The Great Omission

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

            If you’ve been following these devotions throughout our time of quarantine, you spent almost a month thinking through the Gospel of Matthew. And if you are thinking that exercise through as we go through the Apostles’ Creed, you might be thinking that the Creed’s description of Jesus doesn’t bear much resemblance to Gospel’s. After all, Mark and John don’t talk about Jesus’ birth at all, and Matthew and Luke glance over it in 2 chapters apiece. Yes, all four Gospels spend about a quarter of their length on Jesus’ last week, but again, His suffering, death, and resurrection only occupy three chapters each. So, what about all that stuff from Matthew 3 to Matthew 25, for example? Where is Jesus’ life and ministry reflected in the Creed?

            To be frank, Jesus’ life and ministry are nowhere in the Creeds—the great omission. If we wanted to be critical of the Creeds, we’d have to say that they missed important aspects of Jesus’s identity and work.

            I think, however, there’s a more helpful way to look at: the Creeds are summary statements. The Apostles’ Creed, in particular, has been the baptismal creed in the western church. That is to say, the Creed gives the new Christian just the most basic introduction to Jesus. No one ever imagined that if you knew the Creed, you knew all there was to know about the faith. Just as the Great Commission in Matthew 28 says that disciples are made through Baptism and teaching, so the Creed assumes the Christian will eventually hear and read the Gospels and ponder Jesus in all His fullness.

            So, yes, the Creeds skip a lot about Jesus, just as they necessarily skip a lot about other teachings of the faith. That’s not because the Creeds take a minimalist approach to the faith. It’s because they’re a starting point. I hope our little study of the Creed prompts you to deeper reflection on the faith, too!