The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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1 Kings 19:4-8
Chapters 17-19 are stories of the greatest prophet Elijah. He began prophesying in the reign of Ahab who you can read about in 1 Kings 16:29-33. Ahab was an evil man and Elijah frequently stood up to him. In chp 17, God predicts through Elijah a 3-year drought. At the beginning of chp 18, Elijah is instructed to go back to Ahab and predict the end of the drought. Elijah goes before Ahab and tells him to assemble on Mt. Carmel 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. Ahab’s wife is the infamous Jezebel and these prophets are all her minions.
It’s on Mt. Carmel that Elijah stages this awesome display of God’s power – God rains down fire from heaven while the other 850 prophets can’t get their gods to do anything. Elijah then commands the assembled Israelites to turn on the prophets and the Baal prophets are slaughtered. In the midst of all that, it starts raining. Ahab goes and tells Jezebel of the defeat and slaughter of her prophets, which makes her angry, to put it mildly. In 19:2 she sends this message to Elijah:
May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.
1 Kings 19:2 NIV
So Elijah has faced down 850 false prophets and seen God in fire and rain. But when faced with the threat of a woman, he turns tail and runs. That’s where we pick up with today’s reading.
He goes a day’s journey into the wilderness. He’s brought nothing with him. He’s at the end of his physical resources and also his spiritual resources. He is completely and utterly drained. He can’t go on. He plops down under a broom tree and tells God he’s ready to die. He lays down and goes to sleep. It’s in the midst of that sleep that someone – a messenger – touches him and says “Get up and eat!”
Elijah is lying under a broom tree, which is a common source of shade in that desert region. Broom trees grow in the wadis. In the dry seasons, these are often used as roads. But when it rains, they can become a raging river. This tree survives against all odds.
He wakes up to see food next to him. Is this physical food or spiritual? I think on one level, it is physical food because he probably needs that and so God supplies it. But on a deeper and more important level, this is spiritual food. The prophet is spiritually depleted. He has lost contact with the God who lovingly sustains him. He’s given in to fear. God feeds his soul on a different plane of existence.
In v7, the “angel of the LORD” brings him food a second time. Many places in the Old Testament, you’ll see a reference to the “angel of the LORD” and the context will make it clear that it’s God himself. That seems to be what’s going on here: God himself appears. God himself touches Elijah, cares for him, and feeds him, both physically and spiritually.
V8 shows Elijah, strengthened by what he has received, getting up and beginning the journey to Mt. Horeb. It’s at Mt. Horeb that God reveals himself to Elijah, not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire but in the tiny whispering sound, the still, small voice. But Elijah had to first be nourished by God to get to that experience.
Recall a time when you were absolutely and utterly depleted. How did God provide for you? Maybe it wasn’t as spectacular as waking up to find food next to your bedside. Maybe it was a friend who dropped by with a meal at just the right time. Or someone who called with encouraging words. God shows up in many ways, often very subtle.
Ephesians 4:30 – 5:2
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!
There are many things in this letter that evidence division in a community: bitterness, anger, malice. Paul says to get rid of all those things so that you don’t grieve God. Don’t grieve the Spirit by engaging in anything that causes division. Instead, strive to imitate God: be kind, compassionate, forgiving, and loving. John’s gospel tells us that we’re free from the Law. Paul’s message reminds us that we’re subject to a higher calling: we’re not called to just be good, moral people who observe the Ten Commandments. The gospel demands more than that. We are called to model ourselves after none other than God – God who IS love. A good passage to read alongside this one is 1 Corinthians 13.
John 6:41-51
Today is the 3rd 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.
Last week focused on the manna. After the Exodus, the manna came to be seen as the Law. It was the Law that revealed God to the people and allowed the Israelites to be in relationship with God.
Jesus now comes along and says that he is the true manna/true bread who replaces the former manna/Law. As we see in the passage today, Jesus is now the one who reveals God to the people and allows all people to be in relationship with God – not just the Jewish people. We don’t normally associate John’s gospel with the universality of the message like we do with Luke, but it’s definitely there.
Week before last Jesus fed a huge crowd. Last week the crowd went seeking him and got into a conversation with him. Their questions prompted Jesus to say that God gave manna in the wilderness which was a shadow of things to come. But now Jesus himself is the true manna, the true bread. That passage ended with Jesus declaring:
I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
Vv36-40 are left out of the lectionary and they are somewhat of a parenthesis.
Jesus has said “I am the bread of life” and back in v32 he said “I am the true bread from heaven.” This causes some consternation in his in v41. In John’s gospel, “the Jews” are all those who oppose Jesus. Even though the disciples are Jews, they are not “the Jews” that he’s talking about here. The use of the word murmur in this verse evokes the manna story – the Israelites murmured against Moses in the desert. The Jews here murmur against Jesus. The murmuring evidences a lack of faith in who God is and what God can do.
V42 makes clear that they’re murmuring not because he called himself bread, but because he claims to have come down from heaven. We are accustomed to people who rise above their origins and “make” something of themselves. In ancient cultures, a person was born into a particular socio-economic setting and was expected to stay there. It’s also interesting to note that Mark’s gospel – written around 70AD – has no origin stories, nothing to say where Jesus comes from. 15 years later Matthew and Luke add origin stories. This suggests that the lack of an explanation of where Jesus came from was becoming a problem. John’s origin story at the start of the gospel goes straight to “in the beginning,” but John also deals with it here.
Jesus has made a claim that can only be understood in terms of his origin. He claims to be something come down from heaven – from God. The manna was seen as the Law – that which revealed God and allowed the people to be in relationship with God. Jesus is claiming to replace that manna/Law. Jesus is now the revealer of God and the one who allows us to be in relationship with God. A mere human cannot accomplish that. “We know where this man came from!”
We can see a distinct shift here. Last week’s passage started out with the people seeking Jesus and wanting to know more. Now they are turning against him. He’s gone too far; he’s made claims they just can’t accept.
In v44, Jesus actually affirms their response. In essence, he says, Yes, you’re not going to believe me or respond to me unless God draws you to me. This prompts an interesting question: does that mean that God only draws some people? Do the Presbyterians have it right – that only some are elected for salvation? I think Scripture consistently tells us that God desires a relationship with each one of us! God draws each one of us but there is the human freedom to reject the call. “The Jews” in this passage have rejected that call.
He says “I will raise him on the last day,” using the word eschatos. When Jesus started preaching, he said “the kingdom is at hand.” The kingdom, the eschatos is at hand: it is here and now, but also in the future.
V45 conflates Isaiah 54:13 and Jeremiah 31:34, which are passages referring to the future eschatological age where God establishes his reign on earth – seen by the Jewish people as the Messianic age. In the Messianic age, everyone, all people, will have direct access to God, and will be taught by God. He also talks about learning, which is related to the word disciple. To listen is to follow. In the Messianic age, everyone has direct access to God. In the here and now, if you come to Jesus, you are, in effect, following or learning from or being taught by God himself.
Jesus is making another claim to divinity and his identity as Messiah; he’s saying that in the Messianic age everyone will have direct access to God (i.e. being taught by God) and he is teaching them right now. This connects back to v44 – the eschatos, the last days, the Messianic age.
It’s here and now, it’s at hand.
And it’s all people; no longer is it something just between Israel and God with the Law as the source of God’s instruction. Now it is universal: it is to all and comes through Jesus himself.
V46 tells us that there’s no knowledge of the Father except through Jesus. V47 starts off with “amen amen,” which, in this case, we could translate as “because this is the case.” Because Jesus reveals the Father, because Jesus is the bread from heaven, whoever believes this has eternal life and enters into that messianic age, the kingdom. Eternal life is, in a sense, starting now.
V48 rephrases that. How do we have eternal life? Because we believe in Jesus who is the bread of life – the source of all nourishment and all that sustains us. Vv49-50 rephrase it yet again. Jesus is everything that the manna was not: he is inexhaustible and capable of sustaining the soul. Like the food given to Elijah, this bread enables us to walk to Mt. Horeb and see the face of God.
V51 will take on Eucharistic overtones which we’ll get into next week.
To summarize this passage: Last week Jesus made the claim that he is the true bread from heaven – he replaces the Law as what allows us to be in relationship with God. So we are no longer under the Law but we’re subject to something much more demanding – the Law of Love. This week he reiterates that claim but then expands it to add that he is the one who reveals God. He reveals God because he is God. He reveals who God is – a God in relationship with us, his people. A God who loves us so much that he feeds us exactly what we need. He cares for us. He sustains us in this life and beyond. And this is all geared towards ultimately seeing God face to face.
(c) Sieger Köder Museum Ellwangen
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