5. The Lyrics of the Christ-Song: The Living Word
5. The Lyrics of the Christ-Song: The Living Word.
“The Lord is the Song!” (Genesis 15:2; Psalm 118:14; Isaiah 12:2).
The Song with a Body. There are a few ways to understand this recurring biblical passage… The Lord is the reason I sing. The Lord is Who I love to sing about. The Lord is the object of my singing. The Lord is Who we sing to. The Lord is the one Who inspires our singing. I sing because of the Lord, in honor of the Lord, in obedience to the Lord. Many translations put this verse as saying, “The Lord is my song.” But biblical scholars say that this passage could just as correctly be translated as, “The Lord is The song,” or even, “The Lord is the song of God.”
Jesus is The Song. So this important piece of Scripture captures the imagination as it makes clear that… Jesus Himself IS the Song. Christ is the divine song with flesh on. He embodies the Song of the universe. Jesus is God’s Song to the world. The life of Christ is itself a Song. The Christ-Song is a perfectly constructed piece of eternal music in the flesh. Just as a song is the composer’s method of self-expression, Jesus is God’s perfect and ultimate form of Self-expression. As our Savior, Jesus is the Song of Salvation. As the Redeemer, He is the Song of Redemption. As the Deliverer, He is the Song of Deliverance. As the Wonderful Counselor, He is the Song of Wisdom. As the Prince of Peace, He is the Song of Shalom.
Another I AM? Might we be so bold as to add another I AM to John’s gospel list? I AM the Song. The Lord is my song, He is The Song. This idea makes it practically sacramental. Christ’s claim, I Am the Bread of Life, for example, was fulfilled in the Eucharist when we literally welcome the Bread of Life, the broken body of Jesus, into our very being. Likewise, when we sing the Song of Jesus, when we participate in Jesus as the Song, He becomes a part of us, body, soul and mind. The Christ-Song is the spiritual music in our lives.
The Infinity of the Song. Just as music, God’s greatest gift to mankind and the very language of heaven, has an infinite number of possibilities, the Christ-Song has an infinite number of styles, applications, qualities, moods. So it makes sense that the life and mission of Jesus can be explored by taking a careful look at the elements of a song. To study the aspects of the Christ-Song in the Gospels begs us to explore the elements of a song, any song. Hopefully, this study of the elements of the Christ-Song will make Him unforgettable, much like When words are put to music, they become unforgettable. When the living Word becomes the lyrics to a song, much the same happens. Hopefully, embracing Jesus Christ as the Song will make Him unforgettable as well. The elements of the Christ-Song can be explored through the ten elements of any song, including the lyrics:
The Word. What lyrics were, and still are, contained in the Christ-Song? As the Living Word, Jesus lived out compelling lyrics that would not be forgotten by anyone who had ears to hear or eyes to see. The Song’s verses captured the imagination, inspired the intellect, and nurtured the conscience. The central truths of the Christ-Song were expressed in highly winsome, creative ways. The main themes of the Christ-Song were sung in every way imaginable: Stories and Parables; Word Pictures; Illustrations; Object Lessons; Demonstrations; Morality Tales. And yet, since the truths being revealed in so many ways were sung by the Co-Creator of the universe, the lyrics fit together perfectly with the melody, the harmonies and the rhythms of the Song. First, though, the meaning of “The Word” as Logos. Then some of the lyrical verses will be looked at carefully. And then, finally, the lyrics of the Christ-Song will be studied as we look at the Song’s Composer, the Lord of Language, in the Kingdom of God.
“In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, for God created everything through Him; not one thing came into being except through Him. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” (John 1:1-4).
The Greek Logos. The Greek term for “word” was logos. Logos evidently started in the centuries before as a mathematical term, meaning to count up or give an accounting for, as in bookkeeping. It was still used occasionally in that way, such as in Matthew 12:26. For the most part, the term logos evolved into a Greek philosophical term. Using their famous Greek logical thinking, many Greek thinkers looked at our reasonable, well-ordered world and concluded that there must be a universal principle of Reason that is behind the running of the cosmos. They thought, mostly as a logical necessity, that there is an Intelligence somewhere, a transcendent source for this order that is beyond man’s understanding. There must be something that provides the world with this amazing form and coherence and exquisite design. They called this rather vague ideal “Logos.” This invisible force of Reason unifies the world into order from the chaos from before the world became reality. This logos is able to speak aloud, and whatever truth, goodness or beauty it speaks in fact exists the moment it is spoken. In a sense the Greek logos is able to create truth and reality. The Greeks never dreamed that their logos would become an actual person. The idea that logos would take on flesh would be laughable and unthinkable, and would actually defeat the whole purpose of this ideal of an impersonal, governing force in the world. The Greek logos had many hints of the true faith, though, and has been called a “bridge-word” because of the many Greeks who baptized the Greek logos into Christian belief after finding Christianity a logical step forward.
The Gospel Logos. The term Logos in John 1 has been the most debated and discussed term in all the Greek New Testament, according to the biblical scholars. It has been described and amplified and studied and defined in any number of ways. But for our purposes in the Christian faith, Jean Vanier’s definition of Logos is as good as any other: “Logos has come to mean the spoken Word, the thought and idea behind that Word, and the wisdom that inspired that Word.” The term logos was not a foreign word in that part of the world during the time of Jesus and the early Christians. The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, was widely used for biblical reading and considered the Bible of reference of that time. John decided to adopt that term and baptize the Greek version with a more complete understanding of it from the Christian viewpoint. In the New Testament era, logos meant the expression of a thought of the Father through the Holy Spirit; an utterance or a word embodying a divine idea; a message through speech or in writing; or more generally, reasoning expressed by words. John’s logos would include these sorts of thoughts:
(1.) There is indeed a universal Reason that is behind the well-ordered and reasonable world. This powerful force of divine intelligence is the God of the holy Scriptures, Yahweh, the Sovereign God who put the cosmos together. This God is the Person who created the world with His spoken Word, and has sustained it ever since.
(2.) This personal Creator God, the eternal Lord of the cosmos, wanted to yet again use His spoken Word to start a new beginning. God’s Word would once again be in the act of creation, but this time would create salvation and renewal. God’s spoken Word was actually a divine Presence, His Son, Jesus Christ.
(3.) The Creator God expressed Himself with His spoken Word, and His ultimate self-expression was when He revealed Himself to the world in the form of His Son. In this way, God revealed His divine Reason and Wisdom, and His desire to personally share His presence in this world He created. So God, the invisible Source of Reason and Wisdom, sent forth His Son as His visible, eternal spoken Word. Jesus, the spoken Word, is thus the Voice of God.
(4.) Jesus Christ is the Logos, the living Word of God, the Word who once said, “Let there be light!” That creative Word has taken on flesh and is the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus is the physical representative of God’s existence, heaven’s Ambassador of the Godhead to bring messages from His home. Jesus is the Co-Creator of the cosmos and has been face-to-face with the almighty God for all eternity. The Word that spoke light into the world has now become the Light of that world.
(5.) So John declares that Jesus, the Son of God, is in fact the Logos…not only the spoken Word of God in the flesh in anew creation, not only God’s thought behind that living Word, but also the embodiment of the Wisdom that inspired God’s spoken Word. John presents Jesus as the absolute revelation and self-expression of God. Jesus is Yahweh spoken into flesh, the holy Scripture in the form of a Person. If we want to read God’s mind, we read Jesus.
(A.) On STORIES as Verses in the Christ-Song:
Jesus could have taught the truth with three-point sermons explaining the orderly mystery of the Godhead. He could have centered on a long list of theological propositions and abstract concepts. He could have focused on spiritual information in logical sequence. But He didn’t. He instead wanted to capture the people’s imagination through story, through short and stimulating narratives that make a point. Jesus taught through His homespun parables using common things of everyday life to teach a deeper lesson about the Kingdom, about how God operates. Jesus knew His audience. The Jewish mind was trained for centuries to accept story as the means of communicating the truth. As Eugene Peterson put it in Christ Plays in 10,000 Places, “The Hebrew way to understand salvation was not to read a theological treatise but to sit around the campfire with family and friends and listen to a story.” So the centerpiece of Jesus’ discourse was story-telling. In fact at one point Scripture says He told nothing but parables (Matthew 13:34). His earthy stories were a creative way to come at the truth sideways to get attention and stimulate thought. His parables about everyday realities drew the audience in and were cleverly spun to inspire, to provoke, to illustrate, even to stump. Sometimes His parables were like firecrackers, designed to wake up the mind and light a fire in the heart. Other parables were like smoke bombs, offered to make things a little hazy to encourage the listener to pursue an idea further. Still other parables were straightforward common sense and fit perfectly into the Hebraic wisdom tradition. The stories of Jesus were designed to create “aha!” moments through word pictures, and anecdotes, and extended metaphors to reach the understanding of the audience. Unexpectedly, because they were couched in simple terms, parables were actually deep dives into meaningful theology. These truths were taught indirectly and not intellectually.
The word parable literally means to “throw down in the midst of.” So one can say that a parable is a story that is a verbal object thrown into a particular setting, often a conversation. Parables slip past defenses, wake up and pull in the hearers. As Emily Dickenson once wrote, “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant. Truth in indirection lies.” Rather than simply stating an abstract fact or conceptual proposition, Jesus often came at it sideways to get their attention, to inspire their imagination, to tell a truth at a slant.
Parables are meant to be provocative, homespun tales that have a main point. Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus, God in the flesh, loved to teach through the imagination, with stories, observations and anecdotes? One can make the case therefore, as Kenneth Bailey does, that Jesus was in fact teaching theology through his parables: “Jesus was a metaphorical theologian. That is, his primary method of creating meaning was through metaphor, simile, parable and dramatic action rather than through logic and reasoning. He created meaning like a dramatist and a poet rather than like a philosopher.” (Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, p. 279).
As we read the titles of these 35 gospel parables told by Jesus, and realize they are all wonderfully different verses in the Christ-Song, we are tempted to think that these are chapters in Aesop’s fairy tales. But they’re not. These stories are lyrical verses in the Song of Jesus, and are “serious theology.” (Kenneth Bailey): The Lost Coin; The New Wine; The Lost Sheep; The Sower and the Seed; The Sheep and the Goats; The Fishing Net; The Yeast in the Bread; The Seed Growing Secretly; The Unmerciful Servant; The Barren Tree; The Rich Fool; The Gracious Landowner; The Weeds and the Wheat; The Great Feast; The Obedient Servant; The Rich Man and Lazarus; The Longsuffering Vineyard Owner; The Two Builders; The Judge and the Widow; the Pharisee and the Tax Collector; The Shrewd Manager; The Master and His Money; The Ten Bridesmaids; The Camel and the Needle; The Good Samaritan; The Friend at Midnight; The Two Debtors; The Prodigal Son; The Pearl of Great Price; The Well-Trained Scribe; The Lost Coin; The Two Sons; The Wedding Feast; The Mustard Tree; The Narrow Gate.
Some of his stories were simpler than others, but all of his parables were rich with kingdom meaning, and therefore, stories containing deep theology. Interested listeners of the Storyteller in Song learned indirectly, through a divinely inspired imagination and a winsome, compelling personality. “Infuriating as this tactic (answering a question with another question) must have been to his opponents, another kind of answer Jesus gave to questions – the parables – was equally disturbing. His questioners usually wanted answers to what they considered binary problems – a simple yes or no would do. Thumbs up or down. Instead, they often get analogues. Parables. Little stories that had to be chewed on awhile before one could decode their message. Sometimes more than one. ‘The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed?’ What kind of answer is that? Just this: the kind that can be carried around inside a person because, being a picture, it’s not easily forgotten. The kind that doesn’t allow you to simply check another item off your list of cosmic mysteries. The kind that gradually pervades your imagination and soaks into your bloodstream and becomes part of your very tissue and bones. The kind you can live with for days, months, years, while it sprouts and may one day even bear fruit.” (Virginia Stem Owens, Looking for Jesus, p. 143).
(B.) On the I AMs as Verses in the Christ-Song:
I AM. Jesus startles His listeners quite often with His claim to be co-equal to the Great I AM, the sacred Name of Yahweh, the most important name in Judaism. When He does this, Jesus is staking His claim to divinity, to being a kin to God Himself, the Holy One. Yahweh was the personal Name of God spoken to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3:14), and is revered by all faithful Jews and supreme in importance to the Faith. For Jesus to refer to Himself with an abbreviated form of I AM WHAT I AM is nothing short of scandalous. By claiming to be I AM, Jesus doesn’t leave many options… He isn’t merely a Bible scholar, a super prophet, a faith healer, an inspired teacher, an effective exorcist, a miracle worker. Jesus takes all those impressions of Him off the table. He is either a con man, or crazy, or filled with the devil, or in fact equal to Yahweh in the flesh. He reveals Himself to be the I AM around 20 times in the Gospel of John alone, including seven times when He connects the Name to helpful metaphors for a deeper understanding of who He is. With every pronouncement of I AM, Jesus is claiming eternal kinship with God the Father. Jesus wasn’t shy about claiming the Name of Yahweh as His own.
Expanding the Name. When the LORD told Moses His Name of Yahweh, He left a lot to the imagination. I AM WHO I AM. I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE. I AM HE WHO EXISTS. Any person who is naturally curious would follow that up with… I AM, what, exactly? That’s quite a mysterious and elusive Name. And then Jesus comes along to help fill in some of the blanks by offering seven homespun word pictures in the Gospel of John: I AM the Bread of Life (6:35) who nourishes you with solid, spiritual food; I AM the Light of the World (8:12) who enables you to shine in purity, goodness and truth. I AM the Door (10:7) to the sheep pen who will welcome you to the flock of God; I AM the True Vine (15:1) who will provide what is needed to bear good fruit in your life; I AM the Resurrection and the Life (11:25) who will raise you from the dead into eternal life; I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life (14:6) who will guide you on the way to the Father in truth, with abundant life. After these plain-spoken pictures that served as parables, people couldn’t complain about the lack of clarity about the Great I AM. Jesus creatively and with picturesque language helped to clarify many aspects concerning the mysterious nature of Yahweh LORD.
(C.) On the ALPHABET as Verses in the Christ-Song:
“I AM the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22:13). I am indebted to Rev. Patrick Henry Reardon for getting me on to this track of thinking. His article on Ps. 119 in Christ in the Psalms was instrumental to this piece. Thank you, Rev. Reardon.
Jesus Incarnates the Divine Alphabet. This I AM statement of Jesus is different than all seven of His I AM references to Yahweh in the gospel of John. The timing is different, profoundly so. Here in Revelation we have an I AM claim of Jesus that comes after the Passion, after the Resurrection, after the Ascension, after He takes up His post at the right hand of the Father. His bold I AM claims of being co-equal with Yahweh, the Holy One, are now proven true in the spiritual world of divine experience. Jesus is now seated in the heavenlies, the ultimate fulfillment of all the I AM statements He made while on the earth. Jesus is indeed of one substance with Lord Yahweh. I AM is now reunited with the Great I AM. Jesus and the Father are now, have always been, will always be One, united, I AM What I AM, and I Will Be What I Will Be. The Lord of the Past tense, the Present tense, and the Future tense. The Lord of every tense imaginable, the ultimate “to be” verb, the I AM. Not only does Jesus fulfill all the final intentions of grammar, Jesus incarnates the divine alphabet, from the first letter to the last, from A to Z, from Alpha (the first letter in the Greek alphabet) to Omega (the last letter). Jesus is first to Last, Beginning to End.
Jesus is A to Z, because He is eternal. He was there at the beginning, and He’ll be there at the end. He is the originator of all things, and the fulfillment of all things. He was the starting point of history, and He is its destiny. He is the origin of life, and He is the goal of life. He is the prototype of humanity, and its final glory. He embraces all the eternal truth of God’s knowledge, from the first letter of His first word to the last letter of His last word, from the beginning of time to the conclusion of time, from Creation to Restoration. Jesus is the essence of everything in God’s Reality.
Jesus is the Lord of Language. So naturally He refers to the Greek alphabet three times in the Book of Revelation (1:8; 21:6; 22:13). He owns every letter that can form a word that can state a thought. He is every word of truth that those letters communicate, for He is the ultimate truth, conveying all God’s thoughts, giving form to substance. Language is God’s gift to help us understand God’s thoughts, which means Jesus is the ultimate purpose of language. Words are intended to articulate the wisdom of God, and Jesus is the embodiment of wisdom, so Jesus is the goal of all human and divine language.
Jesus is the world’s only complete sentence. He completely spells out God’s being. He was the first Word, and He will be the last Word, on the path to Truth. Any letter forming any word that does not find its eventual home in Jesus does not contain the knowledge of God. Any such word ends up being nonsense, incomplete, pointless. Jesus is the origin and destiny of every true word, for He is the Truth and He is the Word. Jesus is the starting point and the ending point of all divine knowledge and Reality. Jesus transcends the grammar of tense and time. He is a mystery that will be fully revealed at the end of time. For now, Jesus is God’s complete sentence that cannot be diagrammed.
“Christ is God’s Word abbreviated, in the sense that all that God has to say is summed up in Christ.” (Reardon*). The written Word can be summarized in the Living Word. God has even more to say, because His capacity for thought is unbounded. And even His unfettered thought is merely an extended version of one little Name. Christ is the essential thought in God’s mind. Christ is the essential truth in God’s Reality. When thinking of truth, Christ is everything God has to say on the matter. Jesus is the alpha to omega of God’s thinking, the A to Z of human and divine language.
Jesus contains every letter of the whole alphabet of Reality. He embraces all the in between letters, not just the beginning and end. He is our King of the in between when we walk with him after the beginning of our life (which is good), and before the end of our life (which will be good). Those in between letters are a vital part of Reality for us. “Each of us has been cast as the protagonist in the novel that is our life. We’re assured a happy ending to that novel. But whether we become a noble character or a tragic one depends on how we live out the truth of the gospel in the middle pages.” (Eugene Peterson).
(D.) On ILLUSTRATIONS as Verses in the Christ-Song.
Another inspirational aspect of Jesus’ teaching was His use of illustrations, especially from nature. He was comfortable pointing to physical creation in making his lesson heard. Nature was often His prop in the illustration of a spiritual truth. For instance, He would often use the image of a harvest when thinking of vast groups of people who would respond to the Good News (Luke 10 and Matt. 9). He referred to the fields white for harvest while watching a village full of Samaritans in their white cloaks approaching Him after talking with the woman at the well (John 4). Jesus would often point to natural things like salt (Matt. 5), light (Matt. 5), and the eye (Matt. 6). Jesus would happily point to nature as visual aids: “Look at the birds!” He would say. “Look at the lilies of the field!” (Matt. 6). Jesus loved to illustrate His lessons by focusing on whatever part of nature was handy as reference points to spiritual truth. Jesus seemed to find nature close at hand whenever He spotted a teachable moment. He would use nature to capture the imagination and make the connections between an abstract thought and an aspect of nature. Jesus knew that a natural illustration would spark the imagination of the audience, and would be an effective way to bring His lesson home.
(D.) On OBECT LESSONS As Verses in the Christ-Song:
As a Master Teacher, Jesus was an entrepreneur of learning. Any object could inspire Him to make an object lesson. Any person could become a visual aid. Any teachable moment was insightfully seized by Jesus if the disciples were around. The world was His classroom without walls. He consistently inspired His listeners to become learners. His three-year ministry was one long teachable moment, so intent was He on discipling the people in His midst. He would use the tangible to teach an intangible idea. He would use a physical object to teach a moral principle or abstract truth, including:
The Roman Denarius Coin (Matt. 22:17-22) = Caesar’s image on the coin means we pay him for government benefits. But since human beings bear the image of God, we owe to God our ultimate allegiance;
The Poor Widow (Mark 12:41-44) = She gave all she had, trusting in God’s future faithfulness to her. But the so-called generous man only gave from his surplus and therefore did not trust God’s faithfulness to him for future support;
The Fig Tree (Matt. 21:18-22) = The barrenness of the fig tree illustrated the spiritual unfruitfulness of Israel’s religious institutions;
The Young Child (Matt 18:1-6) = Children are held up as prime examples of believers as they live a life of transparent honesty, energetic curiosity, unabashed adventure, and a natural trust in the older authorities around them;
The Disabled Man in the Synagogue (Mark 3:1-6) = Life-giving miracles outweigh technical rules about the Sabbath;
The Sinful Woman at Dinner (Luke 7:36-48) = The humility and repentance of a sinner leads to salvation, while the self-righteousness of the religious person does not;
The Guilty Adulteress (John 8:3-11) = God’s unmerited grace outweighs the judgment of others who haven’t faced up to their own sinfulness;
The Foot-Washing (John 13:12-17) = If the almighty Lord of the universe in the flesh is willing to stoop in servanthood to others, then so can followers of Him;
Scars and Wounds (John 20:24-29) = Jesus in His mercy will do whatever it takes to prove His divinity to the doubting skeptic or firm unbeliever.
(E.) On the KINGDOM as the Chorus in the Christ-Song: Yes, there was a shortened lyric that kept referring to the main theme of the verses. This chorus repeated itself between each verse, because it was the Christ-Song in a nutshell… “The Kingdom of God is in your midst!” This refrain kept popping up in Jesus’ ministry, and kept putting everything in perspective. The chorus of the Kingdom was the context for everything Jesus sang about. The Kingdom chorus was sung in a variety of ways… “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 4:17); “the good news of the Kingdom.” (Matt. 4:23-24); “Your Kingdom come, Father.”(Matt. 6:21-23); “the Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21); “the Kingdom of God is among you!” (Luke 17:21). The healing ministry of Jesus was conducted with the Kingdom in mind (Matt. 4:23-24), as well as the prayer of life of Christ (Matt. 6). Even the teachings of Jesus with His disciples was Kingdom-oriented: “To you is granted to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 13:11).
Within the Christ-Song lies a refrain that highlights a wonderful secret of the Kingdom, a sacred mystery… Wherever Jesus is, we will find the Kingdom. Is Jesus in our midst? If so, we’re in the Kingdom. Is the Spirit of Jesus within us? If so, we are indeed a Kingdom citizen. The Kingdom is present wherever Jesus is King. His Kingdom is wherever the Father’s will is done on earth as it is done in heaven. And there will come a time when we will experience the Kingdom in all its glory. We might see it incompletely in this world right now, but the final installment is coming and our joy will be complete. In the meantime, nothing could be better than singing the Kingdom chorus in the Christ-Song.