Ministers and Ambassadors

Salem United Church of Christ, Higginsville, Missouri

II Corinthians 5.16-21 (NRSV, with alternate readings)

¹⁶From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh; even though we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we know him no longer in that way. ¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I. Forgiveness and Reconciliation

• The apostle is sometimes a difficult figure to like – through the letters that we have and that he wrote to churches in the early days of the Jesus Movement, he can come across to us as less than humble, often inflexible in matters of the new way of living that he was creating, and apparently judgmental in the extreme – many times I read Paul’s words and I question whether or not he knew what he was doing
• At other times, however, he comes through with some brilliant insight, something that seems to be absolutely without precedent, something creative, challenging, and through it all showing us someone deeply in love with God and God’s people
• Our little bit of the second epistle to the Corinthians for today strikes me as an instance of the creative, challenging, and loving Paul, in spite of his facing an extremely difficult situation with the Corinthians
• In a recent visit to Corinth, some of the Corinthian Jesus People have begun to challenge him and to question his authority as an apostle – some of them think that he does not live up to their ideas of what an apostle should be and do – they push back when he tells them to get rid of their divisions – they do not listen when he tells them that they have made a mockery of the love feast – they attack him when he tries to teach them a “more excellent way” (I Corinthians 12.31) – the treatment that Paul has received from the Corinthians hurt him so much that he felt compelled to write a letter “with many tears” (II Corinthians 2.4) – apparently we do not have that letter, but the mention of it tells us that there is a good deal going on between Paul and his converts in Corinth that we do not know
• Then, just before today’s portion of the letter, Paul tells them that they are missing the point of the gospel – he tells them that the point is not about the messenger, but about the message – he tells them that the message is a priceless treasure that God has placed in breakable and often broken clay jars (II Corinthians 4.7)
• In the face of the Corinthians’ challenges, Paul asserts his confidence – but, of course, his confidence is not simply in himself, in his abilities, although he seems to have plenty of that – his deepest confidence is in the message that he proclaims and in his relationship with Jesus
• His relationship with Jesus requires that Paul looks at everything with new eyes – he tells his friends and foes at Corinth that there was a time when he looked at Jesus “according to the flesh,” which most English language versions of the Bible translate as “from a human point of view”
• I have to take issue with that translation – for Paul, the concept of the flesh is about more than just looking at things from a human point of view – for Paul, “the flesh” is the spirit of this present age, the spirit that stands always in opposition to the Spirit of God, in opposition to the ways of God that we see in Jesus, and in opposition to the Vision of God for all of creation
• “The flesh” is not simply a reference to our bodies or to the physical world, which are gifts of God to everyone – “the flesh” is anything and everything that works against the ways of Jesus
• When Paul says that he once knew Jesus “according to the flesh,” he says so much more than that he knew Jesus from a human point of view – he is saying that the spirit of opposition was in him and was the lens through which he viewed and understood everything – with the reference to seeing things according to the flesh, Paul may also make a sly dig at the Corinthians who oppose him and his work – he may be saying to them that they have understood him by looking through the wrong lens
• The important thing about this is that Paul says he now looks at Christ in a new way – he can no longer view Christ according to the flesh because in Christ there is new creation – everything old has passed away – everything has become new – in Christ, God has forgiven all sin and has reconciled the whole creation to God’s self
• In spite of the tension between Paul and the Corinthians, he wants to be reconciled with them – he wants them to share in the work to which God has called him, and to which God calls all who are in Christ
• You see, Paul declares that God has given Jesus’ friends and followers the ministry of carrying that work forward – Jesus’ friends and followers are now ministers of reconciliation and ambassadors for Christ, Christ’s representatives, Christ’s messengers doing God’s work in new creation – this is work not only for people with titles such as Reverend – this is work for all who are in Christ

II. Ministers and Ambassadors

• In this new creation, Jesus’ people see the world’s power and the world’s ways for what they are – they are nebulous and temporary – they are empty shells – they are dead and dying things because they are passing away – everything has become new
• Living in new creation is not an easy thing to do – on the one hand, in our minds we know that God is doing a new thing – we know that God is making all things new – we read many times in the Bible about this new thing, about this new way of living
• On the other hand, we still live in this world – we still have to eat and live somewhere – we still have to have work so that we can earn money so that we can eat and live somewhere – we still have to live in a world that is largely opposed to the ways of God as we see them in Jesus Messiah
• We are caught, then, between these two competing visions of life and creation – one of the visions is incredibly attractive and so much easier to live in than the other – but the other is the one that leads to true, authentic, abundant life
• We begin to follow the more excellent way when we find in our hearts that we are ready to see the world as God sees all of us, “not counting their trespasses against them” (II Corinthians 5.19) – when we can do that, then we have begun to see others the way that God sees us all
• And then we are ready to begin our work as ministers and ambassadors – again, this work is not easy – too often we will want to hold on to our anger and our sense of hurt when others wrong us – too often we will want to withhold forgiveness from others – too often we will want to continue to live according to the flesh
• But anyone who is in Christ is new creation – everything old has passed away – everything is become new

III. Conclusion

• The season of Lent is always a time for preparation, not just for the coming celebration of Easter but also to participate in new creation – one thing that we have to keep in mind is that new creation is not a future way of living – new creation is already here – everything old has passed – everything is become new…including us
• As we participate in new creation then, let us live fully as ministers of reconciliation and ambassadors of Christ – let us carry the good news of life for all people into a world that wants to reserve life and reconciliation and healing for only some people
• Let us go, fellow ministers and ambassadors, and show the world a more excellent way

Tags: Ambassadors for Christ, II Corinthians 5.16-21, Lent, New Creation, Reconciliation, The Flesh, The Vision of God