Son of Man – Mt. Olive Lutheran Church

THE LIGHT OF CHRIST

Last week (as of the writing of this article) I traveled to Wisconsin to officiate at my oldest first cousin’s memorial service. My cousin Nanette suffered so much from her rheumatoid arthritis since the age of 30 until her death at 73. In fact, this disease most definitely shortened her longevity in this life probably by decades. However, Nanette always managed to count her blessings and genuinely appreciate the good times. She showed us all that each day we have a choice to make: to give in or to keep on trucking. Regardless of our circumstances, we can either choose to number our liabilities, or choose to count our blessings and get up to fight on for another day.

My cousin Nanette was also known for her beautiful stained glass artwork, and I think this art form is a wonderful metaphor for her life despite the rheumatic disease that she struggled with. Just as she took fragile broken pieces of glass to make her stained glass art, she faced the debilitating brokenness of her own body to make out of it a beautiful life together with her friends and family.

Interestingly, stained glass has a long and storied history. In fact, colored glass has been produced since ancient times. From the Egyptians to the Phoenicians to the Romans, these ancient civilizations excelled at the manufacture of small colored glass objects. But it was Christian civilization that embraced the stained glass art form in a grand and monumental way.

Evidence of stained glass windows in churches and monasteries in Great Britain can be found as early as the 7th Century AD. The earliest known reference dates from 675 AD when workmen were imported from France to glaze the windows of the monastery of St. Peter at Monkwearmouth (what a name!) in England. Interestingly, the glass industry established by the Romans in Syria continued during the later Islamic era with major centers of manufacture in cities like Damascus. However, it was the gothic style of Medieval Christendom that elevated (both literally and figuratively) the artistry of stained glass to its historical pinnacle. Gothic Cathedrals are skeletal structures (like dry bones) on the outside, but, with high vaulted ceilings and entire walls of colorful stained glass, they are buildings of heavenly light on the inside. Their purpose was to uplift the worshipper to be spiritually raptured up toward heaven by the beautiful and enchanting light streaming through the stained glass, reminding them of God’s pure Light, the Light of Christ.

You know recently, I saw a gravestone (not my cousin’s) that had a symbol etched into it that I was not familiar with. I looked it up, and the symbol is a stylized Thor’s Hammer. Now, I’m pretty sure that the deceased person with the Thor’s Hammer symbol on his gravestone was not a practitioner of Norse Paganism. I’m fairly certain that it’s simply an expression of Scandinavian ethnic pride. And of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with having ethnic self-esteem and pride. However, be that as it may, I must say as a Christian that I would not want my last testimony on my grave marker to be merely a statement of ethnic identity. Having the Light of Christ my Savior in my life surpasses all the earthly distinctions that identify me, and this is what I would want my last testament to be.

As the Apostle Paul writes: “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ…” (from Philippians 3:3-9).

At the beginning of the Easter Vigil service each year (as we observed several months ago) when we enter into the darkened church building with our lit handheld candles, we exclaim three times (at the back, middle and front of the church), “The Light of Christ! Thanks be to God!” And the reason we exclaim this three times, dear brothers and sisters, is to emphasize that we have the all-surpassing Light of Christ our Lord! We have the Eternal Light of the grace, faith, hope and love of Jesus the Son of God. So, whether in our life or in our death, why on Earth would we ever uplift any symbol or identity or whatever above the symbols and blessedness of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord?

“Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts. Shine through the darkness. Christ, be our light!” (from hymn #715 of the ELW hymnal).

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim

JESUS & MATZAH BREAD

During the festival of Pesach (Passover), our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world connect themselves to one of the greatest stories ever told by celebrating the Seder, which is an interactive dinner where the events of the Exodus from Egypt are retold. And for Christians, this annual liturgical meal also points to Mashiach Yeshua (Christ Jesus), and this is perhaps in no place more clearly illustrated than in the tradition of hiding the broken afikoman matzah bread (also spelled afikomen).

For the uninitiated, one of the traditions of the Passover Seder Meal is a special bag called a matzah tash that has three compartments, each containing a whole matzah (unleavened bread). The tradition is to take the middle matzah out and break it in half. Half of the matzah is placed back in the matzah tash, but the other half is wrapped in a linen napkin. This piece is called the afikoman (from the Greek epikomon), meaning “that which comes after,” and it’s considered a substitute for the ancient Passover sacrifice which was the last thing eaten at the Passover Seder during the historical eras of the First and Second Jerusalem Temples. The afikoman is then hidden by an adult for the duration of the first part of the Seder, and after dinner the children search for it and bring it back to their parents to be redeemed for a prize. Traditionally, the Seder cannot end until the afikoman is found.

The searching and finding of the afikoman is a beloved Passover tradition, but Judaism has no authoritative explanation as to the origin or the meaning of the afikoman. A number of diverse and often conflicting theories have emerged over the centuries. One tradition holds that the three pieces of matzah represent the three casts of Judaism: the Israelites, the Levites, and the Kohanim (the Priests). Another theory is that the three matzah breads represent Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But these are later innovations; they are not mentioned in either the Mishnah or the Talmud (the authoritative writings of Rabbinic Judaism).

Moreover, why is the middle matzah broken? What would breaking the Priests or Isaac accomplish? Some rabbis believe that breaking the matzah represents the splitting of the Red Sea, but if that’s the case why is a half piece of the ocean hidden away? Lastly, one tradition even says that the afikoman is hidden so that it doesn’t get eaten by accident before the meal is over.

Of course, none of these theories are truly authoritative or satisfying. However, there is one other explanation that makes perfect sense, and it ties all of the symbolism together and tells a cohesive story.

First presented by Austrian-Jewish scholar Robert Eisler in 1925, the most coherent explanation of the tradition of the afikoman was likely conceived by the First Century Jewish followers of Mashiach Yeshua (Christ Jesus) and that the afikoman is a symbol of Jesus himself. In fact, the very texture of the matzah bread and the way it’s prepared is indicative of Jesus. Matzah has stripes burned into it from the oven rack and it must be pierced with holes to prevent it from rising. In the same way, our Lord Yeshua was literally striped by the lashes of a whip, and he was pierced by nails and a spear.

In addition, the three compartments of the one matzah bag represent the three ways we experience the One Almighty God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. And the middle matzah (representing the Son of God) is broken, just as Yeshua our Savior was broken for us (see Isaiah 53). And after his death on the cross, Yeshua’s body was wrapped in a linen shroud and buried away for three days until his resurrection. So too, the afikoman is wrapped in a linen cloth and hidden until the end of the Passover Seder Meal.

When the meal ends, the children search for the afikoman to gain the prize that comes from finding it. In this act, the salvation and redemption that comes through the sacrificial offering of the Divine Messiah is illustrated. And how fitting it is that it’s the children who seek the afikoman, for Jesus taught that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these (Matt 19:14) and that we all must become like little children to enter the Kingdom (Matt 18:3). And just as the Seder cannot end until the afikoman is found, the Kingdom of God will not be established in its fullness until the great return of The Universal Afikoman (Jesus the Messiah).

Now it’s true that the word “afikoman” is often translated as “that which comes after,” but according to Prof. David Daube (a preeminent Twentieth Century scholar of Biblical law) a better origin and definition of afikoman is the Greek word aphikomenos which means “the one who has arrived.” And of course, if nothing else, we know that our risen Lord Yeshua is with us always, and that he has identified the matzah bread of the Passover with his very own body and mystical presence. For at his Last Supper (his Passover Seder that he ate before he suffered) Jesus took the matzah, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to all of them, saying, “This is my body, which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me” (First Corinthians 11:24).

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim

SO MUST THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP

We should not feel bad about feeling bad. Within our society that idealizes feeling “happy, happy, happy” all the time, we can sometimes be shamed into feeling bad about feeling bad. However, this is not right, because it is an unrealistic societal pressure placed upon us that only makes us feel worse.

Of course, there are those who suffer from chronic neuro-chemical imbalances that cause prolonged mental illnesses (bipolar disorder, etc.), and our culture is slowly coming to a better place where mental illness is not stigmatized as much as it once was. But aside from this, everyone can understand feeling mentally and emotionally down from time to time, especially if they have experienced a great loss of some kind. So we are all in need of healing and wholeness in life, and I would especially say this regarding spiritual concerns.

At the time of the Prophet Mosheh (Moses), the ancient Israelites were being attacked and killed by poisonous serpents, so Moses prayed for them and God gave them something as a means through which they would receive grace for their healing:

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonousserpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.”
NUMBERS 21: 8-9

And later, at the time our Lord Yeshua (Jesus) walked on earth, he declared the following before his crucifixion and resurrection:

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
JOHN 3: 14-16

Therefore, when we are being vexed by the poisonous spiritual bites of sin, death and the devil, we can look to the One who was “lifted up” for our spiritual healing. The good news is that Jesus (the Son of Man and Son of God) was lifted up on a cross for our atonement, was lifted up from death for our redemption, and was lifted up into the higher dimensions of reality (what we call “heaven”) for our everlasting salvation. Even in the midst of the poisonous serpents of loss, grief, failure, guilt and regret, we can look to the Savior who was lifted up, and we can find in him forgiveness, renewal and wholeness.

For many people Easter is over, with all the Easter eggs and bunnies now in the rearview mirror. However, for us Christians, Eastertime is a season of seven Sundays during which we celebrate the Lifted Up One, our risen Lord and Savior. For he alone has fully shown, affirmed, confirmed and proved to us the love and grace of God through his life, teachings, sufferings, death, resurrection and ascension. Through Jesus Christ, we have seen and now know that God indeed loves us and the entire world so very much, because he laid down his life for us and is now raised forever.

Christ Is Risen!!!

Grace & Peace, Pastor Tim