#03 Jesus is the Christ!

[AI translation] I believe that we have come to the most difficult part of the Apostles' Creed when we want to talk about Article II of the Creed, that is: I believe... "in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary." Why is this the most difficult proposition? Jesus Christ is not to be explained, but to be worshipped. It is because we are confronted with a mystery, a miracle, concerning the person of Jesus Christ, which can in no way be grasped or explained in a way that is comprehensible to our human understanding. The person of Jesus Christ will always remain a stumbling block, even a folly, to human reasoning, as the Scriptures say. But when I want to speak of Him, I do not want to explain the mystery, the miracle. In fact, let me say beforehand that all that I want to say about Him in the wake of the Word is nothing other than a renunciation of all explanation, a rejection of all reasoning, and only a humble, humble pointing to the mystery itself, to the miracle itself, which God has revealed and is performing on earth in Jesus Christ.All that can be said about the person of Jesus Christ was most succinctly expressed by the Spirit of God in the apostle Peter, when, in answer to Jesus' question, "But who do you say that I am?" he answered, on behalf of the others, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." #Mt16,16b
This is obviously the origin of the shortest formulation of the most ancient creed, which was simply this: Jesus is the Christ! Translated into today's language, this would be like saying: this man is God! For indeed, these two names, Jesus and Christ, generally mean man and God! Jesus is the name of a man, that man is called Jesus! And Christ is a title, the "official" designation of the divine Saviour, in Hebrew: Messiah, in Hungarian: Anointed One. In this duality, in the indivisibility and inseparability of this duality, lies the mystery of the person of Jesus.
So Jesus is the Christ! This news, this sentence, means that in the One who was born in Bethlehem in Judea in 1959 (or 2002), raised in Nazareth, died in Jerusalem, in that real, historical person, God became man! Thus says the apostle John in his famous account of this miracle: "The Word was made flesh" #Jn1,14a. In novels it happens that a prince, wanting to get to know the people over whom he will rule, becomes, say, a miner. The director of the mine is ordered by the court chancellery to keep a secret eye on him, to make sure that nothing happens to him. The distinguished 'miner' works down in the mine during the day, but at night he takes off his work clothes and retires to his hotel, where he is a prince again! Is this similar to what God did in Jesus when the second person of the Trinity God became man, when the Word became flesh? No! Far from it. That was just play, interesting fun compared to God becoming man in Jesus!
But imagine now that the prince becomes a miner by leaving his checkbook at home. And the mine manager has no idea that the unknown new worker is a royal prince. Perhaps the boy prince will take the same fate as the other workers and get paid the same as the others. Would this venture then be similar to what Jesus did? No! Not even then! Even so, the fate of that prince would not be sealed and inevitable. He could leave it at any time, he could say any morning that he would quit, that he would do no more. And that would be the end of the adventure.
But for the child born in Bethlehem, it was not an adventure, but a bloody reality! What this means is that in the person of Jesus, God became just as real a flesh and blood human being as you or I or any of us. He was born of a mother into this earthly world just as any man is born into it, indeed in the very "likeness of the flesh of sin" #Rom 8,3. He stood there defenseless, exposed, in this cruel world, so that any self-righteous, overweening madman could smash his face in and make a mockery of him. And many did. Indeed, he not only pretended to be poor, he was actually poor. He was actually emptying himself and taking on a truly servile form, actually fusing heavenly glory with earthly ignominy. He became so completely one with us that our weariness, our hunger, our thirst became his fate, and even our sin, the curse of the sin of the world, with all its destructive power, became his, was concentrated in him. For Him, human destiny became inevitable, irredeemable, because He Himself renounced the right, the possibility of leaving it at a given moment, like the prince in the fairy tale, the mine.
When God became man in Jesus, then there is no play, no adventure, no "as if", no pretence, but something shockingly serious, fatal, deadly, bloody reality! Jesus Christ suffered all the agonies of the human body, to the point where the heart stops, the body grows cold and returns to the dust from which it was taken. Between the manger of Bethlehem and the cross of Calvary is a whole human destiny, the earthly, human destiny of the man called Jesus of Nazareth. So it is absolutely true when we say that Jesus is a real man! He is not only like us, but one with us!
But in this man God became man! Here God himself emerges from the unity of the Godhead in the form of Jesus Christ! Peter looks at this strange man, his soul shakes with a great realization, and he says in amazement, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" #Jn16.16b Don't be deceived by this expression, Jesus is not the Son of God, as I was, but the visible image of the invisible God, the earthly image of the heavenly Father. Not a being other than God, but the living God Himself, the omnipotence, grace and justice of God manifested in a human person.
So, once again, Jesus does not mean that we are dealing with a reality other than God, not one of the earthly or heavenly realities, but with the living God Himself, the Creator who is also a creature. Jesus is God Himself, who appears in the flesh in the world of creation.
It is precisely through the fact that Jesus Christ is real man and real God that he brings into our fallen human existence the redemptive divine power and meaning. It is precisely because we can believe in a God who became man among us in Jesus that it is possible for us, you and I, to live differently. Christianly, in a Christlike way, as those who experience for themselves day by day that nothing is impossible for God.
Because the eternal divine Word was made flesh in Jesus, it is also possible for Jesus to become flesh and blood in us, to become incarnate in us, to become a reality that we can also imagine and live. That is why it is also possible for Jesus to come out with us and in us now into practical life, from the church, into our families, into everyday life, next to the machines and desks, into the streets and shops, everywhere!
We have often said that this world today only believes the gospel, our faith, for what it sees of it. Well then: Jesus is ready to be seen today, let us be ready to receive Him!
Let me also tell you that the seal of our parish in Pasaréti bears the words, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" We chose this as the motto of the parish, the motto of our parish, with the aim of being a church of this faith. Well, would that we had not only on our official documents, but also in our hearts, the happy confession of faith, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" #Mt16.16b
Amen
Date: 1 November 1959.