INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Year A -  Second Sunday After Epiphany

 

ISAIAH 49:1-7.    Israel's mission as God's servant people is further elaborated in another of the four Servant Songs found in the latter part of Book of Isaiah. Here the mission is not only to return the Israelites to their homeland after two generations in exile in Babylon, but to bring the good news of God's redemption to the world. The once humiliated and enslaved people are not only to be restored but especially chosen this divine mission.

 

PSALM 40:1-11.  The psalmist rejoices and thanks God for recovery from a serious illness. Rather than making a ritual sacrifice or a special offering, telling others in the congregation of his deliverance will be his way of expressing gratitude.

 

1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-9.    Paul's first letter to the Corinthians begins in the normal fashion for correspondence of that time. Sosthenes may have been the scribe to whom Paul dictated the letter. Scholars debate whether he had also been the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth during Paul’s ministry there (Acts 18:17)

     In his opening prayer Paul thanks God for the faith of the Corinthians. They have been greatly enriched spiritually and strengthened to live Christ's way until he comes again. Their reward for faithfulness is a life of fellowship with Christ.

 

JOHN 1:29-42.   This little vignette differs from the baptism  narratives found in the other gospels.  John recognized Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." This is a statement of faith rooted in the ancient Jewish ritual of sacrifice which the church later adopted as a part of the order of worship for holy communion.   

     Note that this gospel never states that John baptized Jesus. Two kinds of baptism are described. John says that while he baptized with water, Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. It is also John, not Jesus, who saw the Spirit descending as a dove.

         

 

 

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

 

 

ISAIAH 49:1-7.     Israel’s mission as God’s servant people is further elaborated in another of the Servant Songs found in the latter part of the Book of Isaiah. Here the mission  is not only to return the Israelites to their homeland after two generations in exile in Babylon, but to bring the goods news of God’s redemption to all the world.

          The whole chapter is a twelve strophe poem consisting of two parts (vss.1-13; 14-25). It introduces the remaining segment of the prophetic poetry scholars attribute to Deutero-Isaiah (chapters 40-55). The general theme of these several chapters is the redemption of Israel from exile. This reading contains only the first three strophes of the poem and describe the prophet’s call and mission.

           The specific description complicates the question of whether the servant was an individual or the nation as a whole. Vss. 1-6 read as if an individual is intended; but v.7 appears to change the focus to the nation. At the same time, v.3 definitely identifies the servant as Israel. The concept of the corporate personality identified as an individual indicates that both may have been intended.

          Several metaphors in v.2 seem to point to a military event as the historical context of this poetic oracle. Hence the prophet may well have been drawing these metaphors from what he saw happening around him. The capture of Babylon by Cyrus the Mede was such an event which undoubtedly had great significance for the exiled Jews. Yet the prophet is discouraged (v.4) that his faithful witness has had little or no effect upon his compatriots.

          The inspiration he received, however, is that his work has not been in vain. Not only is Israel to be brought back to its rightful master, Yahweh; but as Yahweh’s servant he and they are given a still greater mission: to be “a light to the nations” that Yahweh’s “salvation may reach to   the end of the earth.”(v.6) The despised nation which has been subservient to many rulers will be seen to rise and receive the obeisance of kings and princes because this is the will of Israel’s faithful God (v.7).

          In spite of being interpreted as a messianic prophecy which Jesus fulfilled, there is nothing in this passage to indicate anything other than the very specific historic context and the promise of Israel’s return from exile.

 

PSALM 40:1-11.     This is the first part of a composite psalm which originally existed as two separate entities. Proof of this may be found in Psalm 70 where vss.13-17 occur independently. Vs. 12 is a transitional bridge between the two parts. In this first section (vss.1-11) the psalmist rejoices and thanks God for recovery from a serious illness. The second is an appeal for help in the face of enemies.

          The occasion for this hymn of thanksgiving appears to have been the psalmists return to congregational worship after a near fatal illness (vs.9). “The desolate pit” and “miry bog” in vs.2 are metaphors for his expected death. Miraculously he did not die; hence his rejoicing and renewed trust in God expressed so vividly in vs.3. This new-found faith contrasts with some alternative rites he may have been tempted to pursue (vs.4). But his persistent trust in God triumphed and brought him a new sense of divine grace not only to himself, but to his fellow believers with whom he now worships (vs.5).

          His return to public worship has given him an opportunity to express himself publicly. Was he, perchance, a leading member of the Levitical choir whose absence had left a great void in their performance? Rather than making a ritual sacrifice or an offering, telling others of his deliverance will be his expression of gratitude. He has been given a wondrous insight into God’s ways and God’s will, so he cannot but speak of this rich experience of God’s steadfast love (vss.9-11).

 

1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-9.     Paul’s letter begins in the normal fashion for correspondence of that time. Sosthenes may have been the scribe to whom Paul dictated the letter. For whatever reason, Paul seems to have had difficulty writing himself. (cf. Gal.6:11) Sosthenes may also have been the leader of the synagogue in Corinth who was publicly beaten while the proconsul Gallio ignored the Jews attack on Paul as reported in Acts 18:12-17.

          The letter is addressed to “the church of God that is in Corinth.” Undoubtedly the believers there met in some kind of assembly, designated by the Greek word “ecclesia.” The LXX used this word to translate the Hebrew “qahal,” which meant “the people of God.” It had become one of Paul’s favorite terms occurring no less than 22 times in this one letter. It expressed how he saw the company of believers as set apart by God for a divinely appointed vocation. (Cf. 7:20-21)

Their being sanctified (Gk.= hegiasmenois) and called “saints” did not necessarily imply moral perfection. It did mean, however, that they had responded to the gospel in such a way that their lives could never be the same. To “call on the name of the Lord” as Paul uses the phrase here has the sense of confessing Jesus as Lord, not simply praying to him.

          Paul moves from the salutation to an introductory thanksgiving. While this may be normal for ordinary correspondence, in this situation it may ironic compared with what follows in the later parts of the letter. Yet we cannot deny that Paul had a sincere love for those to whom he had brought the gospel. As a wise and loving pastor, he could only have confronted them as he did if he held them very much in his heart.

          In his thanksgiving Paul states briefly the inestimable value of Christian faith by telling the Corinthians that they have been greatly enriched spiritually and strengthened to live Christ’s way until he comes again. William Barclay identifies three outstanding elements in this seemingly mellifluous phrases: a promise has come true, a gift has been given, and the end of all things will come (“The Daily Study Bible: The Letters to the Corinthians.” Edinburgh:St. Andrew Press, 1954.)

          The introduction ends with Paul’s assurance that their Corinthians reward for faithfulness will be - even now is - strength for life’s struggle, freedom from guilt, and fellowship with Christ

 

JOHN 1:29-42.   Like so much else in the Fourth Gospel, this baptismal narrative differs from the other gospels. John recognized Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” This is one of the main themes of John’s Gospel. Characteristically, he puts this - his own confession - into the mouth of the Baptist and relates it to his introductory presentation of “the man sent from God .... to testify to the light.”(1:6-8).

          The term “the Lamb of God” had its roots in the Jewish ritual of sacrifice. Alan Richardson pointed out that the reference may be to Abraham’s offering of his first-born son Isaac in Gen. 22:8. This was an underlying theme of the baptism in Mark 1:8-11 which appears top draw on the LXX of Gen. 22:12. There seems little doubt, however, that the whole panoply of daily offerings of unblemished lambs in the temple came to John’s mind as he began his narrative of Jesus ministry. (“An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament.” SCM Press, 1958.)

          This symbolism was later adopted by the church as part of the order for the eucharist. John himself had this in mind too in his correlation of the death of Jesus with the hour when the pascal lamb was killed. (See John 19:31-36.) Richardson believed that Jesus himself had “thought out this profound re-interpretation of the OT plan of salvation (rather) than that the church should have done so a decade or two later.” (p.181)

          As abhorrent as the whole idea of animal and human blood sacrifice seems to us now, it obviously meant a great deal to the apostolic church. Yet even as we search for a different metaphor for the mission of Jesus, we must also ask whether our abhorrence may not be due more to the incalculable amount of innocent blood spilled in the past century and our grave technological errors made in ignorance and in greed when using human blood for ostensibly life-saving purposes.

         Note that this gospel never states that John baptized Jesus.  John merely tells his disciples that while he baptized with water, Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Note also that it was John, not Jesus, who saw the Spirit descending as a dove. Is this the Spirit brooding over the waters of the Jordan on the day of creation and Noah’s dove searching for a place to settle? Christian art uses the dove to decorate baptismal fonts, Richardson points out, “to remind us that our baptism is efficacious only because Christ was baptized and that in our baptism, as in his, the inward reality of the action is the descent of the Holy Spirit.”

          The next day, two of John disciples left John and followed Jesus, first out of curiosity, then out of conviction. Surprisingly, it was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, who made the first confession that Jesus was the Messiah. If the gospel came from John, the son of Zebedee, we have here an independent tradition perhaps more accurate than that of the Synoptic Gospels. How else would we know the nearly facetious nickname Jesus gave in Aramaic to this most unstable “Rock?”

 

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