4. How do you interpret the statement Jesus Christ is Lord?
The very earliest confession of the Christian church was, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” To those who made this declaration, these words summarized the theology that encompassed all other faith statements. Jesus of Nazareth, the god-man, had transformed our understanding of what it meant to be human and opened for humanity the possibility that God could indeed be, not only important in their lives, but also personal. But, this personal relationship comes with a cost. Borrowing from Bonhoeffer, it may be free, but it’s not cheap. This personal relationship requires us to recognize Jesus as not only friend, savior, redeemer, but also Lord. Lord is an interesting word for us today. We have nothing today that compares to a first century understanding of the word. While we may have nothing that uniquely corresponds to the definition of a first century “lord”, we do have plenty of things that exercise lordship in our lives. We can begin our list with noble things like family, friends, career, religion, politics, etc. We can then add things that are questionable at best, self-interest, self-indulgence, alcohol, drugs, etc. But, no matter how good or evil we perceive these things to be, if they reign in our lives in the place of Jesus, then they have usurped Christ’s rightful place as Lord of our lives.
The lordship of Jesus extends beyond just our personal sphere, but to a corporate sphere as well. He is the Lord of the Church, the Lord of our social structures, the Lord of our culture, the Lord of our politics, and the Lord of all creation. There is no area of our life, either seen or unseen, where Christ is not the rightful Lord. The problem of course is submitting ourselves to the lordship of someone other than ourselves. It is the problem as old as humanity – we think we know best. We think that control is more that just an illusion, but something that we can obtain. Ultimately, our pride becomes the source of all assaults on the lordship of Jesus. True peace and joy can only be found by allowing Jesus to take his rightful place as Lord of lords, King of kings, and Lord of our lives.
“Jesus is Lord” was also, and is, a radical statement. For the Jews under Roman occupation, it was supposed to be “Caesar is Lord.” To state otherwise was not only over and against the religious thought and systems of the day, it was a revolutionary statement about where our true loyalties lie. To say “Jesus is Lord” was to risk everything, including your very life.
Chuck- You are so right. It is equally radical for us today, but our “lord’s” aren’t as overt as the Roman Empire was. Well… not always. Ours cloak themselves in noble sounding names like “king and country,” “upward mobility,” etc. But they are just as dangerous and to name them Lord brings death.