Christus Victor

There is a word used in the New Testament that provides us with a wonderfully vivid picture of what Jesus accomplished as the Christ. This word, triumph (qriambeuvw), is only used twice in the Bible:

2 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

Colossians 2:15 (ESV)

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

This word, triumph, is not simply another word for "being

victorious" (the word for victorious, nikavw, is used 28x in the NT). This word comes from a very specific practice from the ancient

world which the Romans perfected.

Since every single person to whom the New Testament was originally written lived under Roman rule it is safe to say that they would all be familiar with this practice and it is quite likely that a significant number of them would have witnessed something very similar to a triumph at some point in their lives.

The Roman Triumph was a celebratory procession that marked a great victory and the end of a war. This procession (a glorified parade) was designed to heap praises upon the victorious General and to heap abuse and shame upon the hapless losers.

But not just any soldier or General could qualify for a proper triumph. No! they had to meet a strict set of criteria in order to qualify. They had to:

1. be a of a certain social class and from a proper family line

2. kill a minimum of 5,000 enemy soldiers

3. bring their army home with them (symbolizing that the victory was so complete that there was no need to leave soldiers behind to keep the peace)

4. the senate had to approve and endorse the triumph

5. etc... (there were a lot of criteria)

Once the General met all of these qualifications he could have his triumph which looked roughly like this:

1. Leading the parade were the members of the senate who endorsed the triumph

2. Trumpeters and priests with incense (engaging the senses of the onlookers... notice how in 2Cor2:14 Paul talks about fragrance...)

3. Carts and wagons full of the spoils of war

4. the conquered war leader/king with his family and other important people of the conquered nation all of whom were bound

5. the victorious General with his family and other important people. The General is crowned with the laurel wreath.

6. finally the procession is rounded out with the disarmed, defeated army who gets to march through Rome while the people ridicule them.

And once the whole procession reaches it's destination the defeated army is sold into slavery and the defeated leaders are publicly executed. This usually happened either by crucifixion or strangulation: both of those emphasize the helplessness of this once powerful leader.

Take a few minutes and watch the video below. This gives you an idea of what sort of imagery Paul and Timothy were using when they wrote 2 Cor. & Col. This is the imagery they wanted to conjure in the minds of their readers/listeners:

[warning: this is a little graphic]

So, I'm going to leave the application of this to you!

What is the significance of Paul/Timothy's use of triumph?

What does this say about what Jesus has done?

What other thoughts do you have that this brings to mind?

Love lifted me!

... or at least my Jeep!

In case you didn't know, the "stapes" is the smallest bone in the human body. I don't think that I can say "I don't have a mechanical bone in my body"; it's just that if I do have a mechanical bone it would be my stapes.

So in an act of true brotherly love my brother Darrell helped me (told me what to do and did at least half of the work himself) put a small lift on the my Jeep. It's just a small 2 1/2 inch body lift but I'm very happy with it.

For those of you who might care here is how it went:

In the front we swapped out my old "stock" coils...

... for some of Darrell's "used" but much sweeter coils. This gained us just under 3 inches.

In the back we inserted some 2 1/2 inch blocks just under the leaf springs:

Before

After

And here are the final before and after pics: (watch Kaleb's pom-pom to get an idea of the hight difference).

Thanks, Deebs. You're the best!

No Rapture Here!

Matthew 24:37-42 (ESV)
³⁷ As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. ⁴² Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

As I've mentioned before (and as you can see in the side-bar) I've been reading Ben

Witherington III's book The Living Word of God. In his chapter, "Truth Telling as an Art-Form" BW3 uses the above passage as an example of how certain texts are often abused.

For years these 6 verses have been used to describe "the Rapture." As I read BW3's interpretation of this passage I felt like I was slapped across the face! What is described here is so NOT rapturous! In fact, it is very much the opposite of what we picture when we think of the rapture. After thinking through this I was very much frustrated that I had never really read this passage properly before.

Often it is only verses 40-42 that are quoted from this passage and what is left out is the context of the analogy that Jesus is using: Noah.

"As were the days of Noah...they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."

What is described in the following verses where two people are side-by-side and one person is "taken" has nothing to do with 1 Thess 4 or any other passage that supposedly describes the Rapture. What Jesus describes here is the opposite.

Two people will be side-by-side and the people who will be "taken" will be those who (as in the days of Noah) are"swept away" in the flood of judgement.

After all, that's exactly what happened with Noah. The righteous (Noah and his family) were left behind to restart God's creation while the unrighteous were destroyed.

And so, it is not the righteous who will be taken away... it is the righteous who will be left behind! It is the unrighteous who will be swept away.

So, if you want to keep your ideas of the Rapture you'll have to use different scriptures than this one!

I don't know why I had never thought of this passage this way before. Now it seems so obvious, and it makes way more sense in the full context of Jesus' teachings on end times... too much dispensationalism in my Sunday School I guess!! :)

So, what do you think:

What do you think about this interpretation of Mt. 24?

Have you ever had something like this happen where you've thought of a certain passage a certain way most of your life only to have it flipped around on you?

What other passages do you think are often misinterpreted?

An Axe to Grind

Check it out: it's my Christmas gift to me!

What it is is a Gransfors Bruks small forest axe.

It was handcrafted in Sweden by Kjell-Åke Sjölund.

A glimpse into the life of Tim

So, in lieu of a real post this week I BEG YOU to go and read Michael F. Bird's post over at the Euangelion blog (here). You may remember that I featured Michael Bird a few weeks ago (here). The reason why his post struck such a chord with me is because I also suffer from the INTJ personality type! His post applies to me in many ways!!

Anyway, enjoy some of the following INTJ humour!

Merry Christmas

I hope that all of you have a wonderful time this year celebrating the amazing incarnation of God!

I hope that the angels' blessing in Luke 2:14 rings true in your life.

But, of course, I can't just leave it at that! Here's a fun little video that we'll be using during our Christmas Eve service:

This is a fun way to bring a bit more of a realistic, Biblical focus to our sometimes overly traditional celebrations.

If you want to look into this a bit more I'll point you back to a post that I did back in '07 (here) and to a recent post that Ben Witherington III did on his blog (here). If you have the time, his post is definitely worth the read. You'll also notice that he backs up my own theory that Jesus was simply born in a house and not a cave (certainly not a stable!).

The Bible says nothing about stables or caves. It does however mention a house (Mt. 2:11) and a guest-room/upper-room (Lk. 2:7 - see the NEB or the TNIV). Plus, archeological records from the 1st century show that many houses had mangers in their houses in the entryways.

Jesus was born in a house.

Anyway, rather than continuing the deconstruction of Christmas traditions I will echo the sentiments expressed in that fun little video: however you celebrate Christmas, whatever it looks like, don't let it go by without taking some time to meditate on the enormity of God becoming fully human.

Merry Christmas.