More Than a Prophet

Above:  Christ in Majesty

Image Source = ich

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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Hebrews 9:2-3, 11-14 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

For a tent was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread offering; it is called the Holy Place.  Behind the second curtain stood a tent called the Holy of Holies….

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once and for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but not his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.  For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Psalm 47 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1 Clap your hands, all you peoples;

shout to God with a cry of joy.

2 For the LORD Most High is to be feared;

he is the great King over all the earth.

3 He subdues the peoples under us,

and the nations under our feet.

4 He chooses our inheritance for us,

the pride of Jacob whom he loves.

5 God has gone up with a shout,

the LORD with the the sound of the ram’s horn.

6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;

sing praises to our King, sing praises.

7 For God is King of all the earth;

sing praises with all your skill.

8 God reigns over all the nations;

God sits upon his holy throne.

9 The nobles of the peoples have gathered together

with the people of the God of Abraham.

10 The rulers of the earth belong to God,

and he is highly exalted.

John 8:51-59 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

[Jesus said,

…] Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death.

The Jews said to him,

Now we know that you have a demon.  Abraham died, as did the prophet; and you say, ‘If any one keeps my word, he will never taste death.’  Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?  And the prophets died!  Who do you claim to be?

Jesus answered,

If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is your God.  But you have not known him; I know him.  If I said, I do not know him, I should be a liar like you; but I do know him and I keep his word.  Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad.

The Jews then said to him,

You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?

Jesus said to them,

Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.

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The Collect:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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John Marsh, in his commentary on the Johannine Gospel (Pelican Books, 1968), labels the John 8:48-59 section “Demented or Divine?”  Indeed, if Jesus were not divine, he would have been demented.  I grew up with the canonical Gospels, so I understand them accordingly; I take some theological propositions for granted.  Yet, when I hear people relatively new to Christianity discuss these books, I hear a different take; Jesus would seem presumptuous at best and demented at worst if he were not speaking truthfully.  Ideas such as the deity of Jesus are “old hat” to me, and I see no reason to look at that hat twice.  I just wear the hat.

A few explanatory notes are in order:

1. Leviticus 24:16 calls for the stoning of a blasphemer.
2. Jesus referred to rabbinical interpretations of Abrahamic prophecies.  The citations are Genesis 15:8-21 and 17:17.
3. Let us take note of the vitriol embedded in the Fourth Gospel, the last of the canonical Gospels written.  The Johannine Gospel dates from a time of Jewish-Christian conflict, which Christians were losing.  The Christians, then still technically Jews, were sufficiently marginalized that they referred to orthodox Jews as “the Jews.”

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming….

The Jesus of Mark (which we read most of the time on this lectionary) is unlike the Christ of John.  In Mark Jesus orders people not to say who and what he is; he maintains his Messianic Secret until the end.  In John, however, he broadcasts who and what he is, even using the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “I AM” in reference to himself.  All the Gospels are theological works grounded in history.  Mark, I suspect, is closer to history than is John.  None of this bothers me, for I am not and have never been a biblical literalist.

Anyhow, as the authors of Hebrews and John remind us, Jesus was no ordinary sage or prophet.  The author of Hebrews employs Greek philosophy to make the point that Jesus is the unblemished, sacrificial lamb.  The author of John understands the crucifixion Jesus as the exaltation and glorification of Jesus.  In the Johannine Gospel the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior occurs on Thursday, at the same time priests at the Temple are sacrificing animals.  The point is clear:  Jesus did not celebrate Passover that year; he was the Passover.

He was much more than a prophet.

And what will we do with this?  As the title of this post makes clear, this is an Epiphany devotion.  The theme of the season of Epiphany is taking the message of Jesus to the Gentiles.  We have a great treasure in Jesus, and we need to share it, not sit on it.  Even the calmest, most intellectual and well-reasoned explanation of Christianity can sound demented to someone from a different background.  It might sound demented to me had I not grown up within it.   Yet good catechetical pedagogy, combined with a life of faith and love of God, can prove effective in many cases.  May we try, at least.  We will not succeed with everybody; not even Jesus did.  Yet he succeeded well enough, did he not?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHN R. CLAYPOOL, IV, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

THE FEAST OF W. (WYSTAN) H. (HUGH) AUDEN, POET

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Adapted from this post:

http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/week-of-2-epiphany-saturday-year-1/

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