisbane's newspaper website.
I hope you believe this really is the first time I have read that blog!

Barth on Easter Sunday

Just after World War II, Karl Barth gave a series of lectures in the semi-ruins of a castle in Bonn, in which the University was being re-established. Each lecture gives a detailed exposition of a phrase from the Apostles Creed. This was later published as Dogmatics in Outline.
Today I re-read chapter 19, ``The third day he rose again from the dead,''. An extract:

the Easter message ... is a proclamation of a victory already won. The war is at an end - even though here and there are troops still shooting, because they have not heard anything yet of the capitulation.... The Easter message tells us that our enemies, sin, the curse and death, are beaten. Ultimately they can no longer start mischief. They still behave as though .... the battle were not fought, we must still reckon with them, but fundamentally we must cease to fear them anymore. If you have heard the Easter message you can no longer run around with a tragic face and lead the humourless existence of a man who has no hope... only this one thing is really serious, that Jesus is the victor.

K. Barth, Dogmatics in Outline, (SCM, 2001 Edition), p.114

An Easter egg? Can we believe the "impossible"?

I was recently asked to give a short talk to a ecumenical Easter service for a group of children at a local primary school (grades 1-7). Here is my talk:

Just because something is hard to believe does not mean it isn't true. My experience as a scientist tells me that. Many scientific discoveries have been unexpected, surprising, and going against what people thought was common sense.

At Easter Christians celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus. But did Jesus really rise from the dead? Is that possible?
After all, history and experience tell us once people are dead they are dead forever. But just because we have not seen something happen does not mean that it can never happen. Jesus said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

I then did the following simple science demonstration.
Consider an egg and a small bottle. Who thinks that this egg can fit in this bottle? Before I saw this happen I never thought it was possible.

What does this have to do with Easter? Next Friday we have a holiday to celebrate Good Friday. Even though Jesus died we call it Good because Jesus died on our behalf. He died so we could be forgiven for all our sins (for all the many ways we have ignored and disobeyed God). He died so we could have the offer of the free gift of eternal life. But he didn’t just die. On Easter Sunday we celebrate his resurrection. Jesus conquered death, came to life and appeared to many eyewitnesses, and now lives forever.

So on Easter Sunday when you are eating all your yummy chocolate eggs think about this egg. It doesn’t look too yummy. But it does illustrate that something can be true even if we don’t expect it to be. God is not constrained by the laws of nature we know about. Jesus really did rise from the dead. He has power over death and sin. What is impossible for man is possible for God. God raised Jesus from death to life. We can be forgiven and we can have the gift of eternal life.