"Longing to Be Clothed..." But How Long? The Vicarious Anxiety of Christ & Our Anxiety - Fri. Breakout

By Christian Kettler

We groan, “longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,” Scripture says. This chaos is made particularly acute by anxiety. Anxiety can be the pain of the present, but also the fear of the future. We may fear the past, but only in the sense that it may be repeated (Kierkegaard). The Christian is confronted by the biblical admonitions not to be anxious (Matt 6:25-26; Luke 12:22; Phil 4:6: 1 Pet 5:7). But these admonitions can often create even more anxiety, particularly as we face the inevitability of death. Not just our impending death, but the death of someone we love can create the anxiety of what Ernest Becker calls “the denial of death,” even among pious Christians.

‘Jesus Christ interrupts us, not just with pious platitudes or future promises, but His present action. This is the vicarious anxiety of Christ. This is taking seriously the biblical teaching of his uniting with our humanity, who we really are, in the incarnation. His humanity is connected with our fallen humanity, yet without sinning Himself (Heb 2:14-18; 4:14-16; 7:23-25). He has taken upon Himself, not just our guilt, but also our anxiety, as we see in Gethsemane and the cross. His anxious humanity has been crucified and resurrected. We participate in that, even now. Therefore, faith should be our only response to this grace. But even this faith is based on the previous and continual faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, our High Priest even now in heaven (Heb 8:1).

Presentation at 11:30am on Friday, January 13 in St George Cathedral Chapel