Paying Taxes to Caesar (the Gospel of Matthew)



Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's...

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? (Matthew 22:15-17).

So, the Pharisees and Herodians are hoping to catch Jesus in a misstatement. They were already afraid of the reaction of the crowds if they should overtly come out against Jesus and imprison or murder him[1]. They figured that the only way to seize him would be for him to incriminate himself. Their question seems to be designed to put Jesus between a rock and a hard place. If he answers that they shouldn't pay taxes to Rome, he is a subversive to the Roman governor and subject to his punishment. If he advocates paying taxes, then the Pharisees can say that he is a traitor to his people and the people would then call for his head.

This is ironic as well, since the Herodians were dispised by the Pharisees for exactly the same thing for which they were hoping to frame Jesus – collaborating with the hated Romans. The Herodians were a priestly party under the reign of King Herod and his successors (Kohler). They were made up of members of Herod the Great’s family, and supported the Herodian rulers in their policies, as well as in the social customs which they introduced from Rome (Biblos). They encouraged the idea of a national kingdom under the rule of the Herodian dynasty (Biblos). They seem to have been more politically focused than the Pharisees, with whom they were frequently at odds, but they, along with the Sadducees, agreed that the Jews should submit to Roman rule, administrated through the throne of Herod (Kretzmann, 1921). Descendants of Herod ruled the region of Israel on behalf of the Romans for 163 years from 63 BC – 100 AD (Engelbrecht, 2009).

They set up their question with a bit of flattery, telling Jesus that, “…we know you are true and teach the way of God truthfully…” No one reading this account would believe for a minute that the person making that statement actually believes what he is saying. If he did, why did he not simply accept what Jesus was teaching, since he was teaching the way of God truthfully, rather than questioning him? Without any doubt the questioner intends this obsequiousness to cause Jesus to put down his guard, as if he were speaking with one of his own disciples. The funny thing is, earlier in Jesus’ ministry, one of the men of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus, came to Jesus by night and uttered almost this exact statement in sincerity:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:1-2).

These men, who knew what God’s word said to look for, saw what Jesus did, and they knew what it meant. They saw him heal the sick, restore the sight of the blind, make the lame to walk, and they understood that these were signs that pointed to the coming Messiah[2]. Because, however, their understanding of the Messiah had shifted from the spiritual realm to the temporal, they rejected him when he arrived. Rather than embrace his coming the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians were more concerned with holding on to their political power and religious authority[3]. They had made a life and a career of earning their righteousness by their scrupulous keeping of their perversion of God’s law[4]. They would not sit still as someone, least of all an obscure carpenter from Nazareth, upset their apple cart with the proposition that righteousness comes through faith in the Christ[5]. Jesus, being the omnipotent Son of God, saw through their duplicity. Rather than assent to the faulty premise of their contrived question, Jesus uses the opportunity to illustrate the true relationship between temporal and spiritual things.

But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away (Matthew 22:18-22).

Nearly everyone has heard of Jesus' answer recorded in this passage, "Therefore render to Ceaser the things that are Ceaser's, and to God the things that are God's." What Jesus is telling us here is that, while our first allegiance is to God and his kingdom, he has instituted civil authority and we are bound to obey all legitimate civil authority[6]. Kretzmann has this to say on the subject:

God’s people should above all give to God due honor and obedience. In those things which concern the Word of God, worship itself, faith, and conscience, we are obedient to God only and pay no attention to objections made by men. But in mere temporal, earthly things, which concern money, possessions, body, life, we obey the government of the country in which we live…But what if they should want to take the Gospel from us, or prohibit its preaching? Then thou shalt say: The Gospel and the Word of God I will not give you, neither have ye any power concerning that; for your government is a temporal government over earthly goods, but the Gospel is a spiritual, heavenly possession; therefore your power does not extend over the Gospel and the Word of God (Kretzmann, 1921).

Indeed, Jesus says that things temporal have no jurisdiction over the Word, and the spiritual things the Word governs[7]. St. Paul echoes Jesus’ teaching on this proper separation of church and state when he writes:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek...For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (Romans 1:16-17; 1 Corinthians 1:18).

The King James Version conveys the message of this passage more clearly when it says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness…” The Gospel preaches righteousness and gives the spirit, and is completely foreign to those who do not believe. Without God’s intervention “them that perish” cannot, by their own reason or strength understand or believe the Gospel[8]. Jesus tells the Pharisees, and us, to keep our priorities straight. Do not raise man made rules, or governments and rulers – anything temporal – to a spiritual position where they usurp the place that rightfully belongs to God by his very nature; Do not bring God’s word, his Law and Gospel, down to the level of mere temporal regulations and traditions that are designed to elevate man to a false position of prominence and prestige, a hypocritical piety which one attains by how diligently he keeps his man-made law[9]. Jesus identifies the Pharisees as having done this very thing when he points out their spiritual blindness and hypocrisy:

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life…Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (John 5:39-40; Mark 7:6-7).

May we be careful to always render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and render unto God what is God’s.

Works Cited

Biblos. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2011, from Easton's Bible Dictionary: Herodians: http://eastonsbibledictionary.com/herodians.htm

Engelbrecht, E. A. (Ed.). (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. St. Louis, MO, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

Kohler, K. (n.d.). Herodians. Retrieved October 18, 2011, from JewishEncyclopedia.com: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=637&letter=HKretzmann

Kretzmann, P. E. (1921). Popular Commentary of the Bible (Vol. I). St. Louis, MO, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

End Notes

[1] Matthew 21:45-46
[2] Luke 7:22; Luke 4:16-21
[3] John 11:48-53; 18:13-14
[4] Matthew 23:1-36
[5] Acts 16:29-31; Ephesians 2:5-9; 2 Timothy 1:8-10
[6] Romans 13:1-8
[7] Matthew 16:18-19
[8] Romans 8:7
[9] Mark 7:1-23

Come, Follow Me

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him,”We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:44-45).

This passage was always difficult for me to understand because of the phrase, “…whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote.” For John to say that Moses and the prophets wrote about Jesus indicates that the Jewish rabbis had a developed and systematic theology regarding “The One” -- the Messiah. We are all familiar with the messianic prophecies (see bottom). We read them every Christmas season. The thing that has always perplexed me about the messianic prophecies, however, was how they came to be messianic. Today, Christians and Jews argue about which passages in the Old Testament are messianic, and what sort of Messiah the Old Testament faithful were looking for. It is one thing for Christians to point to passages in the Old Testament which seemed to fall in line with the life of Jesus, so that we could make him into the Jewish Messiah. This is what the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law accused the early Christians of doing. While it has been nearly impossible for me to find any record of what Old Testament rabbis from the time of the prophets taught about Messiah, the paragraph below is a brief outline of what Jews today teach about the Messiah. The modern Jewish view of Messiah falls much more in line with that of the Pharisees:

“The mashiach will be a great political leader descended from King David (Jeremiah 23:5). The mashiach is often referred to as "mashiach ben David" (mashiach, son of David). He will be well-versed in Jewish law, and observant of its commandments (Isaiah 11:2-5). He will be a charismatic leader, inspiring others to follow his example. He will be a great military leader, who will win battles for Israel. He will be a great judge, who makes righteous decisions (Jeremiah 33:15). But above all, he will be a human being, not a god, demi-god or other supernatural being. It has been said that in every generation, a person is born with the potential to be the mashiach. If the time is right for the messianic age within that person's lifetime, then that person will be the mashiach. But if that person dies before he completes the mission of the mashiach, then that person is not the mashiach (Judaism 101).”

As we continue in our study of the Gospel of John, we will learn more about the character of the Messiah as presented by Scripture. Jesus will explain, as he does in this passage to the Pharisees, that their preconceived, worldly ideas of what the Messiah would be are incorrect: "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life... do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" (John 5:39-40, 45-47).

These first disciples, faithful Jews and followers of John the Baptist, recognize Jesus as the one who was to come. In order for them to recognize Jesus, the followers of John the Baptist had to be looking for something specific -- someone specific -- based on an earlier interpretation of Scripture. What things were the faithful rabbis teaching their students to be on the lookout for?

Luke 4:16-21: In this passage, Jesus reads the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 61:1-2). The passage Jesus reads has traditionally been recognized by Jews and Christians to be messianic and talks about the Messiah ("The Servant" in Isaiah) being, "anointed...to proclaim good news to the poor." Following the reading of the scroll of Isaiah, Jesus gives a wonderfully brief sermon saying, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus is telling those to whom he is speaking in the synagogue that, not only is he The Servant/The Messiah of whom Isaiah wrote, but he is also assuming the title of Anointed One. The phrase "Anointed One" is also used to refer to God. Isaiah also writes that God (Yahweh) himself will come, mighty to save Israel (7:10-14; 24:21-23; 25; 35). So, in a concise way, Jesus is telling everyone who he is -- Immanuel, God with us.

Deuteronomy 18: 15-18: Israel would have succession of prophets who resembled Moses, in that, they transmitted God's messages to the people of Israel. Moses does, however, have a special relationship with God, one that no other prophet enjoyed (Deut. 34:10). He is telling Israel about The Servant, whom Isaiah will later describe. Moses knew the Lord, "face-to-face". As John has told us in the beginning of chapter 1, Jesus, the Word, was with God in the beginning. The Apostles cite this passage from Deuteronomy and apply it to Jesus (Acts. 3:22-23; 7:37), showing us that it was considered messianic in Jesus time.

“In his writings Moses transmitted the promises to the patriarchs; he gave Israel the law, which with all its symbols and types point so directly to Christ; and in passages like Deuteronomy 18:15-18 renewed the divine promise concerning the great mediator prophet to come. The entire history of Israel contained in the Pentateuch is senseless and purposeless without the Messiah, so that all that Moses wrote in the law actually refers to Christ. The Prophets were the expounders of the law whose special duty was not only to drive home the requirements and the threats of the law in the hearts of the people but also to hold out to them the glorious and comforting hope of the deliverer to come, of whom they at times spoke directly as in Isaiah 53. The Baptist continued this work in the most effective way, and we here have men trained in the Baptist’s school who naturally reveal their training. Philip spoke truly when he said that the picture of the Messiah was found in Moses and in the prophets. It has always been there, though, the nation of the Jews eventually refuse to "find” and to see it, and modernism denies that Moses "wrote" his five books and treats the Prophets and the writings with the same destructive criticism,” (Lenski, 163-164).

Prophecies of the Messiah filled in Jesus Christ - Is there some comprehensive list of Messianic Prophecies from the rabbis of Old Testament times? The following list was taken from the back of a King James Bible. Along with the prophecies, their fulfillments were also listed. For the sake of brevity, I have included only the prophecy. It is obvious that modern Jews do not recognize these prophecies as referring to the Messiah; in a few instances where they do recognize these passages as messianic, we are told either that the passages are being misinterpreted, or Jesus did not fulfill them:

• Seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15).
• Seed of Abraham (Genesis 12:3).
• Seed of Isaac (Genesis 17:19).
• Seed of Jacob (Numbers 24:17).
• From the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10).
• Heir to the throne of David (Isaiah 9:7).
• Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
• Time for his birth (Daniel 9:25).
• To be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14).
• Slaughter of the innocents (Jeremiah 31:15).
• Flight to Egypt (Hosea 11:1).
• Preceded by a forerunner (Malachi 3:1).
• Declared the son of God (Psalm 2:7).
• Galilean ministry (Isaiah 9:1).
• A prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15).
• To heal the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1).
• Rejected by his own people, the Jews (Isaiah 53:3).
• Priest after order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:4).
• Triumphal entry (Zechariah 9:9).
• Betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9).
• Sold for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12).
• Accused by false witnesses (Psalm 35:11).
• Silent to accusations (Isaiah 53:7).
• Spat upon and smitten (Isaiah 50:6).
• Hated without reason (Psalm 35:19).
• Vicarious sacrifice (Isaiah 53:5).
• Crucified with malefactors (Isaiah 53:12).
• Pierced through hands and feet (Zechariah 12:10).
• Scorned and mocked (Psalm 22:7).
• Given vinegar and gall (Psalm 69:21).
• Prayer for his enemies (Psalm 109:4).
• Soldiers gamble for his coat (Psalm 22:17).
• No broken bones (Psalm 34:20).
• His side pierced (Zechariah 12:10).
• Buried with the rich (Isaiah 53:9).
• To be resurrected (Psalm 16:10; 49:15).
• His ascension to God's right hand (Psalm 68:18).

Nathaniel said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see," (John 1:46).

It sure sounds like Nathaniel doesn't have much regard for the town of Nazareth. I would be willing to bet that Nathaniel is a little pessimistic as well. It seems to me as though he saying, "Surely, if you have found the Messiah, for whom we have all been waiting for thousands of years, he wouldn't come from a crap hole like Nazareth." I mean, how bad was Nazareth? It must have been like the Gary, Indiana, of Judea.

Philip, however, is undeterred. His reply was a simple and direct, "Come and see." This was the best answer that Philip could have given Nathaniel. No amount of explaining was going to convey to Nathaniel what Jesus was like. Nathaniel already had preconceived notions of what sort of things came from a place like Nazareth. He had to bring him to Jesus so that he could see for himself that he was the long expected Messiah, in the same way Philip had seen. I imagine Nathaniel, getting up from his resting place under the tree with a grumpy sigh, grudgingly following Philip to meet this person from this place for which he harbors such disdain. But Philip has learned, as Nathaniel will learn, that this is the best way to get to know Jesus -- to come to him. We are coming to him now by studying his word; we do it on Sunday mornings, when we approach the altar and partake of the Lord's Supper.

What also is illustrated for us in this scene played out between Nathaniel and Philip is a picture of our own personal evangelistic work. "Come and see" is an invitation. And, while Philip is the one speaking to Nathaniel, the invitation is given from Jesus himself. Jesus uses us, as he used Philip in this case, to call others to him. How can we begin to get excited about calling others to Jesus, if we don't have a good idea who he is? Philip started to get to know Jesus, and became excited about what he had found. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we too will be excited and invigorated by what we discover as we get to know Jesus through his word. As this happens more and more, we need to tell the Nathaniel's in our lives, persistently, "Come and see!" God's Holy Spirit will take care of the rest.

The Wedding Feast

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests (Matthew 22:1-10).

Why did Jesus speak to them in parables and who is the “them” Matthew is writing about? Jesus addressed his parables to the Pharisees in particular[1], but also to the crowds of people who were not his disciples in general. The disciples are the ones to whom Jesus referred when he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given…but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” The disciples have the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven and they will “have in abundance” as a result of Jesus’ teaching them. Those who oppose Jesus and reject him will lose even the knowledge they have.

Parables are generally defined as a complete, imaginary story designed to illustrate a spiritual truth (Engelbrecht, 2009). For the unbeliever – the “one who has not” – the parable also functions as an instrument of judgment. Because unbelievers reject the Gospel, their eyes cannot see, nor can their ears hear, the truth that the parable illustrates[2]. We are called to faith by the Holy Spirit working through God’s word. We cannot come to Jesus by our own efforts, reason, or strength. This is why Jesus says we must have faith like a little child[3].We receive God’s gracious forgiveness and salvation through our simple, child-like trust in Jesus words, brought to us by the Holy Spirit. These spiritual issues are not things that we can reason out, weigh as evidence in a courtroom trial, and decided to believe in after we have processed it logically.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:38-40).

Indeed, this is what the Pharisees were attempting to do – or at least pretending to do – when they asked Jesus for a sign and why Jesus speaks to them in parables[4]. In this particular instance, Jesus tells them that there will be no magic trick to convince them, and directs them to Holy Scripture for the sign they seek. This sign Jesus points the Pharisees to is the sign of Jonah, the sign of his impending death and resurrection[5].

This idea that faith depends on the working of the Holy Spirit through the means of God’s Word and not on a person’s reason is also illustrated to us in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus[6]. The wicked rich man who had died and gone to hell begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers as a warning sign that they should turn from their wickedness and avoid the eternal torment that surely awaits them. What is Abraham’s answer? “They [the five brothers] have Moses and the Prophets [God’s Word]; let them hear them.” Jesus goes on to explain that, if a person will not listen to the voice of God calling him through Holy Scripture, he will not be convinced of God’s message even is someone should rise from the dead. His heart has been hardened.

What does Jesus mean by the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven? The Kingdom of Heaven, at other times called the Kingdom of God, is God’s ruling as king over the whole universe, the church on earth and the church and angles in heaven (Luther, 1986). Jesus makes clear that this concept is not a physical, earthly kingdom, like a country or empire; it is a spiritual kingdom[7]. Jesus makes the spiritual nature of his kingdom the most evident in his dialogue with Pontius Pilate[8]. The Jews and Romans viewed Jesus the same way they viewed the Zealots, as a political threat. Jesus makes it very clear that he was not leading a revolution, at least in the conventional sense. Jesus came to conquer sin, death, and the devil for mankind by dying as a sacrifice on the cross. By his death and resurrection he established his kingdom of grace, and rules over it from his place in heaven at God the Father’s right hand. When he returns, it will be to judge the world[9].

"But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:11-14)

Why did the king in Jesus’ wedding feast parable treat the man without a wedding garment so harshly? The man was one of the people whom the king's servants went out into the streets to bring to the wedding. He was invited to the feast by the grace of the king, and not by virtue of his relationship with the king, or anything else that could be attributed to him. In the ancient Middle East it was customary for the host of a banquet such as the wedding feast described in the parable, to provide his guests with clothing appropriate for the celebration to which they had been invited. For this man to to be at the banquet but not properly attired would mean that he would have had to refuse to wear the clothing provided him by the king for some reason (Engelbrecht, 2009).

God is the king in the parable. The wedding feast is the Kingdom of Heaven, or the spiritual kingdom of God's grace, secured and won for mankind by the blood of Jesus. The first group of people called to the feast represents the Jews, particularly the Scribes, Pharisees, and the Teachers of the Law - the Jewish political/religious establishment of the time. Their rejection of the invitation to the feast is a rejection of God's call to repentance and the gracious gift of forgiveness he freely gives. The servants mistreated and killed represent the prophets. The people gathered in off the street represent the inclusion of Gentiles in God's kingdom. The man who refused to wear the garment provided for him by God is one of those called who miss out on the blessings of God's Kingdom because they do not respond to the invitation properly - in child-like faith.

Perhaps the man in the parable thought that his clothes were good enough to attend the banquet when in reality, compared to the garments of God's righteousness tailored for is by Christ on Calvary's cross, they are tattered rags. Though the man did nothing to deserve an invitation to the banquet or festival garments, the king provided for him in abundance. In the same way, though we in no way deserve mercy, the Lord invites mankind to join him at his heavenly banquet through the message of the Gospel. How will we respond to his invitation? Will we faithfully accept the garments provided us without question or condition, or will we reject the message and try to come to the party on our own terms, wearing our own filthy rags? If we do, we will end up like the man in the parable – cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Works Cited

---

[1] Matthew 13:10

[2] Matthew 13:13; Isaiah 6:9-10

[3] Mark 10:15

[4] Matthew 12:39

[5] Matthew 12:39-40

[6] Luke 16:19-31

[7] Mark 1:15; Romans 14:17

[8] John 18:36

[9] Matthew 25:31-32

Engelbrecht, E. A. (Ed.). (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

Luther, D. M. (1986). Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

Theos En Ho Logos



The Risen Christ



In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1: 1-5).



I studied this passage a lot when I was in confirmation class because Jehovah’s Witnesses used to come over to my grandfather’s house. They would come by nearly every week and we would debate doctrine and the Bible – way before I had any real understanding of either. The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is “the first and greatest of all of Jehovah God’s creations,” but he is not God. This introductory passage of John’s Gospel puts the lie to that statement.

Theos en ho logos – God was the Word. There is no way around the meaning of that Greek sentence. It means that the Word – whom John identifies as Jesus (v. 17) – was God. Not “a god” as the Watchtower translators wrongly interpret the passage in their New World Translation (an impossible rendering of the passage, according to renowned Greek scholar Dr. Julius Mantey). Jesus is not God’s first and greatest creation (v.2). He is God, the Son, second person of the Trinity, in whom “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). He is Immanuel, God with us.

Logos – Logos is the Greek word for “Word”. It is also the root of our modern English word “logic”. Greek philosophers, such as Plato, used the term not only to mean the spoken word but also the unspoken word still in the mind - the human power of reason. When they applied that term to larger concepts, like the Universe, “Logos” meant the rational principle governing all things. Not really God as we, or the Jews at that time, understand Him, but more like a logical set of rules that govern the how the universe, and all in it, works. Today, we might compare this Greek philosophical idea of “Logos” to the laws of physics. The Jewish teachers, on the other hand, with whom we will become better acquainted as we make our way through John’s Gospel, used the term “Logos” to refer to God. This is significant, because by its use in Scripture (this is the term used for “word” in the Septuagint) it implies that God is actively involved in the world, rather than having simply created the universe, wound it up like a big clock and let it run on its own without his involvement. John is basically saying to his readers in the first chapter of his gospel that everything the rabbis taught about the word, which God had given them in the Old Testament, was fulfilled in Jesus. To the educated Greeks – and to us “rational” Gentiles today – John is saying that Jesus is God Almighty; the rational governing force behind all things in the universe, upholding everything by his mighty word.

The phrase “word of the Lord” is used over 100 times in the Old Testament, mostly in the books of the prophets. The word is the means by which God communicates with us. John applies this title to Jesus and, by so doing, John is telling us that God’s will and words are personified in Jesus. The implication of that is that Jesus reveals the truth of God to us.

“…we cannot know God without Christ, the Word…If you want to see God, look to Jesus. If you want to come close to God, come close to Jesus. If you want to live according to God’s will, live with Jesus,” (People’s Bible Commentary – John, p. 8).

In his study, "The Gospels from a Jewish Perspective," evangelist Bob Warren describes how Jewish theologians had developed a theology concerning “Logos.” In his study Warren lists some key elements of this theology. First, the Word was a person possessing a mind, emotions, and will. The Word could be sent to accomplish a mission (PS. 147:15; Is. 9:8; 45:23; 55:10-11). The Word brought about salvation (Hosea 1:7). The Word was the agent of revelation (Gen. 15:1; Ezra 1:3). The Word was the agent of creation (Ps. 33:4-6). The Word was the avenue through which God sealed covenants (Gen. 15:1). The Word was the agent of the Old Testament theophanies - appearances of the Christ (Gen. 18). The Word was the same as God, and at other times distinct from God.

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (John 1:18).

The phrase translated “the only God” in this verse comes from the Greek word “monogenes”. This, in the NIV and KJV is rendered as the more familiar “only-begotten”. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him,” (John 1:18, KJV). We say that phrase every week in the creeds, but I never thought about what it was actually declaring until I began interacting with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

To say that you were “begotten” is much different than to say that you were “created”. It is one of those wonderfully old-fashioned words which has a precise meaning, but has fallen out of regular use among the common folk. As a result, that precise meaning has become somewhat fuzzy to us. C. S. Lewis explains this in his work Mere Christianity:

We don't use the words begetting or begotten much in modern English, but everyone still knows what they mean. To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set-or he may make something more like himself than a wireless set: say, a statue. If he is a clever enough carver he may make a statue which is very like a man indeed. But, of course, it is not a real man; it only looks like one. It cannot breathe or think. It is not alive. Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not Sons of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not things of the same kind. They are more like statues or pictures of God. (Mere Christianity – Lewis, Chapter 23 “Making and Begetting”).

To paraphrase Lewis, to create something is to do what a sculptor does with hammer, chisel, and stone. He carves out a thing that looks like a man, but is not. It is created out of a different material, and has an altogether different existence. This is what God the Father, through “the Word” (v.3), did with us. We are created beings, as different in nature from God as the marble sculpture is in nature from the artist who created it.

To beget, however, is to call something into existence; to father something; to produce something. Remember all those “begets” in the beginning pages of the Bible? That’s what they were doing. You are of the same substance as your father; you were not created as a sculptor makes a stature out of stone. You were produced “through the will of man” (your parents) “through the will of the flesh” (sexual intercourse). So, for John to call Jesus “the only-begotten”, is a profound thing. To be clear, I don’t’ believe John is saying that the Son was produced as a result of sexual intercourse, but that the Son was produced of the same substance as the Father – both divine, almighty God. The Son is begotten of the Father – the only being who so exists. He was also, by virtue of the fact that He is deity, “with God in the beginning.” The point is that He was not a created being like we human beings. Jesus, as John tells us in v. 14, assumed the human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There, in the virgin’s womb, the divine and human natures were inseparably joined in one person, Jesus, the God-man (AC III 1-2).

St. Paul expands on this in his letter to the Philippians:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2: 5-10).

What does this all mean to us?

John introduces us to Jesus, the God-man, in the first sentences of his Gospel, and in doing so, shows us a shadow of the triune nature of God. In a handful of sentences, John tells Jew and Gentile, in the beginning of his gospel, the Word came, but many, especially the Jews, rejected Him because they did not recognize Him. Jesus says of the Pharisees “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). Not only did Jesus fulfill the Old Testament messianic prophecies, which we will see as we study the Gospel of John, but he was also doing the things the Pharisees expected the Messiah to do when he came, yet they rejected Him.

Who do we say that Jesus is? Jesus asked this question of Peter and he rightly answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). It was on the rock of Peter’s confession that Jesus built His Church. Peter, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, could see what the Pharisees had hardened their hearts against, even though he didn’t have a full understanding of all the implications. Jesus was not a political “savior,” come to restore Israel, as the elite Jewish Pharisees and Teachers of the Law expected. He was not simply a virtuous man or good teacher. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ – the Son of God – who fulfilled all the prophecies of scripture and, by His death and resurrection, atoned for the sin of mankind and purchased us from death and the devil by his blood on the cross.

100th Anniversary Weekend at Immanuel

We had a wonderful time celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hodgkins, Illinois this weekend. Rev. Dr. Wallace Schulz of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation preached at the Centennial Jubilee Vespers Service on Sunday, October 2, 2011. Dr. Schulz's stirring sermon reminded those in attendance that all of mankind is infected with the deadly disease of Sin, and that the only treatment for this illness is where God’s people are gathered around Word and Sacrament. This is a message all people are in desperate need of hearing, and Dr. Schulz delivered it with power and authority. We praise the Lord that he was able to be with us to share the Gospel on this special occasion.

Following the Jubilee service there was a banquet at Park Place of Countryside. The food was good and the band, Upscale, was fantastic. The church also raffled off a television set, an Amazon Kindle, digital camera, an iPod nano, as well as gift certificates from Salerno Pincente Ristorante and Buck’s Pit Stop.



Pastor Adam Dietrich near the organ before the service.





Ken Howes at the organ.



Caitlyn at a different organ.



Acolyte lighting the candles at the beginning of the service.



Pastor Dietrich and Rev. Dr. Schulz chat before the procession.

Matt Struve rings the bell.

Rev. Dr. Schulz preaches Law and Gospel.

At the banquet.

Thoughts of organizing a congregation at Hodgkins, Illinois, were entertained as far back as the 1880s. At that time there were several Lutheran families living in what would later be the village of Hodgkins who were members of the Lutheran churches of LaGrange and Willow Springs, Illinois. A local merchant named John Witsan organized a Sunday school in Hodgkins about this same time. The development of the Sunday school amplified, for the Lutheran families, the inconvenience of sending their children to the Lutheran day schools and Sunday schools in LaGrange and Willow Springs, and thoughts of a stand-alone congregation in Hodgkins began to materialize. Two representatives from the Lutheran churches in LaGrange and Willow Springs, Reinhardt Leu and Henry Bloedorn, approached Rev. Alex Ullrich of LaGrange with the proposition of establishing a Lutheran congregation in Hodgkins.

A conference was held after this meeting with Rev. Herman Meyer of Willow Springs. Rev. Meyer was strongly in favor of the movement and immediately set about to conduct the first Lutheran worship services in Hodgkins, in the old Village Hall in the spring of 1911. On Sunday, April 23, 1911, twenty-six men gathered together in the same hall, along with Rev. Ullrich and Rev. Meyer, and formally organized Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hodgkins, Illinois. The newly formed congregation adopted a constitution and called Rev. Meyer as it's pastor. Rev. Ullrich was called as the assistant pastor.

Services, Sunday school, and Bible studies, continued to be held at the Hodgkins Village Hall. In later years it was also used for a Saturday Bible school conducted by Rev. Ullrich. An opportunity arose for the congregation in 1911 to purchase the old Lutheran school house building from St. John's, LaGrange. The building was disassembled, transferred to the building site in Hodgkins on Kimball Avenue, and reassembled. All the work was completed by members of the two congregations. In the Fall of 1911, the cornerstone was laid. On March 10, 1912, Immanuel was dedicated.

Rev. Ullrich became the sole pastor at Immanuel after Rev. Meyer was called to Bellewood, Illinois. Rev. Ullrich, who was also the president of the Northern Illinois District of the LCMS, as well as pastor at St. John's, LaGrange, served Immanuel until October 1930. At that time Rev. H. C. Seitz, who was the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Western Springs, accepted the call to Immanuel.

Originally Immanuel numbered 26 voters and 106 souls. In 1937 (the congregation's 25th anniversary), the congregation numbered 150 souls, 110 communicants, and 123 voters, with a Sunday school of 43 children, and four teachers.

In 1951 the Kimball Avenue property was sold and a new church was built at the present Kane Avenue location. The following is an entry from the "Village of Hodgkins - 100 Years of Progress" historical booklet on Immanuel.

The Immanuel Lutheran church on Kimball Avenue as originally the schoolhouse of St. John's Lutheran Church, LaGrange, Illinois. Reinhardt Leu was general contractor and the men of the congregation worked with him. The schoolhouse was dismantled in LaGrange and brought to Hodgkins. the men built the church and added a steeple and a room at the rear to be used for German School. Reinhardt Leu climed [sic] to the top of the steeple and attached a cross to it. The first minister of the church was Rev. Alex Ullrich. The church remained in use until 1951. It was then sold to the Eisermans who later demolished it. At this time, a new church was built on Kane Avenue on two lots. One of these lots was donated by Otto Hopp. Dedication of the new church as in 1953.

As of 2006, Immanuel reported having 152 baptized members, and 122 confirmed members. Rev. Adam A. Dietrich has been the interim pastor since 1976. Rev. Walter D. Otten, formerly of St. Paul's Brookfield, IL, has accepted a call from Immanuel and will be installed on December 4, 2011.

It Is Finished

When he [Jesus] had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up His spirit (John 19:30).

A criminal stands before a judge and awaits his sentence. The judge pronounces the man acquitted, bangs his gavel and tells the man he is free to go. If this man returns to the judge six months later and asks him to pronounce the judgment again because he doesn’t “feel” acquitted, the judge would probably have the man committed to an institution. The judgment has been made. It is finished.

It is also “finished” for Christians. Christ, the judge, has pronounced us acquitted from the guilt of our Sin. The forgiveness won for mankind by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is full, final, and complete. His blood washes away our sin completely, making it as if they had never occured. Having fulfilled every command of the Father, and every prophecy of Holy Scripture, Jesus voluntarily died. “It is finished,” was not a cry of exhaustion. Jesus’ final words from the cross are a confirmation that all Jesus had been sent to do to seal our salvation had been completed. It is finished and the verdict has been rendered – we, though guilty of sin, have been set free, solely through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There is nothing we have to do – there is nothing we are able to do – in order to set our relationship with God right. Paul tells the Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

No amount of so-called “good” things that we do can earn us God’s grace. God gives us His saving grace as a gift, through faith in Jesus Christ. Good works do have their place in a believer’s life – they are a response to the awesome gift God has freely given us through His Son. As Martin Luther explained, “A man is justified by faith alone, not by a faith that is alone.” A faith that is alone – that does not respond to God’s good news of salvation and forgiveness by producing good works – is no faith at all. Show the world the love God has shown you, and wants to show them, through everything that you do, not merely by the words that you say.

What's the Gimmick?

Hearing Dr. Wallace Schulz speak yesterday morning at Immanuel, I was put in mind of something I wrote previously that sort of dealt with the same subject of his talk. His topic was, "Why People are Leaving the Missouri Synod in Droves and What Can be Done About it." Kind of controversial. So controversial, in fact, that the Northern Illinois District of the LCMS would not print the title of the presentation or acknowledge it in the Northern Light as the congregation requested, as part of Immanuel's 100th Anniversary festivities. As I look around at worship, and even at our little gathering yesterday morning, I have to believe there is something to what Dr. Schulz is saying. If we abandon our Lutheranism, the Christ-centered, Bible-based theology that makes us unique, something has to fill that void. We end up absorbing the touchy-feely, self-help, emotion-based works-righteousness that everyone else is already selling...and they do that better than we do. People are leaving, and I think it is because we are trying so hard as a body to be something that we are not, in order to entice people into the church. Problem is, even the mega churches are now starting to see that, when you stop focusing on Christ crucified and risen and go to the self-help religion, people are left unfulfilled in the end.

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day (Acts 2:41).

The young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he lamented, "I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The manager replied, "Son, take my advice: your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty." So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with Christ that the Holy Spirit uses them to create a thirst for the Gospel (Preaching, November-December 1985).

There is a well-intentioned movement in American Christianity that seeks to grow the Church. Christians are being told that their antiquated worship practices, irrelevant liturgies and outdated hymns are causing people to become disillusioned, and driving people from the Church. Not only that, the argument goes, these vestiges of Christianity-gone-by have little prospect, if any, to reach out to those sophisticated, rational cosmopolites of today’s society. Churches must do something to reach out to people. Churches must change with the times and styles if there is to be any hope of setting people “on fire for Jesus.”

Peter and the apostles, however, used no tricks or gimmicks on Pentecost when, according to Holy Scripture, about 3,000 people became believers in Christ Jesus. They simply stuck to the basics. By the Holy Spirit’s power, the disciples simply proclaimed the Gospel as they had been commanded. When the people listening, who had a moment earlier been mocking the disciples, heard Peter’s exposition and explanation of the Scriptures, Luke tells us “they were cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37). That ‘cutting to the heart’ was not the result of some entertaining worship service or emotional lyric to a song – although, witnessing the events of Pentecost were surely shocking and affecting. On the contrary, the people who heard Peter’s sermon were cut to the heart by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. “Brothers, what shall we do?” scripture records as their answer to Peter. Peter’s reply is simple, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter proclaimed the Word of God, plain and simple, with astounding results – 3,000 converts to Christianity.

Phillip Yancey tells this story of Dr. Paul Brand, who was speaking to a medical college in India on the text, “Let your light so shine before men that they may behold your good works and glorify your Father.” In front of the lectern was an oil lamp, with a cotton wick burning from the shallow dish of oil. As he preached, the lamp ran out of oil, the wick burned dry, and the smoke made him cough. He immediately used the opportunity.

“Some of us here are like this wick,” he said. “We’re trying to shine for the glory of God, but we stink. That’s what happens when we use ourselves as the fuel of our witness rather than the Holy Spirit. Wicks can last indefinitely, burning brightly and without irritating smoke, if the fuel, the Holy Spirit, is in constant supply.”

Rather than focusing on finding the perfect outreach program that will fill the pew with bodies, we all need to strengthen our relationships with our Lord Jesus Christ. We do this through the study of His Word, through the Lord’s Supper, by prayer and by “letting our light shine before men.” The better we know Our Lord, the hotter He will stoke the fire within us and our light will shine all the brighter – in everything that we say and do. The people with whom we come in contact will not be able to ignore what they see in us, because what they will see in us is Jesus Christ. It is then that the Holy Spirit will make them thirsty, and use us to lead them to the Spring of Living Water – Christ.