Missio Dei in Ancient Jewish-Christian Lectionary: Am I more like Cain or Abel?

This series of blogs follows the Torah recitation cycle of the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the recitation of the first five books of the New Testament- the four Gospels and the Book of Acts. My hypothesis is the these five books are the New Testament parallel to the Torah, and were recited by the early Jewish-Christian communities.

The four set of readings are Genesis 4, Ezekiel 28:11-26; Psalm 2, and Matt. 2

Genesis 4 describes a horrible act- the first murder.

The Torah recitation is a fascinating inner biblical interpretation of the Messianic prophecy found in Genesis 3:15. God said to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” The crucial question is what is the meaning of the “seed of the woman?” Genesis 4:1 gives the answer to this question. When the woman gave birth to the son, she exclaims, “Behold, I have produced a man- the LORD.” Most translations would add, “with the help of the LORD.” Yet, the text makes it clear that it seeks the worshipper to interpret the song in Genesis 3:15, as a prophecy of a Divine Seed of the woman.

The question that that text seeks to answer is which of the two sons of Adam and Eve is a prototype of the “Seed of the woman?” Genesis 4:1-2 gives two examples- one is Cain; the other is Abel. Abel is described as a “keeper of sheep,” while Cain is described as a “server of the ground.” In many senses it seems like Cain is doing the right thing. He is doing what human beings ought to do, according to Genesis 2:15. Yet, there is a greater principle, which Cain does not understand. The next verse goes on to explain this. “In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of some of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the Firstfruits of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,” (4:3-4). The problem was not with the kind of offering which Cain and Abel brought- i.e. agricultural offering versus animal offering.  Cain brought simply something that he just plucked from the ground and brought it to the Lord, whereas Abel took pains to bring the best of best- his Firstfruits. Throughout the Torah this is the demand God has of his people. He expects people to bring their best of best- their firstfruits, whether it be the firstfruits of the plant kingdom, or firstfruits of the animal kingdom. This is so, because, when God created, his creation was Firstfruits, Reshit, (Genesis 1:1)

The story does not end here. Cain is given opportunities to do the right thing. God tells him, “If you do tov, good, you will be accepted.” (4:7). Instead, Cain decides to do ra’a, evil. God lays the foundation in Genesis 1. Everything in the creation narrative is tov, good. This is the biblical word for right, holy, righteous, and all that is required for the good life. Cain, rebels against God and ends up killing his brother- the first murder in the Bible.

The steps toward the murder are very crucial to understand. The first thing that happens is that Cain becomes angry. Then his “face” falls. He goes into a state of sustained depression. God says to him, “Why have you brought yourself into this state of sustained depression?” God tells Cain, “If you do not do what is tov, good, then sin is crouching at your door.” Cain could well have snapped out of this depression by looking toward God and taking on his countenance. Instead, he gave into the clutches of sin, and committed the horrible act of murder.

It is interesting to note that the “adamah, the ground” cried out because of the blood of Abel. Abel, in the prophets becomes the paradigm of all the prophets who were rejected by the people of Israel. (4 Macc. 18:11; Matt. 23:35)

It is also interesting to note that since Cain let his “face” be controlled by sin (4:6), he eventually has to flee from the “face of the LORD.”  He settles “east of Eden”- the same place to which Adam and Eve had to flee.

The Torah recitation ends with a prophetic anticipation. Abel is dead. However, another son is born to Adam and Eve. This is Seth. The text suggests that through this son the “seed of the woman” will come.

The Prophets worship text, Ezekiel 28:11-26 compares the King of Tyre to Cain. “Thus says the Lord GOD: You were the signet of perfection,full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering.” (28:12-13) The Garden of Eden is called the “mountain of the LORD.” (28:14). In prophetic thought, the Temple and Jerusalem was the Garden of Eden.  Cain, it seems clear, was symbolic of the generation of the people who were driven out of the “Garden of Eden,” the land of Israel. In the same way the people of Tyre were also driven out of the Garden of the LORD.  The Ezekiel text is an equal opportunity text- both the Jews and the non-Jews behaved like Cain.

The prophet goes on to declare, “Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall settle on their own soil that I gave to my servant Jacob. They shall live in safety in it, and shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall live in safety, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God.” (28:25-26). This underlines the prophetic hope that people of Israel, just like Adam and Eve, will return back to the Garden of Eden, Jerusalem.

Yet, this will not be an easy process.

Psalm 2 reminds the worshipper that the people in high places- the kings will always plot against the “Lord and his Messiah.” They will always seek to kill him, just like Cain killed  Abel.

The Gospel passage, Matthew 2:13-23 is a stark reminder of the prophecy that the “seed of the serpent” is bent on destroying the “Seed of the Woman.” Therefore, “the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” (Matt. 2:13).

Joseph and Mary took the child, Yeshua to Egypt.

Jesus is portrayed here as the New Israel. Just as the people had to go out of the land to Egypt, so must Jesus go into Egypt. He must go into Exile, because the Cains of his own people, in the Garden of Eden were seeking to kill him. Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1, which refers to Israel. Yet, there is a contrast here. In Hosea 11:1, the people of Israel behave more like Cain. They forsake the LORD. They desecrate the Garden of Eden- Jerusalem. They go whoring after other gods and goddesses. Jesus, in contrast, is the faithful Abel.

The massacre of children in Bethlehem echoes what Pharaoh did in Egypt. In Exodus 1-2, just Moses, the savior, is saved. It is ironic though, that that massacre took place in Egypt. This massacre took place in the “Garden of the LORD.”

After the death of Herod the Great- the prototype of Cain, and Pharaoh, the angel of the LORD appears to Joseph and asks him to take the Messiah Child back to the Garden of the LORD.

He goes there, only to be killed on the cross 33 years after that.

The four songs urge the worshipper to ask the question, “Is your life like that of Cain, or is it like that of Abel?

 

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Missio Dei in Ancient Jewish-Christian Lectionary: Seed of the Woman or Seed of the Serpent?

In the Ancient Jewish-Christian Lectionary, my thesis is, that the life of Jesus was sung /recited alongside the singing and recitation of the Torah, the Prophets and the Psalms. In the second set of recitation, Genesis 2:4-3:24 was sung alongside Isaiah 51 and Psalm 2, in the ancient Jewish lectionary. In the early Jewish Christian community, the crescendo was the life of Jesus the Messiah. The recitation, therefore, culminated in Matthew 1:18-25.

Matthew 1:18-25, describes the birth of Jesus the Messiah.  They early Jewish-Christian worshippers recited from Isaiah 7:14, “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us.” This was no ordinary human child. This was God.

They had already sung from the Torah, Genesis 2-3. The Torah text begins with the words, “These are the generations of . . .” This phrase, they knew, divided the book of Genesis into ten sections. The birth of Jesus was a culmination of the history, which began in Genesis.

Gen. 2:15 is very central to the understanding of the purpose of human beings, “The LORD God took the human being and gave him rest, nuach” in the garden of Eden to serve it and to keep it.” The words, which are used here, are used in the rest of the Torah to express the act of worshipping/serving God and “keeping his commandments, his Torah.”  This is the dual purpose of human life- to worship and keep the word of God.

Genesis 2:18, puts into place the biblical purpose of the man and woman relationship.

In Genesis 2:18, God gives man an ezer. This word is usually translated as “helper or helpmate.” (NIV, KJV). However, in the rest of the Bible this word is used to describe God himself- He is our ezer (Exod. 18:4; Psalm 121: 1, 2; 124:8; 33:20; etc.).  The human being looked for ezer in the animal kingdom. But, this ezer was not found in the animal kingdom. This, very clearly, is a polemic against all the polytheistic religions, which worshipped animals in ancient near eastern societies.

The next section, in the Torah recitation, opens with the description the original state of the primeval humans- “they were both arum, naked, and they were not ashamed” (2:25).  This then, is followed by a statement regarding the serpent, “Now the serpent was more arum than any other wild animal” (3:1). The Hebrew word arum is a wisdom word. In the rest of the Bible it describes a wise person. (Prov. 14:18; 12:16; 22:3, etc.)  Right of the bat, the text makes it clear that this describes a tussle between two approaches to wisdom- God’s way and the serpent’s way. One way leads to “knowing God.” The other way leads to “knowing yourself as gods.” This is the way, which breaks “unity” with God, and between the human couple.

The interesting thing is that after they partook of the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree that was supposed make them divine, instead of becoming “gods” they became ashamed of their arum (Gen. 3:7), and want to hide from the presence of God. They were afraid of the “qol, voice” of God.

This is followed by a set of blame game between the man and the woman and the serpent. Then God responds.  A part of God’s response is the crucial messianic poem, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” The Serpent and the Seed of the Serpent was the highest image of the pantheon of gods and goddesses in ancient religions.  In this poem, the messianic Seed of the Woman strikes the head of the serpent. This is the place from which the evil arum flows, while the serpent would strike the “heel” of the Seed of the Woman.

The desecration of the “arum” also severely impacts the relationship between the man and the woman. Gender relationships were reversed after the Fall. It also impacted human relationship with creation.  The poem in this recitation was descriptive of the fallen state of creation in ancient religious civilizations.

Yet . . . the poem says that the Seed of the Woman will finally prevail.

After the Torah recitation, the ancient Jewish Christian worshipper would have sung from Isaiah 51, which reflected the society after the Fall. It also reflected the society in Babylon where the exiles were living. It reflected society in the first century A.D., as it reflects society today. The community during the time of Isaiah sang, “The LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.” (Isaiah 51:3).

The messianic era, which the recitation looks forward to, is essentially a return back to the Garden of Eden.  The worshipper cries out, “So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 51:11)

This Edenic atmosphere is a return back to the same sort of innocence, and knowledge of God, which is a pure knowledge. It is a return back to the Tree of Life; the Tree of Life is the Torah.

The singing of Psalms 1 and 2 is a fascinating reflection of the above two worship texts. Psalm one begins with the reflection the righteous person who hagah, meditates on the Torah of the LORD (Psalm 1:2). Psalm 2 begins with the description of the opposite of Psalm 1. The NRSV text reads, “Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? The word “plot” in Hebrew is the same word- “they hagah a vain thing.” This is the same as in Genesis 3. The word arum is neutral. The man and the woman were both arum, and they were not ashamed of it. Yet, the serpent was arum, and he caused the man and the woman to become ashamed. In this text as well, when the just person hagahs on the Torah, he does the right thing. While when the unjust kings hagah, they do the unjust thing. They conspire against the “Seed of the Woman.”  The “Seed of the woman” is told by God, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” The divine kings of the nations had become the “seed of the serpent.” Yet, the Good News was for these nations as well. The nations and the kings of the nations are told, “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way,” 2:11-12 (NKJV).  Other translations, instead of “Kiss the Son,” read, “Kiss his feet.” Interestingly, the Genesis recitation of the text reflects the time when the seed of the serpent will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. This text reverses the trend. In this the seed of the serpent, are told that they ought to “kiss the feet of the Son.

The Gospel crescendo song, finally points to the Seed of the Woman- A Virgin conceives and bears a Son. He is God with us, Emmanuel.”  Of course, the Seed of the Serpent, in this case Herod the Great will try to bruise the heel of the Seed of the Woman.  Towards the end of the Matthew’s Gospel song, the Seed of the Woman is crucified. But, in the ultimate analysis, the Seed of the Woman prevailed. He rose from the dead. He is Risen.

This was the hope and joy of the early Jewish-Christian worshippers.

This is our hope and joy, even today!

 

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Missio Dei in Ancient Lectionary: There is so much horror in the world. Is there anything like the Good Life?

I am beginning a new series of blogs, which reflect on the Missio Dei, the Mission of God in the Bible, through the eyes of an ancient Jewish-Christian lectionary of the Bible. I am following an ancient triennial cycle of the reading of the Bible. It would be good to note that this was not merely a reading through the Bible. It was a “singing” of the Bible. It began with the singing through the Torah, with ancient musical notations, which are lost to modern translations of the Bible. This was followed by singing a portion of the Prophets; followed by singing a Psalm. Finally, the ancient worshipper would sing a section from the life of Jesus the Messiah. Each of these readings, we will note, flow into each other, and enabled the ancient worshipper to grasp the Missio Dei, the Mission of God in the Bible.

The first song in the ancient lectionary began in the first month of the biblical year- the month of Nisan. This is the month of the Passover and the First fruits (Leviticus 23). This is the month of Good Friday and Resurrection. It begins with Genesis 1, the creation narrative. It flows into a song from Isaiah 65:11-25. Then it flows into the singing of Psalm 1. And finally, the ancient worshipper of the Jewish-Christian community ends with the singing of life Jesus the Messiah, beginning with Matthew 1.

Psalm 1 sets the tone for the understanding of the whole Bible. It talks about a person who is ashre, i.e. a person who knows the realm of complete satisfaction in life. This person is quite unlike the person who is described in Genesis 3. He does not walk in “the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the mockers.” The Ashre person, in contrast to these, delights on the Torah of the LORD. He “haggahs, or meditates” on the Torah of the LORD day and night.  Psalm 2 contrasts this person with leaders of the world, who “haggah, or plot” in vain against the LORD and against the Messiah.

Both Psalms 1 and 2 set a choice before humanity. Either human beings live by the Torah and the Messiah, or they are against the Torah and the Messiah. If human beings live by the Torah and Messiah, they will experience the Ashre Life, the Good Life. If human beings choose to go against the Torah and Messiah, they will experience a life of separation from God.

Genesis 1:1-2:3 sets the original place for this ashre human being.  In the creation narrative the worshipper finds a constant repetition of the phrase “God saw that it was tov, good.” There is no wickedness; there is no mocking; there is no sin in this world. The same Lord who “knows the way of the righteous,” also knows the original state of the human being and creation.

The creation narrative shows that the human being is given the task of being a wise “ruler” (Genesis 1:28). Instead, sadly through history one finds that human beings decide to become like the “wicked” rulers of Psalm 2. The story of the Bible is a sad narrative of this kind of a choice made by humanity.

Thankfully, the story does not end with this sad description of history. Isaiah 65:17-25, the Prophets text, sends the worshipper into the future. It enables him/her to look into the future to see a “new heaven and a new earth.”  A time when there will indeed be harmony among human beings; between human beings and creation; and among the creatures of creation. Until then, of course, there will be disharmony.

The task of those who seek to follow the Messiah is to “meditate on the Torah, day and night” This will enable them to look to the past, i.e. Genesis 1, and look toward the future, i.e. Revelation 21 and Isaiah 65, when there will be a “New Heaven and a New Earth.”

Matthew 1 gives the worshipper the core source of the hope found in all three Old Testament texts: Genesis 1, Psalm 1, and Isaiah 65. The hope is introduced in the person of “Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He is human. Yet, he is also divine, born of the Virgin Mary by the Spirit of God. He is the Davidic King, the Messiah.  The worshipper notes that this is the same “Spirit of God” which hovered over the face of the deep, in Genesis 1, and caused the creation to come into being. This same Spirit now, in Matt. 1, is responsible for the birthing of the divine Messiah. The singing of the song creates exhilarating joy, in the realization the through this Messiah child there will be new creation- just like the creation of Genesis 1.

The worshipper also observes that Matthew 1 highlights five women- Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah, and Mary. Four of these are Gentile women. Each of these encounters the horrors of human treatment of women and the trafficking of women. This was not how God created human beings- men and women. Both were created in the image of God. Both were pure, holy, and equal. Yet, something horrible happened in the history of humanity, which caused the creation of God to be decreated and desecrated. The story of the Gospel seeks to reverse this horror.  The ancient singing-reading cycle of the Bible takes the modern worshipper through this journey of God’s healing, through the person of the Messiah Jesus.

I invite you to follow this journey.

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Resurrection Thought: “As the Abba has sent me, so send I you.”

The reflection on the Sunday after Resurrection Sunday, in the lectionary of the churches of the East focuses on Jesus’ post resurrection appearance to the disciples at the time of the remembrance of the grand finale of the Passover-the eighth day. The focus of the disciples on this day, according to the ancient lectionary, was on Isaiah 11.  This prophecy talked about the days of universal peace and joy.  They read,

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and might,

the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and with the breath of his lips she shall kill the wicked.

Justice shall be the belt of his waist,

and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze;

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea.

“In that day the root of Jesse, the Messiah who shall stand as a Messianic Sign for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.” (Isaiah 11:1-11).

The disciples read this, indeed sing this passage. Yet, what was happening around them was quite incongruent with this prophecy. Their Lord had risen from the dead. They spread the news He is Risen! Yet, they still saw injustice around them. The wolf was not dwelling with the lamb . . . the whole earth was not full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

On this day, while the disciples were scared and disillusioned, Jesus comes to them, “Peace be with you all, Shalom Alechem.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hand; and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it on my side; not be without faith, but believe. Thomas answered, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:26-28). Thomas was not there with them previously, when Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Abba has sent me, even so I send you!” (John 20:21).

The Resurrected Messiah makes it clear that the prophecy of Isaiah 11 will come to fruition through the Messianic Community, the Church. The work of the Resurrected Lord continues through the work and life of the Resurrection oriented community. This is the Missio Dei. This is the Missio Ecclesia.

There will indeed come a day, when the prophecies of Isaiah 11 will come true, when the same Messiah will return to establish the Kingdom of God. Till then, we must hear his call, “As the Abba has sent me, so send I you!”

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Resurrection Thought: Is Easter just a one day thing, or is it a constant shining of the rays of Resurrection Light?

In the churches of the East, Easter is not just one day. The worshipper reflects on a series of passages from the Bible, which are resurrection oriented passages. The week following Resurrection Sunday is called the Havorae Week. The core theme is that of the brightness of resurrection light shining on the whole week. This shining of the resurrection light carries on into the next days and weeks. The crescendo is the Pentecost, when the Spirit of God descended on the early Christian community.

The Torah passage, e.g. on Thursday, is Exodus 34. Moses goes into the presence of God as second time, after the first tablets of stone were broken. They were broken because Aaron and the delivered community forsook their Redeemer God, and turned to injustice-oriented religions. This time Moses goes into the presence of God and comes back with a second set of two-stones. On these were written the Ten Words of God. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of testimony in his hand . . . his face radiated (with the rays of the sun) because he had been in the presence of God.” (Exodus 34:29). This is the aspiration of the Resurrection-oriented worshipper.

The Prophets meditation is Micah 4:1-7. In this passage, the reflection is on a futuristic time, when the shining presence of God will radiate from “mountain of the House of the LORD.” This is when people from all over the world will go up to the mountain of the LORD, and worship him. They will “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Micah 4:3). This is the aspiration of the Resurrection worshipper.

Just like Moses goes up into the presence of God a second time, so will this Messiah who has risen from the dead, return a second time. He will bring about universal justice and peace. Until then the Resurrection community, the Church, is given the mission to shed the Resurrection light upon the world.

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Resurrection Thought: He is Risen!

On the morning of the day after the Sabbath during the Passover week, i.e., the first day of the week, Sunday, every individual in the Holy Land was required to bring into the presence of God the First-fruit offering. Both in the ancient Jewish lectionary and the ancient Christian lectionary of the East, on this day, the readings from the Torah come from Leviticus 23:9-14. It reminded the people of this First-fruit offering. “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it” (Leviticus 23:9-11). This was a day of hope, recreation, and resurrection.

The ancient readings from the Prophets were also readings of hope, recreation and resurrection.  Isaiah 60-62, are verses full of resurrection hope. It begins with the powerful words, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isa. 60:1-3). These words would have been read in the ancient synagogue on this day.

But what do these readings mean?

This was the day on which the women and the men, the closest disciples of Jesus went to the tomb. It was supposed to be a day of joy, hope, recreation, and resurrection.  Yet, it was not, their Beloved One lay in the tomb. Nevertheless something happened which turned their mourning into joy. The Gospel reading of the churches of the East remind the present day worshipper of this- “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, the is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Rejoice!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him” (Matthew 28:1-9).

“Rejoice!” That one word turned their mourning into rejoicing; death into resurrection; and hopelessness into hope.

The early Church was convinced that this is the hope and joy of all followers of the Risen One. The Resurrection worshipper is reminded of this in the readings from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep . . . Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:20, 51-57).

The early disciples of Jesus were convinced that the ancient Torah practice of the Firstfruits offering was paradigmatic of the hope of resurrection.

He is Risen! This was the miracle experienced by the original women and men who witnessed the Resurrected Lord.

He is Risen! This was the hope of generations of people of old, before the time of Jesus, who celebrated resurrection Sunday every year.

He is Risen! This is the hope of those who follow the resurrected Lord, today. One day Resurrection will be the cosmic motif.

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Lenten Thought: Of Maundy Thursday, Passover, and slavery today.

The Pesacho, Maundy Thursday in the calendar of the churches of the East is a powerful day. The readings from the Bible take the Lenten worshipper through an amazing walk with Jesus, on this day when he celebrated the Last Supper, the Passover, with his disciples.

It begins with a reading from the institution of the Passover narrative, Exodus 12:1-11. The context is the enslavement of the Hebrew people at the hands of the priestly-royalty of Egypt. Egyptian religion allowed a group of people called the “Firstborn-“ the priestly-royalty, to treat the Hebrews as indentured slaves, rape the women, and commit genocide- especially killing baby boys. God reveals himself to Moses saying, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their enslavers. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians (Exod. 3:7,8).  In Exodus 12, this group of enslaved people is given hope. They are told that this month will be the first of the months. It will be the month in which they will be recreated, just like in Genesis 1. They were told to sacrifice a lamb on the fourteenth day of the month, and put it on the doorposts of the houses, as a sign of their faith that God will deliver them from slavery. The following narrative shows how God delivers them our of the hands of these brutal enslavers called “the Firstborn-priestly-royalty.”

Other readings from the Old Testament, e.g. Ezekiel 45:18-25, remind the Lenten worshipper that this group of saved people were expected to annually remember this day of salvation. In fact, they had to observe it for seven days- each day they were supposed to be sacrificing a lamb and partaking of unleavened bread. This was a paradigm for a future Messiah Lamb, who would be sacrificed to save people from all over the world, from the kinds of systemic forms of evil the Hebrews in Egypt faced.

The Gospel readings introduce the Lenten worshipper to this Messiah sacrificial Lamb. John points the people to this “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The book of John constantly points to centrality of Passover in the life of Jesus. In John 13, while getting ready for the Passover, Jesus takes a washcloth touched only by slaves, and begins washing the feet of his disciples. A Rabbi in good standing would never do such a thing. But, Jesus says, “This is the model of the Church, messianic community. This is the only way to eradicate slavery.”  In Luke 22, Jesus points to the intrinsic meaning of the elements of the Passover Seder. The Matzah, or Unleavened bread, represented the body of the pure Pesach Lamb. He broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me.” Pesach Seder consists of four cups- the cups of Sanctification, Judgment, Redemption and Praise.  The third cup, the cup of Redemption, represented the blood of the sacrificed lamb, which was put upon the doorposts. When Jesus prayed over the cup of Redemption, he says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

This is the biblical messianic model to deal with the problems of the human condition even today- problems of human trafficking, poverty, injustice . . . The Church is asked to be slaves, like Jesus. The Church is asked to be the sacrificial lamb, like Jesus.  This is the only, and radical solution. All other solutions are mere band-aid treatments.

 

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Lenten Thought: Sunday of the Triumphant Messiah King or Humble Savior King?

The Old Testament readings of the Sunday before the Passion Week, in the churches of the East are very poignant. The first reading is from Genesis 49. It is a narrative, where the patriarch Jacob gathers together his sons and prophesies to them regarding things, which will happen in “the last days.” (Gen. 49:1). In Hebrew this phrase, Acharit Hayamim, is a Messianic term, and appears at crucial junctures in the whole Hebrew Bible. Genesis 49:10 reads, “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will hear him.” This sets the tone for the expectation of a Messiah, who will be a global, kingly Messiah. The readings from the prophetic books underline this. Micah 4, e.g. proclaims the futuristic prophecy of Micah, “It shall come to pass in the latter days, Acharit Hayamim, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’  For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.”

It is quite clear from these, and other lectionary readings from the Old Testament, that the prophets constantly talked about a Day of the Messiah, in the Last Days, when a Messiah King will come. He will establish universal peace and justice.  The question still remains, “What kind of a king will this be?”

This Sunday is called by many names, most often the Palm Sunday, or the Sunday of the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  Yet, the songs and cries of the common people on the streets of Jerusalem do not give this picture.  They sing passages from the Old Testament, which proclaim him to be the king of justice, (Hebrew. Tsadiq). He brings about complex, spiritual, physical, social, racial, Yeshua, Salvation (Matthew 21:5).  He bears the image of poverty and slavery, (Hebrew, ‘Ani). These common poor people cry out, “Hoshiana! Hoshiana! Save us! Save us! Oh, Son of David” (Matt. 21:9). This is not a triumphant cry, as is so often portrayed in songs of the churches in the West, but is rather a cry for help and salvation.

This picture of the Messiah King is quite an enigma. Is he the triumphant king, or is he the humble king of the persecuted, poor and enslaved?  This is the dilemma faced by the people- then and now.  The problem also lies in the solution- then and now. The religious leaders then expected a Triumphant King, who would give them political power, wrested from the Romans.  Even today, this Sunday is called the Sunday of the Triumphant Entry, of the Triumphant King. The ancient liturgy simply calls this the Hosanna Sunday.

This Sunday defines the kind of King Messiah proclaimed throughout the Bible. Jesus the Messiah hears the heart cries of the people for salvation- “Hoshiana! Please cause your salvation to come, Oh Lord!”  Jesus, the humble Messiah King, heard their cries and died for their salvation.

He hears the cries of the poor, the enslaved, the persecuted . . . even today!

 

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