Food for Thought #5 - The Redeemer

It is the time when Rome is master of the world. Caesar Augustus is the Emperor of Rome. Palestine is under the rule of Rome.  Herod is the King of Judea. The Jews are awaiting the Messiah, but many are waiting for an earthly king who will free them from the their enemies, the Romans.  But many Jews of deep faith in God expect much more than only an earthly king.

There is a young Jewish girl by the name of Mary who has dedicated her life to doing what God desires of her; she prays constantly. One day the Angel Gabriel appears to her and announces she is to become the mother of a child to be named Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high God. He will be the King of the descendents of Jacob forever.

Because Mary has offered herself to God completely as a virgin, Gabriel tells her that through the Holy Spirit she will become pregnant so that the child will be called the Son of God.  Mary responds "I am the Lord's servant; let it happen to me as you have said."

God has prepared everything for this moment.  He has seen from all eternity that Mary would be a perfect human being and would do everything God desired.  She is the "new Eve" who would do what Eve did not do.  In preparation, when Mary had been conceived in her mother's womb, God gave her the beautiful gifts originally given Eve before her fall, so that Mary was conceived without the effects of original sin.  Mary has thus been given the title "The Immaculate Conception".

The child Jesus is the Son of God and is therefore the Divine Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity Of God.  But He is also perfectly Human, being born of a human mother.  He has the dual nature:  Divine and Human.  He is then the only Human who has the status to recover for all human beings what was originally lost.  Why?  Because He is both human and Divine and can therefore make amends for the original disobedience of Adam and Eve agaInst God who is Divine and they only human.

But the sacrifice to make amends to God must be both human and divine.  Human sacrifice to God through all of Scripture always involved the killing of an animal, best of all a lamb.  The spilling of the blood of the lamb was the offering of the very life or blood of the lamb.  Therefore the sacrifice must be Divine through the obedience of the Son to lay upon Himself all the requirements of His Father and must be human, involving the killing and offering of the life blood of the Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Christ of God and the lamb of God. He is to be offered to God the Father in atonement for all the sins of human beings.  Jesus Christ is also the "new Adam" who brings to perfection God's plan for human beings.

After Jesus grows to manhood he devotes 3 years of his ministry on earth to establish his Church and to announce the fulfilling of the old law in that Church. He also makes it clear to his followers, and those who love him, that he will always be with them until the end of time. The new sacrament he institutes, the Eucharist, is a commemoration both of the last supper, during which Jesus transforms bread into the flesh of his body and transforms wine into his blood while keeping the physical appearances of bread and wine, and the actual sacrifice on the cross.

Thus when His body and blood are, under the appearances of bread and wine, consumed by a Christian believer, the recipient receives the body and blood of Christ and shares in the sacrifices of the Lamb in a way that makes Christ and his sacrifice for all our sins present in time at the moment of reception.  It reminds us also that for all time and for all people Jesus has made amends for all our sins and all we need to do is follow His Way, pick up our cross, and forget ourselves (meaning letting go of our selfish concerns and dedicating ourselves to God and our neighbors in need).

The mission of Jesus Christ then becomes one of preparing his followers to understand why he must suffer crucifixion and die on a cross, spilling all His blood.  After his death bountiful graces are given those who have given everything up to follow Him. They spread over all of the world of the time and preach His message of reliance on God and trust in Him rather than relying on our own efforts.  He asks us to spread the "Good News" and to help others who are in need.  Jesus makes it clear to all of us who believe in him when he says “without me you can do nothing”.

On a Friday, after Jesus dies on a cross, spilling all His blood, His followers see Him buried in a cave.  The women, including His mother Mary, who followed Jesus and saw Him laid in the cave want to prepare His body with spices and perfumes but it is too late in the evening and the next day, Saturday, is the Sabbath on which they may not do their preparations, so they arrive early Sunday to find the tomb empty and are told by angels that Jesus has been raised from death.  The women are stunned and inform the Apostles to whom later Jesus appears in flesh and blood a number of times before He ascends to Heaven. 

The Resurrection of Jesus is proof that He is truly God who died on the cross to win back our status with God as people who have been given a second chance to do what God wants us to do and to eventually see Him face to face in Heaven.  Even if we sin by not doing what God wants us to do, by repenting we then are restored to God's favor and we retain this status once lost. This is so because Jesus Christ died to restore all men and all women through all time to their original status in spite of any and all sins committed against God.  All that is needed is Repentance.

Just one more Food for Thought #6 The apostle of the Gentiles