2nd Sunday of Lent Year B - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation during Lent

Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

This is a hard story to grapple with. It invites us to ask hard questions. What are we to make out of a God who plays with a faithful servant who has done everything asked of him, almost as a cat plays with a mouse? Is God really this capricious? What kind of monster would demand a human sacrifice? These are not questions that should be quickly dismissed. They invite us to ask them and sit with them and see what the Spirit has to say.

In Christianity, you’ll hear this story referred to as the sacrifice of Isaac. In Judaism, this story is known by the title “The Binding of Isaac.” The story is less about Isaac and more about Abraham.

In chapter 21, Isaac is born and Ishmael is sent away with his mother. Abraham is now living in the land of the Philistines, who will later become enemies of the Israelites. The story opens with God deciding to put Abraham to the test so God calls Abraham who responds with “Here I am!” There is no good English equivalent for this Hebrew response. The term indicates readiness, alertness, attentiveness, receptivity, and responsiveness to instructions. It’s not just “I hear you” or “I’m here,” but more like “I am ready to listen and willing to do whatever you ask.”

God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac. The New American Bible translates the next phrase “your only one,” which brings to mind Jesus, God’s only son. Pick up a Jewish Bible and you will read “your favored one,” a more accurate translation of the phrase. We know that Ishmael was also Abraham’s son.

Verse 2 says that God will “point out to you” the place. This same phrase is used back in 12:1 when God tells Abram to leave his home and go to “a land that I will show you.”

V3-9 are left out of this lectionary reading. They tell us that Abraham gets up early and sets off with Isaac to do God’s bidding. He catches sight of the place and tells his servants to stay there. He says in v5 “we will worship and then come back to you” which could be interpreted as Abraham wishing to conceal the truth of what God has asked from everyone, maybe even himself. Or it could be interpreted as evidence of Abraham’s trust in God. Maybe both.

Abraham makes Isaac carry the wood. There are many parallels between Christ and Isaac, and having to carry the wood of your own death is one of them. In v7 Isaac addresses his Father and Abraham again uses the same word he says to God: Here I am.

Most Jewish rabbis put Isaac as an adult in this story and, therefore, a willing participant. Perhaps in verse 7, Isaac is asking to know how this whole sacrifice thing is going to work.

Abraham then proceeds to build the altar, bind up his favored son, and draw the knife to complete the sacrifice. At this point, God intervenes and, once again, Abraham responds with “Here I am.”

In v12 the angel says “I know that you fear God.” In Judaism, ‘fear of God’ denotes an active obedience to the divine will. It’s not fear as in being afraid but an active doing of what is asked. Abraham has done what God asked so God knows Abraham fears God.

V14 is not in the lectionary but it’s an important verse and actually gives an important connection to the gospel. Abraham calls God Jehovah Jireh and almost all modern Christian translations render this as “God will Provide.” It caught my eye when I read this in The Jewish Study Bible which translates it as “On the mount of the LORD there is vision.” The Hebrew word jireh is the word for “to see.” I think this is an interesting difference: to see vs to provide.

If you go back to some of the first English translations, the King James and Douay-Rheims are closer to the literal Hebrew. The King James renders it as “In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” Somewhere along the way, between the 16th century and modern translations in the 18th-19th century, this literary change happened, from seeing to providing.

Obviously, Christianity reads this story as a proto-type of Jesus’ redeeming death and God’s offering of his only Son. The emphasis for us as Christians is that Abraham offered his son but God Provided something in place of Isaac. For the Jews, however, this is less about Isaac and the sacrifice and more about being seen by their God and seeing God. God provides, yes, absolutely. But first God sees.

If you look back over this passage from the lens of “seeing,” … pardon the pun here… but you begin to “see” a lot of seeing going on. This is, at the core, it’s a story about seeing things the right way.

When we look at it through this lens, there’s a direct connection to the gospel – the transfiguration story where Jesus is SEEN in all his glory. God is Seen. On the mount of the LORD there is seeing, there is vision.

The remainder of the passage is the main emphasis for the lectionary: a focus on covenants. One thing it highlights is that always there’s this interplay of what God does and what we are expected to do. The covenant is not dependent on what we do to earn it, but our inclusion in the covenant is in some sense dependent on what we do to maintain it.

It’s also important to note that this covenant, like last week’s Noahic covenant, is inclusive of everyone – not just the Jewish people.

Ponder the connection of seeing and providing in your own life. How has God seen you? How has God provided for you? Are there connections between the two?

What images of God come up from this passage? How different are they and can you hold them all in tension?

Romans 8:31b-34

Background of the book

Romans 8 is the central chapter of this letter. The whole of chapter 8 reminds us that, although the struggles continue, the decisive battle has already been won. Verses 1-13 tell us that there are only two possible responses to Christ’s work, the paschal mystery: to live according to the flesh or according to the spirit. For Paul, flesh is anything and everything that inclines us to sin.

Vv19-27: We’re all desiring a certain end: the culmination of putting things back the way we intuitively know they’re supposed to be.

Vv28-30 talk about God working through all things for good, and also the idea of being conformed to Christ; a participation in a way of being, to be the likeness of Christ.

Paul has just gone on a discussion of suffering and its inevitable presence in our lives. V31 begins with the question of how we will respond to that, “what shall we say.” The answer is a rhetorical question: if God is for us, what can be against us? What can take us down? The vocabulary here indicates a legal setting. We are on trial and some enemy is going to bring up a case against us. But God is arguing our case, so really, who can make any charge against us that’s going to stick?

We might be tempted to think that we’ve cornered the market… we’ve done something that even God can’t defend us against, can’t forgive us for. So in verses 32-34, Paul gives some reasons why the answer to the previous question is “absolutely no one or nothing.” No one can successfully accuse us of anything and make it stick. Because, v32 tells us, God didn’t spare his son so why would he spare his forgiveness?

V33 says that God is the ultimate judge who makes the final “not guilty” verdict. God is the judge – you can’t win against him!

In v34 Paul’s final argument is that Christ was raised from the dead so we’ve got someone who defeated death itself arguing in our favor. No one can win against that.

Are you carrying something you think God can’t forgive? Is there something you fear someone could bring up against you that, if God knew about, would make God withdraw his love? Try bringing that in imaginative prayer to the courtroom of God’s love. What does God have to say about it?

Mark 9:2-10

Background of the book

The Transfiguration story always appears the second Sunday of Lent.

The passage begins with “after 6 days.” In Exodus 24, Moses goes up the mountain to receive the law and he’s up there for 6 days. Also, the Feast of Tabernacles is 6 days after the day of atonement. Peter will make an oblique reference to this feast when he suggests setting up tents.

In ancient thought, mountains and high places are always connected with divine revelation.

Mark uses the word metamorphoó from meta meaning changed and morphoo meaning form. It suggests that Jesus’ form was changed. The Latin Vulgate in the 5th century translated this to transfiguratus which, in Latin, means to change form or appearance. The transliteration of that word into the English transfigure is a translation choice that just stuck. A more literal translation would be “he was metamorphed before them.” Think of a butterfly changing form.

This word metamorphoó shows up four times in the New Testament. Matthew and Mark both use it for this account. Paul uses it in Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed – metamorphed – transfigured by the renewing of your mind.” And it shows up in 2 Cor 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed – metamorphed – transfigured – into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Verse 3 says that his clothes became dazzling white. Jewish sources of the time often depicted heavenly beings in gleaming white.

Then in v4, Moses and Elijah show up. Both these men have interesting ends. Deuteronomy 34:5-6 says that Moses was buried in Moab but knows where his grave is. There is some uncertainty surrounding his burial and, therefore, his death. In 2 Kings 2:11 Elijah is taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Both had experienced God on holy mountains and both had some uncertainty surrounding their deaths – mystery and speculation about what happened to them and what their future roles might be. They are said throughout scripture to represent the law and the prophets.

In v5, Peter jumps to the rescue. He says “in reply” – to what question is unclear. He suggests building three tents.

The Feast of Tabernacles was a Jewish feast of great joy. They built and lived in tents to remind them of their temporary dwellings while wandering in the desert. By Jesus’ time, this feast had taken on messianic overtones (see Zechariah 14). So they associated this feast with the coming of the Messiah.

The implication here is that Peter wanted to fully enter the messianic age. But Jesus will correct that notion in a few verses by telling him that he won’t understand what it means to be Messiah until the resurrection.

In v7 a cloud descends. In the Old Testament, a cloud became known as the Shekhinah – dwelling tent. It appeared to veil the presence of God since no one can see God and live. Later it designated the personal presence of God. And later it became a name of God. The cloud is significant and represents a manifestation of the divine presence. An example of the cloud in the Old Testament is Exodus 24:15-16.

A voice comes from this cloud saying “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Previously the people had been commanded to listen to the law and the prophets – a major Old Testament theme. Now we’re being told to listen to Jesus: a new phase.

Peter was all ready to build tents and enter the messianic age. But at the end of the passage, Jesus now is talking about dying and rising from the dead. In the disciple’s minds, being the Messiah meant ruling the earthly Jerusalem. How could Jesus do that if he died? This is a theme throughout Mark’s gospel: no one understands Jesus until after his death and resurrection.

Ponder the idea that we, too, are transfigured. Jesus went up on a mountain for this experience. What disciplines and practices might open you to the diving presence waiting to transform you?

How do you listen to Jesus?

Imagine the conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. What do you think they were talking about?

Think back to some of your own mountaintop experiences. What did you learn from them? How did you take those experiences down from the mountain into everyday life?

Connections of the readings

The Old Testament reading reminds us that sometimes God asks hard and incomprehensible things of us. Paul reminds us that, no matter how hard things get, God is always on our side. The Gospel story cautions us that we might not always understand an experience when we’re in the midst of it. We have to take time to ponder life’s experiences and draw out the meaning of them.

Questions to ponder

The purpose of Lent is to prepare the people of God for the Paschal feast. How does each reading prepare me for the Paschal feast?