What’s in a Name?
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
For a number of weeks Theology 101 has been looking at Christology or the Doctrine of Christ by considering some of the names and titles by which He is referred to in the Bible. Among the formal titles have been Lord, Christ or Messiah, Son of Man and Son of God. We then considered several functional titles such as Teacher, Servant and Shepherd.
Common images
There is yet another avenue through which to think about the person and work of Jesus: the various images that are associated with Him. Some were given by others and some He claimed for Himself. We might think of these as Christology through imagery. For example, the Apostle John begins the fourth Gospel by referring to Jesus simply as “the Word.” In addition John the Baptist introduces Jesus at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry as “the Lamb of God.”
Most notably Jesus Himself employed a number of common images to speak of His person and work. We find these images primarily in the Gospel of John, which has the longstanding reputation of being a “spiritual gospel,” a designation that focuses attention upon commonplace images that are vehicles or bearers of spiritual truths. The Gospel of John states that its primary purpose is so its readers might “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing have life in His name” (20:31).
Conveying purpose
A practical way of accomplishing this purpose is to use ordinary and widely-known images to convey the truth about Jesus and His redeeming purpose so that people who were dead in trespasses and sins might have life in Him and have it more abundantly.
For the next few weeks Theology 101 will seek to unfold the theme “Christology through Imagery.” This means attention will be drawn to imagery such as “Word,” “lamb,” “bread,” “water,” “light,” “door” and “vine” with the express purpose of seeking to unfold truths about the person and work of Christ that are expressed through these images.
Common images are helpful vehicles by which to communicate spiritual truths to common people. Jesus’ own use of everyday images in His teaching helps explain why people flocked to listen to Him. Mark 12:37 reports it this way: “The common people heard Him gladly.”
Jesus was quite adept at relating spiritual truths to images with which ordinary people could readily relate.
Furthermore, those common images served as ongoing reminders of spiritual truths. Whenever people chanced to see a lamb, eat bread, enter a door, light a lamp or drink water, memories of spiritual truths would come readily back to mind.
‘Street level’ theology
Jesus seemed to avoid the high vocabulary of the Greek philosophers and complicated reasoning of some Jewish rabbis. Jesus’ aim was that gospel understanding might come to His hearers, rather than being admired for His intellect and vocabulary. Theology “at street level” that communicates meaningfully with ordinary people is always an admirable goal, even if it’s not easy to achieve.
Look for Theology 101 to call to mind some of these images that can be windows into understanding the kind of person Jesus came to be and the nature of the mission He came to accomplish.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
Share with others: