My Post Mortem On 'The Great Sanctification Debate'

 







Romans 12: 17-18

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.


In retrospect, the "Great Sanctification Debate" was anything but great.  Touted as some great schism among confessional Lutherans, it really amounted to two sides saying the same thing, and a case of theological nitpicking over terms; and depending on which term you held to ("progressive sanctification", "new obedience", etc)  you were either a pietist, Calvinist, an antinomian; or at worst, a 'follower of Gerhard Forde'.  After listening and reading to Pr.  Fisk, Cooper and others, I saw no signs of pietism, or antinomianism from either camp except a small minority.  What I did see was two sides talking past each other, and misrepresenting the other's position to the point of parody.  For the record, I agreed with everything Pr. Jonathan Fisk and Jordan Cooper had to offer in this debate, and I'm glad they were able to sort out their differences privately.  As for the rest of us involved in the scuffles,  this debate over sanctification does prove one thing, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"; and that growth in the Christian life is oftentimes painfully slow.



 

Are Children Born Innocent?

Deuteronomy 20: 16-18

But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.

Psalm 51: 5   

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.


Romans 3: 9-19

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,  as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands;
    no one seeks for God. 

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”  

“Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
   “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery, 

and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

The subject of children's salvation is an emotionally charged one.  In a conversation with a female American evangelical on the topic of infant baptism,  I was told that babies do not need to repent, that they are completely innocent; and from her response the presumption then was that babies are born saved.  This kind of evangelical response mirrors the Pelagian view that humanity is basically good and morally unaffected by the Fall, thereby denying the imputation of Adam's sin, and original sin that drastically affects our ability to believe God and earn eternal salvation. However, the Biblical reality is that we live in a fallen world, subject to corruption, in which we all fall under the headship of Adam as "children of wrath".  And by 'all', the Bible means children as well as adults, for 'all' under the law and therefore open to its condemnation.  Like it or not, children are under the righteous judgment of God, and are in need of salvation in Christ Jesus alone.  

The text from Deuteronomy makes this clear.  Both Moses and Joshua were commanded by God to "devote to destruction" everything that lived in the cities of the Canaanites, so that Israel would remain pure and free from all "their abominable practices that they have done for their gods" (Deuteronomy 20:18).  This mandate included children, not to exact ethnic cleansing or genocide on the Canaanite peoples, but to exact God's judgment for "the iniquity of the Amorites" (Genesis 15:16) which God allowed to persist until the right time came for His wrath to enact justice.  Israel's conquest of Canaan was not a tribal war, but an instrument of God's justice against the sinners in those nations.  

It's only because of God's mercy that not everyone has been subjected to the fate that the Canaanites suffered.  But rest assured, there will come a day when "every mouth will be stopped" when Christ returns in judgment to condemn all those who have "sinned under the Law" (Romans 2:12).  Until that day, children need to receive the salvation that comes only by the gospel, to heal them from their sinful condition, and to wash away the original sin in which human beings are conceived.  Thus the need for infant Baptism by which children are united to Christ, trusting in the power of God to grant them faith and repentance through the water and the Word.  

The evangelical fallacy is that somehow only children are unable to believe, because they haven't reached some mythic 'age of accountability'.  However this inability belongs to everyone who are not born from above by God, and are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins.  Denying baptism to children therefore denies the power of God in salvation. Since this sacrament is his work by which he graciously gives us new life through the waters of baptism, and his steadfast word that seals us with His triune name.  It also denies the command given by Christ in the Great Commission to "make disciples of all nations", "baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".  Because of Christ's command, we can be sure that baptising children doesn't just get them wet, but carries the promises to bring near all those who are far off:

Acts 2: 38-39

“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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

 

Ezekiel's Temple

 



Ezekiel 40: 1-4

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the Lord was on me and he took me there. In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”


In dispensational eschatology, the rebuilding of a future Temple is intimately entwined with the millennial age "marked by a return to Old Testament temple worship and animal sacrifices to commemorate the redemptive work of Christ" (Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillenialism, p. 26).  During this age Christ will return to focus his redemptive plan on national Israel, culminating in Christ's Davidic kingship being manifested on earth, and the covenant promises made to Abraham being fulfilled for the sake of national Israel.  Or so the dispensational story goes.

Leaving aside for the moment, that Christ stated his kingdom was not of this world, there is another way to dispel the dispensational myth using the later chapters of Ezekiel.  Let's look at Ezekiel 44: 9:  "This is what the Sovereign Lord says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh is to enter my sanctuary, not even the foreigners who live among the Israelites."  The key phrase, here, is "uncircumcised in heart".  By comparison, how do the New Testament apostles describe those "circumcised in heart"? Paul writes in Romans 2:28 and 29:

A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.

and in Philippians 3:3:

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. 

and again, in Colossians 2:11-13:

In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.
 

From these verses, we can surmise that the apostles describe those "circumcised in heart" as those who have been born again from above by the Holy Spirit, and baptised into Christ by faith through the grace of God.   To be circumcised in the flesh does not gain you membership in God's covenantal family; it's only through Christ and faith in his finished work by which you have access to the Father.  Therefore, in the context of Ezekiel 44:9, only those who are made alive in Christ have entrance into God's sanctuary; to merely bear the physical marks of circumcision does not make you a descendant of Abraham, but as Paul points out "it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring" (Romans 9: 8).  As Abraham's offering, all the covenantal promises in the Old Testament are therefore given to the church for our encouragement and edification.  These promises include Ezekiel's temple, which points beyond the physical temple of Jerusalem destroyed in AD 70 as a sign of God's judgment, and to the heavenly city of Revelation 21 and 22.  To demonstrate this, let's compare these two passages of Scripture:

Ezekiel 47: 1-12

 
The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.
As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?”
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

Revelation 22: 1-5


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 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.


In both passages, the unifying theme is 'the water of life' that brings life and healing to God's people.  However, in Revelation, the scope of Ezekiel's temple is enlarged to include all the nations, tribes, and tongues grafted into Christ.  Ezekiel's physical temple has been superseded by the "new heaven and new earth" where God promises to dwell among his people whose names are "written in the Lamb's book of life" (Revelation 21:27).  An eternal and spiritual kingdom where 'nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful';  a kingdom thereby evoking the exclusiveness of God's sanctuary described by Ezekiel 44:9.  And reminding us again that only those whose robes are washed in the blood of the Lamb "have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city" where God will be their light for ever and ever (Revelation 22: 14). 

A Tale Of Two Gardens

 Genesis 3: 1-24

 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
    cursed are you above all livestock
    and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.


Luke 24: 1-12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.


In the first Garden, Adam's sin put man at enmity with God, and subjected the whole of creation to 'its bondage to corruption' (Romans 8:21).  Adam's dominion over the 'birds of the air' and 'the beasts of the earth' tainted by the Fall, which produced death and not life, as subsequent generations grew old and died coming under Adam's federal headship.   Named as 'children of wrath', we were born once to die twice, first from natural death, secondly from God's eternal judgment ('the second death') poured out on those 'in Adam'.  

However, in the second Garden, where Christ's tomb was located, Christ was raised by the power of the Holy Spirit for our justification that brought us peace with God.  When by grace through faith, we were placed under the care and Lordship of Christ, death lost its power over us.  Born from above in our baptism, we were gifted with a new name that removed the inheritance of Adam, and seated us in heavenly places where all 'sorrow and sighing shall flee away' (Isaiah 51:11).  This new name is "the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven" that identifies us as Christ's children who are promised an eternal inheritance 'imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you' (1 Peter 1:4).  Named 'in Christ', we were born twice to die only once, and then to live forever and ever in the midst of the glory of God.  In the name of Christ.  Amen.

 


 

Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece

Good Friday = The Day of the Lord

 


Ezekiel 32: 7-8

When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens
    and make their stars dark;
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
    and the moon shall not give its light.All the bright lights of heaven
    will I make dark over you,
    and put darkness on your land,
declares the Lord God.

Matthew 27: 45-54

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
 
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”


Colossians 2: 13-15

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.


The "Day of the Lord" is a term used in the prophetic texts of the Old Testament to describe a coming day of God's judgment. In the Old Testament reading from Ezekiel, it refers specifically to God's verdict on Pharoah, where God condemns Pharoah for his pridefulness and his idolatry with other gods; in a future tense, 'the day of the Lord' points to Christ's second coming, his 'parousia', where he will return to 'judge the living and the dead' and to separate his sheep from the goats.  

Often "the day of the Lord" in the Bible points to apocalyptic scenes of destruction and death, but if we look at our reading from Matthew, it also points to eternal life: God the Father pouring out judgment on His Son, standing in our place, for the sake of the entire world.  On the cross, Jesus Christ was forsaken for us,  as the entire weight of our sin was placed on him and he bore the guilty verdict we deserved so that we could go free.  Jesus is our propitiation, as he turned away God's wrath from us, and placed it squarely on him, like the scapegoat described by Moses, used on the Day of Atonement, on which Israel's sins were placed before it was driven into the wilderness.

However, there was another judgment that was delivered on the cross.  Not only Christ was forsaken, but the powers of death, sin and Satan were 'disarmed', as St. Paul writes in his epistle, in the act of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice that fulfilled what Genesis 3:15 had promised.  As Christ paid the debt for sin, he cancelled the law's death sentence standing over us, and Satan's dominion over us, reverting the fall committed by Adam so we can approach God as his blameless children, whose sins God has promised to remember no more.  The cross is therefore the second Tree of Life that has reconciled man and God, whereas the first Tree broke that relationship, as St. Paul writes in Romans 5,

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Ambrose on Baptism I

 from Ambrose's "On The Mysteries":

What did you see? Water, certainly, but not water alone; you saw the deacons ministering there, and the bishop asking questions and hallowing. First of all, the Apostle taught you that those things are not to be considered “which we see, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” For you read elsewhere: “That the invisible things of God, since the creation of the world, are understood through those things which have been made; His eternal power also and Godhead are estimated by His works.”Wherefore also the Lord Himself says: “If ye believe not Me, believe at least the works." Believe, then, that the presence of the Godhead is there. Do you believe the working, and not believe the presence? Whence should the working proceed unless the presence went before?

Consider, however, how ancient is the mystery prefigured even in the origin of the world itself. In the very beginning, when God made the heaven and the earth, “the Spirit,” it is said, “moved upon the waters.” He Who was moving upon the waters, was He not working upon the waters? But why should I say, “working”? As regards His presence He was moving. Was He not working Who was moving? Recognize that He was working in that making of the world, when the prophet says: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their strength by the spirit of His mouth.” Each statement rests upon the testimony of the prophet, both that He was moving and that He was working. Moses says that He was moving, David testifies that he was working.

Take another testimony. All flesh was corrupt by its iniquities. “My Spirit,” says God, “shall not remain among men, because they are flesh.” Whereby God shows that the grace of the Spirit is turned away by carnal impurity and the pollution of grave sin. Upon which, God, willing to restore what was lacking, sent the flood and bade just Noah go up into the ark. And he, after having, as the flood was passing off, sent forth first a raven which did not return, sent forth a dove which is said to have returned with an olive twig. You see the water, you see the wood [of the ark], you see the dove, and do you hesitate as to the mystery?

The water, then, is that in which the flesh is dipped, that all carnal sin may be washed away. All wickedness is there buried. The wood is that on which the Lord Jesus was fastened when He suffered for us. The dove is that in the form of which the Holy Spirit descended, as you have read in the New Testament, Who inspires in you peace of soul and tranquillity of mind. The raven is the figure of sin, which goes forth and does not return, if, in you, too, inwardly and outwardly righteousness be preserved.

There is also a third testimony, as the Apostle teaches us: “For all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” And further, Moses himself says in his song: “Thou sentest Thy Spirit, and the sea covered them.”You observe that even then holy baptism was prefigured in that passage of the Hebrews, wherein the Egyptian perished, the Hebrew escaped. For what else are we daily taught in this sacrament but that guilt is swallowed up and error done away, but that virtue and innocence remain unharmed?

You hear that our fathers were under the cloud, and that a kindly cloud, which cooled the heat of carnal passions. That kindly cloud overshadows those whom the Holy Spirit visits. At last it came upon the Virgin Mary, and the Power of the Highest overshadowed her, when she conceived Redemption for the race of men. And that miracle was wrought in a figure through Moses. If, then, the Spirit was in the figure, is He not present in the reality, since Scripture says to us: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

 Marah was a fountain of most bitter water: Moses cast wood into it and it became sweet.For water without the preaching of the Cross of the Lord is of no avail for future salvation, but, after it has been consecrated by the mystery of the saving cross, it is made suitable for the use of the spiritual laver and of the cup of salvation. As, then, Moses, that is, the prophet, cast wood into that fountain, so, too, the priest utters over this font the proclamation of the Lord’s cross, and the water is made sweet for the purpose of grace.

You must not trust, then, wholly to your bodily eyes; that which is not seen is more really seen, for the object of sight is temporal, but that other eternal, which is not apprehended by the eye, but is discerned by the mind and spirit.

Lastly, let the lessons lately gone through from the Kings teach you. Naaman was a Syrian, and suffered from leprosy, nor could he be cleansed by any. Then a maiden from among the captives said that there was a prophet in Israel, who could cleanse him from the defilement of the leprosy. And it is said that, having taken silver and gold, he went to the king of Israel. And he, when he heard the cause of his coming, rent his clothes, saying, that occasion was rather being sought against him, since things were asked of him which pertained not to the power of kings. Elisha, however, sent word to the king, that he should send the Syrian to him, that he might know there was a God in Israel. And when he had come, he bade him dip himself seven times in the river Jordan.

Then he began to reason with himself that he had better waters in his own country, in which he had often bathed and never been cleansed of his leprosy; and so remembering this, he did not obey the command of the prophet, yet on the advice and persuasion of his servants he yielded and dipped himself. And being forthwith cleansed, he understood that it is not of the waters but of grace that a man is cleansed.

Understand now who is that young maid among the captives. She is the congregation gathered out of the Gentiles, that is, the Church of God held down of old by the captivity of sin, when as yet it possessed not the liberty of grace, by whose counsel that foolish people of the Gentiles heard the word of prophecy as to which it had before been in doubt. Afterwards, however, when they believed that it ought to be obeyed, they were washed from every defilement of sin. And he indeed doubted before he was healed; you are already healed, and therefore ought not to doubt.

How I Became A Lutheran

True and False Shepherds

Mark 5: 25-34

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Ezekiel 34: 1-6

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. 

In this modern age of relativism, the truth distinguishes itself from the false in the face of Christ who lays down his life for the sheep.   Suffering under ancient physicians and their dubious remedies, the woman 'defiled' (in the light of Mosaic law) by her uncontrollable menstrual bleeding grew only worse, and was alienated by her impurity from the community of Jewish believers.  Deprived of her money, the woman had not been strengthened by the false physicians but like all lost sheep had been 'scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them'.

We too suffer at the hands of today's false shepherds who offer us the false cures of behaviour modification, gnostic spirituality, law without gospel, and self-help manuals.  But instinctively we know, because of our many failures to bring our lives in line with God's Word,  that we cannot cure ourselves by internal means.  Rather, like the woman, we need a touch by a greater Power and Person outside of us that will heal the sickness of sin in our bodies.  As power drained from Jesus to heal the woman's bleeding, so likewise Jesus gave his body and blood so that we might grasp Him by faith, and be made well - united to the community of believers, and reconciled to God by the smallest seed of faith that touches Jesus, dressed in his dying garment of flesh on the bloody Cross.

Stations of the Cross: a long series of poems (Station X)