Thursday, February 13, 2025
Just Another Ordinary Day: Is Jesus A Bowling Buddy or God?
 
Psalm 138:6   For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly,
                        but the haughty he knows from afar.
 
            There are times in the Christian’s life when we can get really quite comfortable with Jesus. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. However, the Christian in his comfortableness dare not lose sight that Jesus is really God—the loving, merciful, compassionate God—but God, nonetheless.
            The excerpts below are from Ancient Church bishops and scholars.
 
God Watches over the Humble[1]
 
THE LORD OBSERVES THE LOWLY. AUGUSTINE: Perhaps because [the psalm] said, “The Lord is sublime and observes lowly things,” you say to yourself, “Then he does not observe me.” What could be more unfortunate than you, if he does not observe you but ignores you? Observing indicates compassion; ignoring indicates contempt. But no doubt, because the Lord observes lowly things, you imagine you escape his notice, because you are not humble or lowly, you are high and mighty, you are proud. That is not the way to be missed by the eyes of God. I mean, just see what it says there: “The Lord is sublime.” Sublime indeed. How are you going to get to him? Will you look for a ladder? Look for the wood of humility,⁵ and you have already gotten to him. “The Lord is sublime, he observes lowly things, but high and mighty things” (do not imagine you escape notice, you that are so proud) “but high and mighty things he knows from afar.” He knows them, all right, but from afar. “Salvation is far from sinners.”⁶ SERMON 70A.2.
 
GOD SEES THE PROUD FROM AFAR. AUGUSTINE: We have heard, and it is clear; we had gone outside, we have been sent within. “O would that I had found,” you said, “some high and lonely mountain! For, I believe, because God is on high, he hears me from a high place.” Because you are on a mountain, do you think that you are near God and that you are heard quickly, as if shouting from nearby? He dwells on high, but “he looks on the lowly.” “The Lord is near.” To whom? Perhaps to the high? “To those who are contrite of heart.” It is a wondrous thing: he both lives on high and draws near to the lowly. “He looks on the lowly, but the high he knows from afar.” He sees the proud from afar; the higher they seem to themselves, so much of the less does he approach them. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 15.25.1.
 
LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS TO THE LORD. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: Today we are keeping the solemn festival of the ascension. If, therefore, we celebrate the Lord’s ascension in a manner that is right, holy, faithful, devout and pious, we must ascend with him and lift up our hearts. Now as we ascend, let us not be lifted up with pride or presume on our merits as if they were our own. For we ought indeed to lift up our hearts, but to the Lord alone. A heart lifted up but not to the Lord is called pride; a heart lifted up to the Lord is called a refuge. See, brethren, the great miracle. God is on high. You exalt yourself, and he flees from you; you humble yourself, and he descends to you. Why is this? Because “the Lord is exalted, yet the lowly he sees, and the proud he knows from afar.” He recognizes what is lowly from close at hand in order that he may raise it up; what is high, that is, what is proud, he knows from afar in order that he may bring it down. Christ truly arose from the dead in order to give us hope, because the person who dies rises again. He gave us assurance, so that we might not despair in dying and think our whole life ended in death. We were troubled about our very soul, but by rising from the dead he also gave us confidence in the resurrection of the body. SERMON 210.2.
 
729 I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus
5     I am trusting Thee for power;
    Thine can never fail.
Words which Thou Thyself shalt give me
    Must prevail.
 
6     I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus;
    Never let me fall.
I am trusting Thee forever
    And for all.
Text: Public domain


[1] Blaising, Craig A. and Carmen S. Hardin, eds., Psalms 51–150. ACCS 8. ICCS/Accordance electronic edition, version 2.6. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2007. 381-382.