Full of Grace and Truth

A lie is the truth! So seems postmodernist verbal sleight-of-hand. Postmodernism can be tied to a number of intellectual trends, from a denial of any normative overarching metanarrative to the relativity of truth, but most postmodernists assume with ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras that “Man is the measure of all things” and that we humans are the sole source of meaning, morality, and “truth.”[1] Postmodern philosophy constructs “truth” unconnected to any referent in objective reality “out there.” As the godfather of postmodernism, Friedrich Nietzsche, said, we create truth from out of the perspective of our perceived need, in our contemporary world, out of marginalization, powerlessness, racial, gender, or sexual oppression.[2]

The unfitness and insufficiency of the postmodern rhetoric to account satisfactorily and do justice to the way things are was vividly lit up for me in the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation trial last spring 2022. The celebrity trial fascinated millions of people worldwide. Depp contended that Heard damaged his reputation by declaring through various public media sources that he had committed domestic violence against her and physically and sexually abused her. Amber’s statements under oath highlight for me the postmodern proclivity to use objectively false “true-for-me” statements as authentic, legitimate, moral speech protesting exploitation and abuse of an oppressed class—in this case, a woman Amber Heard.

Ms. Heard spoke as a vulnerable woman oppressed by a rich, violent man. In the Virginia court of law, she accused Johnny Depp of beating her up and breaking her nose. Photos of her face the next night after a gala showed no signs of being beaten—no marring, no swelling or bruising, and no crooked nose. There were no doctor visits. When confronted with her speech and the lack of correspondence to actual outside reality, she defended her speech saying it certainly “felt broken”!

To Amber, “felt broken” is the same as being broken. No, they are not the same. Neither does “felt broken” describe the fact he had not struck her at all! A claim must correlate with the facts it describes. Rather than creating a harmony of justice in which right is restored and the injured party and the malefactor get what each deserves, Amber Heard’s speech created injustice she sought to right. Amber Heard was not the injured party. Heard’s claim, “I spoke up against sexual violence,” justified as authentic testimony of an oppressed woman, carries significance only if it is connected with actual oppression. If she was not an offended party against whom sexual violence had been committed, words to that effect are simply untrue.

In fact, Johnny Depp proved to be the injured party because the public prior to the trial considered Amber Heard’s words to be connected to actual reality and acted accordingly. Movie studios did not renew Depp’s contracts for leading roles such as iconic pirate “Jack Sparrow” in Pirates of the Caribbean and villain “Gellert Grindelwald” in Fantastic Beasts. Depp was deemed an abuser of women. His reputation suffered and he lost employment.[3] Of course, in recent days our society has done at least a marginally better job taking the claims of real victims seriously, but if claims of abuse are demonstrably manufactured, investing them with authority will not advance the cause of justice, but subvert it.

With postmodernism denying truth as objective and considering only personal perspective authentic, the Depp/Heard trial claims drew me this Advent season to juxtapose it with the Word become flesh “full of grace and truth.” The Incarnate Word’s claims of deity were and have been received or rejected since based on whether they correspond to objective, existent reality. In Acts 2:17 and following, Jesus’ disciple Peter told the Jewish crowd on Pentecost that the Lord’s display of deity by acts of power and might was visible to them as eyewitnesses. Though defying human explanation, His words and wondrous acts connected with this real, corporeal world.

The truth embodied in Jesus is not rhetoric originating from Jesus’ particular perspective as a minority Jew subjugated by an imperial Roman power. It was and remains words and acts corresponding with reality they describe and to which they were directed. The Word become flesh has abided with this vulnerability for millennia. Christian teaching has from the very first century rejected Gnostic tendencies to separate the Word from His incarnation in this sensual, material world. The Word become flesh full “of truth” in correspondence to this world is a fascinating contrast to postmodernism’s refusal to be evaluated by the truth and falsity of the existent, objective world. The Word become flesh “full of grace and truth” connected to this objective world beckons all to view Him in accordance with it.

In postscript, the Word become flesh is judged against the objective world, but the objective world is also judged against Him. He the Truth came “to testify to the truth” that the way things are inhere in Him. His Advent promises “the glories of his righteousness.” He reveals Himself the universal scale by which all things are weighed, including oppressor, and oppressed; and all, both oppressor and oppressed, are found wanting; neither is the way they’re supposed to be.

Certainly, though Johnny Depp had not physically or sexually abused Amber Heard, the trial testimony disclosed that before God there was sin and offense enough on both sides. The Word become flesh full of truth reveals that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”; yet the Advent season points to the Word become flesh who is not only full of truth but also full of grace. The Gospel John says, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Indeed, His truth promises the oppressed and the oppressor justice! But better yet, His grace promises each undeserved grace more than either deserves, more than either you or I deserve. Truly good tidings of great joy and good news indeed. Merry Christmas!

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[1] I have referred to Douglas Groothuis’s book in writing this piece.  See, Douglas Groothuis, Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism  (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2000).

[2] This has resulted in a transition from what Charles Taylor calls a “mimetic view,” according to which the world has objective order and meaning, to a “poietic” view that sees the world as so much raw material out of which meaning and purpose can be cranked by the individual. 

[3] Abby Gorzlancyk, “The Defamed Explained: Depp v. Heard,” Syracuse Law Review, Syracuse University/College of Law, June 9, 2022.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Ambivalence of the Cross as Symbol

A Twilight Musing

Do you wear a cross around your neck or have one on display elsewhere on your person?  If so, is it simple or elaborate, and what is your purpose in wearing it?  How many crosses might you see during the course of a day?  Most churches we pass have a cross somewhere on the building, most likely at the top of a spire, perhaps on the sign out front, and very probably at one or more spots inside the building.  If there are paintings inside, Jesus on the cross will be given prominence as a subject.   The very shape of many older churches is what is called “cruciform.” All this should cause us to ask, “What kind of religious purpose prompts its adherents to give such ubiquitous attention to an instrument of torture and utter humiliation?  Do we realize the strangeness of honoring such an image and wearing it as jewelry and giving it prominence in our art and architecture?

As we participate in the Lord’s Supper, we do well to consider whether we have appropriately assessed the cross of Christ.  Jesus regarded it as something to be taken up and borne, a token of self-denial, not only for Himself but for His disciples (see Matt. 15:24-25).  He set the example of embracing his cross, humbling Himself and “becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8).   It is no light matter to be associated with the cross on which the Son of God died.  Paul considers the cross of Christ to be the instrument by which he “has been crucified . . . to the world” and the world to him.  In other words, the cross represents his sharing in the death of Christ, and thus it is to be to us.  It is a symbol of our willingness to radically forsake the supposed wisdom of the fallen world around us and to identify with “Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (I Cor. 1:23).

In making these remarks, I am reminded of a poem by T. S. Eliot, “The Journey of the Magi.”  It depicts the Wise Men making their arduous pilgrimage to see and pay homage to the newborn Messiah.  As they encounter bad weather, disloyal servants, and villages that gouge them with high prices, they wondered if “this was all folly.”  They finally come to the end of their journey and see the Christ child, but that epiphany is tempered by a concomitant vision of “three trees on the low sky” (i.e., the crosses on Calvary), leading the speaker of the poem to wonder,

Were we led all that way for

Birth or Death?  There was a Birth, certainly

We had evidence and no doubt.  I had seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

This is an appropriate presentation, I think, of the ambiguity of the Cross of Christ; it reminds us of the Divine Man whose very birth had death as its purpose, and it ought to remind us that we, like the Magi, can no longer be “at ease here, in the old dispensation.”  Also like them, we “should be glad of another death,” by which we are dead to the world but alive in the Christ who alone brought glory to the cross.      

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Lord’s Supper Meditation – Commonality and Individuality

A Twilight Musing

Paul’s comments on the Lord’s Supper in I Cor. 11:17-34 are meaningfully followed by a chapter on the importance of communal and harmonious life together in the Body of Christ.  The abuses of the Lord’s Supper in chapter 11 are related to the absence of any sense of commonality in the church at Corinth, so that some poor members were being contemptuously ignored by those who were wealthy.  Chapter 12 of I Corinthians emphasizes the need of all members of the Body to appreciate and value each other, obscuring the superficial differences between them and embracing the lowly and the exalted with equal fervor.  Chapter 13 then goes on to assert “a still more excellent way,” the bonding of all members of the Body into a symphony of love.  The appropriate frame of mind in our partaking of the Lord’s Supper is that God cherishes and reaffirms both our individual gifts in the Body and our identity as one organism, with common purpose and mutual affection for one another.

As we commune together, we need to recognize that Jesus died for His Church, but also for each of us who constitute the Church.  “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (I Cor. 12:27).  Our Western culture cries out for individualism of a sort that gives us license to define who we are; but that identification is God’s prerogative.  Saul of Tarsus was seeking to establish his own identity as one who, by persecuting Christians and casting them in prison, would be regarded as “extremely zealous . . . for the traditions of [his] fathers” (Gal. 1:14).  But God stopped him in his tracks and called him to a radically new identity, in which he was to preach to both Jews and Gentiles “the faith he once tried to destroy” (see Gal. 1:13-24).  Consequently, he could say after he had accepted God’s definition for him that he had been “crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20).

How are we to know who we are in the eyes of God?  First of all, we must be still enough to let Him assign us our place: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (I Pet. 5:6).  This exaltation includes being called “children of God” (I Jn. 3:1), a privilege that can be attributed only to the undeserved love of God.  However, our individual identities as children of God feed into our relationships with each other in the Body of Christ; as children of God, we are “joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16-17).  If we are siblings in the Body of Christ, we find our full identity in serving one another, as Jesus did.  He could have claimed special status as the only “natural” Son of God, but He “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (Phil. 2:6-7).  Only as we serve one another do we fulfill our identity in Christ.  The only place for “competition” is in “[outdoing] one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10).  But this sort of holy abnegation is leading us to an eternal relationship to God that is the ultimate individualized identity: “To the one who conquers I [Christ] will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”  In the heavenly state, we will see God face to face and will rejoice in knowing Him as He knows us (see I Cor. 13:12).

In the meantime, “until He comes” to take us to Himself, we rejoice in being defined by where He has placed us in the Body that He inhabits and directs.  As we commune together in the Lord’s Supper, we affirm the worth that He imparts to us as units of His own Body.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Lord’s Supper Meditation - The Ever-Renewing Legacy

A Twilight Musing

Recently, our daughter received an unexpected legacy through the will of a deceased friend of the family.  She was of course delighted to receive it and considered herself blessed by God through our friend.  But the pleasure was tempered by the fact that the gift came as a result of our friend’s death.  Her response reminded me of a passage in the book of Hebrews that speaks of Christ’s death activating a kind of will that bequeaths certain benefits to His disciples.

Therefore [Christ] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. (Heb. 9:15-17)

 Accordingly, when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, which commemorates the death of Christ, we also remember that we are receiving the benefits, or the legacy of His death.

The chief and most overarching of these benefits is, as the writer of Hebrews notes, deliverance from our transgressions and the cleansing of our consciences “from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). We are thus enabled to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord [we] will receive the inheritance as [our] reward” (Eph 3:23-24).  The beauty of the bequest spoken of here is that we will inherit, not as bondservants, but as children, having “received the Spirit of adoption as sons [and daughters], by whom we cry, ’Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:15-17).

Another bequest coming to us as a result of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you,” and He “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:7, 13).  In addition, the Spirit will intercede for us with the Father (Rom. 8:26), and “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in [us], he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to [our] mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in [us]” (Rom. 8:11).  Moreover, the Spirit seals us for salvation and is “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it” (Eph. 1:13-14).

Also, as we inherited from the First Adam the penalty of death because of our sin, so through the death of the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, we have received “the free gift of righteousness” and are thereby “reconciled to God” (Rom. 5:17, 10; see whole passage, vv. 8-21).  How glorious that our inheritance through Christ supersedes our inheritance from the fallen Adam!

Finally, our legacy from Christ gives us citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven, for God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:12-14).  Like Abraham, we recognize that we are pilgrims on this earth and long for “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16).  We share with Jesus a kingdom not of this world (see John 18:36), and through Him we have become “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (I Pet. 2:9).

So let us partake of the Lord’s Supper with appropriate understanding of the gifts bequeathed to us by His death.  We are privileged legatees of the Son of God.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Ethics, Morals, and Good Friday: A Lesson in Loyalty and Disloyalty

Judas Iscariot (right), retiring from the Last Supper, painting by Carl Bloch, late 19th century

What comes to mind when you think of Good Friday? On the cultural side, perhaps a day off from school, one last Lenten fish fry sponsored by the local Knights of Columbus, or making sure someone knows to bring the ham and deviled eggs to dinner on Easter Sunday. On the religious side, talk of Good Friday usually evokes images of a traitor name Judas, Peter’s three denials of his relationship to Jesus, and the bloody and disfigured body of the Lord hanging lifeless on a Roman cross. What about ethics? What about morals? Do these two words come to mind when you think of Good Friday? Maybe. Maybe not. At the heart of Good Friday, we find poignant though beautiful ethical and moral lessons giving voice to divine grace and love as they whisper and even shout the gospel message. Before I discuss one of those lessons, let’s make sure we understand the overlap and distinctions between ethics and morals.

Most will have a general sense of the terms, maybe even thinking they are synonymous. Insofar as they both relate to matters of right and wrong, good and bad, ethics and morals are similar. However, there is an essential distinction between the terms as they are used today. Speaking of ethics tells of the more theoretical aspects of right and wrong, asking questions about the nature of the good life, duty, obligation, or right actions. For example, if I say that murder is wrong, I make an ethical statement. Morals are a bit different, less theoretical, and more practical. When we speak of morality, we address concerns related to behavior, conduct, and rules for a particular person or society. When I say that it is wrong to take the life of an unborn child, I am speaking about morality. Such a statement certainly has an ethical foundation: murder is wrong. However, when I apply that ethical norm to concerns over aborting a defenseless child, I move from the theoretical to the practical, from ethics to morality. Assuming the similarities and distinctions between ethics and morals are somewhat clearer, how do they relate to Good Friday? Consider one way, one lesson about ethics and morals from the narrative, a lesson drawn from the actions of Judas and Peter: I call it a lesson in loyalty and disloyalty.

Before Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, he walked with the Lord for three and a half years. He ate with Jesus, witnessed the miracles, sat at his Rabbi’s feet, and listened to the Truth speaking the truth. Judas was entrusted with the money and ministered alongside the other disciples. Yet, in the end, after letting Jesus wash his feet and Satan fill his heart, he betrays the Son of God for thirty silver pieces. Then he hung himself. Peter was the self-appointed spokesman of the Twelve, the first to verbalize that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Peter was the only one who got out of the boat and attempted to walk on water, and he didn’t hesitate to draw his sword to protect Jesus and cut away Malchus’s ear. Yet, when pressed, his boldness evaporated, and his heart filled with cowardice. Though warned ahead of time by Jesus, he still did it; Peter denied his King not once, not twice, but three times. But he didn’t give up. Did he grieve? Yes. Was he broken? Absolutely. He was also one of the first two disciples at the empty tomb, and he didn’t fear jumping from his fishing boat into the water as he rushed to shore to embrace his risen Savior.

What might we learn from these two men, both loved by Jesus and part of His handpicked group of leaders? What do we learn as we consider that Judas went into the darkness and never returned, while Peter also went into the night but returned to the one who said He was the Light of the World? We learn about ethics and morals, loyalty and disloyalty. As an ethical consideration, loyalty relates to the duty and obligation of support and allegiance. Ethical loyalty is not blind sycophantic devotion divorced from an objective standard of goodness and its corollary oughts. Far from such a perversion of virtue, ethical loyalty centers on supporting and giving allegiance to a principle more than a person, or, in the case of Jesus, to the Person who is the living principle of the good and right. Peter eventually understood this and acted accordingly when Judas did not, bringing us to the morality of loyalty. When we realize that morality is the practical expression of ethical concern, we see just how moral Peter was contrasted to Judas’s tragic immorality. Because Peter committed himself to the ethic of loyalty, he was able to rise after falling, to grieve and repent until he eventually made his way back to Jesus. This is the point of Jesus asking Peter three times if he loved Him that morning on the beach after the resurrection. Each question Jesus asked was salve applied to Peter’s self-inflicted wound of temporary disloyalty. Each time Jesus responded with the commands to Peter to feed and tend the His sheep, Jesus was reminding Peter that He was loyal to him and willing to trust him once more: Jesus and Peter teach us the ethics and morals of loyalty.

Sadly, we learn from Judas the ethics and morals of disloyalty, a lesson in unfaithfulness, a lesson in violating allegiance and duty. Because Judas abandoned his ethical commitment to remain loyal to Jesus (yes, I do believe Judas fell away from something, from Someone he did know and at one time even love, and that Someone never stopped loving Judas), he willingly corrupted his morality and made himself subject to even greater corruption by Satan. Judas chose disloyalty when he could have chosen loyalty. He decided to grieve and die instead of grieve and return to seek the Lord’s mercy and live. There was room for another in Peter’s boat that morning, and Judas could have jumped in the water with Peter had he still been alive. He could have sought mercy from Jesus and even been restored, but he didn’t. It’s not that Judas could not. He would not. His compromise and fall into ethical disloyalty led to moral disloyalty. His fall is a poignant reminder of the ethics and morals of disloyalty.

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T. J. is a pastor, author, theologian, and apologist, with graduate degrees in Apologetics, Chaplaincy, Church Ministries, Philosophy, and Theology; and doctoral degrees in Biblical Studies, Leadership, and Pastoral Counseling. He became a Christian in 1978, was called into ministry that same year, and began preaching in 1984. T. J. has served as a youth pastor, evangelist, church planter, Christian school teacher and administrator, Army chaplain, pastoral counselor, and senior pastor. His ongoing writing work includes several published books and articles, and he currently serves as Sr. Minister at First Christian Church and Headmaster at Compass Christian Academy, both in West Frankfort, IL. In addition to his duties as Executive Editor at MoralApologetics.com, T. J. is also Executive Vice-President at BellatorChristi.com and an adjunct professor at Carolina University's Piedmont Divinity School. His areas of specialization include preaching and Bible teaching theory and practice, applied moral apologetics, Thomistic philosophy from an evangelical perspective, religious epistemology focused on passional reason, leadership theory and practice, and pastoral counseling drawn from a solution-focused brief therapy modality. He holds board certification as a chaplain and pastoral counselor and is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, Evangelical Philosophical Society, Society for Christian Philosophers, Evangelical Homiletics Society, International Society of Christian Apologetics, Association of Certified Christian Chaplains, and the Evangelical Missiological Society. T. J. and his wife, Amy, are blessed with five children.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Siblings of the High Priest

Melchisedech, Jacques Bergé

A Twilight Musing

The book of Hebrews presents us with a profound treatment of Jesus Christ as our High Priest under the New Covenant, and the truth embodied therein is relevant to our observance of the Lord’s Supper.  Unlike any high priest under the Old Covenant (the Law of Moses), Jesus was appointed High Priest apart from any qualifications of lineage, in the image of the Old Testament character, Melchizedek, priest and king of Salem.  The writer of Hebrews (see especially chapters 5-7) goes to some length to describe and establish the relationship between this mysterious figure and the Messiah. We may see in our observance of the Lord’s Supper a reflection of this unique priesthood of our Lord Jesus, as well as an affirmation that we are privileged to participate in that priesthood.

It seems presumptuous to speak of our participating in the priesthood of Christ, but Jesus paved the way for us to be identified with Him in that way by entering into and participating in the realm of our suffering.  The writer of Hebrews presents it thus:

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.  (Heb. 2:17-18)

It was God’s will that the Incarnate Son should be made “perfect through suffering,” so that “he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified [would] all have one source”; and “That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers” (Heb. 2:10-11).  Therefore, having a high priest who “has been tempted as we are, yet without sin, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:15-16).  Yea, even as Jesus the perfect High Priest entered the Holy of Holies “as a forerunner on our behalf” (Heb. 6:20) to offer Himself as the unblemished and eternally sufficient sacrifice, we “have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain” (Heb. 10:19-20)

Thus it is that, in the likeness of Melchizedek and our Lord Jesus, we are identified as priests in the Kingdom of God, not by any right of lineage or other qualifications, but entirely by the grace and appointment of God.  Through Jesus, we “like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (I Pet 2:5).  As we partake of the elements of bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, we identify with Jesus being both priest and sacrifice, accepting the admonition of Paul in Rom. 12:1 to present our bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Four Reasons Jesus Died

Editor’s note: This article was originally written for Foundations.

Sometime around 33 A.D., in the springtime, Jesus was crucified on a cross. He endured the most brutal and tortuous form of capital punishment in perhaps all of human history. Today, many people throughout the world recognize the Cross as the symbol of the Christian faith. This is appropriate since the Bible clearly teaches that the death of Jesus is absolutely central to the gospel, the good news which Jesus tasked His followers to believe and proclaim. The Apostle Paul says, “that Christ died for our sins” is of “first importance.” But what is the meaning of the Cross? Why did Jesus have to die?

Christians have reflected on this question for nearly two thousand years. In that time, the church has uncovered several different reasons for the Atonement or death of Christ. These different reasons are ultimately harmonious and complementary; they are like the facets of a diamond. Each facet reveals something important and beautiful about the meaning and purpose of the Cross. 

Facet 1: Jesus’s Death as Ransom 

Key verse: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45 

The Bible tells us that Jesus’s death was a ransom. The Old Testament provides some context for the biblical notion of “ransom.” Perhaps the most vivid example comes in the book of Ruth. In this story, we meet Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth’s husband had died, as well as her sons, and she was left alone and suffering. Fortunately, the law outlined the role of a “kinsman redeemer,” who would be legally obligated to redeem by ransom a family member who had been sold into slavery (Lev. 25:47-55).  Boaz ransomed or redeemed Ruth, buying back her former husband’s property and marrying Ruth, saving her from a life of poverty and hunger. Throughout the Old Testament, “to ransom” often has the sense of “buying back.” 

In the New Testament, Jesus says that He has come to give his life as “ransom for many.” Paul says that Jesus “gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). But who did God pay ransom to? Some have suggested that God paid Satan the ransom, but that is not supported by the Bible. Instead, we should think of God as satisfying the demands of His own righteousness in order to be our redeemer; He “bought us back” so that we might be free. 

Facet 2: Jesus’s Death as Victory over Evil

Key verse: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:14). 

The Bible also tells us that by his death, Jesus gained victory over the powers of evil. The very first prophecy in the Bible foreshadows this victory. After God created Adam and Eve, they were tempted by the serpent, who is Satan (cf. Rev. 12:9). Though Adam and Eve sinned, in Genesis 3:15, God said that a descendant of Eve would someday “crush the head” of the serpent. God promised that He would decisively defeat the devil through a human person. Christ, who is both fully God and fully man brought this about. By his death, Jesus freed humanity from the power of Satan. But Christ also demonstrated his power over death itself. Though Christ died on the Cross, the Father raised Him again, proving that death itself is “swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54). By the Cross, Christ defeats both sin and death; He crushes the head of the serpent. As the Bible says, “thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57). 

Facet 3: Jesus’s Death as Moral Example 

Key verse: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21)

The Cross also shows us what God is like and how we should live. The Bible says that Jesus died for us because He loves us (cf. Rom. 5:8). In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a shepherd who left his entire flock to seek and save a single lost sheep. The shepherd searches for the missing sheep until he finds it and he “joyfully puts it on his shoulders” (Luke 15:5). Like the shepherd, Jesus says that He has come to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). The Cross shows us the love of God. 

The Cross also shows us what sort of life we should live. By dying on the Cross, Jesus shows that He is obedient to God’s will. And Jesus shows us how we ought to love others. Love is not merely a feeling and godly love may require personal sacrifice. Like Jesus, we may need to give of ourselves, whether that be our money, time, or even our lives. But, we also know that God sees what we do, that He is a just God, and He will reward us for following his commandments (1 Pt. 1:4).  

Facet 4: Jesus’s Death as Substitutionary Atonement 

Key verse: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness…” (Romans 3:25a). 

Jesus also died as a substitute for sinners. In the Old Testament, Israel sacrificed animals to cover their sins. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would slaughter a goat as a sin offering. This was for the “wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites–all their sins” (Lev. 16:21). This did not take away the guilt of sin (cf. Heb. 10:4), but it does show us that the “wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). 

Sin is a great offense to holiness and justice of God (cf. Hab. 1:13). God could not simply forgive sin because He is a God of justice. He would be like a judge who let a convicted murderer go free. A judge that ignores the law would be no judge at all. But because God loves us, He paid the penalty of sin Himself by sending His Son to die in the place of sinners. In this way, God shows Himself to be “just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). God is God of holiness and of love; both features of God’s character are seen in the Cross of Jesus Christ. 

Conclusion

Jesus died on the cross for many reasons. Each of these reasons reveals something about who God is and why Jesus had to die. Jesus died to ransom and redeem us from death. He died to demonstrate His power and ultimate victory over sin and death. The Cross shows us that God loves us and wants us to live a life of obedience to God and love for others. Finally, Jesus’s death makes atonement for our sin so that we can be right with God. Without the Cross, we would be doomed to suffering and death. But because of it, we can live forever with God. 

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The Managing Editor of MoralApologetics.com, Jonathan has been a vital part of the Moral Apologetics team since its inception. Currently, he is the E-Learning Project Manager at ICM. He also serves as adjunct instructor of philosophy for Grand Canyon University and Liberty University. He also is affiliate faculty at Colorado Christian University. Prior to these positions, he was ordained as a minister and served as spiritual life director. He is the author or co-author of several articles on metaethics, theology, and history of philosophy. With a Master’s in Global Apologetics and a graduate of Biola’s Master’s program in philosophy, he recently finished his doctoral dissertation in which he extends a four-fold moral argument from mere theism to a distinctively Christian picture of God. Jonathan, his wife Sara, and their two children presently live in Lynchburg, Virginia. You can find his personal website at JonathanRPruitt.com

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Lord’s Supper Meditation – Sure-Fire Investment

A Twilight Musing

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is common-sense advice that most financial advisors would give to their clients. “Diversify,” they would say, so that if one kind of investment fails, others could compensate.  That makes sense in the world of finance, but God invites us to do just the opposite in our approach to serving Him.  Just as Jesus sacrificed everything to fulfill God’s purposes, we His followers are invited to invest all that we have in His promise of eternal life.  The Lord’s Supper is an appropriate place to reaffirm that our commitment to God is total, even reckless in human terms, holding nothing back.

Jesus illustrates this principle of being “all in” for the Kingdom of God with two little parables.

 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matt. 13:44-46)

God’s Kingdom is depicted here as a treasure of such transcendent value as to warrant giving all one has to possess it.  In another place, Jesus seems extreme in His expectations of those who intend to follow Him:

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt. 10:37-39)

But Jesus did not shrink from exemplifying what he asked of His disciples.  Paul gives us a beautiful summary of how Jesus,

though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  (Phil. 2:5-8)

In his turn, Paul describes how he followed the example of his Master.  Though he had a brilliant career ahead of him as a leading Pharisee when he was called by Jesus, he “suffered the loss of all things” and counted them “as rubbish, in order that [he might] gain Christ and . . . know him and the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:8-10).  Indeed, his commitment to Christ was so complete that his personality was merged with that of his Savior: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

That is the radical challenge we meet in the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus calls us to invest recklessly in giving all that we have and are, to be fellow heirs with Him of the Kingdom of God.  Therein lies the power of symbolically sharing in the body and blood of Christ.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Lord’s Supper Meditation – The Lamb of God

Agnus Dei c. 1635–1640, by Francisco de Zurbarán, Prado Museum

A Twilight Musing

As a part of John the Baptist’s heralding the ministry of Jesus, he twice refers to Him as “the Lamb of God” (see Jn. 1:29-37).  Although John was the first to use that appellation, it echoes a reference to the Messiah in Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”  The relevance of this passage to the message about Jesus is highlighted by the Apostle Philip’s being called by the Holy Spirit to preach to an Ethiopian court official (Acts 8:26ff).  As the man rode in a chariot in the desert, he was reading from Isaiah 53.  After he hitches a ride with the Ethiopian and discovers what he is reading, we are told that Philip “opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).  Later on in the New Testament, Paul refers to Christ as “our Passover lamb” (I Cor. 5;7), reminding us that the Lord’s Supper was instituted in the midst of a Passover feast (Lk. 22:14ff), in which a sacrificial lamb is eaten.  So as we partake of the Body of Christ in the Communion, it is appropriate to consider the implications of Jesus being presented as “the Lamb of God.”

The lamb image applied to Jesus necessarily denotes a sacrificial lamb, a substitute for the death of someone.  In the original Passover, the blood of the slain lamb was put on the doorposts as an indication that the angel of death should “pass over” the members of that household (see Ex. 12:1-13).  We appropriate that kind of protecting blood in drinking of the cup of the Communion, “the new covenant in my blood” (Lk. 22:20) as Jesus describes it.  And as the participants in the Passover ate the flesh of the lamb that had been sacrificed, so those who ingest the bread of the Lord’s Supper are receiving Christ’s sacrificed body to their spiritual benefit.

Jesus as the Lamb of God figures prominently in the book of Revelation.  The image occurs first in chapter 5, verse 6, where we see “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain,” and only He is found worthy to break the seals on the book of God’s judgments on the wicked world.  The living creatures around God’s throne then sing a hymn of praise (v. 9ff):

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Jesus is the ultimate sacrificial Lamb, and His death is efficacious not for just a household or a family, but for “every tribe and language and people.”  Moreover, it is “once for all” (Heb. 7:27), effective for all time as well as for all people.

Finally, we see the Lamb of God taking His place with God the Father as His servants are represented as His bride (Rev. 21:1-4), with whom He and the Father will dwell forever in an existence lighted by the presence of the “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22).  So in participating in the Lord’s Supper, we are invited not only to remember that the Lamb of God was slain for our deliverance, but to look ahead to fulfillment of the promise that we will be eternally with the Lamb in His glory.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Participating in Eucharist

a Twilight Musing

Evangelicals tend to avoid the term “Eucharist” to refer to the Lord’s Supper because they associate it with Catholics and their view of the Mass, which is that the bread and the wine in the Communion literally become the body and blood of Christ.  However, “Eucharist” can be used merely as a general term for the Lord’s Supper based on its meaning in Greek, “thanksgiving.”  One could with some justification refer to our late November national holiday as “Eucharist Day.”  The use of the word at least can prompt us to ask, “In what sense is the Lord’s Supper a ceremony of thanksgiving?”

In instituting the Lord’s Supper, Jesus Himself set the tone of thanksgiving for the feast when He gave thanks for both the bread and the cup of wine (see Lk. 22:14ff) before He gave them to the disciples.  Moreover, our remembrance of the Supreme Sacrifice of Christ prompts us to be thankful that it enables us to be called God’s sons and daughters, children of God, siblings of Christ Himself.

 It is also worth noting that the context of Paul’s account of the origin of the Lord’s Supper is his condemnation of the Corinthians’ gorging themselves while humiliating “those who have nothing.”  In so doing, they were failing to appreciate the value of their brothers and sisters in the fellowship of Christ, as well as being in no frame of mind to be thankful for the Sacrifice they were called on to celebrate.

Finally, we can see a eucharistic attitude as one of two complementary purposes of the Holy Communion.  On the one hand, we engage in remembrance of the cost of what Jesus did for us, a rather somber act of looking back.  But on the other hand, we rejoice and contemplate blessings yet to come when we are thankful for the salvation He wrought for us.  The next time we encounter a reference to the “Holy Eucharist,” perhaps we can be more comfortable with that description of our regular observance, remembering that it simply means “thanksgiving.”

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – A Perpetual Covenant

A Twilight Musing

One of my fondest boyhood memories is of going with my father to the bakery that employed him to pick up his load of bread and cakes to deliver that day.  The hot ovens inside were baking many loaves to supply the stores in the area, and the smell was divine!  Sometimes an indulgent worker would give me a piece of hot bread to eat, and that was a real treat, simple as it was.  As I look back on this experience, I realize that I would have had no access to this privileged space had I not been with my father.  Thanks to him, I could enjoy “Mead’s Fine Bread, the staff of life” (as the advertising called it) freshly baked. 

That put me to thinking about a comparison between the highly restricted Bread of the Presence (or Showbread) in the Old Testament and the bread of the Lord’s Supper to which Christians have open and regular access under the New Covenant.  Only Aaron and his sons were allowed access to the Showbread in the Holy Place, but through our Heavenly Father, we are ushered repeatedly into the Holy Place where the Lord’s Supper is served.  Perhaps we can gain insight to the Lord’s Supper through consideration of the details of God’s instructions in the Law of Moses concerning the Bread of the Presence (Lev. 24:5-9). 

To appreciate these instructions, we need to picture the layout of the Tabernacle (and later of the Temple in Jerusalem).  There was a forecourt containing the various tables and altars for animal sacrifice, at the back of which was a small tent housing two areas, the Holy Place at the front and the Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies) at the back, separated by a curtain.  The Holy of Holies housed the Ark of the Covenant, the most sacred object in the Tabernacle, and it was entered only once a year, by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.  Thus, the Holy Place served as a vestibule to the Most Holy Place, and in it were placed the twelve loaves of the Bread of the Presence, to be maintained perpetually.  It was specified that these be placed in two stacks of six each on a table made specially to hold them.  Each Sabbath, the loaves of Showbread were to be replaced and the old loaves to be eaten by the High Priest and his sons.

Here, then, are some helpful points of comparison between the rituals of the  Showbread and the Lord’s Supper.     

· The designation of twelve loaves of the Showbread is symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel, the people of His Covenant, and so our partaking of the Lord’s Supper regularly reaffirms that we are also the people of God under the New Covenant through Jesus Christ.   

· Just as the loaves were replaced every Sabbath, so we may appropriately renew our experience with the Bread of Heaven each first day of the week; in the process we are reminded of God’s providing for us with the same faithfulness that He showed in the supply of manna to the Children of Israel. 

· The division of the bread into two piles of six each, with the burning of frankincense on each one, is a daily physical reminder of God’s being constantly with His people.  God’s Presence is as real on weekdays as on the Sabbath, and in the same way, our one-day observance of the Lord’s Supper is to sustain us on the other six days of the week as well.

· The eating of the sacred Bread of the Presence by the High Priest and his sons is a type of the ingestion of the common objects of bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, made holy through God’s spiritual Presence in them.  We are eligible to partake because the people of the New Covenant are a “holy priesthood” (I Pet. 2:5). 

 · As the Bread of the Presence was to be eaten “in a holy place,” so when we take the elements of the Eucharist within us, the whole assembly becomes a Holy Place, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. 

 · As a “perpetual due” to the priests, the eating of the Showbread anticipates our continual observance of the Communion “until the Lord comes.”

There is one more instructive reference to the Showbread, an incident in the Old Testament (I Sam. 21:1-6) referred to by Jesus in the Gospels (see Matt. 12:1-10).  At one point, David was fleeing from King Saul, who was out to kill him.  In desperation for food for him and his little band of militia, he appealed to the High Priest Ahimelech.  The only food the priest had was the bread that had been taken from the table in the Holy Place, but he gave that to David and his men.  Jesus, when responding to the criticism of the Pharisees that His disciples were picking grain to eat on the Sabbath, refers to this exception to the rule that the Bread of the Presence be eaten only by the priests.  The Master took advantage of the situation to establish the principle that God administers His rules with mercy and is not so inflexible as those who wish to act as His enforcers to underline their own power.  We would do well to remember this teaching of Jesus when we participate in the Lord’s Supper, noting that God is more interested in the state of our hearts when we partake than in the technical correctness of the manner in which we do it.

So let us eat of the Holy Feast as those privileged under the Covenant of Christ to have our needy souls nourished and delivered from evil.  We serve a God who clears the way for us to dine at His table, and we rejoice in being served by the Lord of the Sabbath Himself.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Sometimes Losing is Good

He who loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39)

Have you ever felt lost in a crowd? You look around and see the people, hear the sounds, feel the hustle and bustle of life around you…and yet, you feel lost. You are caught in the flow of everything beyond yourself, and for a fleeting moment you don’t know where you are or where you fit-in amid the cacophony of life all around you. You’re not alone, but you feel lost.

It’s a surreal feeling, the feeling of being lost to yourself…lost when you are with others but still out-of-sorts with who and where you are at that moment. An odd experience of self-awareness that leads you to viscerally sense the gravity and big-ness of everything around you…and the small-ness of yourself. Read that last bit again. An odd experience of self-awareness that leads you to viscerally sense the gravity and big-ness of everything around you…and the small-ness of yourself.

Would you believe this is what Jesus wants for your life? Does it seem odd to consider that Jesus is possibly closer to you than ever when you feel the most lost and unsure of yourself?

You are unsure of how you connect to everything and everyone around you, and feeling, well…lost to yourself. And yet, it’s at that moment that the door for a divine encounter presents itself to you. When you feel lost even to yourself, it is then that you can step through – step out of – yourself and into God’s presence. You experience it for just a moment at first, and then a little longer, until you finally realize that being lost to yourself is really the key to finding your true self and to living in God’s presence.

It is through the door of losing yourself, and only through that door, that you will find the identity God desires for you. A desire which is rooted in His love and purposes, and drips with abundance of mercy, grace, and healing. What you and I lack in ourselves, we find when we lose ourselves to Him. We may feel lost in the crowd, but losing ourselves may just be – is – the first step to finding God.

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Dr. Thomas J. Gentry (aka., TJ Gentry) serves as the pastor of First Christian Church of West Frankfort, Illinois, the Executive Editor of MoralApologetics.com, and Executive VP of Bellator Christi Ministries. Dr. Gentry is a world-class scholar holding 5 doctorate degrees and 6 masters degrees. Additionally, he is a prolific writer as he has published 7 books including Pulpit Apologist, Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord, and You Shall Be My Witnesses: Reflections on Sharing the Gospel. Be on the lookout for two additional books that he will soon publish. In addition to his impressive resume, Dr. Gentry proudly served his country as an officer in the United States Army and serves as a martial arts instructor.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Suffering with Christ

a Twilight Musing

Partaking of the Lord’s Supper may not always be a pleasant experience.  The events which it recalls, far from being pleasant, were intensely painful and emphasized the capacity for suffering in human life.   There has never been a more anguished cry uttered than that of Christ on the cross: “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”  The physical torture that Jesus endured when He was crucified is often graphically described, but it was the torment within His soul which racked His whole being.  He endured a depth of despair which no other human being can ever fathom.  Even the material world around was torn and disrupted by the death of Christ.  Although we believe that in the midst of all this suffering a tremendous redemption was being wrought, the price that was paid is awful to contemplate.

But the Lord’s Supper is not merely contemplation; it is participation as well.  Paul says that we must “suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:17).  It is not without significance that Jesus spoke in Gethsemene of His coming ordeal as “this cup.”   Earlier, when James and John requested special favors, Jesus asked if they were able to drink the cup that He was going to drink, and even in the face of their imperfect knowledge of what it was, He assured them that they would indeed share it with Him (Mark 10:32-40). 

Here is the pattern that is reaffirmed every time we drink the cup at the Communion table.  If the Son of God could not accomplish the purposes of the Father without imbibing the bitter cup of suffering, we must not expect our confession of Him to be without the pain of sacrifice.  Only when we have voluntarily acknowledged that His suffering is our suffering can the inescapable pains of life serve to make us mature rather than bitter.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Should We Believe What Jesus Said?

If you want to be perfect (Christ and the rich young man). 2010. Canvas, oil. 85 x 120. Artist A.N. Mironov

As anyone who has followed apologetics knows, the resurrection was transformative for the earliest Christians. Those who witnessed the resurrection were willing to give their lives for what they knew to be true. But was it only the resurrection that transformed them? Most assuredly, the resurrection verified the claims of Jesus and solidified his teachings. If it were not for the resurrection, it is highly doubtful that the early church would have worshiped Jesus as they did. While the resurrection solidified and verified the ministry of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus impacted the way the disciples viewed the ministry of Jesus and what God was doing through him. Jesus had thoroughly taught the disciples what would happen to him. He taught what they would eventually abandon him. He taught what the Old Testament said about his ministry. And he also extensively trained them about an already-not-yet kingdom.[1] The Christology of Jesus impacted the disciples so much that they preserved his teachings, even before the resurrection, and passed them along after the ministry of Jesus was vindicated by the resurrection. As Paul Barnett points out, “It was [C]hristology that gave birth to Christianity, not the reverse. Furthermore, Christ gave birth to [C]hristology. The chronology drives this conclusion.”[2] If the Christological teachings of Jesus gave rise to Christian doctrine—because as Richard Bauckham notes, the “earliest Christology was already in nuce the highest Christology”[3]—then should it not behoove modern believers to pay close attention to what Jesus said? The teachings of Jesus not only impacted the early believers’ Christology, but they paid close attention to other aspects of the didactic of Jesus, as well. Thus, the modern believer should take the ethical, historical, and theological/philosophical teachings of Jesus into consideration as they live out, research, and build a biblical worldview.

The Ethical Teachings of Jesus

The Sermon on the Mount is just as controversial today as it was when Jesus first uttered it. Jesus taught such things as showing mercy unto others (Matt. 5:7), having a purity of the heart (Matt. 5:8), and maintaining one’s role as a peacemaker (Matt. 5:9). He taught that believers were to stand for the truth by remaining the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13) while also maintaining a compassionate heart by being the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). He also taught that angry bitterness and lust made one as guilty as committing murder or adultery (Matt. 5:21–30). One of the most forgotten teachings of Jesus in modern times is his call to love one’s enemies and pray for those who may mistreat a person (Matt. 5:43–48). If Jesus rose from the dead, and he did, then the believer must take seriously the ethical commitments to which he calls his disciples to live. If one chooses to reject his moral standards, then one must ask, “Whose standards am I following—Jesus’s or my own?”

The Historical Teachings of Jesus

Here again, it is common for one to dismiss the teachings of Jesus when it comes to uncomfortable historical matters. Granted, the issue with Jesus mentioning Abiathar being the high priest when Ahimelech held the position in Mark 2:26 poses some issues. But one finds good reasons to think that something in the transmission from Aramaic to Greek could have been left off as the teaching/text was being translated. James Brooks avers that the best explanation to describe the hiccup is that the Aramaic word abba (meaning father) was originally added to Abiathar (abba-Abiathar) in the original teaching. Thus, the teaching would say “he entered the house of God in the time of abba-Abiathar” (Mark 2:26), which would be correct as Ahimelech was the father of Abiathar.[4]

Nonetheless, if Jesus is truly the divine Son of God—and the resurrection confirmed that he was—then, it stands to reason that Jesus would know perfectly whether such people existed when he referred to a historical Adam and Eve (implied in Matt. 19:4–6), Abraham and the early patriarchs (Matt. 22:32), and even Noah (Matt. 24:37). In our age of skepticism, it is easy to cast doubt on these figures of the past. But at the end of it all, we must ask ourselves whether we can take Jesus at his word.

The Theological/Philosophical Teachings of Jesus

Finally, one will ask whether a person can trust what Jesus says about the world, the kingdom of God, heaven and hell, and the direction of history. While there are a plethora of viewpoints concerning eschatology, the arrow of history is undebatable when it comes to the teachings of Jesus. In his Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24–25), Jesus warned that such things as wars, false prophets, famines,[5] earthquakes, and various disasters would come. Yet he noted that such things only serve as labor pains, indicating that the coming of the Son of Man was nigh (Matt. 24:8). Much more could be added to this eschatologically rich message. However, the most important aspect of his message is that despite the troubles that would come, God would move the arrow of history toward a time when he delivers the people of God and recreates the heavens and the earth. The kingdom of God would reach its ultimate and complete actualization when the “Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matt. 25:31).[6] Some may call this fanciful thinking. But this came from one who actually defeated death itself.

Conclusion

Many things are difficult to believe. It is difficult for me to wrap my mind around the fact that light travels at 186,000 miles a second. Likewise, some of the things mentioned in this article may be like the speed of light—very difficult to fathom. However, at the end of the day, we must all ask ourselves who we trust. Who is trustworthy? Who is a reliable witness? For me, the thing that led me back to Christianity after a time of doubt was the amazing amount of evidence supporting the literal resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. If Jesus truly raised from the dead and defeated death, then that is One whose opinion is worth trusting. Some may call it naïve. Well and good. When you are able to conquer death, then let’s talk.

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About the Author

Brian G. Chilton is the founder of BellatorChristi.com, the host of The Bellator Christi Podcast, and the author of the Layman’s Manual on Christian Apologetics. Brian is a Ph.D. Candidate of the Theology and Apologetics program at Liberty University. He received his Master of Divinity in Theology from Liberty University (with high distinction); his Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Gardner-Webb University (with honors); and received certification in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Brian is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Brian has served in pastoral ministry for nearly 20 years and currently serves as a clinical chaplain.

https://www.amazon.com/Laymans-Manual-Christian-Apologetics-Essentials/dp/1532697104

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© 2022. MoralApologetics.com.

[1] This is especially true in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus taught that the kingdom was being ushered in through his ministry (thus, it was already here) and would fully be actualized in the eschaton (not yet).

[2] Paul Barnett, The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2005), 26.

[3] Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), 235.

[4] James Brooks, Matthew, New American Commentary, David S. Dockery, ed (Nashville, TN: B&H, 1992), 66.

[5] Some translations add “epidemics.”

[6] Unless otherwise noted, all quoted Scripture comes from the Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman, 2020).

Meditation on the Lord's Supper - The Towel of Humility

Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles by Meister des Hausbuches, 1475

A Twilight Musing

By so simple an act as eating and drinking the plainest bread and wine, Christ seeks to draw His disciples together.  It is a time when His servants should be poignantly aware of His lack of pretentiousness and should determine to gird themselves with the towel of humility and (in attitude) wash one another's feet.  And yet how often do we partake of the Lord's Supper in an atmosphere of stuffy self-importance, congratulating ourselves that we have proven our superiority to the rest of the world merely by being in the assembly. 

It is difficult in congregations of a few hundred or more to preserve the intimate fellowship of breaking bread as it was experienced by early Christians meeting from house to house; but the problem is not entirely one of numbers.  In a larger sense, we always gather around a large table, for we share each Communion service with all the saints, past and present, and to fail to recognize this wider fellowship is to be spiritually provincial.  The solution to our isolation from one another is not to make the table smaller, but to make our awareness of the presence of our Lord, the Suffering Servant, large enough and inclusive enough to fill the hearts of all who partake of His feast.  Only thus may we capture the grandeur of His humility which links us together across time.  We can be neither neutral nor antagonistic toward those with whom we sup; the Lord's Supper calls all of us to love and serve each other as He has loved and served us.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Lord’s Supper Meditation – Ongoing and Once for All

A Twilight Musing

          Part of the legend of King Arthur, early king of Britain, is that he was the “once and future king”; that is, he both existed as a historical person and will return to save England from a time of great peril in the future.  Those who believe in both the historical Jesus and His return someday to gather His people to Himself and render final judgment on the earth will see the similarity between the presentation of the legend and the matter of faith about Jesus Christ.  I think there is also an application of the “once and future” idea to the experience of the Lord’s Supper.

          When we partake of the bread of the Communion, we are said to be ingesting the body of Christ, recalling that He existed and walked in the flesh among mankind, the incarnate Son of God.  In doing so He presented the perfect form of God’s original creation of humans, without sin or any kind of blemish.  He also died and was resurrected in the body, and every eye will see Him (Rev 1:7) when He returns to transform and call to Himself all who have been redeemed in faith.  What we celebrate in the bread of the supper is the “ongoingness” of the Gospel message: As Jesus  Christ existed and walked on the earth in human form, so He calls and enables us to live our lives on earth in His image.  But just as He succumbed to death, giving up that perishable body and receiving a new, imperishable one, so we take His body within us with the promise that we shall overcome death as He did.  In the bread of Communion, we express the assurance that our life in Christ is a both “once and future” reality.

          In the wine, however, is a different aspect of our salvation and redemption, for in partaking spiritually of the blood of Christ, we are to contemplate an action of our Lord that was “once for all” (Heb. 9:24-28), the shedding of His blood to implement the New Covenant.  Accordingly, when He instituted the Lord’s Supper, He said that the wine was “my blood of the covenant” (Mark 14:24).  So when we partake of the wine, we focus on the unique event in history that fixed and secured our salvation. Before that pivotal event, blood sacrifice was effective only as a foreshadowing of the final and eternally sufficient offering of the perfect Lamb of God.

          Our participation in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ through the Lord’s Supper enables us to be divinely reassured that though we continue to battle the vicissitudes of life in these perishable bodies, through the power of our resurrected Lord these mortal bodies have a future, even after being returned temporarily to the dust from which they were created.  For in Christ we have a Covenant sealed by the Father through His Son’s once-for-all spilling of blood for us.  Let us rejoice in these gifts of bread and wine to renew our assurance of completing the cycle of enduring life in the flesh, being planted as seed in the grave, and being raised to bear the fruit of unchangeable life with God.  Thereby, we are united anew with the One Who is truly “the once and future King.”

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Renewal of Vows

A Twilight Musing

Some married couples choose, for one reason or another, to renew their marriage vows.  It may be that they have had dissention in their relationship and want to reaffirm the promises they made to each other in the first bloom of their love.  Or maybe they want merely to say to the world, “Join us in celebrating the holiness of marriage vows and the richness of life that can be demonstrated by people being faithful to each other over a long period of time.”

The similarity between marriage and our personal and corporate covenant relationship with Christ is commonplace in Scripture.  Perhaps the most focused instance of this comparison is in Eph. 5:22-33, where Paul speaks of Christ as a husband to his bride, the Church, and the bond between husband and wife as an embodiment of the mystery of union between Christ and His church.  The husband is to cherish and protect his wife as he would his own body, and the wife is to honor and serve her husband as she would Christ Himself.

Based on this analogy, when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we would do well to see what we are doing as a renewal of our vow at baptism to submit to the Lordship of Christ, and a reaffirmation of trust in God’s promise in Christ to love and protect us, even to the giving up of His own life.  In partaking of the bread and the wine, our life in Christ is renewed, and we rejoice like a bride whose husband has given his life for her but has been resurrected to continue living with her.  We can, to alter an old saying, have our Lord, and consume Him too.

Those who renew their marriage vows usually do so only once in their lifetimes, but we have the opportunity frequently to reaffirm our union with Jesus.  Our earthly marriage to another mortal, however rich it may be, will end someday, while marriage with Christ will last forever (Rev. 19:6-9; 21:2-4, 9).  If we are married people partaking of the Communion, our physical union with our spouses is sanctified by our reaffirmed union with Christ; if we are single, we can find the ultimate intimacy in perceiving Christ as our lover.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Lord's Supper Meditation - Subjects Together of Christ the King

A Twilight Musing

At most gatherings of human beings, there is a pecking order.  We are seated at concerts, games, and stage shows according to what price we have paid for the ticket.  At social gatherings people tend to gravitate toward those who are more influential because of their wealth or reputation or social standing.  Jesus refers to this human tendency when he speaks of those who go to a dinner and seek out the best and most honorable seat.  James cautions against giving undue deference to people merely because of their apparent prosperity.   

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.  Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.  If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?   Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?  But you have insulted the poor. (James 2:1-6a) 

God rejects this kind of competitive discrimination and calls all sorts of people together into His house, with equal status before Him, to enjoy the feast He has prepared.  As we partake of this table together, we testify to the oneness of the Body of Christ: to the need each part has for all of the others, as well as the need of the whole Body for each part.  We remember that Jesus humbled Himself and took on the role of a servant (Phil. 2:5-8), in order that we might be here sharing in His servanthood, to one another and to the world.   

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Be Like Mary

Adoration of the Shepherds by Dutch painter Matthias Stomer, 1632

So, we've been talking about key players in the Christmas narrative. We've talked about the angels. We've talked about the family of Joseph who made room for them in their home, even if not the guest room (the “inn”). We've talked about the shepherds. We’ve talked about Joseph choosing to stay with Mary despite her unusual pre-marriage pregnancy, but what Christmas week would be complete without talking especially about Mary, the mother of Jesus? She’s the one later Christians would call Mary, the Mother of God, the Theotokos, the God-bearer. Now before you get panicky in fear of a Roman Catholic takeover, it's right that we would recognize Mary for who she was and what she did. That's why she's such a significant person.

She was the one who bore the Son of God, who delivered Him on His birthday, who went on to raise Him to manhood. I dare say Mary was the one who knew Jesus most intimately in His life and ministry. To this point, there's a relationship between Mary and the greatest philosopher of all time. Before I tell you who that philosopher is, think about philosophy. What is it? The love of wisdom. Philosophy literally means the love of wisdom. To be sure, Jesus is wisdom. Who loved Jesus most intimately? His mother, and that's why she has been called the greatest philosopher of all time. She was the greatest one ever to love wisdom, to love Jesus.

Why is it that we're still talking about Mary, especially since things that have been said about her over the centuries may be overstated, such as her immaculate conception, sinless life, or bodily assumption into heaven? Well, for starters, she didn't say those things herself. What we can say is what Scripture says, and it tells us first, that when she was invited to play a role in the plan of redemption, when the angel appeared to her, she said, yes. Aren't we glad she did? Mary said to Gabriel’s announcement, “I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be unto me according to your word.” Also, Mary was there as Jesus was presented in the temple, having previously been there when the shepherds visited at His birth. She was there when Jesus and Joseph, along with her, all packed up and went down into Egypt to get out of harm’s way from Herod. She was there throughout His ministry. She was there at the cross. She was there at the resurrection. She was there in the upper room on Pentecost. Mary was significant. We can learn from her to say yes to God and to stick with Jesus no matter what.

There’s one more thing she did that is so valuable. Again, and again she's described as taking all the things she learned about Jesus and pondering them in her heart. Can you think of anything better than Jesus to fill your heart with? Can you think of anything better to ponder?

So, we want to be like Mary. We want to be like she, whose Son saved us and her, the whole world, and we want to say yes when He calls us to our mission. We want to ponder and let sink deep into our being all that we know about Jesus and all that He is to us. Every day, we want to be like Mary, and by doing so, we can be more like her Son, Jesus.

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Dr. Thomas J. Gentry (aka., TJ Gentry) serves as the pastor of First Christian Church of West Frankfort, Illinois, the Executive Editor of MoralApologetics.com, and Executive VP of Bellator Christi Ministries. Dr. Gentry is a world-class scholar holding 5 doctorate degrees and 6 masters degrees. Additionally, he is a prolific writer as he has published 7 books including Pulpit Apologist, Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord, and You Shall Be My Witnesses: Reflections on Sharing the Gospel. Be on the lookout for two additional books that he will soon publish. In addition to his impressive resume, Dr. Gentry proudly served his country as an officer in the United States Army and serves as a martial arts instructor.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Judas Takes the Bread

The Last Supper; Christ Washing the Apostles’ Feet, about 1400–10, Unknown. Tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink on parchment; 13 3/16 x 9 1/4 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. 33, fol. 286v

A Twilight Musing

As we learn from the portrayal of Judas in the account of the Last Supper in John 13, there is  spiritual peril in being formally a part of fellowship with Christ without being truly connected with Him.   The very beginning of this chapter (vv. 2-3) highlights Jesus’s acute awareness of Judas’s immanent betrayal: “During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that . . . he had come from God and was going back to God,” arose to wash the disciples’ feet.  We assume that Jesus washed Judas’s feet along with all of the others, but Jesus explicitly excludes Judas from the benefit of being made clean (sanctified): “For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, ‘Not all of you are clean’” (Jn. 13:11).  He reinforces this exclusion of His betrayer from the spiritual benefit of the foot washing when He tells them, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’”

The point of all of this veiled anticipation is made clear in the account of Judas being identified by receiving a piece of bread from the hand of Jesus. 
         

After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.  When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”  (Jn. 13:21-31)

There are several observations to be made about this passage.  First, Jesus is “troubled in spirit” concerning the upcoming betrayal, and He shares His concern with the disciples.   Why?  It seems unlikely that He is troubled only about the suffering and death that this act will bring about.  It is plausible that He is also concerned about the impact of the betrayal on both Judas and the rest of the disciples.  Satan’s work has disturbingly infiltrated this close-knit group; Satan has already “put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray” Jesus, and when the Master reveals it, the disciples respond with “Who is it?” and “Is it I?”  Immediately, their ability to assume solidarity in this small, intimate band is compromised.  We are told that the one “whom Jesus loved” (John) was seated next to Jesus, “leaning back against” Him, and therefore was ideally situated to ask the Master, “Lord, who is it?” 

It is symbolically significant that Jesus’ answer to this question is sharing a piece of the Passover bread with Judas.   Judas’s receipt of the bread from Jesus, far from being an act of sharing and communion, marked the point at which “Satan entered into him” and he was completely possessed by the Enemy.  Thus, the bread of communion becomes for him a kind of “Devil’s Mass,” and in taking it from Jesus’ hand he commits self-condemning sacrilege.  One is reminded of the warning of Paul in I Cor. 11:27-29: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”  The fact that Judas goes out immediately to execute the betrayal, perhaps with the bread still in his hand, indicates how thoroughly under the control of the Enemy he was.

So it is that we can recognize in the portrayal of Judas in this passage the danger of only maintaining appearances when we participate in the intimate fellowship of Communion together with Christ.  May we humbly receive His cleansing and His sharing of Himself in such a way that it is a blessing to our souls and not a curse to a hard heart.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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