Jason's Blog

I was teaching on John 6 on Wednesday night and forgot a great illustration that I ran across.  Let me give credit where it’s due and set the illustration in its context for just a moment. 

David Yeago wrote a powerful article in 1995 entitled “The Bread of Life:  Patristic Christology and Evangelical Soteriology in Martin Luther’s Sermons on John 6” in SVTQ 39 (1995): 257-279.  His argument is that Luther’s view of Jesus are rooted in classic orthodox theology that you can find in the old church fathers.  Yeago particularly draws out the consistency of thought between Luther and what he calls the “Cyrilline tradition” (that follows out from Chalcedon and St. Cyril of Alexandria). 

Okay, enough historical markers – here’s the illustration from Martin Luther. 

Jesus the bread of life is like an iron heated in flame so that it’s full of fire.  Left alone and apart from the flame, an iron has no power to burn or brand – but when buried in coals and covered over with “sheer fire” it glows and can do his work.  Listen in now to Luther in his own words:

The fire does its work nowhere except in the iron; in that very place it burns and bores.  So also here the divine power is present bodily in the humanity of Christ, and acts as a God should act, or acts as the fire in the iron.

[Christ wants to say] “If you grasp my flesh, your are not grasping ordinary flesh and blood, but the eat the flesh and blood which deify, that is, which give the character and power of the Godhead”   (p. 273).

As we approach Jesus in faith, we cling to him and he changes us from the inside out.  Just as fire is carried over to metal, divine love is poured into us by the Holy Spirit as we stay connected to the one who is the Head—Jesus Christ as Lord.

Let’s never loose track of Jesus.  He himself is our peace and our life and our strength.  – JF