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December 28th, 2019

12/28/2019

It is not surprising that the Gospel text for the First Sunday after Christmas stays very near to the beginning of the Gospel according to Matthew [2:13-23]. And there is an extremely interesting fulfillment passage within that text. At the very end of chapter two, Jesus makes a move to a ‘memorable’ city. And this is how the last verse of chapter two describes the situation:

And [Jesus] went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: He shall be called a Nazarene (ESV).

When Matthew lays out an Old Testament fulfillment, he usually quotes only one prophet. But now he is pointing out more than one, and, to make matters worse, there is no Old Testament bible verse that says what the text above says. This has bothered people for literally centuries.

The easy way out would be to say that there were prophets who said this, but we simply do not have that in writing. That would be a more historical answer. A more literary AND theological answer would be to look at the rest of scripture to see some connections.

Before we look back into the past, it may be helpful to look into the future. This naming of Jesus as a Nazarene happens in the Gospel according to Matthew when Jesus is on trial, when Peter is challenged by yet another servant girl. In Matthew 26:71, she (literally) says to the bystanders, ‘This man was with Jesus the Nazarene.’ The first servant girl had said that Peter was with Jesus the Galilean.

Connecting Jesus to both Galilee and Nazareth were not very positive connections. This gospel account even details that Jesus made the move from Nazareth to ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’ (4:15; this is the very next fulfillment passage after 2:23) ‘when he heard that John had been arrested (4:12).’ And actually, the text does not say that he simply moved, but he ‘withdrew’; in a sense, he retreated.

These are not the actions of a leader. This is the actions of someone who is despised, and you have many Old Testament predictions of the Messiah being despised.

You probably did not know that, very close to the word ‘Nazareth’, is the word for ‘branch’ (nezer; a Hebrew word, the ‘base’ part of it, usually has three consonants.). And the Jews definitely saw the Messiah predicted in verses like Isaiah 11:1. (‘Then shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit’; ESV; see Concordia Commentary, Matthew 1:1-11:1, by Jeff Gibbs, Concordia Publishing House, 2005, page 132.) The Messiah was to be related to King David. And do not forget that he was the youngest son of Jesse. And he was also the despised one, in a sense, since he was the one who ended up being the shepherd for his father’s flock.

Very close to the word ‘Nazareth’ is the word for the special vow that a few people in the Old Testament took, the Nazarite vow (see Numbers 6). And, of those who took that vow, Samson, one of the judges, was probably the most famous.

So usually we think of Samson as a hero and being well supported by the other Israelites. After all, he fought and killed all those Philistines. But he also acted alone. Other judges worked with various sizes of armies. But Samson usually fought those Philistines by himself. You might say that he was despised as well.

When you combine the references to the Nazarite vow, along with the references to a despised Messiah, along with references to David, the Old Testament DOES talk a lot about Jesus. He was the VERY Good Shepherd, and he was the one who ALONE defeated the devil.

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December 21st, 2019

12/21/2019

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This is an extremely unusual Sunday. This Sunday is very near to the beginning of the three-year series of texts, and we have a lot of other beginnings before us.

Obviously, with the coming of Christmas, on the Fourth Sunday in Advent, Jesus is about to begin as a baby. And so, we make a big jump to the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew [verses 18-25]—since last week’s text was in chapter eleven. But that is not all. The epistle text is the first few verses of Romans, and that is the first of all the epistles. And, if that were not enough, the Old Testament reading is from Isaiah, chapter seven [verses 10-17], and Isaiah is the first of all the writings from the prophets.

Chapter seven may seem like a significant distance into this book, but it really is not. One of the teachers at Concordia Seminary was known for pointing out that Isaiah 7:14 is at the exact middle of Isaiah 2-12 (For many more details, see Andrew Bartelt’s The Book Around Immanuel: Style and Structure in Isaiah 2-12, published by Eisenbrauns, 1996.). There is a beautiful structure surrounding this text that points to the importance of the verse that we find within our Matthew text: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (1:23; ESV; the centrality of this verse within Isaiah may also be the reason for the appearance of several unique Old Testament fulfillment passages within the rest of this gospel account).’

For the third Sunday in Advent to have the epistle text from the fifth chapter of James, and then, on the next Sunday, to be at the very beginning of Romans, that is another very big jump. Obviously, the focus has always been on Jesus. But, actually, any of the first four epistles would be very good at directing us toward the gospel, since they all deal with various groups of Christians who are in the midst of dealing with that all-important good news. Since Paul was not yet in Rome, he gives that congregation the very basics. (It may be worthwhile to note that some ancient Greek manuscripts do not have that this letter was written to those ‘in Rome’, but it is definitely to those who are loved by God and called to be saints; see verse 7. Ephesians has a similar characteristic with its manuscripts, and this could be expected since it begins a different section within the epistles and has a slightly different focus.) Here is the work’s beginning, essentially a description of the one sending the letter:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1-6; The Lutheran Study Bible, page 1908).

Jesus is certainly mentioned a lot within the text. (And it is amazing that all of that is just ONE sentence.) And it seems that Paul cannot get away from talking about Jesus. (If you would like to see a reason for Paul writing ‘Christ Jesus’ rather than ‘Jesus Christ’, as well as a look at the structure of the epistles, you might want to see ‘A Cinderella Story: The Role of Galatians Within a Gospel Canon,’ in Galatians As Examined by Diverse Academics in 2012 (St. Andrews, Scotland), Hermit Kingdom Press, 2013.)

This Jesus-focused structure may literally be seen in the text from the Gospel according to Matthew. Later in this gospel account, we find out that Matthew has the occupation of a tax collector. That should make him good with numbers. And there are some interesting numbers within the text.

In the Greek text, after the first mention of Jesus (the third word of the text), there are seventy-eight words. And then there is the name of Jesus. And then, after seventy-eight more words, Jesus is the very last word of the text.

Of course, that could be a coincidence. But I have brought up before the point that, when we look at Adam’s first words (at Genesis 2:23), they have a special structure as well. In the Hebrew, there is the word for ‘this (woman)’, then five words, then the word for ‘this’ again, and then five words, and then ‘this’.

Sometimes I can imagine some of the pressure that Matthew had with writing a gospel account. No doubt he felt like he needed help. And there is no doubt at all in my mind that he received some.

Sometimes, when the four living creatures are depicted, the man (who is connected to Matthew) is seen as having a paper in his hand, and this is probably a reference to the fact that he had something to start with; he had a genealogy. (The ox sometimes has a paper too, and the Gospel according to Luke also contains a genealogy. All of this is probably why Clement of Alexandria called these two accounts the earliest, because they both had genealogies that were written out and distributed long before the other accounts were written; see Eusebius, Church History, book 6, chapter 14, sections 5-7.)
Matthew started with a genealogy because that is what he already had, and then he continued with a structure that is literally as ancient as man and woman. But, this time, the focus is definitely on Jesus. You might say that Jesus was there present both at the beginning and the middle, and he will certainly show up again at the end.

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December 14th, 2019

12/14/2019

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The gospel text for the Third Sunday in Advent makes a big jump to the eleventh chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, but the focus continues to be on the person of John the Baptist, the ‘forerunner’ of Jesus. Really all three texts talk about the coming of the Lord.

That the epistle text for this Sunday is from the Epistle of James [5:7-11] is extremely rare. There are only a very few times in the three-year series that we have a text from this epistle. And this text is very near the end of the epistle, and this is also very interesting.

Dr. Luther wrote that this epistle was an epistle of straw, meaning that it was not as important as the Epistle to the Romans. But straw is still important! And Jesus is still within the text, although sometimes he is hard to see. He has a couple of obvious mentions at the beginning of the epistle, but Jesus gets more attention as the text nears the end—although this is not so obvious. The first verse of our text is a clear reference to Jesus: ‘Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.’ And this emphasis on the Lord’s second coming is repeated.

Now because of the large number of commands within this epistle, this emphasis on Jesus is missed. Some people have also missed the importance of the author. The author of this epistle is, of course, James. But this is almost assuredly the James who was the half-brother of Jesus. And he was considered to be the leader of the early church in Jerusalem. He is also recorded as the one who put forward the four commands in Acts 15(:13-21).

At other times I have made connections between these four commands and the four gospel accounts. The four gospel accounts fit together as four different ways in which Jesus showed his authority and glory by dying for you. They also fit together as four different ways in which Jesus was the obedient one for you, by him taking care of these four commands.

When you have a command or an imperative in the scriptures, there are a lot of other things that go with it. What does this law tell us about God? Who is supposed to keep it? Just because it is a law, that does not mean that it is a law that was meant only for you to keep. The results of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 were this: hearts are cleansed by faith (verse 9b; this is a special type of circumcision), and we believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus (verse 11).

Yes, there are laws within this epistle, but they are not the only things within this book. I did not check these figures, but I read somewhere that there are fifty-four imperatives within these one hundred and eight verses. That averages to exactly one imperative for every two verses.

If you pass by the imperatives for a moment, there are some important statements within this text. Some of them are as follows: ‘…the coming of the Lord is at hand’ (verse 8b) and ‘…the Judge is standing at the door’ (verse 9b).

Admittedly those two statements are both connected to an imperative. And they are also both connected to the theme of the Lord’s coming. It is interesting that Jesus as the ‘Judge’ is mentioned previously in 4:12, and this is very significant verse, since it connects the Judge to ‘he who is able to save’. That is a beautiful picture and fits well with our use of the term ‘justification’.

There is one more statement within the Sunday text that is quite long and not closely connected to an imperative.

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful (ESV; verse 11).

Now there is obviously a lot there. A good starting place would be to review what is actually found in the book of Job. In the same way as there is a progression in this text of James, there is a progression in the book of Job. He hears, but he finally sees. At Job 42:5, he says, ‘I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you….’
The text in James, though, does not say that Job sees. It says to the readers or listeners that THEY have heard and that THEY have seen. And what I think is very interesting is that the text, in a very literal way, says this: ‘You have seen the end of the Lord.’ That phrase, as it stands, makes me think of the crucifixion.

What is also very interesting is that it looks like James almost makes up a new word to describe that end. The word that is translated as ‘compassion’ in the verse is an unusual word in the Greek. James put together two well-known words (as Jesus did that in the Lord’s Prayer with the word that we translate as ‘daily’). James attaches a prefix which means ‘many’, ‘large’, or ‘great’ to the word which very literally means inward parts or intestines. (Obviously, the writer is not saying that the Lord is a large intestine!) James is saying that our Lord has a great and large amount of compassion.

It is interesting, though, that in ancient times the intestines and not the heart are considered to be the seat of emotions. This should tell us something about our emotions, that they are certainly not sinless. They should not be the focus, although they are important; they are gifts of God—just like your intestines are! But they should definitely NOT be top priority. And the Lord’s emotions are certainly much more important than ours.

When commands (or emotions) are the focus, the focus can end up on us. When the Lord is the focus, that makes for a much better ending … literally.

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December 07th, 2019

12/7/2019

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This Sunday is the Second Sunday in Advent, and with this gospel text [3:1-12], we are getting closer to the actual beginning of the Gospel according to Matthew. We are near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. And before this very important ministry came the also important ministry of John the Baptist, Jesus’ ‘forerunner’.

You can see a strong similarity between both people in 3:1 and 4:17. The following translation is somewhat literal:

And in those days John the Baptist arrives, proclaiming in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent! For the kingdom of the heavens has come near.’

From then on, Jesus began to proclaim and to say, ‘Repent! For the kingdom of the heavens has come near.’

Obviously, the strong similarity is at the end with the identical message. And there is a slight but significant difference at the very beginning. In the description of Jesus, the beginning of the text signals a major division in this gospel account, and the next time—and the only other time—that these words are used, the text is at 16:21, and Jesus is ready to go to Jerusalem and die. (The start of the other verse, with ‘in those days’, is also a significant description since the last ‘days’ that were mentioned were when Jesus was still a child; see 2:20-23)

It would be also good to make a comparison between the first verse of this Sunday’s text and the verse which follows immediately after this text (3:13). Here, again, is a literal translation:

Then Jesus arrives from Galilee at the Jordan toward John, to be baptized by him.
First, John the Baptist ‘arrives’. And then Jesus ‘arrives’. These two verbs are in a special form called the ‘historical present’. The writer COULD use the past tense of a verb, but he decides to use the present instead. And, in this case, the writer has chosen to use a very special word for ‘arrives’. The only other time that the writer used this word was when he described the coming of the magi, and there the tense is as we would normally expect. You might want to think of this word as ‘arrives on the scene’; whatever happens after the fact, it is important that this person is there.

If you have a translation that shows when there is an historical present (like the NASB), you can tell that the presence of this one verb these two times is significant. It is significant because there were just two other historical presents before these two; and they are the same word, AND they also have a similar meaning to ‘arrives’. In 2:13 & 19, when both the texts say that an angel of the Lord ‘appeared’ to Joseph, the texts actually say that the angel of the Lord ‘appears’ to Joseph.

That the verbs are in the present should get our attention and pull us into the account. An angel appears … twice! But then John the Baptist arrives ‘on the scene’. But then, even more important than that, is that JESUS arrives! And the ‘scene’ has significantly changed as a result. Angels have been said to have appeared during the time between the Old Testament and the New. But Jesus’ entrance is much more important than any appearance of any angel. Perhaps we are too used to the so-called ‘New' Testament to realize how special this is, that Jesus ‘arrives’.

There are, by the way, another pair of historical presents in the verses that follow this text. In 3:15, John the Baptist ‘lets’ Jesus be baptized, and in 4:11, the devil leaves; you could say that he ‘lets’ Jesus go.

Jesus comes. And then Jesus is ‘let go’; he leaves. But since he came, we are never the same.

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A Sabbath Day's Journey

December 28th, 2019

December 21st, 2019

December 14th, 2019

December 07th, 2019

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