APOSTLES’ CREED: Born, Suffered, Died, Arose for Us
I want you to imagine with me a dream. In your dream, you are floating down a river, on an inflatable tube. The river is the flow of life, and you are in it. If the river is like the world we live in, what is the river like?
As you float down the river, you recognize that it is polluted, sometimes very polluted. There are snags and obstacles, eddies and rapids, and peaceful spots. There are dangers on the river: crocodiles, bandits, and bullies. There is suffering all around: people are emaciated from disease, drinking polluted water, and crying out for something to eat. And yes, there is an occasional dead body in the water or along the bank.
As you float downstream, you pass several religious gods and gurus, standing on the banks of the river. One suggests that the best way to handle the stress of the river is mindfulness or meditation. Another says, “Just go with the flow. Your goal is the ocean, where the stress of the river will be forgotten.” Another tells you to join up with others on the river, to support each other, and attack evil forces that might threaten you all. Another tells you that the situation is bound to get better, with so many good people on the river, who will doubtlessly be able to solve the problems you face. Still another tells you that good and evil are two sides of the same coin: The crocodiles have to eat, the bandits are happy pirates, and the suffering and death on the river are simply nature’s way.
But there is one God on the bank who seems to outshine the rest. You take your eyes off him for a moment, and then you are shocked to see him swimming in the river! What is he going to do there? How will he react to the people and dangers he will face? Will he get sick from the polluted water? Might this God bring a new stream of fresh water into the pollution of the river? Could it be that by following him the polluted river will give way to a life-giving stream, with no more suffering or evil?
That God, of course, is the God of the Bible. In the Apostles’ Creed, as we noted last week, we say, “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.” We believe that Jesus, the Christ/Messiah, fulfilled the messianic promises of the Old Testament, that he is the Son of God, and that he is our Lord as well as our Savior.
Yet if the words are familiar to us, we might miss what God did to make them true. He couldn’t simply wave his hand, or write some words on a scroll or stone, or make a proclamation in his deep God-voice. God could not remain on the sidelines; he had to enter the flow of human history, to become the Christ, the Savior and Lord for us.
For that reason, the Apostles’ Creed gets physical and graphic: “He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.” Out of all events of life of Jesus, only these are included; there is no mention of his miracles, his teaching, his compassionate touch, or his pure character. Those are part of the story too, but the creed focuses on how God entered the flow of human history, and how his death and resurrection forever changed the flow for us.
“HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY.”
Mary was not, as some think, “forever virgin.” In Mark 6:3, the people say of Jesus, “Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?"
The most remarkable thing is not that Mary was a virgin. Even the Koran teaches that the virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, saying that anything is possible for God. The most amazing thing is that God (the Holy Spirit) entered the womb of a human woman, who bore a human Son. God entered into the flow of history! As John says, “The Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” The Son of God laid aside his infinite glory, to enter the world as a son of Adam.
Why did he do that? Why did the Son of God grow up with bullies, get callouses on his hands, walk dusty roads, and sleep under the stars?
I was thinking about that, when I picked up CT Magazine a few years ago (August 29, 2013). On the cover was a striking picture of a city slum, and the cover article said that worldwide, 860 million people live in places like that. The reality of that figure struck me, because each of those people is known and loved by God. I don’t know them. Maybe I care a little bit about them, or maybe I care a lot. Maybe I’d like to do something, and maybe I can give some money, or sponsor a child. The cover story was about a different kind of caring, however. It was about people who give up their comfortable, affluent lifestyle, to move into those slums and spread the love of God.
We all live in poverty of some sort, whether spiritual, moral, relational, or lacking meaning and purpose. God understood the poverty of his people, and for centuries reached out to his people. He sent prophets, priests and kings, to guide his people to a better life. Finally, the Son himself laid aside the riches of his glory and the perfection of heaven, to bring us out of poverty into abundant life. As 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
God came to earth because we needed help. Humanity was caught in the currents of sin and evil, and the Son of God took on flesh in the womb of Mary, to be born as a human and live in the world.
What kind of world did Jesus enter?
“…HE SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE…”
Just being in this world meant suffering, for the river of human history is polluted by sin.
In Romans 8, Paul points out that all of creation is subject to frustration, in bondage to decay. (Romans 8:20-21) Jesus experienced the pollution of life on this earth. He was continually dealing with sickness, even death. He was often tired, and overwhelmed by the needs around him. He was misunderstood and attacked. His family and friends disappointed him.
His suffering reached a climax in the events leading to his death. In Gethsemane, he prepared to drink the “cup” of God’s wrath against sin. (OT prophets speak of the cup of God’s wrath, as an expression of God’s just judgment on the evil found in the world.) Then, Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends, rejected by the leaders of God’s chosen people, whipped by Roman soldiers, denied by Peter the Rock, and hung on a cross of shame. The physical suffering was surpassed by the spiritual agony, as the Son of God cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Why did he suffer? He was human, and humans suffer. Many in our world endure unspeakable suffering: famine, war, plague, cruelty, and abuse. Even privileged ones like us experience illness, trauma, loss of abilities, and death.
Religion offers solutions to suffering: Accept it as a fact of life, rise above it, or join in opposing it. The great religions of the world are known for solutions like the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, the Pillars of Islam, Confucian respect and wisdom, eastern meditation and techniques, or belief in the power of the human spirit.
But God, the Father Almighty, did not send religion; he got his hands dirty. He entered the flow of human history, even in the Old Testament, calling and redeeming his chosen people. Then, when the time came, he sent his Son, to suffer with those who suffer. As Hebrews 2:10 says, “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.”
When you suffer, you are not alone; God chose to suffer with us all.
“…HE WAS CRUCIFED, DIED, AND WAS BURIED…”
Why was Jesus crucified? Just before his death, Jesus looked out over the city of God, lamenting, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37)
Political leaders, both Jewish and Roman, saw Jesus as a threat to their power. Religious leaders were offended, as Jesus was not impressed with their rituals, and he loved the people they loved to condemn as “sinners.” The common people loved Jesus’ miracles, but they were put off by the commitment he demanded and his claim to be the only way to eternal life. His righteous life and claims to be God only hastened his death, as the powers of evil came against him.
The causes of Jesus’ rejection are timeless. They are as old as Adam and Eve, and as fresh as the pride, bitterness, and rebellion of today. Jesus? Yes, as long as I don’t have to value and care about “those people.” Jesus? Yes, but don’t try to meddle with the priorities of my life. Jesus? Yes, but don’t talk to me about sin or repentance, and don’t expect me to give up my favorite vices or make a commitment to the church.
Jesus was crucified because every part of human life, whether political or religious, personal or social, is tainted by sin. Jesus threatens evil at its core, and the forces of evil fought back, as they still do today.
After three years, the forces of evil took over: Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, Roman and Jewish authorities condemned him, bystanders mocked him, and the darkness enveloped him. The language of the creed is stark and final: “He was crucified, died, and was buried…” His followers took him down from the cross, and laid his cold, dead body in a rock-hewn tomb, rolling a stone over the entrance.
“…ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD.”
Paul says in Colossians 2:15, “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Death could not hold him. Evil could not defeat him. The grip of sin and evil was broken.
When Jesus rose from the dead, the flow of history was forever changed! Flowing out from cross is a new current: clean and unpolluted. As 2 Peter 2:20 says, “They have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…”
Yes, there is still pollution in the stream of life, but there is also stream of life. Jesus had said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Because Jesus brought into the world a stream of life, pure and clean, we have a choice: We can swim in the polluted stream of life, or we can move with Jesus in purity and vitality. As James 1:27 says, “Keep [your]self from being polluted by the world.”
(pause)
Every one of us has a life-history, and we live in its flow. There are traumatic experiences, hurts, blessings, failures, and moments of success and joy.
We also share in a larger history: family, culture, even the history of humanity on earth. The currents of human history have been corrupted by evil, and we have all been affected in many ways.
In Christ, there is another current in the river of life. It is a strong, powerful stream, created by the One who “was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried…and rose again from the dead.”
Jesus invites us to come into the current of eternal life. The water of life is a stream of purity, in a river corrupted by sin. In that stream of life, we experience forgiveness, purity, health, and clarity.
At the end of our journey, when we leave the river on life on this earth, we have a new stream of life waiting for us. In a final vision in the book of Revelation, John shares a dream of a new stream of life, pure and clean: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Revelation 22:1)
Revelation ends with this invitation: “Come! Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.” (Revelation 22:17)
