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The lesson given for this Sunday has a shorter version, 9:35 - 10:8, and a longer one, 9:35 - 10:23. My choice of a shorter version is 10:5-23 since this gives more of the direct teaching of Jesus to his followers. (And that's what I'll comment on here.)
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Following the Sermon on the Mount, Chapters 5 through 7, there follows a series of healing stories and calling / discipleship stories:
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Verses 21-23, continue the teaching against false prophets that began in Matthew 7:12-20.
But here Jesus ups the ante. For the usual warnings about false appearances (crying "Lord, Lord") and false promises ("prophesying in your name") and judging by the results ("casting out demons in your name") are subjected to what is truly at the heart of Jesus message:
doing the will of my Father in heaven.
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In terms of the Lectionary, we are now picking up where we left Matthew back in the Season of Epiphany in January and February!
It might be helpful to pause on the word, "Therefore," which begins verse 6:25 and review the "whereas's" that begin in Chapter 5:
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This passage which ends the Book of Matthew is commonly referred to as The Great Commission.
The commissioning can be highlighted by the verbs in verses 19 and 20:
These verbs represent the key activities that Jesus wants his followers to be doing.
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Verse 37. "The feast" refers to the last of the three Jewish pilgrimages festivals / feasts, Sukkoth, or festival of Booths / Tabernacles. This text is being read on our Christian Day of Pentecost - which is the second of the pilgrimage festivals, Shavuot, or feast of Weeks. This detail is important simply to avoid confusing the two different festivals, and the time sequence.
Bruce Malina comments that the Festival of Booths included prayers for winter rains and the renewal of sunlight. These two elements are addressed by Jesus:
Thus Jesus presents himself as the answer to the prayers being made.
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This text stands as a book end to the story of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). In Babel, the story begins with one language and a common understanding and purpose, but ends with many languages, confusion and scattering. In Acts the story begins with many languages, and ends with many languages, but contains in the middle a common hearing about God's deeds of power (verse 11).
Unfortunately, unlike the story of Babel, this story does not contain within it any cautionary tale against human hubris. It is absolutely crucial in reading this text aright to truly pause and ponder the question asked in verse 12, "What does this mean?"
Pentecost Sunday
Acts 2:1-21
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I want to begin my reflection today by asking you to recall the first time you saw a movie with special effects. … I’m old enough to remember seeing Cecil B. DeMille’s, “Ten Commandments,” when it was first released. Sitting in the darkened theatre as a child, watching Charlton Heston lead the people between the walls of raging water as they crossed the Red Sea. It was pretty amazing back then. But it was pretty primitive and hokey by today’s standards. Back then we could see the seam where the two images were glued together. Today, special effects must be seamless; must be an integrated aspect of the story.
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Verses 13-20 are part of the Lectionary reading for Year A, August 21 to 27, but I am using it during Lent this year to give my congregation a clearer sense of the events that led to Jesus' arrest, trial, torture and execution.
Interestingly, this pivotal passage occurs outside of the "home turf" of Jesus and his followers, in the district of Caesarea Philippi north of Galilee.
Jesus has been traveling about doing signs, teaching and healing. This has resulted in crowds being drawn to him. It is now time to do some assessing.
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This lesson, chosen for Christ the King / The Reign of Christ Sunday, seems to be chosen as a deliberate counter-point to the temptation to rush to a quick and easy, "Christ the all-powerful King will rescue you from all physical hardships, and prevent any bad things from happening to you," type of sermons.
Indeed, the question that cries out from the page is, "If Jesus can't save himself, how can he save us?"
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The readings at this time of year are out of sync with what is happening in malls and stores everywhere: they are gearing up for that shopping madness called Christmas; the lessons are gearing up for cosmic conflict and death. Folks come expecting some advance preparation for Christmas; they get lessons about global warfare, plagues, confrontation, betrayal, persecution, and ... endurance and salvation.
I sometimes think we should make the Reign of Christ a whole new Season in the Christian calendar just to give everyone a heads up.
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It is important to remember the context of this passage: Jesus has entered Jerusalem (Luke 19:28-40) and a series of confrontations with the authorities begins. After telling the parable of the wicked tenants (Luke 20:9-19), Luke comments:
So they watched (Jesus) and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor.
Luke 20:20 (NRSV)
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By the end of this Chapter, Jesus will have entered Jerusalem and the last week of his life before he is arrested, tortured and executed.
In this passage he enters Jericho near Jerusalem.
Zacchaeus is a CHIEF tax collector. This probably means he has been given a contract (for an agreed set price) to collect taxes from a large region. He would employ others to actually do the collecting - one of whom we met in last week's parable.
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Last week, Jesus told us a parable to show our "need to pray always and never lose heart," Luke 18:1 (the parable of the widow who persisted in seeking justice. Click here to read my comments on that passage.)
And now, Jesus tells us a parable to show our need to avoid pride, hubris, smugness, self-righteousness, etc. should we happen, in fact, to actually "pray always."
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This passage echoes themes found at the beginning of Chapter 11: A neighbour asking for bread in the middle of the night; ask, seek, knock; and sinful human fathers who know to give their children what they need when they ask.
The remarks that frame the actual parable of the persistent widow make 2 points and raise 1 question:
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As always with John, it is important to remember that John is not writing a daily diary - "What I did with Jesus today" - nor a historical biography - "Jesus: The Man, His Times, His Achievements."
John is writing at the end of his life, at the end of the first century (nearly 70 years after Jesus' execution and resurrection), at a time when the early Christian communities are under severe persecution from the Romans, and have lost all connections with their original Jewish roots. He is NOT writing to "the general public." He is writing to a threatened, small, inner group, who have no first-hand memory or experience of Jesus or of being Jewish. Their physical - and more importantly - their eternal lives are at stake. They need to "see" Jesus. They need to be embedded in Jesus, abiding in Jesus, so that they can withstand the fear and pain of Roman arrest, torture, and bloody executions.
The story of the nameless rich man and the named beggar, Lazarus, (Hebrew for, "Our God has helped") is placed by Luke between verse 16:14:
You cannot serve both God and Money.
and verse 17:1:
Occasions for stumbling are bound to come.
seemingly as an illustration of both truths.
As is typical with Jesus and ourselves, there are a number of assumptions and reversals in this story.
Over the last few Sundays, the "audience" has shifted from "large crowds" (Luke 14:25), to "Pharisees and the scribes" (15:2) to now, "the disciples." (16:1) And, apart from the story of the prodigal and his father and brother (Luke 15:11-32), the content of Jesus' teaching is primarily wisdom stories and concluding sayings. (And often the concluding sayings are only loosely connected to the actual content of the stories. For example, the sheep and the coin are lost but do not sin nor repent. The sayings about joy in heaven would more logically follow the story of the prodigal son.)
And so, what are we to make of the story of the manager (or steward or agent) and the concluding sayings?
First, we should understand that the manager is indeed being shrewd (or wise or prudent or astute), in that,
Last week, when large crowds were traveling with him (Luke 14:25), the lesson was about the cost of following Jesus.
This week, now that tax collectors and sinners are coming near to listen to him, the lesson is all about celebration that the lost have been found (without any cost on their part).
In Luke, the religious leaders try to get a reading of what honour (or dishonour) to bestow on Jesus by inviting him to dinner, Chapter 14. But now they start grumbling about him. Hanging with tax collectors and sinners is definitely not an honourable thing to do, and by now associating with these people, Jesus is bringing dishonor on the leaders for their previous association with him. (They could now be publicly ridiculed for not having correctly assessed Jesus' character BEFORE they had invited him to dinner - they should have know that he was the kind of guy who would
This text begins and ends with an "all or nothing" injunction about following Jesus, with two practical illustrations in between.
Given that at this point in his ministry, Jesus is beginning to sense the "all" that lies ahead for him personally (betrayal and denial by his closest companions, followed by false arrest, torture, and brutal execution), perhaps it is no wonder that his response to the large crowds is to challenge any hopes they may have for an easy entry to the messianic age. The way ahead will be hard, not magical.
The word "hate" (as used in the NRSV) is clearly being used in an exaggerated sense and not literally. The Good News Bible's "love me more" is better, but doesn't capture
This passage presents God in the image of an autocratic, totalitarian, emperor. God exercises divine punishment on those who do evil, and reward for those who follow his (sic) commands.
However, there is another way to hear this text. The text reveals that evil is antithetical to God's nature and character. Not only is there no evil in God's personal being, God abhors evil in anyone's being. And particularly, God abhors evil inflicted on others.
The text also reveals that God is influenced by unfolding events, by the decisions and
The previous verses had demonstrated Jesus' power over the demons within nature by calming a storm, now we will see Jesus' power over the demons within people by calming a wild man.
The description of the behaviour in verses 27 and 29 is exactly how a possessed person behaves: shouting, naked, living among graves; and how the community responds: isolating, guarding, chaining.
Notice the honorific greeting used to greet Jesus: "Son of the Most High God." When Jesus, asks him his name in verse 30, this is a sign of Jesus' higher status: well-behaved subjects speak first only to acknowledge the sovereign, "Your Majesty," and then wait for well-behaved sovereigns to ask for their name. Giving one's name gives power to control and direct.
The name "Legion" has a double meaning. Literally, it means, "Many, thousands, multitudes." But it also alludes to the occupying Roman soldier legions which numbered 3,000 to 6,000 each. Many Israelites felt the Roman legions were a demonic occupation.
The presence of a herd of swine nearby indicates that this scene is taking place in land used by non-Israelites.
Why are the people of the city afraid of Jesus, instead of welcoming? Perhaps they prefer the stability of demonic occupation by Roman legions to the disruption and destruction that might come with them being cast out?
The man seeks to follow Jesus out of devotion and out of the debt now owed to Jesus for freeing him. But Jesus directs directs him to give his devotion to the one who truly freed him - God. Notice that the man fails to do this and instead continues to praise Jesus.
Questions (from LESSONMaker)
Jesus! How Could You!
Meal times are rich with assumed, unspoken, expectations and customs. And meals with invited guests are even more so. What food will be served? What drink will be served? Who will sit beside whom? In what order will people be served? What will be "polite" conversation? What thanks are to be offered? To whom? By whom? Etc.
This lesson from Luke both reveals and takes for granted many such meal time customs in Jesus' day.
In Jesus' day, there were no paved roads, no socks, and no running water. So it was an expectation that a host would provide guests with a servant to wash the guests feet on their arrival, and provide some scented ointment for their hair. Meals were served onto low tables, and the guests would lie on sofas, propped on their left side, taking and eating food from serving dishes with their right hands. Only men would eat together. Women would enter the room only to serve food. They would not talk with the men. And as always, a woman would always have her hair covered and would never directly speak to or touch a man in public.
Thus, when the woman in this story comes into the room where the men are eating, she is violating a huge standard of socially respectable behaviour for a woman - just by being in the room.
I wonder why she is weeping? For joy? For sorrow? For loss? For repentance? For relief?
It is shocking what she does. Washing Jesus' feet with her tears. Touching him with her hair. Anointing him with ointment. But then, she is already a woman with a reputation. She has no "good name" left to lose. But what about Jesus? Any proper man would have re-acted with outrage and anger at her behaviour. Any proper man would have absolutely prevented the way she touches him in public. Allowing this behaviour tars Jesus with the same reputation as the woman touching him. And if left unchallenged would bring dishonour on the host as well.
However, an interesting twist takes place. Just as the host is thinking to himself, "Doesn't Jesus know what sort of person this woman is," Jesus tells a story to make plain that he does indeed know what sort of woman she is, and more than that, knows what sort of person his host is as well. Ouch.
Only Luke reports this event in Jesus' ministry. I wonder why? Certainly Luke was from the same social class as the Pharisee in the story. I wonder if this story was particularly poignant for him? Reminding him - and causing him in turn to remind us - that God's care, love and forgiveness is for all - without distinction. But not without inequality. All are forgiven, but not all are forgiven equally because some have greater debts, and God's forgiveness is never partial, never half way, never with a hidden catch. It is always total, whole, full and complete. Ouch. It is good news that my debts are forgiven, but hard to hear that someone else's much larger debt is also totally forgiven.
And yet, it is exactly this good news of God's hospitality being extended to all without distinction that was one of the marks of the new community of those who followed the Way of Jesus. I wonder what our churches would be like if we could fully live this hospitality? I wonder if others would still find that distinctive and attractive?
The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 is a creation story.
Like the creation stories that have preceded it, the important question to ask of this story is NOT, "Is it factual?" The question to ask is, "Does it tell something true about human experience?"
Aside: In the first 11 chapters of Genesis there are several linked creation stories:
The story of the tower of Babel is both an instructive and a cautionary tale. It instructs (explains) to us how, after the flood, where there was once again a single first family - Noah's - yet there came to be many different peoples with many different languages.
But like the story of Cain and Abel, which is a cautionary tale about human jealousy and Divine justice, this is a cautionary about human hubris and Divine purpose. ("hubris: exaggerated self-confidence," an often fatal, always mistaken assumption that one knows all there is to know)
From the vantage point of the 21st Century, it is not too difficult to hear in this story echoes from every age of human history: "Wow, with this new technology, nothing can stop us from building a whole new dream world." In Babel, the technology was bricks, in our century it is the internet, in the past it has been planes, trains, cars, ships, etc., etc. The caution in the tale is not, "Stop creating new technology." The caution is, "Don't be over-confident about what this new technology will result in. Everything has a price to pay. Everything has unforeseeable, unintended, unpredictable consequences." As Leonard Cohen says, "There is a crack in everything." And as John Calvin says, "Everything is depraved."
As in the Cain and Abel story where God intervenes to both protect Cain and yet also make plain God's expectations for justice and caring, in this story God intervenes to both protect language and yet also make plain God's expectations for novelty, complexity and diversity - and appropriately humble, honest, human labour and participation in populating the whole world.
Nonetheless, the opening verse of this story contains an echo of a deeply embedded human ache:
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
In our age of both global communication technologies and stubbornly entrenched local violence, we long for a global understanding as the means to achieve a single, common purpose and harmony. A longing to which this story still stands as a cautionary tale about our hubris.
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