I know that my Redeemer lives

Though my body is broken and wounded, a light of hope in Christ sustains me. Each dark road leads to a new horizon. My morning prayer proclaimed:

"Lord Jesus, you are the rising Sun, the first fruits of the future resurrection, -- grant that we may not sit in the shadow of death but walk in the light of life. Christ, King of Glory, be our light and our joy."[1]

As my Redeemer lives, so shall I; even though my body is being destroyed, I will be brought forth as gold.[2] I live with the hope that even though I may die, in my flesh I shall be made new to see God as He is. Words fail me! Oh, how I long to see Him, my hope and my joy.[3]

For nearly quarter of a century, I have lived with chronic illness and the disability of multiple sclerosis. After the questions and tears, the railing and internal clamor came full circle, then came defeat then resignation. A small voice whispered “Be still, and know that I am God.”[4] The Lord of hosts is with me. He is my refuge.[5]

This is taken from Psalm 46 – the inspiration of Martin Luther’s towering hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”

My world has been shaken to its foundations, yet the Psalmist’ assures me that most assuredly God has been suffering humanity’s refuge throughout the ages, our strength, our help in times of trouble and that we will not be afraid.[6] Yet in my weakness I have been afraid. My heart has been so very troubled and filled with dread at what lays ahead of with serious, incurable, generative disease.

Didn’t Jesus say, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”? Yes, he did.[7] He told his Disciples that He was going away but would come back for them. He told them a permanent home awaited them (and us) -- a home with the Father in heaven.

Later Saint Peter told us will have trials in this life. We are to endure the trials and use them to glorify God.[8] Saint Paul expands by saying that earthly trials borne in faith produce spiritual fruits directed by the Holy Spirit that includes perseverance that leads to character, which leads to hope that does not disappoint.[9]

My hope is that I will see Christ as He is, and that I will know just as I am known. The reason and necessity for the trials, sorrow, and tears will be known in their full dimensions. The inexpressible longing that has resided within my chest since the dawn of memory, for somewhere else I can’t quite identify, will finally be quenched as I step through the threshold of heaven. I shall look down to realize that I actually “stepped” again and sigh to know I am home at last.

All that will remain on earth of me will be a tombstone with the message, "I know my Redeemer lives.”

Mark Pickup

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”– Job 19.25-27.

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[1] CHRISTIAN PRAYER: THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS, 1976, p.674.
[2] Cf. Job 23.10.
[3] Cf. Job 19. 25-27. Psalm 17.15, 1Corinthians 13.12, 1John 3.2
[4] Psalm 46.10.
[5] 46.11.
[6] 46.1-2.
[7] John 14.27.
[8] 1Peter 1.6-7.
[9] Romans 5.1-5.

Marriage, leadership and servanthood

At the beginning of history, God created marriage as a sacred union between a man and a woman. Husbands and wives were to complement each other as one flesh (equals).

God established marriage in the Garden of Eden. We are told:

 "The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.” … So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man,  the man said: ‘This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body."[1]

Yes, marriage was instituted by God and intended to be a permanent earthly union between and man and a woman. Centuries later, Jesus reaffirmed the sacred and permanent nature of the marriage bond:

Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” (Matthew 19:3-6)

Marriage is a holy covenent so inviolable that man is warned, by Christ himself, not to tear it apart. From the beginning, it was intended to be a permanent earthly bond.[2] In the complementary state of “one flesh”, a man and woman build up each other. Marriage is supposed to be a union of the sexes not a battle between them.

In Ephesians 5.21-33, we read,

…giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church,  because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.  In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

People with gender axes to grind have a tendency to quote the 5th Chapter of Ephesians beginning with verse 22, “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church” This is usually done to either make the Chapter appear sexist or to put down women. It’s an intentional and dishonest distortion of the context, meaning and spirit of the Chapter. Verse 21 says to be “subordinate to one another out of reverence to Christ.” In the Bible quote above I included verse 20 to indicate the spirit of the Chapter: “[G]iving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.” Saint Paul was urging Christians to submit to each other. Husbands and wives are called to mutual submission. Some do it better than others but that is the model to which Christian couples are to aspire.

While Ephesians 5 does ask wives to submit to their husband’s leadership, the same chapter expects husbands’ leadership is to emulate the intimate relationship of Christ with His Church. What kind of relationship was that? Biblical scholar Earl D. Radmacher, states in his commentary on Ephesians 5, for the Nelson Study Bible:

Paul does not emphasize the husband’s authority; instead, he calls on husbands to love self-sacrificially. Husbands are to emulate Christ’s love, the kind of love that is willing to lay down one’s life for another person and serve that person even if it means suffering.[3]

The 5th Chapter of Ephesians begins by exhorting Christians to be “imitators of God” in generous forgiveness (Ephesians 4:32) and abiding in a Christ-like love. How did Christ love us?

· Self-sacrificially. Ephesians 5:2 tells us to “live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God”. He came to serve, not to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20.28 & Mark 10:45, also see Luke 22:27).
· Humbly. Christ did not claim what he was rightfully due rather humbled himself in love for us. (Philippians 2:5-8)
· Faithfully: The foreshadow of Christ’s redemptive love was cast into the Garden of Eden at the point of Original sin and continues into eternity.

Jesus assumed the role of servant, even stooping to wash the feet of his disciples (the earliest Church).[4] When He finished, he said to the disciples:

“Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (John 13:12-15)

The New American Catholic Study Bible footnote to this passage (John 13:5) says, “The act of washing another’s feet was one that could not be required of the lowliest Jewish slave.”[5] Jesus really illustrated servanthood. The Nelson Woman’s Study Bible comments states:

To study biblical servanthood is to study Jesus. Jesus’ only Master was the Father (Is. 53:4–6; 10–12; John 4:34). He served others because that was the Father’s assignment (John 17:4–12). Jesus assumed the title of “servant,” and this title is incorporated within the messianic prophecies in which He is described as the “servant of the Lord” (Is. 42:1–7; 49:1–7; 50:4–11; 52:13–53:12). In fact, Jesus understood Himself as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s “suffering servant.”

Even before He went to the Cross, Jesus made sure the disciples understood servanthood. They watched in amazement as He redefined leadership by taking a towel and washing their dirty feet. In His life, biblical leadership and servanthood were synonymous. Many divinely appointed leaders described themselves as “servants.”

"Normally servanthood is placed at the bottom rung of the ladder of success, with authority at the top. Jesus, in a revolutionary way, flipped the ladder right side up. In imitating Him, servants neither lose their identities nor become doormats; they become great." (Mark 10:43).[6]

Marriage and fatherhood

Quite simply, the husband’s leadership goes full circle to put him in a servant role to his wife and family. My own life was blessed by a father who exemplified this principle.

Fatherly nurture involves a delicate balance between gentleness and firmness (weighted toward gentleness). Proper fatherly nurture requires consistency and constancy, tempered with latitude for flexibility—and the wisdom to distinguish the proper time and place for each attribute. Done properly, it introduces children, at an early age, to the balance between justice and mercy which are critical human and spiritual concepts that must not be separated. I believe my father did it properly.

Developing understanding

The marriage between justice and mercy is crucial for children to develop a healthy understanding their heavenly Father. I believe God entrusts earthly fathers with this fundamental task. If fathers fail to prayerfully take this sacred trust as a solemn duty and be a living example of it—we not only fail our children but we fail God too. Saint Thomas Aquinas told us that “justice without mercy is cruelty” and “…Mercy without justice leads to dissolution.” Understanding the difference between justice and mercy is critical to grasping the point of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection. Christ came to save an undeserving human race from their sins.

Mark Pickup
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[1]Genesis 2:18, 21-24. 
[2] Note that i8n Matthew 22:30 and Mark 12:25, Jesus said that at the time of the resurrection of the dead will be no marriage. There will be no need for marriage or to bear offspring. We will be immortal “as the angels” (cf. 1Corinthians 15:53-54).
[3]Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. 1997. The Nelson study Bible : New King James Version. Includes index. T. Nelson Publishers: Nashville
[4] John 13:4-11.
[5] The Catholic Study Bible, New American Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
[6]Thomas Nelson, I. 1997, c1995. Woman's study Bible . Thomas Nelson: Nashville