Sunday's Scraps (5/20/12)

I had a professor once who compared writing a sermon to making a pot roast.  He said that just like in making a pot roast, with a sermon you end up with bits and pieces, peelings and trimmings that don't make it in your final product.  Friends, what you see below are those bits and pieces...enjoy!

Primary Text ( Matthew 5:38-48 )
v. 38 - "eye for eye" - this is a reference to at least three passages in the Hebrew Bible (Ex. 21:24, Lev. 24:20 and Deut. 19:21).  This recommendation for how to respond to offense or how to punish criminals can also be found in the Code of Hammurabi (circa 1772 B.C.).
v. 39 - "strike" (Gk. rhapidzo) - this word covers a variety of levels and can mean anything from a simple slap all the way up to a strike with a rod or staff!
v. 41 - "two miles" - this command to go a second mile is building upon a common practice of the time where Roman soldiers could legally force any person living under Empire rule to carry their load one mile.  Jesus is therefore building upon this and consistent with the theme of the passage, encouraging his followers to go above and beyond what is required or expected.
v. 46 - "reward" (Gk. misthos) - the Greek here has to do with wages paid for work completed.  An appropriate translation which carries this meaning better might be "paycheck".  The point becomes clearer when one explores what a Christian's "work" might be (see Matthew 28:19 also known as the Great Commission).
v. 48 - "perfect" (Gk. telios) - this word can be translated "perfect, full grown, mature, or complete".  It has much more to do with a relative perfection (a complete version of yourself) than it does some absolute perfection standard (without fault or error).

* Luke's version of the passage (Luke 6:27-36) places Jesus' teaching within the same context but changes the word "perfect" to "merciful".  This is likely the case because both Matthew and Luke are striving to translate Jesus' words (which would almost certainly have been in Aramaic) into Greek.  Therefore the two authors were likely left with a problem not unfamiliar to translation work where the two languages do not have a perfect one to one relationship.

* Potentially formative to Jesus' thinking/teaching on the subject (and Luke's translation) is a Targum (an Aramaic paraphrase read aloud immediately following the Hebrew reading of a passage of scripture) associated with Leviticus 22:26-28 which read "As your father is merciful in heaven, so you must be merciful on Earth."

Sermon Sampler - Flesh Eating Zombies!? (5/6/12)

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6:54

Is Jesus seriously talking about flesh eating zombies here?  If you’ve been watching too many late night horror movies, this might be what you think, but I’m voting “no”.  In reality Jesus is using a story familiar to his audience (manna in the wilderness - Exodus 16) and reinterpreting it for a contemporary teaching opportunity.  

The text for this week (John 6:25-60) picks up after Jesus has fed the 5,000 and walked on the water to reach his disciples on the other side of lake. The crowds have caught up with him and begun questioning him.  They ask Jesus what they must do to do what God requires, to which Jesus replies they must simply believe in him (Jesus).  It is at this point that the people ask what sign Jesus will give them to prove he's trustworthy.  They reference Moses, the children of Israel in the wilderness and the gift of the manna (bread from heaven).  Taking the example they use, Jesus proclaims himself to be the true bread from heaven!  Jesus further clarifies that in order to receive eternal life, the people must eat his flesh and drink his blood.  Needless to say this doesn't sit well with many of his listeners (and even some of his followers John 6:66).

Upon closer examination, it's clear that Jesus is not speaking literally, but rather is playing upon the common metaphorical meanings attributed to "flesh" (nature, habits, actions) and "blood" (source of life).  With this understanding, Jesus is encouraging his listeners to become more like him, by taking his nature/habits/actions and life into their being.  It's like the old saying "you are what you eat", if you eat junk you'll become junk, but if you eat good things, then you'll become better yourself.

The author of John's gospel does one more thing with this story, namely teach about the Eucharist (also known as communion).  The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) include what's known as the Eucharistic Institution within their re-telling of the Last Supper (basically Jesus' thoughts and teaching on communion).  John's gospel has no such teaching in the Last Supper scene but rather focuses on foot washing.  This is at least in part because the author places Jesus' teaching and institution of communion earlier in Jesus ministry here in John 6:25-60.  What John's gospel allows modern Christians to do is re-imagine and re-interpret the sacrament of Holy Communion as not simply something reminding us of sin and death, but also a call to discipleship and life in Christ!

So the next time you stumble across a particularly difficult saying of Jesus, that at face value seems to be a "hard teaching", rest assured that God made flesh, the incarnate Son of God likely had more in mind than the simple face value of his words.  Furthermore the next time you break the bread and share in the cup, remind yourself that this symbolic meal is also a call to deeper relationship and life with a living and risen savior!

          

Sunday's Scraps (5/6/12)

This week's primary text was HUGE, so I've tried to pull out the most pertinent nuggets of information I found. If you spend even an hour or two in a good commentary you'll a wealth of additional information, but here's some of the stuff that didn't quite make the cuts:

Primary Text: John 6:25-60
This entire passage serves as a parallel to John's account of Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4:1-26).  In both cases Jesus is making use of the common actions of eating and drinking and teaching about deeper spiritual truths through metaphor.
v. 28 - "works" (Gk. ergon) - the people are looking for works or actions they can perform to please God, this attitude is in direct contrast to Jesus' response in v. 29.
v. 29 - "believe" (Gk. pisteuo) - the Greek word is in the family of the word typically translated "faith" (pistis) and carries a similar meaning.  Jesus is saying that the it's all about their belief in the one God sent (him), not works that they perform.
v. 35 - Jesus exclamation "I am the bread of life." is one of several places in John's gospel where Jesus uses the "I am" (Gk. ego eimi) formula to speak about an aspect of himself common elements.  The list roughly is as follows, Bread (6:35), Light (8:12), Gate (10:7,9), Good Shepherd (10:11, 14), Resurrection & Life (11:25), Truth (14:6), and the True Vine (15:1,5).
v. 37 - "come" (Gk. heko) - the word here means more than simply being physically present.  The word carries a relational nuance and could be translated "seek intimacy" or even "become followers".
v. 41 - "the Jews" - in John's gospel this phrase often is not necessarily meant to be seen as a description encompassing exclusively (or all) Jewish persons, but rather those who set themselves up as Jesus' adversaries.
v. 47 - "believes" (Gk. pisteuo) - this word is in the present active tense and carries a sense of "continues to believe".  The point being that simply believing for a moment is not enough, but rather a present belief that continues indefinitely into the future is what is being described here.
v. 49 - "manna" (Gk. manna) - this word is transliterated from Hebrew into Greek and then again into English.  The word itself literally means "what is it" and expresses the Israelites initial confusion at what they were seeing/experience in Exodus 16.
v. 53 - "blood" (Gk. haima) - the reference here to ingesting blood, was more than disconcerting to Jesus Jewish audience, if taken literally his prescription to drink his blood was directly opposed to Jewish law (Leviticus 17:10-14).
v. 54 - "raise him up on the last day" - this is a clear reference to the resurrection of the dead, a belief that was not adhered to by all Jews (most notably the Sadducees).  Therefore any rejecting the resurrection would have been given further reason to reject Jesus' teaching here.