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THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY JANUARY 25, 2004 Fulfillment in Jesus Christ Fr. Jim Marshall Jesus said, “Today this
scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) Everything is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and it is God’s will
that Christ be fulfilled in us. Fulfillment in Jesus Christ God is fulfilled in Jesus – Colossians 1:19 – the revelation of God is complete in
Jesus, since “all the fullness of God” is in Christ. Jesus is the Word of God, (John 1:1, 14), the full expression of Who God is. God’s will is fulfilled in Jesus – John 6:38 – Christ came, not to do His will but to
fulfill the will of God who sent Him.
Even in His hour of agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed,
“Not as I will, but as You will.”
(Matt. 26:39) All that is “of God” is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The preaching of the early church was
that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament, the law and the
prophets. Jesus Himself said
that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law and the prophets.
(Matt. 5:17)
Throughout the Old Testament the prophets pointed to the coming of
Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law – the law “was put in
charge” to lead us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith in
Him. (Gal. 3:21-25)
Moses gave the law, but Christ brought grace and truth. (John 1:17)
The law was put in place to show us our need for the grace and truth
of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of the sacrificial system of the Old
Testament. He fulfilled both the
priestly role as high priest and the role of the sacrifice. (Hebrews 9:6-15)
He was appointed as high priest “forever, in the order of Melchizedek,
(Heb. 7:17), ending the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament. He was also the perfect sacrifice,
putting an end to the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament covenant. The worship of God is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 9) God’s covenant is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 8:6-15) God originally made a covenant with
Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3, Gen. 15), which He confirmed with Isaac (Gen. 26:2-5) and Jacob (Gen. 28:13-15) and, later, with David (II Sam. 7).
God promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him and
later confirmed this covenant with Isaac and then Jacob. God promised David that a king would
come from his line who would rule Israel forever. Christ is the fulfillment of nature. Nature is frustrated, in bondage to sin. (Gen. 3:17-19; Romans 8:19-23) In Christ, nature is brought into something beyond itself. The sacraments use physical elements
such as water, oil, bread and wine.
These elements of nature are consecrated and brought into the
spiritual realm. In Christ, they
become more than they naturally are.
In the Eucharist, the bread and wine are caused to become part of
Christ’s human nature and they participate in His work of salvation. The sacraments as a means of grace
effect that which they symbolize.
The water of baptism is taken up from the realm of nature into the
purposes of God and effect His purposes. The water of baptism takes us into the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. In
the Eucharist the bread and wine are taken up into Christ and become part of
Him and the presence of Christ is made real to us by the bread and the
wine. Christ causes these
earthly elements to partake of His humanity and participate with Him in His
work of redemption. Nature is
brought into the spiritual realm to partake of and participate in something
greater than itself. Our bodies also partake of and participate in the spiritual
realm, in the life of the resurrection.
The church as the body of Christ manifests the risen body of Christ
and partakes of the nature of Christ, of God Himself. Just as the resurrection body of
Christ is superior to our physical bodies, so the church as the body of
Christ is superior to His physical presence when He was on earth. We do something similar when we take animals, tame them and
make them pets. From their
animal world, we bring them to participate in our human life and to partake
of it, to some extent. When we
put on swimming gear and go snorkeling, we (to some extent) participate in
the aquatic world. When we get
into an airplane and take to the air, we participate in the life of the
birds. We are called to be all we were created to be, to partake of
and participate in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. In order to do this, we need to move
from the natural realm to the spiritual realm. We need to be alive and awake spiritually. We are being moved to fulfillment in
Jesus Christ. We are moved by
the wind of the Holy Spirit at our backs. When someone dies we say he has “passed away” and comment that
he or she had “a full life.” No
one lives the fullness of life unless he is fully living the Christ
life. Those who have died have
not passed “away” but rather have passed “on and into“ the end of that
movement which is our fulfillment.
Christ is willing to be fulfilled in us. Christianity is not primarily following Christ, although we are
called to do that. Christianity is not primarily doing things for Christ, although
we are also called to this. Christianity is primarily Christ in us. “I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life
I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.” (Galatians
2:20) |
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