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XXIII Pentecost, Year B
Table of Contents
Main Text
Gospel Anthropological Reading
Gospel Historical/Cultural Questions
Gospel So What?
Epistle Anthropological Reading
Epistle Historical/Cultural Questions
Epistle So What?
Ps 127 * Ps 146
Heb 9:24-28
Mk 12:38-44
(Ruth 3:1-5)
Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, I need to seek some
security for you, so that it may be well with you. Now here is our kinsman
Boaz, with whose young women you have been working. See, he is winnowing barley
tonight at the threshing floor. Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your
best clothes and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself
known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down,
observe the place where he lies; then, go and uncover his feet and lie down;
and he will tell you what to do." She said to her, "All that you
tell me I will do."
(Ruth 4:13-17)
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the LORD
made her conceive, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed
be the LORD, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his
name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher
of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you
than seven sons, has borne him." Then Naomi took the child and laid him
in her bosom, and became his nurse. The women of the neighborhood gave him
a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." They named him Obed;
he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.
* (1 Kings 17:8-16)
Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Go now to Zarephath,
which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there
to feed you." So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the
gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and
said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink."
As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a
morsel of bread in your hand." But she said, "As the LORD your God
lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little
oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home
and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." Elijah
said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first
make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something
for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar
of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day
that the LORD sends rain on the earth." She went and did as Elijah said,
so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of
meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word
of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.
(Hebrews 9:24-28)
For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
(Mark 12:38-44)
As he taught, he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around
in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to
have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They
devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They
will receive the greater condemnation." He sat down opposite the treasury,
and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put
in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which
are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly
I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing
to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance;
but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live
on."
Gospel Anthropological Reading
Jesus is going to say in unequivocal terms that a certain type of person will be “greatly condemned”. Along with others, we have observed that when Jesus speaks of punishment in the gospels, it is always in the context of the religious, not those deemed ‘sinful.’ Such is also the case today. Talk of punishment and hell should be part of our in house self-examination and reflection, not part of our message to ‘sinners.’ It wasn’t so with Jesus and it shouldn’t be so with us either.
What kind of behavior is Jesus critiquing in the ‘teachers of the law?’
1. They make a public display of their
‘perceived blessings.’
2. They are political animals; they make sure they are known by all.
3. They like to be socially recognized and honored.
4. They sacrifice the helpless and defenseless.
5. They are ostentatious in the public display of their spirituality.
6. They are wealthy.
Now let’s see, do any of these categories fit either clergy or theological academics today? You know they do. Scary, isn’t it? Sounds also like a lot of contemporary politicians in the news. Sounds suspiciously like a certain form of popular Christianity.
What kind of person does Jesus say will
face the severest consequences? The religious person who wants everyone to
see their devotion to ‘good’ while in fact they are secretly devoted
to the sacrifice of others, to the victimage mechanism. This is obvious in
number 4 but look at number 2. Why are they so well known? Why do people want
to know them? They have become mimetic model/obstacles. In becoming such,
they seek to remove themselves from the ‘massa damnata’ thus ensuring
that they will not fall victim to the victimage mechanism. They will in fact
seek to control it.
As political animals they form alliances and create factions. They will be
those who steer the victimage mechanism. They are the grand guarantors of
the eschatological lottery deciding who is important and who isn’t.
Their decision, as Girard has said, is a sacrifice.
The theologians and the clergy who hide the revelation of the Father behind the mask of victimage create gods in their own image. They do not need wood or stone. The world of their ideas is enough to hold humanity captive. You cannot, cannot, cannot be sacrificial in your anthropology and non-sacrificial in your theology. You are either one or the other. The ‘teachers of the law’ may have spoken of grace and blessing and love and peace but it was all gained at the expense of other human beings. Theirs (and our) is the false blessing of the scapegoat mechanism.
You may well wonder what it is that they missed. They missed the same thing that many Christians have been missing (for the most part) for quite some millennia now. Go back and read the verses omitted by the lectionary, 12:35-37. In that discussion you will observe that Jesus challenges the ‘teaching’ of the scribes. They say the Messiah is the Son of David. That being the case, interjects Jesus, how can David call his son, ‘Lord?’ This makes no sense. More so, Jesus underscores the ‘authority’ of this text by declaring that David spoke by the Holy Spirit. In other words, you can’t bypass this text, you have to deal with it. Jesus, speaking with beautiful irony then declares that the Messiah cannot be placed in the same context as David’s son. This may mean that the ‘Messiah’ was to not be understood in Davidic warrior-king categories (see our discussion of Psalm 110 in ‘The Biblical Testaments as a Marriage of Convenience.’)
This interpretation fits congruently
with all we have been asserting regarding the foundational place of non-retaliation
in Jesus’ spirituality. If Messiah is to be conceived in terms of the
warrior king Jesus is in effect saying he is not Messiah. If, however, Messiah
is conceived in other non-retributive categories, then Jesus appears to be
interested, e.g., Son of Man or Suffering Servant.
Gospel Historical/Cultural Questions
A Hermeneutical Note: This text will be preached far too many times today in an anti-Semitic fashion. It is covert. It equates the Scribes with ‘legalistic’ (sic) Pharisees and then goes on to set up a straw man that Jesus critiques. If Gentiles are going to preach from Jewish texts, they have got to learn to think inside Judaism and not stand outside as strangers. We Christians, whether we like it or not, have a historical obligation to all of those who perished in the Nazi Shoah. We may have continued our genocidal tendencies since, all over the planet, but this was this was the one that opened our eyes. If we are not authentically seeking to understand Jesus and the early Christians within the framework of Judaism we will forever spin in our Hellenistic dead ends. Whatever Greece and Rome may have left us moderns as their legacy has been co-opted by the corporate economic interests of the victimage mechanism anyway so what’s the difference.
If you are reading Ched Myers Binding
the Strong Man alongside this site it will be obvious that we are following
a very similar path. On what we said above see Myers: “However, bourgeois
scholarship, oblivious to Mark’s critique of the political economy of
the temple, portrays the common theme as the contrast between the religious
hypocrisy of the scribes and the genuine piety of the poor woman. Fortunately,
recent work has overturned this exegetical tradition.” Unless you are
last, lost and helpless, poor and needy you must identify with either the
crowds or the teachers of the law. If you are last, lost and helpless, poor
and needy do not worry. God has his eye on you. You are worth more than a
sparrow.
It is time for Christian theology to rise from its slumber and shake off the dust of violence. It is time to acknowledge the two Christs that exist in the Church, the retributive Davidic Judge and the Jesus of the Gospels. Our text today is a direct invitation to see the implications of our theology as it works itself out in our anthropology. If we find ourselves convicted, holding the short end of the stick, that may well be good. It may indicate that time for repentance is still at hand.
[A text like this is like an ink blot.
Who you identify with determines your interpretation.]
Epistle Anthropological Reading
Epistle Historical/Cultural Questions