Month: September 2013

Red Letter Year: 9/5

Luke 20.45 – 21.9

45 Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said, 46 “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. 47 Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be severely punished.”

21 While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. 2 Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins.

3 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. 4 For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”

5 Some of his disciples began talking about the majestic stonework of the Temple and the memorial decorations on the walls. But Jesus said, 6 “The time is coming when all these things will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”

7 “Teacher,” they asked, “when will all this happen? What sign will show us that these things are about to take place?”

8 He replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and saying, ‘The time has come!’ But don’t believe them. 9 And when you hear of wars and insurrections, don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place first, but the end won’t follow immediately.”

Comments

If you are reading this everyday (and if you are, thank you), you will notice that I carried over the last few verses of chapter 20 from yesterday. Why would I have you read them twice? Because this is one of those places where chapter and verse divisions don’t serve us well and also where we bump up against the limits of a short daily reading. As I explained yesterday, those last few verses are tied to what came before because in his rebuke, Jesus closes each of the arguments recorded in chapter 20. So it had to be included yesterday. But it also leads in to the story of the widow and her offering, the disciples’ admiring the Temple. So it had to be included today.

Luke arranged it so Jesus rebukes the religious leaders for cheating widows out of all their property, and then the very next thing we see is a poor widow making her offering at the Temple. This should cause us to ask: what happened to this woman? Is she one of the widows Jesus is talking about? Is she giving her last pennies to the Temple after its leaders have stolen everything else she had? At the very least, the system for care of widows that Torah mandated had failed this woman. Her religious and political leaders had failed her. Worse, they likely were the direct cause of her poverty.

But she gives anyway. She does what the rich ruler could not do. Like Zacchaeus, she can part with her money. Beyond anything we’ve seen so far, she can even give to the very people who have robbed her of all. Sort of like a man who will die for the sins of all – even the sin of killing him. The widow and her mite are the very form of the Gospel.

And then we get this weird scene where the Galilean disciples act like tourists in the big city, sightseeing and marveling at the wonderful architecture of the Temple. Herod’s Temple. In an effort to appease the Jews, the Romans had funded an expensive remodeling and expansion of the Temple. Given how the Seleucids fared a century earlier when they desecrated the Temple (sparked the Maccabean revolution), this was a smart move by Rome (they were often willing to buy peace when they could). The irony here is that the same people who argued paying tax to Caesar was treason had no qualms worshiping in the Temple he paid for. In a sense, what Jesus says of the coin (give back to Caesar what belongs to him) can also be said of the Temple. Rome paid for it. And Rome later came to collect it.

Josephus tells us that during the Jewish War many false prophets encouraged people to retreat to Jerusalem for safety and then to remain in Jerusalem. They claimed God was going to appear and miraculously deal with the Romans. The rebel leaders (who were also tyrants) used these false prophets to keep desertion down. The day the Temple was destroyed, false prophets told people to go up to the Temple to experience the Lord’s deliverance. What they experienced was seeing the Temple burnt to the ground and being slaughtered in mass by the Romans. Josephus also tells us that the Romans found a tremendous treasury at the Temple (“all the wealth of the Jews” is how he describes it), money, garments, furniture, and other riches, all stockpiled in the Temple complex. All of this was either taken by the soldiers or destroyed in the fire.

Some of this widow’s belongings may have been part of that hoard. The Temple had become quite literally a den of thieves, the place where they pile up their stolen treasure. And the claims of the ‘prophets’ did not lead people to safety or salvation, they led people directly to destruction. And so it goes with religion. God hates religion when it only serves as a mask for human villainy.  I have been describing Luke’s main theme as reversal and here we see the reason. We have a tendency to use religion for our own benefit – well, we think it is for our benefit, but we only think that because our view of what is best for us is obscured by our own selfishness. Self-centeredness leads us to hoard, we develop an insatiable appetite for various things – wealth, possessions, ecstatic experiences, honor, status, power, etc. – and we use religion to mask these hoards with a veneer of piety.

The Gospel is the opposite of all that. There is no hoarding in the kingdom. The kingdom is the widow giving her last penny. The kingdom is Zacchaeus giving his wealth freely and widely. The kingdom is Jesus pouring out his life for our sins. The kingdom is the Spirit giving life renewing words and power through us for other people. There is no hoarding in the kingdom. Hoarding leads to destruction. Giving leads to life.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Red Letter Year: 9/4

Luke 20.20-47

20 Watching for their opportunity, the leaders sent spies pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor so he would arrest Jesus.21 “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. You teach the way of God truthfully. 22 Now tell us — is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

23 He saw through their trickery and said, 24 “Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

25 “Well then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

26 So they failed to trap him by what he said in front of the people. Instead, they were amazed by his answer, and they became silent.

27 Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees — religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. 28 They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife but no children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name. 29 Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. 30 So the second brother married the widow, but he also died. 31 Then the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them, who died without children. 32 Finally, the woman also died. 33 So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her!”

34 Jesus replied, “Marriage is for people here on earth. 35 But in the age to come, those worthy of being raised from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. 36 And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels. They are children of God and children of the resurrection. 37 But now, as to whether the dead will be raised — even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.”

39 “Well said, Teacher!” remarked some of the teachers of religious law who were standing there.40 And then no one dared to ask him any more questions.

41 Then Jesus presented them with a question. “Why is it,” he asked, “that the Messiah is said to be the son of David? 42 For David himself wrote in the book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand 43 until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.’ 44 Since David called the Messiah ‘Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?”

45 Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said, 46 “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. 47 Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be severely punished.”

Comments

Everything in today’s reading appears both in Mark and Matthew as well. Luke follows Mark very closely, with a few notable exceptions. The discussion of the two greatest commandments isn’t here because Luke used that to introduce his Good Samaritan parable.

In the discussion about taxes, Mark (and Matthew) record Jesus asking to see the coin and then someone going to get one (“they brought one”). Luke eliminates this phrase and that small change makes a difference, giving the impression that one of his questioners was carrying the coin in his pocket. This strengthens Jesus’ response, essentially pointing out that willing participation in Caesar’s economic system obliges one to comply with its rules. The question is not paying to Caesar something that is theirs to otherwise keep, it is a matter of giving back to Caesar what was already Caesar’s to begin with.

There is one more change in the discussion with the Sadducees (who make their lone appearance in Luke here). Luke adds/rewords the phrases, “those worthy of being raised from the dead … And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels.” Emphasizing angels was a further dig at the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in angels or resurrection. The clear implication of some being worthy of resurrection is others are not. Jesus follows this with a strong rebuke of the religious leaders – one more obviously public than the ones he offered at their dinner tables earlier – which further drives home this implication.

But what really stood out to me as I read this was the kingdom oriented lead-in I have been describing the past few days. Even though Luke shares these arguments with Mark and Matthew, his focus on Jesus as king just before this throws the whole thing into a new relief. Luke makes it clear that their questions were not legitimate ones; instead they were thinly veiled attacks. Still, they give the one on his way to be crowned king an opportunity to set policy, to share kingdom perspective on some key issues.

Taxation was certainly one. Josephus tells us that this taxation was the cause of a major revolt and that those paying the tax were considered guilty of treason. The questioners here chose the most controversial topic of the day as the one to weave into a trap for Jesus. They thought they framed the question in a way that gave Jesus limited options: pay or don’t pay. But Jesus refuses their options. He chooses other – give back the image (idol? – the coin called Tiberius ‘divine’) to the one it belongs to. And, oh by the way, that’s not the only image you’re carrying around. You also bear the image of God and you should give that back too.

The position of women in society was also an issue Jesus weighs in on here. The Sadducees were asking what they regarded as an absurd question about resurrection, but in the process they betrayed an attitude toward women that presumed the widow must belong to one of the seven brothers. Whose property would she be? In answering none (another refusal of the available options), Jesus moved the treatment of women as second tier humans from the universal to the contingent. Women are not subordinate to men because they were created that way or destined for such, but because of sinful social convention that will be altogether set aside in the kingdom. In the kingdom, women are called and have their own work, which is not of a different quality or value than that of men, but is the same: growing the kingdom and reaping the harvest. Those who subjugate women are grouped with those who do not believe in the resurrection. They have rejected the king and his policies and are in open opposition to the kingdom.

The heart of the new kingdom is resurrection. It is the crowning of the king’s own act of ultimate obedience and sacrifice and the promise that all its citizens live by. It is definitive of the relationship between the disciple and God – the God who is only the God of living people. To reject resurrection – or to live a life not in congruence with a belief in resurrection – precludes one from the kingdom.

The rebuke Jesus gives makes this clear and encloses this passage. The questioners weren’t concerned about the Roman political-economic system, they loved being in the marketplace and enjoying the honor the system brought them. They weren’t concerned with widows, well, not beyond stealing all their resources. And they weren’t concerned with a living relationship with a living God, their religion served only to bring them attention. The limited choices they presented Jesus were drawn from their own shallow existences. Jesus brings a deeper, kingdom perspective because he is alive to God and alive to others. May the same be true of us.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.