LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 97

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will be compromised; if he exercises his power, he will not be
acting justly; and if he overlooks and does not free the
prisoners, his power will be weakened.
To solve such a dilemma, the king does the unthinkable: he
disguises himself by putting on servant’s clothing, exiting his
royal palace, and walking towards the inn, which is the place
where the rebellious servant imprisons and enslaves the royal
servants.
Because of the king’s disguise, the rebellious servant does not
recognize him when he walks toward the inn and enters it. The
evil servant uses all his wicked and deceitful tricks to attract the
disguised king, but the king does not surrender to the rebellious
servant’s temptation. This made the evil servant suspicious,
and he does not know what to do but to use his harshness and
forceful will on the king. So he captures the king, puts him in
chains, and harshly tortures the righteous king.
After much humiliation, suffering, and torture, the king is sent
to prison. When he enters the dungeon and becomes united
with his servants, the king finally reveals his real identity. The
royal soldiers hasten to help him and are astonished by his
descending to them. The evil servant is shocked when he
recognizes the king, and he becomes confused.
With this confrontation, the evil servant’s power diminishes,
and he feels he is perishing because he had transgressed,
unjustly and wrongfully, against the one who could not be
defeated by deception. And the king fulfills his virtues of mercy
and justice. He fulfills justice by unjustly being punished and
fulfills his mercy by freeing his faithful servant from the power
of evil. The king then binds the evil servant in chains forever,
destroys the garden, frees the servants, and returns with them
triumphantly to his kingdom. 2
The Analogy as Gospel Presentation
The analogy is presented to illustrate the ingenuity of the plan
of redemption. It explains the soteriological (salvation)
function of the Divine disguise by presenting a comparison
between Christ liberating humankind from the dominion of
death and a noble king going into the land of his enemy in
disguise to persuade the captives whom the enemy has taken as
slaves to return back to their rightful lord.
The analogy highlights the shame and humiliation the king
must endure in order to save the servant, representing the
shame Jesus suffered on the cross.
The central point of the analogy is that it is not a question of
God’s weakness but only of a restraint of power on God’s part
with a view to bestowing His mercy upon humankind and
securing a true defeat of Satan. The message is that God’s use of
power at the expense of His mercy would have compromised
His character of mercy, whereas using His mercy at the expense
of His power is just, wise, and ultimately effective.
In Christianity, God reveals Himself as agape love, meaning that
He allows Himself to suffer. He is a participant amid human
2
Cf. Abjar Bahkou, Defending Christian Faith, the Fifth Part of the
Christian Apology of Gerasimus (Boston: De Gruyter 2014), 32–35.

Convention Essays

experience and ambiguity. This nature of God is expressed in
the New Testament, where Jesus is the “suffering Servant”
prophesized by Isaiah. Jesus embraced both the suffering and
servanthood concept.
In Christianity the cross is the ultimate fulfillment of the divine
love. Jesus summarized this truth to Nicodemus: “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John
3:16). In Genesis we read about God asking Abraham to sacrifice
his son, Isaac. This story shows that the truest test of
commitment is love expressed in the willingness to give that
which is most loved. Yet, on a greater scale than Abraham, the
New Testament reveals the God who has “poured out his love”
(Rom. 5:5) on creation and who “… did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all …” (Rom. 8:32).
This participatory love invites a response. It breaches into
human life and opens the possibility of communion with God.
God does not only call humanity to love Him, but He enables
them with His invitation. This invitation and encounter engage
God and man in a graceful embrace where God, and only God,
takes and maintains the initiative. Man, in turn, is to fear, love,
and trust God.
The Cross Creates a New Reality
Christianity sees the cross not as an instrument of torture but
of life that comes out of death. On the cross people die, but from
it, Christ made his way back to life. On the cross, human beings
can see what God’s experience, disposition, and essence are,
and what humanity is. Martin Luther, in his introduction to
Psalm 51, answers who God is and who man is: man is
condemned, guilty of sin, and God is the Justifier and Savior of
man, the sinner. Luther considers any theological discussions
outside this subject error and poison. 3
The cross recaps this theological reality. The cross created a
new realty within God’s fallen creation: a new reality for Satan,
when He nailed the accusations of the law to the cross and
rendered them illegible by soaking them in Christ’s blood; a
new reality for death when He laid it to eternal rest in Christ’s
grave; and, finally, a new life for sinners, since they were buried
in Christ’s tomb and raised to new life, through the death and
resurrection of the Crucified One. 4
This is the foundation of Origen’s parable. The servant lost his
community, became enslaved to a false king, and lived in a state
of death. The good king, out of love, restored him back to
fellowship with his kingdom, not using his power and might,
but suffering on the servant’s behalf. The servant is restored to
his status as a member of a redeemed community. As baptized
believers, when we join a community, we become living
members. To use St. Peter’s words, we become a “chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession” (1 Peter 2:9). When we dishonor and disobey God,
we are dead to sin, living outside of God’s family.

Luther, Psalm 51 (1532), AE 12: 311
Cf. Robert Kolb, “Luther on the Theology of the Cross,” Lutheran
Quarterly, Vol. XVI, (2002), 443–66.
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 97