INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURES

Year C - Fifth Sunday in Lent

ISAIAH 43:16-21.  To the Israelites in exile in Babylon, this unnamed prophet whose words are recorded in Isaiah 40-55 delivered a message of great hope and promise: the exiles were going home. The capture of Babylon about 539 BC by Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians, had made this possible. The way home led through the wilderness, recalling the first exodus and the journey through the wilderness to the promised land under Moses many centuries earlier. This would happen because God willed it for God's own people.

PSALM 126.     This Song of Ascent celebrates the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. It echoes God's intervention in Israel's history as proclaimed in the prophecies of Isaiah 40-55. It may have been sung by pilgrims approaching the temple as part of a liturgy preparing for a new   year.

PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14.  Despite his background as a zealous Pharisee, Paul tells of giving up a promising career as a rabbi to follow Jesus. The one source of power for his new life came from his faith in the resurrection of Jesus, in which he longed to share. That had become his one goal which he now sought as zealously as he had sought to obey the Mosaic law in his youth.

JOHN 12:1-8.    Mary of Bethany expressed her love and dedication to Jesus by perfuming his feet with a costly ointment. When Judas Iscariot protested the waste, Jesus acknowledged the gift as a symbol of preparing his body for burial; but he did not forget the poor as well.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

ISAIAH 43:16-21.    It is always difficult to know where to begin and to end a particular selection from Deutero-Isaiah. Different commentaries are likely to make different choices as to the extent of specific poems and oracles. Generally speaking, however, the phrase "Thus says the Lord ..." is a clue to the beginning of a new oracle. How several oracles may be included in a longer poem is a more complex issue.

In The Interpreter's Bible, vol. 5, p. 491ff. James Muilenburg places this selection in a longer poem extending from 43:14-44:5 of which this selection is but the second, third and fourth of nine strophes or stanzas. Muilenburg entitles the poem "Redemption By Grace." He also states that the key to the whole poem lies in the first strophe (43:14-15) just prior to the beginning of this reading.

To the Israelites in exile in Babylon, this unnamed prophet delivered a message of great hope and promise: the exiles were to be set free and sent home. The capture of Babylon in 539 BC by Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians, had made this possible.   There was to be a new exodus. It actually occurred in 536, so this poem may well date from the intervening three years.

Vs. 16 recalls the first exodus and the journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land under Moses many centuries earlier. The passage of Israel through the sea and the subsequent destruction of their Egyptian pursuers. (vs.17) demonstrated that nature and history are both under the sovereign control of Yahweh. The prophet then calls for the exiles in Babylon to turn from memory to hope (vs.18) for a great new deliverance is about to occur.

The road home is open to them as was the road through the wilderness and across many rivers to the Promised Land. This would happen because Yahweh willed it for Yahweh's own people.  Yahweh would provide life-giving water for them in the thousand-mile trek through the desert. That had been a crucial issue for the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt. Unlike their ancestors, the promise of water and safety from lurking wild animals would reassure those of weak faith.

The return from exile in Babylon was not only an act of divine grace but also as a testimony to Yahweh's mighty purpose for Israel. Vs. 21 states unequivocally that Yahweh's intent was that the exiles would declare Yahweh's praise. Imagine the amazement of every tribe through whose territory the returning exiles passed. Two generations earlier, their Babylonian overlords had led the Israelites eastward in chains. Now they were marching homeward in a rejoicing throng spreading the good news of Yahweh's blessed deliverance as they went.

PSALM 126.     This Song of Ascent, one of fifteen contained in Pss. 120-134, celebrates the return of the exiles to Jerusalem, yet reflects life of a later, more difficult period in Israel's history. Writing long after the event, the psalm echoes God's intervention in Israel's history as proclaimed in the prophecies of Isaiah 40-55 and other prophets of the post-exilic period, Zechariah, Haggai and Ezra.  These psalms may have been sung by pilgrims approaching the restored temple as part of a liturgy preparing for one of the great festivals.

Yet this particular psalm may actually be more of a lament for hard times. It begins and ends with a plea for restored fortunes. Do the references to water and the harvest suggest a time of drought? Could this be a hint that the psalm was used in the new year's liturgy or at the harvest festival of Succoth when hope for better days was much on the minds of worshipers?

PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14.  Do you suppose that Paul either had a very low self-image or was constantly attacked for having inadequate credentials as an apostle? He seems to have felt called on to defend his qualifications on several occasions. Here he cites his background as a faithful Jew of the strictest kind. Despite this background as a zealous Pharisee, he had given up a promising career as a rabbi to follow Jesus. But note the antecedent to this self-defense. It throws his subsequent assertions into high relief.

In vss.2-3, he had castigated the Judaizers who promoted circumcision as a prior commitment for Gentile Christians. There may have been few Jews in Philippi, but obviously they were very orthodox. Archeologists have not yet discovered a synagogue among the considerable ruins of this substantial Roman administrative centre. What is more, it would seem to have been women like Lydia who first responded to Paul's preaching at a place of prayer by the river (Acts 16:13-15). Such a situation would almost certainly give rise to jealousy and controversy from those who wished to preserve orthodox, male domination in the new community Paul was helping to create in Lydia's house church.

In the light of these circumstances, it is not surprising that Paul should use his own experience as a zealous Pharisee to clarify for the Philippians both the sacrifices and the promises of being a Christian in a hostile world. It has even been speculated that Paul had sacrificed his own marriage to a high-born Jewish women of Jerusalem, perhaps the daughter of Caiaphas or some other dominant family.

Three words stand out in what Paul had to say about the gains he had received in knowing Christ: righteousness, faith and resurrection. William Barclay defines what those words meant to Paul: Righteousness meant "a right relationship with God." Faith meant "taking Jesus Christ at his word;" and "accepting what God offers you through Christ." Resurrection meant "the guarantee of the importance of life in this body in which we live; ... the guarantee of the life to come; ...the guarantee that in life and in death the presence of the risen Lord is always with us." (The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Edinburgh: Church of Scotland, Daily Bible Readings p. 77-79.)

Paul now knew that the one source of power for his new life came from his faith in the resurrection of Jesus, in which he longed to share. That had become his one goal which he now sought as zealously as he had sought to obey the Mosaic law in his youth.

It is not unusual for converts to be forceful enthusiasts for their new faith. Conviction tends to transform even normal life experiences into opportunities for witness. Church history has many such ardent evangelists. Some, like John Henry Newman, a prominent Anglican churchman of Oxford, converted to Roman Catholicism, and became a cardinal of his new tradition.  John Newton, a degraded slave trader, was known as "the perpetual deacon of Olney" and left numerous saintly hymns celebrating his new faith.

JOHN 12:1-8.    Women play an unusually large part in John's Gospel. In this incident, Mary of Bethany, expressed her love and devotion to Jesus by perfuming his feet with a costly ointment and wiping them with her hair. We know who Mary was from John's explicit identification (vs.1) which follows Luke 10:38-42. But she was not the same woman who performed a similar act according to Luke 7:36-50. That error is still being offered by some interpreters. Nor was she Mary Magdalene with whom the Western church identified her from the 6th century CE, a fictional assessment followed by modern movies. The Eastern church rejected this mistaken identification. John's story, however, does show some dependence on the Synoptic tradition of Mark 14:1-9 and Matthew 26:1-13.

Jesus appears to have made the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus his headquarters during his last visit to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. It is not difficult to see why. Bethany was a hamlet just over the eastern ridge of the Mount of Olives. Today, when one looks eastward toward the Mount of Olives from any vantage point in the city overlooking the Kedron Valley, one can see the spire of the ancient church erected on the traditional site of the home where this incident occurred. The minaret of a nearby mosque is even more visible. The distance to Bethany from the Beautiful Gate to the Temple would have been no more than three kilometres; and less than that from the traditional site of the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

There the Bethany family gave a dinner party for Jesus. Martha and Mary played their customary roles. Mary's anointing of Jesus' feet and wiping them with her hair was a most astonishing display of affection and devotion. Is it too much to give a 20th century Freudian interpretation of this demonstrative display? Many devoted Christians has found their piety and their sexuality strangely and simultaneously enhanced.  Perhaps this was what motivated the confusion of Mary of Bethany with Mary of Magdala, although there is no scriptural evidence that the latter was in any way promiscuous.

Judas was quick to put an economic value to what happened. John had his own agenda in casting Judas in the role of a thief (vs. 6). John may have used this as a warning to some of the members of his own diaspora community in the latter decade of the 1st century. Here Judas corresponds to the Ephesian "evildoers ... who claim to be apostles but are not" in Revelation 2:2; or to the Laodicean "rich (who say) I have prospered, and I need nothing," in Revelation 3:17. 

When Judas Iscariot protested the waste, Jesus acknowledged the gift as a symbol of preparing his body for burial; but he did not forget the poor as well. They would be with us always and needing our concern and help. As the parable of Matthew 25:31-46 so beautifully describes, our gifts to anyone in need, large or small, are tokens of our loyalty and commitment, as well as expressions of our love for Christ.

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