THEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY – by Rev. Nicholas Sykes

 

 “THE ONE ORDAINED BY GOD TO BE JUDGE OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.” - ACTS 10.42

 

The Season of Epiphany, or Manifestation, reminds us that Christians are supposed to have a specific measure of what is good or true. To say such a thing might seem to fly in the face of the current modern mind. It is what S. John clearly asserts in his Gospel, that Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, and where there is not that Light, or where there is the rejection of that Light, there is darkness. However, the current modern mind asserts that there is good and bad in all ways of thinking. Measures of what is good, however, do exist in the modern mindset, and it is because of these measures that in some places Christmas carols, the Christmas tree, public prayer and public displays of symbols such as the cross or the Ten Commandments, are disapproved of and banned - all this too, however strange it may seem, in the name sometimes of toleration and non-discrimination, which are the new supposed measures of what is true or good in many Western societies.                     

 

The measure, though, of what is good and true, that we adhere to and believe in, is found from God’s revelation. “He has shown you, O man, what is good”, says the prophet Micah. Indeed He has. Isaiah 42:1-9 points us to that good. “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” That pointer to the good is made specific when Jesus is baptised at the hands of John the Baptist at the beginning of the Lord’s public ministry. When the voice came from heaven with the words “Thou art my beloved Son; with Thee I am well pleased”, this was a sign confirming Jesus’ Sonship and all that faithful Sonship would imply.  Although Jesus was aware of His heavenly Father before this, this affirmation of His status as a Son was clearly very important for the ministry that followed. For Jesus to be the ultimate and absolute measure of what is good and true, He must be the Beloved Son of God. For us as well, the ministration of baptism and the possession of the Holy Spirit declare that we are God’s sons and daughters, a declaration having vast implications for our manner of life and our future, because it is a declaration of our own alignment and submission to that specific measure of what is good and true that Christians are bound to assert. The One who comes to redeem is confirmed in the knowledge that He is the beloved Son, and those who will be baptised in His name are adopted as sons and daughters too. It is right for us, therefore, to think of Epiphany not only as the manifestation of Christ, but the manifestation of the fatherliness of God as well.

 

There are of course many in the world who do not see what is manifested to the eyes of faith. Almost by definition, what we see by the eyes of faith is challenged by the happenings of our present age, which can send strong signals of unfatherliness and make us doubt. In 2004 we probably did not find Hurricane Ivan one bit fatherly. We should remember however, that the truths that are revealed about Christ and about God through His Word are revealed not in this age to the eyes of sight but to the eyes of faith. If our faith in the fatherliness of God through His Son Jesus Christ and the possession of the Holy Spirit is strong, then we will know too that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to His purpose. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, and where there is not that Light, or where there is the rejection of that Light, there is darkness.

 

When St. Peter preached the Good News to the Gentiles for the first time (we can read of it in Acts 10:34-43), he too asserted to them in terms they could best understand that here, in Jesus, whom he explained to them was the “Lord of all”, was the measure, not for Jewish people only but for Gentiles too, of what was good and true. To give them an understanding of that measure, he described to them His baptism by John and His being anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and power, and His healings of the sick and demon-possessed, and His being crucified and raised from the dead. He was the One, he told them, that had been appointed or ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. How could that be if He were not Himself the measure of what was good and true? How could His work on the cross atone for us if His life had not been the full measure of what a human life ought to be? Peter told them that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

 

We too like those Gentiles who begged Peter to come and tell them these things, need to escape from the Gentile mindset of our own time and hear again the revelation of God. For our continued walk in the way of salvation, we need to overthrow one set of measures of what is good in favour of another, the one referred to, also in St John’s Gospel, as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

 

For commentary, information and devotional material see www.churchofenglandcayman.com and www.anglicansatprayer.org