The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
Isaiah I: shape up or else; exile is coming 1-39
Isaiah II: Book of Consolation, comfort in captivity 40-55 Deutero Isaiah (suffering servant songs)
Isaiah III: going home 56-66 Trito Isaiah; struggle for a new temple and new leadership
Chps 41-47 are a systematic exploration of God’s creative redemption, focusing on a New Exodus inaugurated by King Cyrus. It’s a retelling of an ancient story in light of a new experience, and it shows a history directed by God for the benefit of his people.
The people are in exile. Everything they knew is gone. They’re disoriented and they feel like God has abandoned them. One of the ways they cope is to tell stories of the good ole days. I think the tendency to do this is part of the human condition! They tell stories and they begin to notice connections with the situation of their ancestors in Egypt and from there they look to the Exodus event to give them hope for their own situation. And that new exodus is initiated by King Cyrus.
Cyrus II came to the Persian throne in 559BC – about 30 years after the destruction of the Temple. He ruled till 530BC. He defeated the Babylonian Empire – the nation that had invaded Judea and exiled the people. Eventually he controlled the whole of the Near East except Egypt.
In that world, when a ruler conquered a kingdom, the custom was to exile the leaders of the country, to get them out of the country so that they couldn’t stage an uprising. Babylon had gone a step further with the Jews and exiled pretty much every man, woman and child and then razed the Temple.
Cyrus, though, tried something novel. He started to send the exiles home. He did this for not just the Jews but all the conquered peoples in his kingdom. The Jews equated this with the Exodus.
Cyrus decreed that exiles could return to their native lands and reestablish their religious practices. He even provided funds to help in their return as recounted in Ezra 1.
Here in Isaiah, the story of Cyrus starts back in 44:24 and goes through all of the next chapter. 44:24-28 scans history as it relates to Israel from the devastation of the country until their imminent return to it.
In verse 28, he calls Cyrus a shepherd, imagery which was often applied to Jewish kings in the Old Testament.
The lectionary picks up with 45:1 and in this verse, Cyrus is called God ‘s “anointed.” The Hebrew word here is mashach, where we get our word Messiah from.
Isaiah is calling this pagan king God’s anointed, God’s Messiah. This title is used elsewhere in the Old Testament in reference to various prophets, priests and kings – ones who do God’s work. This is the only place in the Old Testament where this title is applied to a foreigner. At this point in Jewish history, it was not used of a figure who would usher in the final age of Israel, but it was often used of someone who delivered the people.
Verse 1 also refers to God grasping the right hand of Cyrus. When kings in that culture were crowned, they would grasp the hand of the idol of their patron god. Here, God is inserting himself as the patron of Cyrus – a conferral of royal authority.
Verses 2-3 describe what God will do for Cyrus and then verse 4 makes it clear why God is doing this.
Verse 4 says “I have called you by name, giving you a title though you do not know me.” Cyrus was most definitely not a worshiper of YHWH. History shows that he was polytheistic, worshiping any and every god as was convenient for him. But this verse makes clear that God can and does use the most unlikely of human agents to carry out the divine will, even if those human agents don’t acknowledge God.
Verses 5-6 make clear that Cyrus and even Israel were indeed chosen, but never for the sake of themselves. They were chosen in order that the whole world to come to know God.
Can you think of any other examples where God has used people who don’t believe in him to accomplish some part of his work?
What events from your past do you look to for hope for the future?
Matthew 22:15-21
During Ordinary Time, I’ll cover the Old Testament and then the Gospel readings as a pair so that we can better see the connections.
Chps 19-22 is “Authority and Invitation.” It’s an important section of this gospel and we spend seven Sundays reading in it.
All three synoptic gospels have today’s story and all are very similar.
Verse 15 says the Pharisees went off to plot how they could “entrap” Jesus. This is a word not used elsewhere in the New Testament. Entrapment is creating a situation where someone is induced to commit a crime they would not have committed under normal circumstances. Entrapment is a crime even today!
Jesus has been sparring with the Pharisees from the beginning of this section and now they will try to entrap him so they can induce him to commit a crime for which they can then prosecute him.
So they send representatives of the Pharisees along with the Herodians in verse 16. The Herodians were friends and supporters of the Herodian dynasty: they were Jewish rulers but puppets of Rome. So the Herodians would have supported Rome whereas the Pharisees most certainly did not.
Notice the situation: they can’t arrest Jesus by legal means so they resort to trickery. And then they don’t even do the bad deed themselves – they send their lackeys.
The lackeys call Jesus a truthful man – you are faithful to your word, to what you say. They also say he does not regard a person’s status: the idea of being an impartial judge who doesn’t rule one way or the others because of the person involved. Both of these represented for them the ideal in a person of outstanding moral character.
Are they being truthful? Or are they deceptively buttering him up? Don’t forget they’ve been sent to entrap him.
They ask him the question about the census tax. The census or poll or head tax was a prerequisite for living peacefully as a subject of the Roman empire and exercising the rights associated with that status. It was paid by every man, woman and slave, to be paid in Roman currency. This was a clever way for the subjugators to get Roman currency flowing in the local economy. It amounted to a denarius, a full day’s pay for a laborer. The most widely circulated denarius of the time bore the image of the emperor Tiberius Caesar (who ruled from 14-37AD) and the Latin inscription “Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest.” This inscription proclaimed Tiberius as a god.
To pay a tax meant to acknowledge sovereignty.
Say yes and you offend the ardent nationalists who sought to be free of Rome, in this case the Pharisees.
Say no and you commit treason against the rulers, not to mention offending the Herodians standing in front of him.
It probably doesn’t take divinity for Jesus to know their malice in verse 18. The fact that representatives of two political rivals are joining forces to pose the question is enough to clue in anyone.
So Jesus throws these Jews a curve ball. “Show me the coin.” he says.
Devout Jews were supposed to avoid anything with a human image. On top of that, the coin in question bore the inscription that declared the divinity of Caesar. The irony here is that someone happens to have one of these image coins in their pocket – a violation of God’s law for any good Jew.
Jesus doesn’t point that out; he just asks them about the image and the inscription, to which they truthfully reply “Caesar’s.”
And then, of course, in verse 21, Jesus gives the famous reply “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
Verse 22 is not in the lectionary but shows the reaction of the lackeys to Jesus. They were “amazed.” Amazement is usually noted in connection with that which one cannot understand. What were they amazed about? It could be the fact that Jesus avoided giving offense to anyone with his answer. Or it could be his skill at transposing the discussion to talk about religion instead of politics. Whatever it was, they slink away and leave him alone for the moment.
When I first started studying this passage I immediately locked on to verse 20 which reminded me of Genesis 1:
Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
And I think this connection is important – I don’t want to discount that.
But then I started to study it from the perspective of what the lectionary might be trying to say by connecting this story with the story of King Cyrus.
This section of Matthew – chps 19-22 – explores the idea of authority and power and Jesus is constantly re-educating us on what it means for God to be in authority. It may mean selling all you have and giving it to the poor. God’s authority may mean that some people will receive a reward in the kingdom that far exceeds what they seem to put in. It may mean being a leader by being a servant. It may mean the authority to fill the kingdom with people we might think don’t belong in it. Or it may mean the authority to invite people into the kingdom but then later dismiss them because they refuse to live the standards of the kingdom
This passage, especially when paired with the Isaiah passage, tell us that God’s authority extends to using temporal powers in a way that might surprise us. Notice in verse 21, Jesus says to pay to Caesar what is owed to Caesar and render to God what is owed to God. It’s not an either/or. It’s “and.” God uses Caesar and humanity made in his image and likeness to bring about the kingdom.
I’d also go a step further and look back at the Isaiah passage verses 9-13 that aren’t in the lectionary but basically say if God chooses to work through Cyrus, who are they to question it? If God chooses to work through the Roman empire, who are they to question it?
One of the things I am always on the lookout for is what images of God the scripture gives us. I think today’s passages give us an image of God who is always at work through any means, anything, that will bring about the kingdom.
Verse 16 sets some standards about moral behavior, even though the Pharisees and Herodians aren’t living up to them. How did Jesus’ life reflect these standards? How does your life reflect them?
Old Testament / Gospel Connection
How are the Old Testament and Gospel readings connected? Each week I will offer my views on this but I encourage you to first read the passages and look for your own connections!
If you read further in the Isaiah passage, v9 says “Woe to anyone who contends with their Maker;” It goes on to talk about all that God has done and to chastise anyone who might question God. The Jewish Study Bible has this to say about this verse:
“People (either the Jews themselves or the nations of the world) are surprised by God’s plan to bring salvation to the exiles by means of a Persian king. God rebukes them for their chutzpah in questioning the means through whom God chose to work.”
Jesus in the gospel says basically the same thing: God works the way God wants to work.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b
Last week we finished up Philippians. Now we’re going to dip into 1 Thessalonians which will take us into Advent. As always, a good starting point is to read the letter in its entirety.
Thessalonica was a large port city. In Acts 16 Paul gets thrown out of Philippi for preaching and then he goes to Thessalonica. In Acts 17 Paul preaches at the synagogue there. Some Jews responded; other Jews rejected Paul. There was an uproar and the Christians in the city had to spirit Paul and Silas away in the dark of night. Paul continued the missionary journey and ended up in Corinth where he spent almost 2 years.
Eventually Timothy joined him in Corinth and brought news of Thessalonica, particularly about arguments over what happened to believers when they died. So Paul writes them this letter around 50AD.
1 Thessalonians is the earliest written evidence of Christianity that we possess.
“It provides the oldest literary evidence of the significance attached to the death and resurrection of Jesus by the early Christians.”
New Jerome Biblical Commentary
Up until the writing of this letter (and continuing well after it), all teaching was oral. This oral teaching informs and underlies this letter (and all the New Testament) but is not explicitly stated or summed up in the letter.
One instructive way to study Paul’s letters is to read them chronologically, beginning with this one and ending with the letter to the Romans (see a timeline here). One thing you would definitely get a sense of is Paul’s progression of understanding in the area of Christ’s return. In 1 Thessalonians you get the impression that Paul expects Jesus to return any day and that informs the content of his teaching. By the time of his letter to the Romans, Paul is moderating this view based on experience and that, too, informs his teaching.
In verse 1, Paul opens with his standard greeting of “grace and peace.” A normal letter of the time would have used a simple “grace.” That Paul uses this phrase may indicate an early liturgical formula with which the recipients would have been familiar. It combines the Greek greeting of “grace” with the Jewish greeting of shalom or peace.
In verse 3 Paul links three important concepts: faith, hope, and love. Because we are so steeped in Paul’s letters, it is easy to miss the significance of it. This is the first time Paul has written and linked these three concepts. In future letters he will deepen his understanding of these and frequently link them together.
Verse 5 is the earliest written proclamation about the gospel message and it is to say that it is not only words, but rather a power and conviction that underlies those words.
Ponder the connections in your own life of faith and hope and love.
How do you proclaim the gospel with words? Without words?
Questions to ponder
What do these readings say about how to live day in and day out as Christians?
Can you think of any other examples where God has used people who don’t believe in him to accomplish some part of his work?
What events from your past do you look to for hope for the future?
Matthew 22:16 sets some standards about moral behavior, even though the Pharisees and Herodians aren’t living up to them. How did Jesus’ life reflect these standards? How does your life reflect them?
Ponder the connections in your own life of faith and hope and love.
How do you proclaim the gospel with words? Without words?
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
© 2023 Kelly Sollinger