On Line Bible Study - For the Week July 29 - August 4, 2013

Lesson 569

As with last week, you may want to pull up the Gospel Parallels for consultation and comparison. In this lesson we wind up some general statements about the theology which is central to the evangelists, focusing in this lesson on the Gospel of John. 

Remember all those lessons in which we focused on the extended section dealing with the 'last supper' in the Gospel of John?  By comparison, look at what John offers by way of description of Jesus' time of prayer in the garden - a scant one sentence!

John's gospel offers up a more intense sense of the acrimony between Jesus and the religious authorities of his day.  Recall, for example, that the Sanhedrin (or "Council") has already made up its mind in John 11:  46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

This decision on the part of the religious authorities comes on the heels of Jesus having raised Lazarus from the dead.  The irony is intentional.

And Jesus manifests more of a sense of control in John - notice, for example,  

following the incident when Simon Peter (identified only in John) drew his sword, Jesus underscores the sense in which what is about to happen is the will of his Father, a will he obediently and knowingly submits to.
Much earlier in the Gospel, in John 10, Jesus says:  17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
In John 19, an exchange recorded only in John, we hear Jesus tell Pilate: 11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.
Notice what they say to Pilate in John 19 at the end of verse 15:  “We have no king but Caesar.”  What did Jesus represent for them that they would relinquish their messianic hope for a king to come - a savior for their people?  The acknowledgement that they had 'no king but Caesar' is, in a sense, to have lost all faith in the possibility of salvation.
Was Jesus in control?  Why is there no record of his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane in the Gospel of John?  We will have more to say about that as we make our way through the story of the Passion.

On Line Bible Study - For the Week July 22-28, 213

Lesson 568

As we point to what is distinctive between Mark/Matthew, Luke and John in their telling of the Passion story, it might be helpful to turn to the Gospel Parallels.  Scroll down on the third column - Luke - to "Jesus in Gethsemane" (Luke 22:40), then click on the red, blue and purple bibles next to the heading.  This will bring the other gospels in line with Luke.

Luke gives us much less information regarding Jesus' struggle in the garden than do Mark and Matthew.  If you do go to the link provided, you will notice it omits Luke 22:43-44.  Look in your own Bible and you may find a note indicating that these verses are missing from the early manuscripts.  With or without these verses, Luke makes less of Jesus suffering in the garden and more of God's angels providing him strength (if the verses are included).  Note that Jesus' final words on the cross in Luke are not words of abandonment as in Mark and Matthew; rather, Jesus commits his spirit into the hands of his Father.

Jesus is more gentle with his disciples in Luke.  Note, for example, Luke 22:  28  You are those who have continued with me in my trials; 29 and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, 30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

Jesus' prayer for Peter is also specific to Luke's Gospel: Luke 22:.31 " Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren."

Forgiveness is central to Luke's understanding of the Passion.  Note these words of Jesus, found only in Luke 22: 34"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."  Remember the story in Acts, also written by Luke, where Stephen is killed?  Here is what is recorded: Acts 7: ⁵⁹ While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”  

Stephen's words are an echo of Jesus' words.  Luke's Passion theology is his theology for us all - radical forgiveness, and absolute and complete trust in God.

Only in the Gospel of Luke does Jesus come before Herod.

And only in Luke does Jesus engage the "daughters of Jerusalem", indicating to them the news of pending suffering for all.  For Luke, Jesus is prophet, martyr, forgiver, always trusting completely in God.  What Jesus was he calls his followers to be willing to become. 

On Line Bible Study - For the Week June 15-21, 2013

Lesson 567
We are going to spend the next three lessons with an overview of the gospels and the theology of the passion narrative - we begin this overview with ...

Mark & Matthew ...  In these two gospels Jesus is abandoned.  He is left to face this hour alone. 

Jesus undergoes a religious (Jewish) and a Roman trial.  False testimony is give in which Jesus is accused of threatening to destroy the sanctuary.  Jesus is accused of blasphemy when he speaks on his own behalf.
While he is being abused and mocked as a "false prophet", his prophecies with regard to his followers - especially Peter and Judas - are actually coming true.  The fact that the disciples - and especially Peter - were so fervent in their profession of faith that Jesus was the Messiah makes their fleeing and denial all the more poignant.
Neither the religious authorities nor the government give Jesus a fair trial.
Matthew presents us with what Raymond Brown calls a haunting issue of responsibility.  Judas finds himself guilty of the blood of an innocent man wrongly accused.  Pilate's wife wants him to have nothing to do with this innocent man.  
Jesus dies with no friends present.  Woman are watching, but from a distance.  The only time Jesus calls out or speaks the phrase "My God" is in these gospels when he utters his final words before his death: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Even this dying prayer provokes a reaction closer to mockery than sympathy from the people standing by.
Following Jesus' prayer, after he is offered the wine / vinegar, Jesus lets out a gasp or a cry that is like to that of the demons when they are cast out of people.
While the temple sanctuary is not destroyed, the curtain is torn in two.  And in Jesus dying moment, his words of 'blasphemy' are recalled by the Roman centurian, now as a statement of faith - Surely this man, says the soldier, was the Son of God.
Jesus gives us an image of a God who does not take; rather, God gives in the extreme; and Jesus will be vindicated, for while it seems he was abandoned during his suffering, following his death God acts in a most surprising way - and the most powerful way possible.  Jesus belongs fully to God.
Mark insists throughout his gospel that the disciples do not understand who Jesus is or what his mission is about because they are unable to grasp the necessity that Jesus must suffer.  Mark's gospel offers the most graphic description of Jesus' suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The starkness of Jesus' suffering is embossed by the young man who flees - naked - in terror when Jesus was arrested.
As unusual natural phenomenon are associated with the birth of Jesus in Matthew (the star), so too we read that the earth shook, and the rocks split when Jesus breathes his last.
Human resistance serves not to thwart the plan of God, but to further it.
This gives us an overview of Mark and Matthew.  So much to ponder here!  But we must move on. Next time we will do the same for the Luke. 

On Line Bible Study - For the Week July 8 - 14, 2013

Lesson 566

“Jesus did not write an account of his passion.”  Father Raymond Brown reminds us that the four gospel accounts of Jesus passion, death and resurrection are written thirty to seventy years after the events themselves.  Each of the four evangelists – Mark, Matthew, Luke and John – were dependent on traditions that preceded their writing, and we don’t have access to those traditions.  The story the evangelists tell is as rife with differences as it is replete with similarity.  For example, there are three different stories with regard to the last words Jesus said on the cross.  This serves to show us that the evangelists had different emphases in mind even though the general line of the story is the same.

Some points to ponder:

·         Scholars suspect that Matthew and John were conversant in Aramaic, and possibly with Hebrew as well.  Evidence suggests that Mark and Luke only knew Greek. 

·         Even though Jesus didn’t writes anything down, we know more about him than we do about those who wrote his story.  We know when the evangelists lived (latter half of the First Century).  Remember that the four names don’t refer exclusively to one person; the names represent traditions that arose in particular places relative to those particular people and their relationship to Jesus.

·         Two Questions: 

o   What is the original intent of the writers of the passion? 

o   What does the passion story mean for our own time?  These are two very different questions; they aren’t meant to imply that we can’t address them both, only to make us aware that we have to be aware! 

·         Another way of thinking about it:  Fr. Brown puts it this way: What did the evangelists intend?  What did the evangelist convey? 

·         Scholars believe Mark was intended for audiences in either Rome or Syria.  Matthew seems to be directed toward an audience in Antioch.  Asia Minor or Greece are the locations where Luke’s words seem to take aim.  John’s audience is presumed to have been in either Ephesus or Syria.

·         A significant number of things happen in threes:

o   In Matthew and Mark Jesus speaks first with the disciples, then with the three (Peter, James and John), and then he speaks alone with God.

o   Jesus returns three times to find the disciples sleeping.

o   Peter denies Jesus three times.

o   Jesus is mocked three times (Matthew, Mark & John).

What is true about the gospels in general is especially true with regard to the passion story – each evangelist recorded the events for the purpose of communicating in such a way that faith and life would be nourished.

A point that must be remembered is this: In 70 AD the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.  We believe this event colored the meaning of Jesus’ passion.  In the next three lessons we will take a closer look at Matt/Mark, Luke and John to consider what is distinctive about each.