This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of Clothed with Christ written by Brian W. Thomas (1517 Publishing, 2024). Now available!
Since the rise of social media, there has been a growing trend amongst celebrities to be seen “just like us,” where they are featured in photos getting coffee at Starbucks, walking their dog, or changing a diaper. Actresses are posting selfies on Instagram sans makeup, with hashtags like #wokeuplikethis or #nomakeupmonday. While they enjoy an extraordinary life, the point is to project the image of a rather ordinary person behind the glamor.
Many feel the same way about the message of the gospel. It’s so ordinary, but the reality is anything but. A baby boy is born to a young, unwed Jewish virgin in the backwoods town of Bethlehem. The boy grows up in a blue-collar home and later gains some attention for his teaching and miracles. He calls completely unqualified men to his inner circle of leadership, and one of them betrays him into the hands of the enemy. Eventually, he is tried as a common criminal by a Roman governor and sentenced to death by means of crucifixion.
It’s not exactly the sort of drama and excitement we have come to expect from contemporary films with heroes that seem impervious to bullets. I’m talking about you, John Wick! Even in the first century, Jews found this Good News scandalous, and the Greeks pure foolishness. [7]
Whenever humanity has attempted to understand and relate to God, we have leaned heavily upon two highly deficient means—our reason and experience. As Steven Paulson notes, this goes all the way back to the beginning:
Adam and Eve were deluded by the serpent into thinking God was jealously hiding something of his own outside the garden, and as an ironic consequence they had to hide themselves from God in the garden. That is, they sought God not where God wanted to be found, where his word promised blessing, but where God’s word of promise was not. They sought God outside his words. [8]
A young boy once asked his pastor, “If God is everywhere, why do I have to go to church?” I’d be surprised if you never asked this yourself. The pastor replied, “The whole atmosphere is filled with water; but when you want to have a drink you have to go to a faucet.” His point was that God doesn’t just dwell out there somewhere in a galaxy far, far away, but condescends to make himself known in a specific place through his specific means.
On any given Sunday, words from the Bible are read and proclaimed by rather ordinary men. Water, bread, and wine look like those celebrities without makeup and an expensive wardrobe. Ordinary. Yet it is through these very ordinary and unexpected means that our extraordinary King makes his entry for the forgiveness, life, and salvation of sinners like you and me.
Faith clings to what is heard, not to what is seen.
God is not playing a game of hide and seek with his grace. Here we find his grace and love locatable, hearable, and tangible. It is here that the Bread of Life feeds our weary souls. It is here that the fountain of God’s love pours abundantly to quench our spiritual thirst. According to Luther, the lowliness of the means the Lord uses to distribute the gifts of salvation parallels the humility of his coming in the flesh. In both cases, faith clings to what is heard, not to what is seen.
There’s a big difference between this King and other kings. With the latter everything is outward pomp, great and gallant appearance, magnificent air. But not so with Christ....
[We] must not trust what our eyes see, but listen to what this King is teaching us in his Word and Sacrament, namely, I poured out my blood to save you from your sins, to rescue you from death and bring you to heaven; to that end I have given you baptism as a gift for the forgiveness of sins, and preach to you unceasingly by word of mouth concerning this treasure, sealing it to you with the Sacrament of my body and blood, so that you need never doubt. True, it seems little and insignificant, that by the washing of water, the Word, and the Sacrament this should all be effected. But don’t let your eyes deceive you. At that time, it seemed like a small and insig- nificant thing for him to come riding on a borrowed donkey and later be crucified, in order to take away sin, death, and hell. No one could tell this by his appearance, but the prophet foretold it, and his work later fulfilled it. Therefore we must simply grasp it with our ears and believe it with our hearts, for our eyes are blind. [9]
Life just has a way of exceeding our expectations, and this continues to be the story of our not-so-ordinary King. The next time you start to feel the Sunday liturgy at your church has lost its luster, take time to remember that the world’s Savior is in your midst always doing the unexpected through such ordinary means. And don’t forget to give thanks and pray for those who are called to deliver this Good News. Whether their feet are shod with sandals, oxfords, or cowboy boots, they are beautiful!
[7] 1 Corinthians 1:22ff.
[8] Steven D. Paulson, “Luther on the Hidden God,” Word & World Vol. XIX, No. 4 (Fall, 1999), 366.
[9] Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther: The House Postils (Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing, 1996), 1:28.
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