Br. John R. Barker, OFM

Dec 11 2024

Scripture Study for

This week’s Genesis narrative contains two notable elements. The first has to do with the hospitality that Abraham and Sarah show to the three visitors. Since it will become clear soon enough that two of these visitors are angels and the third is the Lord himself, the elderly couple find themselves “entertaining angels” without even knowing it (Hebrews 13:2). Hospitality was a serious social expectation in ancient Israel, and the couple exemplify this virtue even toward God. The second notable element is the announcement that, at long last, the divine promise to give a child to the elderly and infertile couple is to be fulfilled. Often in the most mysterious ways, and under the most unlikely conditions, God is faithful in bringing forth life.

Paul’s comment that he is making up in his own sufferings “what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” seems, at first glance, to suggest that Christ’s redemptive suffering was somehow insufficient. This, of course, is not what Paul means. The Colossians are part of the Gentile mission, in which the gospel is spread throughout the known world. Paul has suffered much in his work of preaching the gospel, an extension of the work of Christ, as he has labored to bring “to completion . . . the word of God.” In this context, the “afflictions of Christ” appear to mean the suffering experienced as one continues Christ’s mission. Paul’s work has been to reveal the hidden mystery to the Gentiles, the mystery of what God is doing for the whole cosmos in and through Christ.

In this scene from Luke’s Gospel, Mary’s posture is that of a disciple, which would have normally—according to the social expectations of the time—been limited to males. Mary’s action, therefore, violates a social boundary, which is not particularly surprising in the Gospels in general, and certainly not in Luke’s Gospel, which pays such positive attention to women. It is perhaps because of the social incongruity and potential controversy of Mary’s position that Jesus assures her that “the better part” will not be taken away from her. The scene takes place immediately after last week’s story of the good Samaritan, in which Jesus illustrated what it means to love one’s neighbor. This scene complements that one, in that Mary illustrates what it means to love the Lord with all one’s heart, by sitting devotedly and attentively at the feet of Christ.

Dec 11 2024

Scripture Study for

As he prepares Israel to enter the land promised to their ancestors, Moses once again exhorts the people to cherish their covenantal relationship with God and to heed carefully God’s commands, which are intended to give Israel life (Deuteronomy 10:15–16). The will of God is not mysterious or changeable, such that Israel will never be sure what God wants of them. Their God is not capricious or subject to whims. The Law is a gift to Israel so that they will always know what God asks of them. It is always available to them; they do not need to go searching for it. They only have to carry it out.

Here at the beginning of his Letter to the Colossians, Paul draws on a preexisting hymn to set the stage for his exposition of the work of God, through Christ, on behalf of all of creation. Who is Jesus Christ? He is, in the first place, the visible manifestation of God, for in him the fullness of deity dwells. Before his incarnation, he existed before all the rest of creation as the “firstborn.” This term refers not only to his primacy temporally but also and especially to his sovereignty of rank (just as with firstborn sons in the Old Testament).

Because of this, and because all creation was made “through him” (in the much the same way the wisdom literature speaks of Wisdom [8:22–35]), all of creation is “for him” and subject to him. Christ is also the firstborn of the dead, making his “preeminence” even more clear. Through him, all creation holds together and all creation— currently marked by much violence and chaos—is reconciled, such that the promise of peace is firmly established.

Jesus’ response to the scholar of the Law addresses both the substance of his question (“who is my neighbor?”) and the motivation for asking it (self-justification). The command to love one’s neighbor (Leviticus 19:18) refers originally to one’s “own people,” which is to say, fellow Israelites. This did not mean that one was free to act unjustly toward non-Israelites, as the numerous injunctions about mistreating “aliens” make clear. In Jesus’ time, this would certainly have meant loving one’s fellow Jews. But what about others? Jesus emphasizes that one’s neighbor is anyone who needs help, regardless of religion or ethnic background or anything else. The scholar clearly believed that he regularly fulfilled this requirement, perhaps limiting its application to fellow Jews. Jesus challenges his piety by demanding that he expand his notion of neighbor to include even such as the despised Samaritans.

Dec 11 2024

Scripture Study for

The final chapters of the book of Isaiah are set in the postexilic period, when Jerusalem was tiny, with maybe five hundred people. To the small band of returned exiles, this was hardly evidence of God’s promised glorious restoration. Yet God assures them that their very presence is merely the beginning of something greater: “Zion was scarcely in labor when she bore her children. Shall I bring a mother to the point of birth, and yet not let her child be born?” (66:8c–9a) In other words, God’s restoration has begun and will not stop. Our passage continues with this metaphor of Jerusalem as a mother who will one day be able to nourish all her children abundantly. This will be possible because God will draw all nations to the holy city for worship, enriching the city and allowing all her “children” to flourish (66:18–20).

Paul concludes his Letter to the Galatians by noting that those who have been arguing that to be a Christian one must become a Jew and take on the obligations of the Law are not interested in the Law so much as they are interested in gaining people to their side of this disputed question, “so that they may boast of your flesh” (6:13). Paul, however, is not concerned with gaining people to his side in some sort of contest; he does not want “followers” of whom he can boast (meaning, claim as his own). Rather, he only claims as his own the cross of Christ, which has transformed him. All that matters in the end is becoming a new person in Christ. Paul is free from concerns about what others think, about earthly honors or anything else of which “the world” boasts, because he belongs now to Christ, and thus “bears his marks.”

Jesus sends out his seventy-two disciples to prepare towns for his coming by preaching repentance, curing the sick, casting out demons, and calling more disciples to Christ (laborers for the harvest). The reception will be mixed: some will receive them in peace, others will reject the call to repentance and not receive them. In either case they are to behave as “lambs,” offering only peace and accepting gratefully what is offered to them in return. They are not to allow anything to slow them down in their urgency to proclaim the kingdom of God. When the disciples return and announce their successes, Jesus proclaims that Satan is steadily losing his grip on the world as the kingdom of God advances.

Dec 11 2024

Scripture Study for

In the first recorded instance of “passing the mantle,” the prophet Elijah signals to Elisha that he is to be his successor. In a dramatic gesture typical of biblical prophets, Elijah walks past the young man, throws his mantle on him, and continues on, leaving the bewildered Elisha to run after him. The invitation is made, but the one invited must accept wholeheartedly and immediately. Elisha does accept, only making the reasonable request to say good-bye to his family. But the call of a prophet means giving up absolutely everything to serve God, and the first test is the willingness to leave family behind without a word, and even to sever oneself from one’s past life. Elisha signals his total commitment to his new role as attendant and successor of Elijah by destroying the instruments of his former work.

Thus far in his Letter to the Galatians, Paul has argued strenuously that Jews who have become Christians are no longer subject to the Law, at least not in the same way as before. Gentiles too ought not to place themselves under the “discipline” of the Law; all should accept the freedom they have been given through faith in Christ. Some Galatians, however, seem to have taken this to mean that their “freedom” means liberty to do whatever they want. This is no freedom, Paul says, but slavery of a different kind, slavery to the flesh. Those who live by the Spirit serve Christ, not that part of them that resists God’s will. Christian freedom is freedom to live for Christ and in service of one’s neighbor. Only to the extent that their life in the Spirit releases them from bondage to their own passions and selfishness can Christians call themselves truly free.

As Jesus begins his final journey to Jerusalem, where he knows he will be killed (9:22), he encounters three individuals who would follow him—which means following him to Jerusalem and all that stands for. Each is warned of the cost. They will endure insecurity and they will have to give up even their own family duties for a greater obligation. Everyone must consider carefully the cost of following Jesus, because although he leads them to the kingdom of God, the way to the kingdom necessarily goes through Jerusalem. Those who look ahead to the kingdom will be tempted to look back at what they left once they arrive at Jerusalem, but this will deter them from their course, just as looking back while plowing risks ruining the field with crooked furrows.

Dec 11 2024

Scripture Study for

Abram’s meeting with Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the same God Abram worships (Numbers 24:4, 16), occurs after Abram has defeated a group of Canaanite kings who have taken his nephew Lot as a prisoner of war (14:12–17). The offering of bread and wine is an act of hospitality that may also be a sacrifice, although this is not stated. In any case, the priest calls down God’s blessing on Abram and blesses God for the victory given to Abram over the kings. The “tithe” Abram gives is a tenth of the spoils of his victory. Drawing on the mention of Melchizedek in Psalm 110, the author of Hebrews will associate his priesthood with that of Christ (7:1–25), which in later Christian tradition will add greater significance to the offerings of bread and wine.

Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians of the tradition of the institution of the Lord’s Supper flows from his criticism of their conduct during their own celebrations. By acting selfishly and shaming those who are poorer, they “show contempt for the church of God” and so betray the ethos that lay behind the Lord’s own sacrifice, which they are not only to remember but also to which they are to conform themselves (1 Corinthians 11:17–22, 27–34). Proclamation of the death of the Lord until he comes cannot be merely verbal but must be enacted in the self-giving of each member of the church. The “cup of the new covenant in my blood” reflects the sealing of the first covenant of Sinai with “the blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8). Just as the Sinai covenant was rooted in the previous covenant with the ancestors, so the new covenant sealed with Jesus’ blood is an extension of the older covenant.

Luke’s account of the feeding of the crowd ties it closely with his account of the Last Supper (22:19–20). In both scenes Jesus “takes” the food, “blesses” it, “breaks” it, and “gives” it. In the present scene, Jesus enacts the eschatological, messianic banquet, in which God provides abundantly for all, so that no one goes without or suffers, and even death is conquered (Isaiah 25:6–9). The verbal parallel between this scene and the institution narrative of the Last Supper invites the reader to see the intrinsic connection between God’s care for our material needs and God’s care for our spiritual needs through the ongoing “feeding of the multitude” in the banquet initiated in the new covenant.