The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for March 3, 2023

“Who has believed our report? (Isaiah 53:1). The unknown speakers giving us the well-known prophecy of Jesus confess they themselves at first didn’t understand the mission of God’s Messiah.

Jennifer O’Neill is a well-known model and actress (“Cover Girl,” “Summer of ‘42”). When she appeared on Lutheran Hour Ministries program “On Main Street, she said there is a hole in the heart that can only be filled by accepting Jesus. Since we Lutherans aren’t keen about “accept Jesus” talk, I pushed to get her to say that faith in Jesus is a gift (see Ephesians 2:8-9). During commercial break, I started to explain but she stopped me. What follows isn’t verbatim but is the essence of what she said. “Dale, I know what you’re trying to do, but you forget. When a person is outside of faith, it makes no sense to say, ‘Faith is a gift, that you don’t have to do anything, that God does it all.’ A person who doesn’t know Jesus will think, ‘My life is messed up and you’re saying I shouldn’t do anything? That’s nonsense.’ It’s in hindsight we see that faith in Jesus is purely a gift of God, not something we have done on our own.”

“Who has believed our report?” Most Jews in the first century were waiting for a Messiah but not one who would suffer and die. The Emmaus disciples were typical. “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). The resurrected Christ opened their eyes to understand His suffering and death in hindsight. The unknown speakers in Isaiah 53 “confess their initial ignorance of how the Servant’s torment was the vicarious satisfaction for their sins…. These servants say in retrospect that they finally understand the Servant’s identity, as well as the significance of his suffering, death, and resurrection.” (Reed Lessing, Concordia Commentary: Isaiah 40-56), 612

That was Ms. O’Neill’s point. It takes time to understand the total grace of God in Jesus. For me, it’s taking decades, and I still don’t fully get it. We shouldn’t assume that people outside the church understand our ways of thinking. It takes time and the Spirit.

The Meyer Minute for March 3, 2023

“Who has believed our report? (Isaiah 53:1). The unknown speakers giving us the well-known prophecy of Jesus confess they themselves at first didn’t understand the mission of God’s Messiah.

Jennifer O’Neill is a well-known model and actress (“Cover Girl,” “Summer of ‘42”). When she appeared on Lutheran Hour Ministries program “On Main Street, she said there is a hole in the heart that can only be filled by accepting Jesus. Since we Lutherans aren’t keen about “accept Jesus” talk, I pushed to get her to say that faith in Jesus is a gift (see Ephesians 2:8-9). During commercial break, I started to explain but she stopped me. What follows isn’t verbatim but is the essence of what she said. “Dale, I know what you’re trying to do, but you forget. When a person is outside of faith, it makes no sense to say, ‘Faith is a gift, that you don’t have to do anything, that God does it all.’ A person who doesn’t know Jesus will think, ‘My life is messed up and you’re saying I shouldn’t do anything? That’s nonsense.’ It’s in hindsight we see that faith in Jesus is purely a gift of God, not something we have done on our own.”

“Who has believed our report?” Most Jews in the first century were waiting for a Messiah but not one who would suffer and die. The Emmaus disciples were typical. “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). The resurrected Christ opened their eyes to understand His suffering and death in hindsight. The unknown speakers in Isaiah 53 “confess their initial ignorance of how the Servant’s torment was the vicarious satisfaction for their sins…. These servants say in retrospect that they finally understand the Servant’s identity, as well as the significance of his suffering, death, and resurrection.” (Reed Lessing, Concordia Commentary: Isaiah 40-56), 612

That was Ms. O’Neill’s point. It takes time to understand the total grace of God in Jesus. For me, it’s taking decades, and I still don’t fully get it. We shouldn’t assume that people outside the church understand our ways of thinking. It takes time and the Spirit.