The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Exodus 1-15 tells the story of the flight of the Israelites from Egypt. The next few chapters cover their journey into the Sinai desert, and then the rest of the book is about their time wandering in the desert. Today’s passage comes from the middle part – they have left slavery, they’ve seen an entire army defeated, and now they’re on their way to an unknown land.
One thing you might notice about this account if you read all the verses from 16:1-15 is that it reads very choppy. And if you were to flip over to Numbers 11, you’d find another version of this account with some differences. It’s important to remember that the Exodus happened sometime around the 13th century BC – so at least 1300 years before Christ. It wasn’t written down in the form we have today probably until the Babylonian exile or even after – not before 600BC. That’s at least 700ish years of passing on this very important story orally. It probably shouldn’t surprise us too much that there would be multiple versions circulating. When they did write stories like this down, they would often just combine the different traditions, and they didn’t always do it in a way that made for a good written story. That’s because, even though it was written, it would most often be told verbally and the teller would craft it into a proper story. You’ll find many of the stories in the Torah are like this.
This passage is about manna. That word comes from the Hebrew man hu meaning “what is it?” In v15, the Israelites go out that first morning and see this stuff on the ground and they say what the heck is this – man hu? Manna.
In v3, I always find it a bit humorous: idealizing the good ole days is nothing new! There is a genuine need here: they’re running low on food. But they inflate it. It would be one thing to complain about being hungry but they’ve stretched it to complain about having to leave “comfortable” Egypt.
God tells Moses that God will provide. Do you want an exercise in trust? Every night, clear out your kitchen of every speck of food – give it all away. And then trust God that, somehow, you will have enough to eat the next day. Thinking about it this way may help us not judge the Israelites quite so harshly.
There are two important things to note about this passage. First, the manna in the desert is considered a miracle. What do we mean by that? According to the dictionary, a miracle is “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws, and is, therefore, considered to be the work of a divine agency.” We get this word from the Latin miraculum which means “an object of wonder.” Theologically, a miracle is something marvelous and unexpected that manifests the presence and power of God.
If you read commentaries on this passage, most of them will point out that the manna and quail are explainable events. Quail migrate in such huge flocks at certain times of the year that they can be easily caught in large numbers. And then there is the tamarisk tree in that area which excretes sap that crystallizes and falls to the ground – it’s sweet and the Bedouin use it as a sweetener.
So the question then becomes: Do these explanations mean it’s not a miracle? Or is the miracle that the right thing appeared at just the right time? What do we mean when we call something a miracle?
The second thing to note is vv 7 and 12: “in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD” and “in the morning you will have your fill of bread, and then you will know that I, the LORD, am your God.” The word glory in Hebrew is kavod and in Greek it’s doxa. All the words mean a manifestation of the presence of God, the visual form of God appearing to humans, God can be physically seen somehow. It’s not necessarily God’s self but it is. It’s a mystery! It’s usually described in terms of fire or clouds, or sometimes in the form of a human. Here, it appears to refer to the manna itself. This passage is saying that in seeing the manna, you are seeing God’s self.
Try using imaginative prayer to pray with this passage. Imagine that you are an Israelite, released from slavery but wandering in the desert. You are glad to be free but also unsure about what your future holds. Are you trusting God? Or are you wishing things would go back to “normal”? Talk to God about this desert wandering experience.
Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Chapter 4 begins a shift into practical applications and a change in conduct that contact with Christ brings about. Chapters 4-6 are about unity: within the church and with each other. They also address leaving behind former ways while acknowledging the lordship of Christ.
4:17 – 5:20 contrast the “ungodly” ways of the Gentiles with the ethical implications of life in the body of Christ. The author uses a style similar to wisdom teaching: there are only two ways and you must choose one or the other. There are no shades of gray or middle ground in this way of thinking. As we read this, we must keep in mind that life is rarely ever so cut and dry!
V17 connects us back to the previous passage (v1-16) which talks about unity in the body and diversity of gifts in the body. Unity in diversity. Testify is a very strong word: this is an urgent call to live in a different way than the surrounding culture. You are different and your manner of life must reflect that.
The audience of this letter is largely Gentile Christians, not Jews. When he uses “Gentiles” here, it serves more as a label for those outside the Christian community – those who don’t believe. One important manuscript tradition reads “no longer live as the rest of the Gentiles.” So someone at some point felt the need to clarify this verse.
V18-19 aren’t in the lectionary but probably sum up the common Jewish view of non-Jewish moral conduct. This is a broad summary of the way a Jew thought a Gentile would behave. It covers a person’s whole identity – thoughts, emotions, and actions – everything is turned against God.
In v20 Paul says that’s not how you learned Christ. I think it’s significant that he doesn’t say “that’s not what you learned” but rather who you learned. Paul has just talked about the whole way of life turned against God, and now he contrasts that with the whole way of life turned towards God: thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and actions.
Vv22-24 contain language that evokes baptism, language that is scattered throughout this letter.
In v23 the author tells them to “be renewed” and the verb tense is ongoing: make new again and again and again. It’s a process! Being made new is not a one-and-done thing. I think this is one thing I’ve always appreciated about Catholicism over my previous fundamentalist background – there’s not such an emphasis on one singular experience of “accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.” Rather, salvation is something that happens over a lifetime.
John 6:24-35
Today is the 2nd of five weeks in chapter 6, the “bread of life discourse.” At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus feeds the 5,000 and now he will talk about that event in light of who he is. This passage today has much in common with Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in chp 4. You could sum up this passage by saying: Jesus, the true bread, replaces the former bread: the manna and the Law.
To set the stage for this reading:
- The chapter opens with the feeding of the 5,000 on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Tiberias). That Passage ends with Jesus seeking solitude because the crowd wanted to make him king. The disciples are apparently left behind.
- V16-24 The disciples get in a boat and make for Capernaum. Probably they’re looking for Jesus. In the middle of the night, Jesus comes walking on the water towards them. He gets in the boat with them and immediately they are transported to the shore at Capernaum. The next morning the crowd wakes up to find Jesus and the disciples have disappeared. The only logical place to go is Capernaum so they go off there in search of Jesus.
In v24, the NAB says they are looking for Jesus, but I prefer the translation seeking. The crowd has experienced Jesus miraculously feeding them.
And now they’re seeking him. In v25 they catch up with him and ask what can appear to be an incongruent question. It would seem the more pertinent question is how did you get here?! But they want to know when did you get here. Perhaps they’re afraid they’ve missed another miracle – how long have you been here? With the unspoken – what have you been doing that we might have missed?
Jesus knows why they were seeking him: they want to see another miracle. They want to see something spectacular. They’re not seeking him because they want to know who he really is. We could ask ourselves this question: why are we seeking Jesus? What are we looking for?
Jesus then speaks to them about their reasons for seeking him. In v27, “working for food that perishes” is like seeking Jesus because he worked a miracle: it gets you something, but not really very much. Jesus says, rather, seek something better: seek Jesus himself. This evokes the woman at the well when Jesus says “I have food to eat that you don’t know about. My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to accomplish his work.” He also says that God has set his seal on him, Jesus. A seal in ancient times showed authenticity and often granted authority. You can trust the authenticity of this food because the one who gives it has been granted authority by none other than God the Father himself. So… don’t seek what’s merely on the surface – go deeper.
Apparently the audience only really hears the word “work” because they then ask about how to accomplish the works of God. In this context, what they seem to have decided is that Jesus could feed 5,000 people because he was connected to God in a way that allowed this. So what they are asking here is how they can get hooked up to God this way so that maybe they can do this kind of miracle too.
Just like the woman at the well – Jesus is speaking on a deeper level but his listeners are still at the surface. There’s misunderstanding and confusion, which you see a lot in John’s gospel.
In v29 Jesus continues with their theme of work. The crowd used “works” in the plural. Jesus says there’s really only one work you need to be concerned about: please God and get access to God by believing in Jesus. This is a pretty simple summary of the gospel.
V30 boggles the mind for us because, I mean – didn’t Jesus just miraculously feed 5,000 people? But they didn’t understand that as a sign. For them, that was a miracle, a trick of nature. A sign reveals something deeper. For them, feeding 5,000 didn’t reveal anything about who Jesus is.
What prompts this question for signs? Jesus is telling them that access to God might come a different way than the other rabbis are telling them. The other rabbis are saying you have to keep the law, the Torah. You have to be a good Jew. Jesus says you just have to have faith in me. So, of course, they want to know what authority does he have to teach this way? Typically they would expect authority to come down through the Mosaic law – they would expect the use of the Torah as the basis of the argument, which is why they invoke Moses in the next verse. V31 is not a direct quote from anywhere in the Old Testament, but it alludes to a number of verses such as Exodus 16:4, Nehemiah 9:15, and Psalm 78:24.
It’s not clear in v31 who they were referring to. Moses was held in very high regard – for the Jew there was God and then there was Moses and maybe sometimes they seemed to be almost on the same level. It’s entirely possible that some rabbis bordered on teaching that Moses had a hand in providing the manna. To make his point, Jesus clarifies who gave the bread. Notice the verb tenses here: it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. Gave is past tense of course, but gives is present indicative tense: something happening right here and now. Back in the Exodus passage, God said that the glory of the LORD would be manifested in the manna. Jesus is saying – my Father is giving you true bread right here and now. Jesus equates himself to that glory, that presence – the bread of God is Jesus.
V34 is, again, very similar to the response of the woman at the well. They want the bread always, over and over again. Jesus says it again, I AM. I am the bread. I am the glory, the manifestation of GOD himself. Everything you are seeking, searching for, you will find in me. And I will sustain you in ways that physical bread cannot. Jesus says he is perfecting the former gift of manna in the desert. The manna had restrictions on how much they could gather; they could only take so much. There are no limitations on Jesus’ gift – take as much as you want as often as you want. The addition of thirsting in v35 even more succinctly ties this passage to the woman at the well. John wants us to understand that Jesus is saying the same thing here as he said there.
Jesus is the bread of life. What does look like for you? How does Jesus nourish and sustain you?
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© 2024 Kelly Sollinger