If Christ didn’t want us to eat His flesh in the appearance of bread, then why was He born in a city called House of Bread and laid in a food trough?
If He didn’t want that, why would He have said that He is the bread from heaven and that His flesh is truly food and that we must eat it? (And if He meant that as a metaphor, why didn’t He correct everyone when they all took it literally?)
If He didn’t want that, then why did He offer Himself as the Lamb of God for the sacrifice for our sins in the same way the Old Testament Jews offered a lamb in sacrifice, a lamb which they were required to eat the flesh of?
If He didn’t want that, why did He say, “This is my body, which is given for you” at the Last Supper, just before the first Seder at the beginning of Passover, at which they would have eaten the paschal lamb?
It is painfully obvious that Christ meant for us to literally eat His flesh and drink His blood under the appearance of bread and wine, and that’s why the earliest Christians unanimously took the Eucharist to be literally Christ’s flesh and blood.
Tag: Jesus Christ
via reddit.com
Man, if only the most cross-verified text in ancient history gave us an answer to that…
Since this inevitably shows up whenever the “great saint debate” rears its ugly head, let’s talk about Christ’s role as sole mediator for a second. We often use “mediator” and “intercessor” as interchangeable words, because they both involve action on behalf of another, but they’re not the same.
“Mediator” refers to a person reconciling two different parties. “Intercessor” refers to a person approaching a more powerful party on behalf of a less powerful party.
Jesus is the sole Mediator. In His Incarnation, human nature and Divine nature are united in a single Person. That seeming insurmountable gap between humanity and God is closed by the Incarnation specifically because of this hypostatic union. God became man so that man could share in the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). The union of humanity and Divinity that occurs microcosmicly in Jesus is the source for the macrocosmic reconciliation between God and man. Does that make sense?
The statement that Jesus is sole Mediator occurs right after Saint Paul calls us to act as intercessors. He asks us to pray on behalf of worldly authorities. Throughout the epistles, we are called to act as intercessors for one another, and Paul himself acts as intercessor by praying on behalf of the Christian communities that he is writing to. We know that this intercession is efficacious as a result of this saving work of Jesus, as He said “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
So, long story short: Jesus is the only Mediator, but He is not the only intercessor. At the same time, however, all intercession is only possible because of Christ’s role as Mediator.
Since this inevitably shows up whenever the “great saint debate” rears its ugly head, let’s talk about Christ’s role as sole mediator for a second. We often use “mediator” and “intercessor” as interchangeable words, because they both involve action on behalf of another, but they’re not the same.
“Mediator” refers to a person reconciling two different parties. “Intercessor” refers to a person approaching a more powerful party on behalf of a less powerful party.
Jesus is the sole Mediator. In His Incarnation, human nature and Divine nature are united in a single Person. That seeming insurmountable gap between humanity and God is closed by the Incarnation specifically because of this hypostatic union. God became man so that man could share in the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). The union of humanity and Divinity that occurs microcosmicly in Jesus is the source for the macrocosmic reconciliation between God and man. Does that make sense?
The statement that Jesus is sole Mediator occurs right after Saint Paul calls us to act as intercessors. He asks us to pray on behalf of worldly authorities. Throughout the epistles, we are called to act as intercessors for one another, and Paul himself acts as intercessor by praying on behalf of the Christian communities that he is writing to. We know that this intercession is efficacious as a result of this saving work of Jesus, as He said “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
So, long story short: Jesus is the only Mediator, but He is not the only intercessor. At the same time, however, all intercession is only possible because of Christ’s role as Mediator.
the prevailing narrative tumblr has about Jesus being “a cool dude” is so… tepid. like don’t get me wrong. he was a poor Jewish man in Roman-occupied Palestine and he spent his time with people who were shunned, disabled, disenfranchised, prostituted, oppressed. (and so should everyone, especially those who follow Jesus.)
but he did more than that. he so radically changed those people that they died brutally instead of saying he wasn’t God.
when you look at what Jesus said and did and how totally he affected the world, it’s just—“cool” does not cut it. like c.s. lewis said. this lukewarm stuff about Jesus being a good man, or even a progressive one—it’s just patronizing. he demanded all or nothing for a reason.
Wide Spread Interests 