Luke 13:10-17 — Who are we most like in this story?

January 28, 2013

At least two theological themes emerge from this pericope. On the one hand, the kingdom of God breaks into the life of a woman who had been bound by her disability for eighteen years. She is healed and experiences redemption. On the other hand, opposition to the kingdom of God arises in response to her healing on the ground that Jesus violated the Sabbath. This provides an opportunity for Jesus to interpret the significance of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the backdrop for both of these stories and functions as the unifying theological root question: what is the meaning of the Sabbath?

The Sabbath is not an incidental referent in this story. There is something incongruous with Sabbath and the fact that a disabled, apparently pious, woman was present in the synagogue. Despite her disability she is present in the synagogue on the Sabbath, but the Sabbath reminds us that God rested within the creation on the seventh day. Originally, Sabbath is the communion between God and humanity in the Garden of Eden. But the “curse” of the “Fall” marred that communion as creation itself was filled with brokenness.

Jesus initiates a reversal of that curse. He makes the first move and through him Sabbath—in a theological sense—is renewed for this woman. She experiences the renewal of creation through the redemptive act of healing. Healings are no mere testimonies of power or ability. Neither are they mere proofs of Jesus’ messianic role. They are ultimately the intrusion of eschatological healing—new creation—into the brokenness of the present creation. Jesus reverses the curse and restores Sabbath for her. He breaks the reign of Satan in her life. He looses what binds her. The eschatological kingdom of God is revealed in this moment. She recognized the “God-moment” and “glorified God.”

The ruler of the synagogue recalls creation’s relation to the Sabbath, but his interest is polemical. Rather than thinking theologically about the implications of Sabbath and creation, he reminds the people of the legalities of Sabbath-keeping. He pours the tradition of the elders into the creation account to protect the Sabbath, but he thereby subverts the intent of the account itself as well as the meaning of the Sabbath. Indeed, the tradition—as Jesus notes—valued the health and wholeness of their domestic livestock more than a daughter of Abraham. The ruler turned the Sabbath into a legality rather than rejoicing over the intrusion of the eschatological Sabbath into the present.

The Sabbath is where humanity rests in the healing and loving presence of the Creator. Sabbath supports healing and redemption. It is an abuse of Sabbath to use it to hinder wholeness in human life and exalt the legalities of the ritual over the mercy the day represents. The Sabbath is itself a gracious gift of God to the creation; it is now a divine mercy in a broken creation. The meaning of the Sabbath is grace and thus mercy in relation to creation’s groans. The Sabbath promotes gracious healing and it is a subversion of the Sabbath to use it to hinder mercy.

This story calls us into the ministry of Jesus as we take up the mission of reversing the curse instead of hindering the renewal of the Sabbath in the lives of people. It cautions us that we should not use legalities to subvert the divine intent. The story asks us whom will we follow. Will we follow the ruler of the synagogue or will we follow Jesus?

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Zechariah 5:1-4 – A Curse on Economic Injustice

February 15, 2012

Standing in awe of God’s gracious Spirit empowering Israel’s relationship with Yahweh (Zechariah 4), something catches Zechariah’s eye. The first line of the sixth vision highlights the sudden appearance of a strange object. Literally, Zechariah turns around to see what caught his attention, looks up into the sky, “sees” something and “behold,” that is, astonishingly, he sees a “flying scroll.” The rhetorical effect is surprise and wonder.

The angel, the same one standing with him in the previous vision, asks Zechariah what he sees. This functions as a dramatic pause that anticipates the description in the next verse.

What does he see? He sees a scroll that is 30 by 15 feet (literally, 20 x 10 cubits). Scrolls could reach lengths of 30 feet but were usually no more than 12 inches in width. This scroll is like a huge placard similar to a sign trailing a plane with an advertisement or a marriage proposal. The dimensions are significant but the reason why is rather uncertain. Perhaps it is simply large enough to read from a distance as it flies in the sky. Perhaps the dimensions say something about the enormity of the sins which the scroll curses.

One suggestion, that seems to make some sense, is that the dimensions are exactly those of Solomon’s temple portico (1 Kings 6:3) where priestly justice was probably administered (cf. Joel 2:17) and where innocents sought justice (1 Kings 8:31-32; cf. Psalm 7). The previous two visions were located in the temple and were about the rebuilding of the temple. The portico was the place where the curses (oaths) of the law were adjudicated. The flying scroll—a message from God (it is flying!)—is about justice, curses and oaths.

The angel interpreted the scroll in the context of justice. It is a “curse” (or oath) that  covers the whole land of Judah, primarily focused on Jerusalem. Like the Ten Commandments themselves (Exodus 32:15), both sides of the scroll were inscribed with the words of God. The curse, like the Deuteronomic curses of the law (Deuteronomy 27-29, especially 29:11-20), is a threat against covenant-breakers. There is evidence in the Ancient Near East that curses were written on a separate scroll in covenantal documents.

Through this curse, God will remove sin from the land. The curse will enter the homes of covenant-breakers and destroy them—whether their houses are built of timber or stones.  God will execute the curse against these wealthy homeowners. What Zechariah sees envisions a time when God will remove sin from the land of Judah.

But this is where it gets interesting. Upon what sins does the scroll focus? It seems that one part of the picture is the false administration of justice. Boda (Haggai, Zechariah of the NIV Application Commentary) argues convincingly that the NIV’s “will be banished” should be rendered “has been cleared” (see the use of the same Hebrew term in Numbers 5:19, 21). “The curse,” Boda says (p. 294), “is going out because the guilty are going unpunished.”

Who is going unpunished? The angelic interpreter specifies thieves and those who testify falsely in a court trial. Boda links this language to the Holiness code in Leviticus 19:11-18. The problem is economic injustice. The needy and the poor are oppressed and when they seek justice in the priestly courts, they are denied that justice. Under the economic distress of the early Persian period, the poor are denied justice by priests who should protect them from those who are stealing their land and means of sustenance. Boda notes that “swearing” and “falsely” appear together in contexts where one is oppressing or cheating another (Genesis 21:23; Leviticus 19:12; Jeremiah 5:2; 7:9; Malachi 3:5).

The sin of the land is the corruption of the priestly justice system where the poor are oppressed by thieves and their lying witnesses. The “flying scroll,” inscribed with a curse against economic injustice, promises to end this inequity and destroy the homes of the powerful. The sin of economic justice will be removed from the land, says Yahweh, the God of Israel.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Reverse the Curse VIII – Consummation (Revelation)

September 12, 2008

There are many hermeneutical issues surrounding the Apocalypse, of course.  And I will assume my own perspectives in this final installment on “Reverse the Curse.” 

One of my primary assumptions is the progressive cyclical undestanding of the seven seals, trumpets and bowls of wrath in the second vision (“in the Spirit,” 4:3) of Revelation (chapters 4-16). [The first vision pictured Jesus among the churches of Asia Minor, 1:9-3:22; "in the Spirit," 1:10.] The progressive character is seen in the movement from how the seals affect 1/4 of the earth, while the trumpets affect 1/3 of the earth, and the bowls are poured out on the whole earth. History repeats itself in the battle between good and evil, between the Beast and God’s Christ. But history moves forward to a consummation where good triumphs over evil, where the Dragon joins his cohorts in Gehenna and God renews heaven and earth (Revelation 20:11-22:6). It is a cycle within history that repeats itself over and over again but history also progresses toward a goal. It is a spiral toward the divine telos.

The second vision, then, moves from the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God (4-5) to the final battle (16). The third vision elaborates on the players in the drama–the woman of Babylon (17), the merchants (yes, economics in chapter 18) of wealth, the final battle (19), the reign of saints/binding-unleashing of Satan (20), and the new heavens/new earth (21:1-8). The second vision sees the drama from the throneroom of God (“in the Spirit,” 4:3) while the third vision sees the drama from the earthly wilderness (“in the Spirit,” 17:3).  But the two visions are looking at essentially the same drama from different angles–a cyclical, repetitive but progressive, movement of history toward the divine goal.

The fourth vision has the vantage point of a high mountain on the new earth overlooking the new Jerusalem.  It is a vision of the consummation itself (“in the Spirit,” 21:10).

With that brief statement of my hermeneutical approach below I offer my understanding of the final act in the divine drama where God finally and fully reverses the curse.

“Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of God and the authority of Christ. For the accuser of our brothers who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down…Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!  But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12:10, 12).

Revelation 12-14 is a kind of interlude in the progressive cycle of the “sevens” in Revelation 6-11, 15-16). This interlude identifies the players–the Dragon (12), the Beasts (13), and the redeemed (14). One might say it is the playbill of the apocalyptic drama; the resumes of the actors in the drama are provided.

What is clear in Revelation 12 is that the Dragon’s abortive attempt to kill the Messianic child means defeat. He is cast out of the heavens but he has been cast to earth. The accuser (Satan) has been “hurled down,” but the earth will now feel his fury. His intensity increases, his anger rages, and his object is the earth, sea and church. Satan attacks the whole creation and pursues the church seeking to devour Christ’s faithful followers.

There is victory but there is woe. Heaven has cast out the rebel but the rebel still roams the earth. The redemptive work of Christ is final; heaven is secured.  But Christ-followers on the earth are subject to the vicious hurts that Satan hurls their way. The curse has not been fully removed.  In the cylical movements of history, Satan is active through his Beasts to harm the people of God. At times Satan is bound, and at times he is unleashed. At times the locusts are held in the abyss and at times they are released. There is no rest from the curse as Satan uses that brokenness to frustrate and undermine the patience and faithfulness of God’s people.

Nevertheless, the cosmos rejoices because the kingdom of God has been established in the heavens; it is secured by the victory of the slain Lamb. This is salvation; this is the power of God.  He has acted to defeat the Dragon. There is hope. All is not lost. There is more to come.

“The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever’” (Revelation 11:15).

The seventh trumpet announces the reign of God.  More than that it announces the destruction of the “kingdom of the world” as God’s reign through his Christ has triumphed over the kingdom of darkness. The reign of Christ will last forever.

But this is a trumpet announcement.  It has not yet been fully implemented at this point in the Apocalyptic drama–the final battle has not yet occurred.  But the outcome is so certain that it can be announced as a done deal though it has not yet happened. The kingdom of God which will fill the earth and transforms it into a new place has not yet fully arrived.  This is a Hebraic way of speaking, common to the Hebrew prophets, that is, to speak of the future as if it is present reality. The future is certain; it will happen. In that sense it has already happened. But it has not yet fully happened.

The imagery is important here.  What is announced is the kingdom, about who reigns.  It is the “kingdom of the world” vs. “the kingdom of our Lord.” This is the battle that sustains the drama of the Apocalypse. Who will win? Where is your allegiance? Who will follow Christ? Who will persevere in their witness to the reign of God even to death?

Do we invest in the kingdoms of this world or in the kingdom of our Lord? Whose life do we live, and which is the light of the reign of God in the cosmos? During this political season perhaps it is best to remember whose kingdom really matters.  The kingdom of the United States is really part of the “kingdom of the world.” Only the kingdom of God deserves our allegiance and full commitment.

The goal of God is to replace the kingdoms of this world with the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is not a transformation of one into the other but the supplanting of one with the other. Good does not transform evil but triumphs over it and supplants it as the reigning reality in God’s renewed creation.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:1, 2, 3b-4).

“He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new” (Revelation 21:5a).

“No longer will there be any curse…They shall see his face…There will be no more night…And they will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:3a, 4a, 5a, 5c).

The new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven to the earth, a renewed (new) earth. It is a cosmic redemption, a cosmic salvation.  The earth as well as the nations are healed.  There are no more woes upon the earth–no more death, no more pain, no more mourning, no more tears. The old order has passed away and a new order has become a reality. Everything–including the earth, the whole cosmos–is new.

God now reigns upon the earth. In the new Jerusalem there is no temple because God himself and his Christ reign there. God is present with his people–fully so, Father, Son, and Spirit dwell with God’s imagers upon the new earth in the new Jerusalem. Now the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of Jesus Christ; it is the kingdom of God upon the earth.

The curse is reversed.  There is no more curse.  “No longer will there be any curse” is equivalent to “there will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain.”  What happened in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 is reversed in the new Jerusalem upon the new earth in Revelation 21-22.

This is salvation. This is the hope of the world. This is the good news of the kingdom.  Brokenness is healed; fallenness is redeemed; death is destroyed.  Darkness is replaced by light; mourning is replaced by dancing; tears are replaced by smiles; and pain is replaced by pleasure. The kingdom of God has supplanted the kingdom of the world. New life brings new joy and new songs. The curse is gone…and we see the face of God! Now, as well as then, is a time to celebrate!

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Reverse the Curse VI – The Early Church (Acts)

September 5, 2008

“In my former book, Theophilus, I worte about all that Jesus began to do and to teach….” (Acts 1:1).

“You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how whe went about doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him” (Acts 10:36, 38).

As Luke transistions from narrating the ministry of Jesus to narrating the ministry of the early church, he emphasizes the continuity between them. What Jesus began to teach and to do–the good news of the kingdom and his healing ministry, that is, heralding the reverse of the curse and implementing that reversal, continues in the early church. What Jesus began the church continues. The church teaches and does what Jesus taught and did.

Peter’s rehearsal of the story of Jesus before Cornelius summarizes what he taught (“good news”) and what he did (“doing good and healing all”). It is a synopsis of the Gospel of Luke itself. Should a reader of Acts 10 want to know more of what Peter means within Luke’s narrative one would only need to read the first volume, the Gospel of Luke. Or, one could read my previous post.  :-)   Probably better to read the Gospel of Luke itself.  :-)

It seems that disciples of Jesus should also proclaim the “good news of the kingdom” and “do good,” does it not? Indeed. That is exactly what we find in Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, or better the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Church.  Just as Jesus was anointed with the Spirit and then pursued the kingdom ministry, so the small community of God in Jerusalem was anointed with the Spirit and then pursued a ministry to the “ends of the earth.”

“You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

“Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there…evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city…when they believed Philip as he preachaed the good news of the kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women” (Acts 8:5, 7, 8, 12).

The mission of Jesus is the mission of the church.  The church is a witness to the reality of the kingdom of God in the person of Jesus. The church continues that witness–it began in Jerusalem, but it continues to the ends of the earth.

Philip is a good example in the book of Acts.  He proclaimed “the Christ” in Samaria, that is, he announed the “good news of the kingdom” and how that “good news” comes to reality in person of Jesus the Messiah. The Messianic mission of Jesus, as Luke 4 noted, is “good news” for the poor, oppressed, imprisoned, diseased, and disabled. Philip teaches and heals; he follows Jesus by pursuing his mission.

Philip, coming from Judea, preaches the Messianic reality of the kingdom of God in Samaria–it is a reality that breaks down the ethnic/religious/nationalistic/geographical barrier between Samaria and Judea.  It is good news; it announces that the old distinctions disappear when the kingdom of God comes near.

Luke also calls attention to, as his habit is in both the Gospel and Acts, the inclusion of women in the kingdom reality.  It is good news for women as well as men!  Oppression, in all its forms, is trumped in the kingdom of God.  Both men and women becomes disciples of Jesus; both male and female prophesy (speak the word of the Lord) in the kingdom of God (Acts 2:17-18; 21:9).

This brief story epitomizes the mission of the church as the continuation of the mission of Jesus.  What Jesus began to teach…the church continues to teach. The church is called to declare “the good news of the kingdom”–and if we doubt what that phrase means, we need only look to Luke’s own definition in Luke 4 where he uses the phrase in 4:41. The “good news of the kingdom,” according to Luke, is not a narrow message about individual forgiveness through the cross of Christ.  It is the Messianic mission of “good news” for the poor and oppressed. The good news is that the reign of God has come near. It is about curse reversal.

What Jesus began to do…the church continued to do. The church is called to pursue a healing and reconciling (including ethnic and gender reconciliation) ministry in the world as witness to the presence of the reign of God in the world. The mission of the church, as the mission of Jesus, is to reverse the curse–to participate in the divine agenda to heal what is broken, reconcile what is divided, and release people from oppression (whether political, sexist, racial, etc.).  The disciples of Jesus do this as Jesus did it–through suffering, peace, forgiveness, seeking, etc.

“…complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again” (Acts 20:24b-25).

“Boldly and without hindrance [Paul] preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:31).

Paul was also a witness, just as the whole church is a witness to the reign of God in the world.  He was given the task of “testifying” to the good news of God’s grace.  The appearance of the Messiah in the world is the display of God’s favor–Jubilee for the creation!  It is divine grace. 

Paul characterizes his teaching ministry as heralding the kingdom (the word “preached” in the above texts is to “herald” or “announce”)–it is announcing the reign of God in the world through Jesus the Messiah who is the Lord of creation itself.  Jesus reigns over all as Lord. 

The reign of Jesus is a reign of peace, grace, healing and reconcilation.  This is the message of the church. It is not a message of violence, nationalism, patriotism, segregation, and discrimination. It is a message about forgiveness and justice (righteousness).  The reign of God destroys all the fallen barriers that divide humanity; the reign of God unites all nations, peoples and genders into a new humanity, a new creation, living in harmony with God’s good creation. The ministry of Paul extended to the imperial courts of Rome rather than remaining in the temple courts of Jerusalem.

In the history of the church, unfortunately, we have heard more about forgiveness than we have justice. But to proclaim the kingdom of God, we need to hear both because the reign of God announces and enacts both.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Reverse the Curse V – The Ministry of Jesus (Luke)

September 2, 2008

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21b).

The mission of Jesus is clearly articulated.  His messianic (anointed) mission is to bring “good news” (gospel) to the poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed. It is not merely a message, but actions. God in Jesus acts to redeem. It is divine grace (favor). 

It is Jubilee! What Jubilee should have meant to Israel throughout its history (though there is no evidence Israel ever practiced it) breaks into the world through the ministry of Jesus.  Jubilee–released prisoners, good news for the poor (e.g., debt release)–has arrived with the presence of the kingdom in the person of Jesus.

At the “big picture” level, this is the reversal of the curse. All that the curse means in the broken creation is reversed in the ministry of Jesus. It is his mission; it is why he was sent.  It is what he preaches and what he does!

“…the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them” (Luke 4:40).

“I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent” (Luke 4:43).

These lines are so meaningful as well as programmatic in Luke’s Gospel. It is the mission of Jesus in practice; Jesus is practicing the kingdom of God. He heals the sick and declares the presence of the kingdom of God in the world.  This is is his mission.

His ministry is the “good news of the kingdom of God,” that is, that the kingdom of God has come near and when the kingdom comes near the brokenness of the world is healed.  The curse is reversed.

The “kingdom” here is not the structures and organization of an institutionalized church.  Rather, the kingdom is the reign of God in the world; when God reigns and overcomes the curse, when God reigns and destroys fallen barriers, when God reigns and overcomes diseases, demons and death, when God reigns and reconciles people groups, when God reigns and the poor and oppressed get justice.

The ministry of Jesus is a proleptic enactment of the eschaton.  In other words, the new heaven and new earth (where there is no curse) has broken into the fallen cosmos in a way that declares and promises the future. The ministry of Jesus is the presence of the future; the future breaks into the present as Jesus proclaims the good news of the kingdom and heals the sick.  The ministry of Jesus is God’s promise of a different kind of world, a future world where there is no more curse.

The “good news” (gospel) of the “kingdom of God” is not, at this point in the ministry of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In fact, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the means toward the end of the reality of the kingdom of God. That reality is “good news.”  It is the good news that God intends to redeem, renew, and restore his creation and community. God does this through the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus; these are means by which God inagurates, implements and consumates his reign in the world.

“Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you’” (Luke 10:9).

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven…Blessed are the eyes that see what you see” (Luke 10:18, 23b).

The Gospel of Luke calls disciples of Jesus to participate in the mission of Jesus.  Just as Jesus declared the message that the “kingdom of God is near” (which is the “good news of the kingdom”) and healed the sick (reversing the curse), his disciples follow him into the world to announce the nearness of the kingdom and to participate in curse reversal. Disciples proclaim the good news of the kingdom and heal the sick.

Healing the sick is but one instance of the presence of the kingdom.  Doctors, nurses and medical professions are instruments of the kingdom of God even when they don’t know it as they “heal the sick.”  Environmental scientists are instruments of the kingdom of God even when they don’t know it as they protect and preserve the envrionment. Educators are instruments of the kingdom of God even when they don’t know it as they dispel ignorance and equip students for responsible living within the world.  Social works are instruments of the kingdom of God even when they don’t know it as they work for social justice among the oppressed and neglected. And the list could go on….

Our vocations, as disciples of Jesus, should serve the ends of the kingdom of God. We do not pursue our careers for the sake of money, greed and power.  Rather, our vocations–whether medicine, law, education, service industries, etc.–are instruments of the kingdom of God in the world. Disciples recognize this as the good news of the kingdom even when others might not see the reign of God in what they are doing.  Disciples proclaim the reality of God in the world as they work for healing and reconciliation. 

At bottom, disciples continue the ministry of Jesus.  As instruments of the kingdom, they are a means by which God reigns in the world for peace, healing and reconciliation. Disciples participate in the mission of Jesus to reverse the curse as the kingdom of God grows and fills the earth. 

When the curse is reversed–when the poor receive good news, the blind see, the oppressed get justice, and prisoners are released–Satan falls and the creation is blessed. Satan is crushed by the heel of the kingdom of God and the creation is released from its bondage.

Disciples of Jesus who see the “big picture” know their mission is not relegated to “saving souls” and “getting people into heaven.”  The mission of Jesus is about how the kingdom of God breaks into the present to reverse the curse and renew blessing–to heal and bless all nations. Every victory now anticipates the future; every victory is a promise of the future.  Satan is falling and God is blessing his creation.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

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