In 1979 Joseph Fitzmyer published a book called A Wandering
Aramean, a collection of essays he had written on the Aramaic
language and its significance for the study of the Bible. Of particular
interest to many in the scholarly world at the time was the question of
whether a better understanding of Aramaic would illuminate the New
Testament message, particularly the picture of Jesus as presented in the
gospels. Accordingly, the first essay in the book was entitled "The
Aramaic Background of the New Testament." In it Fitzmyer reminded
readers that Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Near East in the time
of Jesus and was undoubtedly the home language of Jesus and his
disciples. Not surprisingly, then, even though all the books of the New
Testament were composed in Greek, traces of Aramaic vocabulary and style
are prominent, especially in the gospels, with the Gospel of Mark--the
earliest of the canonical gospels--showing the most direct influence, at
least in terms of vocabulary. Today's reading from Deuteronomy contains
what might be thought of as an ancient Jewish statement of
self-understanding, a confession, one that would have applied to Jews of
Jesus' day as well. It begins, "My father was a wandering Aramean"
(speaking of Jacob), and it continues with a synopsis of the exodus
experience, the defining story of Judaism. Ancestors of the Jews were
oppressed in Egypt, but God delivered them by mighty deeds and brought
them to a land of happiness and prosperity. When we look at our own
lives, we aren't always able to relate to this story. If we are out of
work, on the verge of bankruptcy, facing significant medical challenges,
or dealing with difficult family situations, we may wonder, "Where is
God in my time of need? Why hasn't God brought me to the land of milk
and honey?" The answer is to remember that the story of the exodus
wasn't completed in a day, a few weeks, or even a few years. The Bible
describes the gap between leaving Egypt and arriving in Canaan as
lasting forty years, with a lot of turmoil and suffering along the way.
In life, of course, there are times when we feel like we've arrived in
the promised land, only to find that circumstances arrive that put us
right back in Egypt or in the wilderness. Nevertheless, there are two
phrases of this early confession that we can hold onto in times good or
bad. First, "My father was a wandering Aramean": life is a continuous
journey toward a destination at which we never finally arrive in this
life. Second, "The Lord heard our voice": God accompanies us on our
journey, is aware of both our troubles and triumphs, and always cares.
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 (first published 29 February 2004)
I haven't seen The Passion of the Christ yet, although I have
tickets to see it next week, but I've read and listened to several reviews
of the movie. Some reviewers really like the movie, and others really
dislike it, but all agree that it contains some of the most graphic
violence ever shown on screen. As I read this psalm, I'm reminded of the
story of the temptation of Jesus in the gospels (see today's Gospel
reading), where Satan quotes Psalm 91:11-12 to Jesus: "For he will give
his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands
they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone." As
Passion reminds us, God's promise to protect the faithful from harm
is not always fulfilled. Why not? If I "abide in the shadow of the
Almighty," why shouldn't I be able to count on God's deliverance from the
worst of life's storms? Maybe the example of Jesus is just an aberration.
After all, he was destined from birth to sacrifice himself on the cross
for the sins of the world, so that subsequent believers wouldn't ever have
anything really bad happen to them, right? This seems to be the opinion
of many who buy into the dispensationalist view of the end times that is
promoted by such books as The Late Great Planet Earth and the
Left Behind series. Faithful believers are raptured from the earth
just before the beginning of the Great Tribulation, so they don't have to
undergo the worst suffering the world has ever seen. For years I've
wondered why some people would think that God would spare them from
suffering when God didn't spare Jesus from the same fate, not to mention
Paul, Peter, James, most of the other disciples, early martyrs such as
Justin and Polycarp, Joan of Arc, Jan Hus, and many others. Maybe it's
just wishful thinking. None of us wants to contemplate enduring the kind
of suffering that Jesus and countless of his followers have gone through.
Or maybe it's a refusal to face reality. Although we know that people
even today suffer because of their beliefs (non-Christians as well as
Christians), we pretend that it isn't real. We make up a theology that
gives us the illusion that suffering doesn't exist, at least not for us.
We need to remember the life of Jim Elliot, a modern-day missionary and
martyr. Elliot went to Ecuador at the age of 25 to bring the gospel to an
unreached people group, the Auca Indians. Four years later he and four
other missionaries were killed by a group of the people Elliot was trying
to serve. Two years later his wife Elisabeth wrote a book describing her
husband's life, ministry, and martyrdom. The book describes Elliot's
trust in God and his certainty that he was doing what God wanted him to
do. Nowhere is there a hint that he expected to escape suffering just
because he was doing the work of God. The name of the book was taken from
this psalm: In the Shadow of the Almighty. It takes faith to
believe in a God who rescues you from every danger. It takes more faith
to believe in a God who goes through the fires of life with you. I think
it takes even more faith than that to watch someone you love suffer, while
you pray for a deliverance that you know may never come. God grant us the
grace to live in your shadow through both deliverance and suffering.
Romans 10:8b-13 (first published 29 February 2004)
In contrasting the righteousness that comes from the law with that that
comes from faith, Paul draws on traditional Jewish exegetical strategies
to interpret Deuteronomy 30:12-14 for his readers. In the context of
Deuteronomy, Moses is telling the people that the commands that God is
giving them are not onerous or hard to grasp. There is no need ascend to
heaven or cross the sea to find out what God wants: the answer is as near
as one's own heart and mouth. The people have heard the command of God,
and they have repeated it to one another. Now it is incumbent upon them
to observe it. Paul takes these words that originally referred to the
Mosaic law and applies them instead to faith in Jesus Christ. There is no
need, he says, to ascend into heaven (a reference to Christ's presence
with God), nor is there a need to descend into the realm of the dead (a
reference to Christ's death). One need not look for Christ in heaven
above or in hell below, for he is as near as the breath we breathe. The
Deuteronomy references to the mouth and heart are transformed into
admonitions to confess with the mouth and believe in the heart. Why does
Paul take a passage that referred quite positively to the Mosaic law and
the ease with which people could know it and follow it and use it to
suggest that the Mosaic law was hard to follow and had been supplanted by
a message of simple faith? I believe the answer is legalism. In the
minds of some of Paul's contemporaries--and probably Paul himself at one
time in his life--the law was something that had to be followed
meticulously and by dint of great effort. No longer was it presented as
something joyous and life-giving. Now it was a book of rules that had to
be followed scrupulously, on pain of God's disfavor. In that context,
Paul was right to remind his readers that God's salvation is there for
everyone to receive, not just those who have the time and resources to
dedicate their lives to its pursuit through ritual and study. As the law
was originally intended, so the gospel was now for everyone, Jew and
Gentile alike. Unfortunately, some Christian groups today have followed
the same path of the early Paul and have transformed the Christian gospel
into a set of hard and fast doctrines and rules that must be assented to
and followed in order to attain salvation. Although fundamentalists claim
to preach a message of salvation by faith, they have redefined faith to
include intellectual assent to a set of doctrines that is not only
unbiblical, they are also unnecessary. Salvation today does not depend on
acceptance of biblical inerrancy. How could such a doctrine be in the
Bible anyway? Nor does a proper relationship with God require that a
person adopt a particular stance on doctrines such as the virgin birth or
the nature of the atoning death of Jesus, much less such peripheral
doctrines as the age of the earth, the origin of the universe, or the
interpretation of the fossil record. Salvation today is just as simple as
it was in the days of Paul. Christians who confess that Jesus is Lord and
believe in God's resurrecting power have a relationship with God,
regardless of their opinions about other doctrines. Faith is just the
beginning of a life of following God, of course, for obedience to God's
guidance is required of all believers. Although Paul does not address
this issue here, since he is drawing a contrast between the religion of
legalism and the religion of faith, there is an interesting reading in the
Greek text of Deuteronomy that differs from the Hebrew. Whereas the
Hebrew says in Deuteronomy 30:14, "The word is in your mouth and in your
heart for you to observe," the Septuagint reads, "The word is in your
mouth and in your heart and in your hands to observe it."
Salvation is accessible to all who take God into their hearts and speak
the words of God with their lips, but until we also work the works of God
with our hands, our salvation is not complete.
Luke 4:1-13 (first published 29 February 2004)
In chapter seventeen of the book The Last Temptation of Christ, Nikos Kazantzakis describes Jesus' temptation in the desert after his baptism by John. The reason for Jesus' sojourn in the desert, in the novel, is that he wants to discover the path that God wants him to take. He knows that God has called him to speak to the people, but he is unsure what to say. Should he adopt John's call to the people to repent? That is exactly what John urges him to do, but Jesus does not think that he should adopt John's message, for he believes that God has a different path for him. As he is about to enter the desert, he encounters his disciple and friend Judas. Judas longs for God to deliver Israel from the Romans, and he believes that God has called Jesus to be his instrument of salvation. He offers to accompany Jesus into the desert, but Jesus tells him, "The desert is not big enough for two. Go back." Theologians have speculated for centuries on the significance of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness and on the importance of the three temptations that he faces there. There are doubtless many ways to interpret this passage, but one key to reading Luke's account of the temptation (which differs from Matthew's in the order of the second and third temptations, as well as in several details) is to remember that the temptations Jesus faces are temptations tailored specifically for Jesus, not for anyone else. That the temptations Jesus faces are unique is suggested by the first one: the challenge to turn a stone into bread. Though I've sometimes wanted to turn inanimate objects into edible food, I've never actually been tempted to do so, because I don't have the ability to do it. This is what Kazantzakis implies when he has Jesus say, "The desert is not big enough for two." My temptations will not be yours, and yours will not be mine. We must each face our own temptations and conquer our own demons. In the second temptation, Jesus sees a vision of all the kingdoms of the world. All he has to do to gain authority over all of them is to worship the devil. I've had bosses who from time to time reminded me of the devil, and I've also had the experience of working for myself, and I much prefer the latter. The problem with working for someone else is that you have to adopt their vision as your own. In many cases that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but that wasn't true for Jesus. He knew what his agenda was, and he knew that he couldn't accomplish it by following the dictates of someone else. In particular, he knew that he couldn't give another the worship that was only appropriate for God. In the third temptation, the devil, quoting Psalm 91, tells Jesus that he could make a tremendous impression on the people by leaping from the pinnacle of the temple and floating gently to the ground, supported by angels. Jesus replies that the prohibition against testing God is more important than the statement of the psalm that God will protect his people. Jesus is clearly stating that certain principles are more important than others. Obeying God is a more universal command than obeying human authorities. Seeking peace is more important than the law of retribution. Loving your neighbor trumps the necessity of pointing out their sins and weaknesses. When faced with the opportunity to attract attention to himself but disobey God, Jesus chooses to obey God. Maybe Jesus' ministry would have reached more people had he succumbed to the devil's temptations, but integrity was more important than fame. What temptations are you facing in your life? They're not the same as those your neighbors face, and they must be faced with the resources you have. Temptation conquered can lead to spiritual growth, as long as pride doesn't interfere. Temptation succumbed to can also lead to spiritual growth, following repentance. Until we are tempted, we don't know what we're capable of enduring for God. Like Jesus, we can conquer our temptations if we'll learn to rely on God's power in our lives."Isn't love enough?" [Jesus] asked.
"No," answered the Baptist angrily. "The tree is rotten. God called to me and gave me the ax, which I then placed at the roots of the tree. I did my duty. Now you do yours: take the ax and strike!"
"If I were a fire, I would burn; if I were a woodcutter, I would strike. But I am a heart, and I love."