INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Year C - REIGN OF CHRIST   

On this last Sunday in the Christian liturgical year, we celebrate the Reign of Christ. The lessons concentrate on the anticipated triumph of God in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

JEREMIAH 23:1-6.   The shepherd is a standard Old Testament symbol for the king of Israel. After condemning Israel's leaders for failing to provide care for God's flock, this prophecy promises a monarch who will return Israelites from foreign lands and rule them in prosperity, security and peace.

LUKE 1:68-79.   Known to Christian tradition as The Benedictus (from the Latin for its first word), this psalm may well have had Jewish origins long before the birth of Jesus. It is composed of a series of familiar Old Testament phrases taken chiefly from the Psalms. It became an early Christian hymn and was incorporated into Luke's Gospel as part of the poetic narrative of the Messiah's birth.

PSALM 46. (Alternate) This psalm celebrates the sovereignty of God over all of creation and history. It offers the people of God a sure and certain refuge amid disasters of natural and political disasters.

COLOSSIANS 1:11-20. Few passages in the all New Testament letters reach the majestic heights of this one. It is at once a joyous affirmation of what Jesus Christ has done for us and a vivid statement of the fundamental belief on which our faith stands: Jesus is the divine Saviour who died and rose again for us. The passage also declares the firm conviction that Jesus is the final and full revelation of God's love and purpose for all of creation.

LUKE 23:33-43.   How appropriate to end the Christian year with the story of Jesus' promise of eternal life to the repentant thief dying beside him. The sovereign Lord of all creation has compassion for every sinner. The reign of Christ, the King of Love, is for all who choose to be his subjects.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS

JEREMIAH 23:1-6.     As many of us know from painful experience, in every age and in every tradition political and religious leaders have often created difficulties for those for whom they had responsibility. This passage makes abundantly clear that ancient Israel was no exception. In these six verses at least two and possibly three brief oracles dealing with this leadership crisis have been grouped together to condemn what had happened and to promise a better future.

It is likely that these oracles were pronounced against the advisers of King Zedekiah of Judah (597-586 BCE). Placed on the throne as a vassal of the Babylonians, he was the last of the Davidic dynasty to reign. His rebellion against his overlords brought about the invasion of the kingdom, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the exile of the king and the nations' leading citizens to Babylon.

The fact that there are so many oracles packed into so few lines of poetry should not surprise us. Prophetic oracles were more commonly expressed as ecstatic outbursts fired by a deeply emotional experience of the presence and purpose of Yahweh. The text from 22:1 to 23:8 consists of a whole series of such oracles against Judah's last three kings and their advisers. Some of these oracles may have come from the hand of the Deuteronomic editor rather than Jeremiah. Scholars believe that only vss. 1-3 and 5-6 of this chapter came from Jeremiah himself. Vs. 4 is most likely an inserted note of encouragement written by a later hand after the return from the Babylonian exile.

Generally, the term "shepherd" referred only to the kings of Israel. Here it is more likely that the reference includes all ruling officials, the priesthood as well as the king and his court. Other passages in the Books Jeremiah and Ezekiel show Zedekiah as weak and vacillating. Jeremiah expressed some ambivalence toward the leaders of Judah during this fateful period and suffered for it. He hoped Zedekiah would turn out to be a better king than he proved to be. However, vss.1-2 leave little room for such ambiguity.

Vss. 3-4 imply that the exile had already taken place. On the other hand, the idea of a "remnant" had appeared in the prophecies of Amos, and particularly those of Isaiah. Although Isaiah prophesied much earlier in the latter half of the 8th century BCE, Jeremiah and Ezekiel shared his conviction that a limited number of the faithful would survive the total destruction of the nation. After the exile, those who had returned identified themselves with this "remnant" under Ezra's leadership (late 6th century BCE). It is possible that this oracle could have come from that later period and from the same editorial hand as Jeremiah 3:15-18 which contains similar ideas of restoration. Ezekiel 34 also shares this point of view.

Scholars also debate the authenticity of vss.5-6 as a prophecy of Jeremiah because of its specifically messianic references, a concept not prominently displayed by him. On the other hand, Jeremiah was both disappointed in Zedekiah's leadership as well as hopeful of a promising future under a more stable monarch of the Davidic dynasty. Vs.6 ends with a curious name for Yahweh, "the Lord is our righteousness," which in Hebrew is actually a play on Zedekiah's name. This word-play probably was intended to suggest that some future king would fulfill the promise of Zedekiah's name. While the term "a righteous branch" in vs. 5 is thought to be messianic and come from a later period, in this instance it may not mean more than a different member of David's line.

Regardless of its varying origins, traditional Christian interpreters have had no difficulty in seeing this passage as a distinct reference to Jesus as Israel's true Messiah. Such an interpretation, however, ignores the historical context to which it was obviously related.

LUKE 1:68-79.      Writing as long as 50 years afterward, Luke sought to interpret what the whole of the incarnation-resurrection story of Jesus meant for a Gentile audience. The Song of Zechariah, or Benedictus as it has been known by its liturgical Latin name through the centuries, was an early Christian hymn which may have had Jewish origins. Literally, it is a string of OT phrases and concepts taken largely from the Psalms and given an explicit messianic reference. The specifically Christian content comes only in vss.76-79 addressing the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist.

Two main ideas stand out in this composite psalm of praise: the intervention of God on behalf of the covenant people and the fulfilment of God's covenanted promise to Abraham. These represent Christian theology about Jesus of Nazareth which the church was forced to develop following the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 CE and the exclusion of Christians from Jewish synagogues a decade or so later. In selecting these excerpts from the Psalms, the song lifts up the concept of a messiah of David's line in the context of the covenant tradition. Luke may have found it in use in the synagogues of the Jewish Diaspora.

Zechariah, of course, was the father of John the Baptist, the prophetic forerunner of Jesus, whose role it was to prepare the way for the true messiah by preaching repentance. Healing and wholeness would come not from John, but from the Messiah who would forgive sins and thus re-establish the covenant relationship between God and humanity outlined in the preceding OT quotations. The fact that this psalm is uttered by Zechariah, a Levitical priest in the temple, may actually be the fulfillment of the latest of OT prophecies in Malachi 3:1 and 4:5-6.

Thus the Song of Zechariah begins the gospel story by placing John and Jesus within the historical and religious context of Judaism. Luke did this to clarify for his audience, presumably consisting almost entirely of Hellenistic Gentiles, why a Jew should be seen as the saviour-hero of the world.

COLOSSIANS 1:11-20.            Several years ago, a noted Canadian paleontologist depicted what the human race might have looked like had evolution proceeded without the extinction of the dinosaurs following the impact of a massive asteroid with planet Earth about 65 million years ago. In this passage, Paul told the Colossians what the human race will be like when the spiritual evolution which God began with creation and the reconciliation brought to fulfilment in Jesus.  This final goal will be accomplished when all creation is brought together in faith under the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.  Here we have Paul's Christology in a few sentences which are among the most powerful of all his writing.

In a nutshell, Paul is talking about four elements in the divine purpose: Jesus, the human manifestation of God; all of us who are the believing church in every age; the whole of the created universe; and the relationship to God all may have through faith in Christ Jesus. But he is also talking about the specific historical situation in the Colossian church about thirty years after the resurrection of Jesus.

Colossae was a thoroughly Hellenistic city in the Lycus River valley about 100 miles east of Ephesus. Paul did not found the church in Colossae nor had he visited there. He knew of them only by reports he had received, probably from Epaphras, Paul's fellow missionary who appears to have been in charge of the three churches in the Lycus valley - Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis. For the most part Gentiles made up the Colossian congregation.

William Barclay claimed that some of the Colossians had apparently been followers of the Hellenistic tradition known to us as Gnosticism. They totally denied the essential gospel Paul and Epaphras preached. Gnosticism separated body and the created universe from spirit and divinity as exclusive entities. The Gnostics regarded the body and creation as evil and mortal; and the spirit as good and immortal. Hence they could not accept the real humanity of Jesus if he was indeed the full manifestation of God. Nor could they accept that Jesus was the only way to a restored relationship with God through the forgiveness of sins.   (Barclay, William. Daily Bible Study: The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Edinburgh: Church of Scotland, 1957.)

There also appears to have been both ascetic and mystical elements in this philosophy akin to the Jewish sectarian traditions of the Essene community of Qumran. Some Gnostics also followed such practices and this assured Barclay that the interlopers were of that ilk. The Swiss scholar, Eduard Schweizer, on the other hand, believes that the sectarians were Essenes.

Vss. 15-20 are a hymn in praise of Christ in two strophes (vss.15-18a; 18b-20). Schweizer has given an extensive analysis of this hymn in his commentary on the letter. (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1982) The first strophe of the hymn deals with the problem of the world's existence, a problem not otherwise known in the New Testament. The second strophe proclaims the world's reunification and final stabilization under the sovereignty of God through Christ (p.80) This Gospel story of the incarnation, resurrection, and exaltation at the right hand of God provides the evidence on which this Christological statement stands. The reconciliation of the whole of creation (vs. 20) is thus the exact opposite of the negative view the Gnostics would have preached. (Schweizer, 86)

What faith in Christ offered the Colossians and all believers since is an exchange of sovereign who makes this reconciliation with our Creator God a living reality.

LUKE 23:33-43.    The Garden Tomb located near a cliff face that still resembles a human skull attracts the attention of countless devout tourists. Maps of Jerusalem as it was on crucifixion day, reveal that if this was the site of the execution and burial of Jesus, this event occurred near a main road out of the city just beyond the Damascus Gate. If, as many also believe, Golgotha was near the present site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it was also a very public place just beyond the city walls. The Romans' purpose in holding executions in such places was to subdue the populace through terror.

Why crucify a king? Roman citizens were executed by beheading. Kings were usually slain in battle against Roman legions. Despite the claim of the Jewish authorities that they had no king but Caesar, Jews did not consider themselves nor were they recognized as citizens by Roman law. The mob's outcry for crucifixion, however, persuaded the ruthless governor Pilate to sacrifice the life of an innocent man for the sake of political convenience. The fact that according to the gospel record Jesus claimed that his kingdom was spiritual and "not of this world" had no meaning for Pilate. As Gregory Riley states, Jesus forfeited his life once he was accused as a troublemaker by the Jewish authorities. (Riley, Gregory J. One Jesus, Many Christs. (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. 190)

By the time Luke wrote his gospel circa 80-85 CE, Romans regarded Christians as committing treason against the religious and political fabric of the state. The penalty for this was death. (Riley, 196) To authors like Luke, the story of a martyred hero-king had relevance for the Greco-Romano culture of his audience.

Whatever the origins of the crucifixion story, the Christian interpretation of Jesus' sovereignty rests exclusively on the belief that he was indeed the longed-for Savior Messiah, but of a totally different kind than that of popular Jewish tradition. Luke had in mind the popular image of a divinely anointed king and military conqueror when he recorded the cries of the Jewish leaders and the Roman soldiers, "He saved others: let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" (vs.35) and "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!" (vs.37) According to the Christian understanding of the messianic tradition, rooted as it was in the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, Jesus could not do what the crowd demanded and fulfill his mission as the real Messiah/Christ.

The key to the Christian view is the more profound theological hope for God's intervention in human history through ordinary human beings willing to live and love sacrificially to establish a permanent reign of justice, security and peace.  As we celebrate of the Reign of Christ, we call to mind the whole incarnation-crucifixion-resurrection-ascension story which the gospels present.  This story gives us hope to live and work in faith embodying in our living - individually, communally and globally - the justice, love and peace which we see in Jesus. The circumstances of our present moment in history call us to engage in this mission as never before.

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