The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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If you get the feeling with these readings that you’ve slipped into Holy Week, it may be because on Good Friday we read the same passages from Isaiah and Hebrews. As we near the end of the liturgical year, we get hints of the seasons to come. And, more and more, we are asked to confront the reality of suffering.
Isaiah 53:10-11
Today’s reading comes from the second part of the book of Isaiah and is from one of the suffering servant songs. The people in captivity are suffering and tempted to give up hope. This is the Book of Consolation: encouraging them to go on. They have suffered but there is hope!
The reading starts by saying that it was the Lord’s will to crush the suffering servant with pain. The question of suffering has always been with us. V10 might prompt the question as to whether God inflicts suffering on the faithful or if God somehow relishes our suffering. That doesn’t line up with the image of the God I’ve personally come to know. I believe our suffering pains God at least as much, if not more, than it does us. This is a verse that I can’t explain away; I’m just left scratching my head. This is why it’s important to read each verse against the backdrop of the entirety of scripture and pray with these parts that seem contradictory.
V11 says that the suffering servant will “justify the many.” Later rabbinic teaching interpreted “many” here to mean all the nations of the world. The sense is not one of exclusion – who is not included. Rather, it’s emphasizing that all will be included.
Take time to ponder the role of suffering in your own life along with the image of God that it reveals.
Hebrews 4:14-16
Today’s is another short reading from this book. Because there is so much in this book that requires being steeped in the Jewish context, it seems it was challenging to the creators of the lectionary to find longer passages. The risk of reducing this work to sound bytes is huge with this approach. I encourage you to read larger chunks of the surrounding passages, whole chapters, or the whole book if possible.
These verses speak of holding fast to what we believe and know. This goes beyond a simple Creed. This is the truth of our own experience with God. We often experience God and might dismiss or forget about it. This is where journaling is extremely helpful. Recording those positive experiences of God gives us something to fall back on in the harder times.
The verses also tell us that Jesus knows what we are going through. This can be a tough one. Does Jesus really know what I, as a single parent, am going through? Does he really understand the challenges of the modern world? At first, it was an act of trust to believe that Jesus might be able to sympathize. Over time, I have learned to see Jesus walking with me through all of my experiences, being there first-hand, so that he does indeed know what I am going through.
And the final point: an encouragement to boldly and confidently ask God for the help we need. Here is another area where we must reflect on our lived experience and identify all the times when God has given grace and mercy and answers to our prayers.
How does “holding fast to our confession” take shape in your own life?
Do you feel like there are areas of your life where Jesus can sympathize with you? Are there areas where you do not feel he can understand? Can you invite Jesus into your lived experience?
Do you feel confident to approach the throne of grace?
What may keep you from praying for mercy and help with confidence?
Mark 10:35-45
Through the end of chp 8, the primary question of the gospel has been “Who is this man?!” Peter answered that question by naming Jesus the Messiah. Jesus doesn’t deny that but he’s still got a lot of teaching to do for them and us to realize what that really means.
The gradual healing of the blind man in 8:22 is key to interpreting chps 9-10. The man can see the first time around, but he doesn’t see clearly. Neither do the disciples. They name Jesus as the Messiah but they don’t see clearly what that entails.
Chps 8-10 there will be a pattern of three actions and it will repeat three times:
- Prediction of Jesus’ passion
- An inappropriate response
- Teaching on discipleship
Several weeks ago, we started on the second repeat of this pattern. Jesus predicted his passion and death. The inappropriate response was silence and fear, and then Jesus begins teaching what it means to be a Messiah, which is intricately intertwined with what it means to be a disciple. One week was teaching was about institutional control, and whoever is not against you is with you – the warning not to fracture into sectarianism or tribalism. Another week was discipleship at a more personal level – marriage and family. Last week we continued at that personal level by looking at possessions and the subject of our attachments.
Today we move into the third and final repetition of the pattern above.
This same story appears in Matthew 20. In general, Matthew casts The Twelve in a more favorable light, and in Matthew’s version, it’s their mother who asks about this for her sons.
We need to start this reading back in v32 because the lectionary leaves off the passion prediction. They are still on the way and this is the first explicit reference to Jerusalem. A few Sundays ago he entered the territory of Judea; he’s getting ever closer to Jerusalem. Here he seems so eager to embrace his destiny that he leaves the disciples and crowd behind and goes ahead of them. Those following are slowly realizing what destiny he goes to embrace and they are amazed that he’s going after it with such courage. They themselves are afraid. Jesus is boldly headed directly to the center of opposition against him.
In v33 he says we are going up to Jerusalem and he makes the third prediction of the passion. There is another pattern at work here: John the Baptist preached, was persecuted, and was killed. Jesus preached, will be persecuted, and he will die. Jesus is telling his followers they can expect to be a part of this pattern. The Isaiah reading forced us to ask the question of whether God inflicts suffering. Jesus is telling us that suffering is inevitable on the way.
V35 is the inappropriate response. The first time Jesus predicted his death, it was Peter with the inappropriate response. The second time it was all the disciples. Here this third time it’s James and John. Peter, James, and John are the three closest disciples. They’re also the ones who witnessed the transfiguration which occurred back in chp 9.
The sons of Zebedee approach Jesus and basically ask for a carte blanche pass: do whatever we ask you. In Mark 11, Jesus will teach about the conditions under which God will give whatever we ask. Jesus doesn’t immediately correct them. He wants them to make the request first.
V37 shows they still think the Messiah is someone who triumphs over Rome, and then sets up and reigns over God’s earthly kingdom. And they want the top spots in that hierarchy! Anyone to the right or left of the ruler was in a position of power and influence, prestige. They ask for their share and then some, and they’re trying to get it before anyone else thinks to ask for it.
When I read v28, I always think about the Rite of Baptism for a Child and the question asked of the parents:
You have asked to have your child baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training him or her in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring him or her up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?
Jesus asks, “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?” Of course, he knows they don’t have a clue, any more than a first-time parent does. He references in v38 the cup, a rich Old Testament metaphor for what God has in store for someone. Sometimes the cup is all the good stuff, as in Psalm 23, “my cup overflows.” Sometimes it’s suffering. In the garden Jesus prays if it be your will, take this cup away from me. It is also a metaphor for salvation.
Jesus also references baptism, which can evoke the imagery of some overwhelming calamity, like the Red Sea closing over the Egyptian army. But that same imagery is also about salvation – the Israelites were saved by that same water.
The cup and baptism evoke two foundational sacraments. You will find the Eucharist and Baptism in some form in every Christian tradition.
Jesus’ question is ambiguous: the cup and baptism can both hold positive or negative connotations.
James and John’s response is, “Sure. Bring it on!” Jesus’ reply to that in v39 is as ambiguous as in v38. The cup will mean suffering, but it will also mean salvation – we will all drink from that cup. Baptism means putting to death our old life and embracing a new one – we are all in the process of being baptized in a sense. So yes, these two will follow Jesus in all the ambiguity that’s implied here!
In v40 he clarifies things a little. James’ and John’s original request was, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Glory has a very specific meaning in the Old Testament as a manifestation of the presence of God. It was a revealing of who God is. In Mark’s gospel, with its Messianic secret, no one really understands who Jesus is, not until the cross. At the moment of Jesus’ death, the Gentile centurion says “Truly this man was the Son of God.” This is a moment of glory for Jesus – in this moment, Jesus is revealed for who he is: the Son of God, God’s very self. At that moment, there’s an inscription over his head that reads, “The King of the Jews.” He’s wearing a crown of thorns. This is his glory. And who is on his right and left? Two thieves. Those places were not for James and John.
It’s hard to keep a conversation like this under wraps, and, in v41, the other disciples get wind of it. They are indignant. We’d love to think they’re indignant that James and John obviously haven’t been listening when Jesus talked about servant leadership, last first, all that stuff. But we can guess, more likely, they’re indignant because they didn’t think of asking for the top spots first. James and John didn’t have a clue, but the other 10 weren’t much better.
In v42 Jesus gets them all together and reminds them of what he’s told them already a number of times. He reminds them what true greatness is. And he reminds them again that he is the model. Where the teacher goes the disciple must follow.
The last part of the verse is one connection back to the Isaiah reading where it said that the suffering servant “shall justify the many.” Again, “the many” is the idea of a vast multitude rather than some favored over others. In Roman thought, “the many” was so many people, it might as well be everyone.
V42 uses the word ransom. This word is used in the New Testament only here and the parallel passage in Matthew. In literature of the time, it referred to the price paid to free a slave: someone paid some money, and the slave was released from bondage. That was the ransom. It’s probably not the most accurate translation because ransom in English has to do with prisoners. In 1611, the King James version, however, used the word ransom, which probably influenced everyone else. The Douay-Rheims New Testament, a Catholic English version published in 1582, used the word “redemption” which is a more accurate word.
If you were to say to Jesus, “I want you to do for me whatever I ask,” what would your request be?
Can you identify with James’ and John’s request? Have you ever made such demands of God?
In what ways can you become a slave and servant? In what ways are you already a servant to others?
I’ve often wondered if part of Jesus’ own suffering was being constantly misunderstood by the very closest of friends. Can you identify with that?
Using imaginative prayer, pray with this gospel passage:
- Imagine you are James or John, asking Jesus to grant your request. How does Jesus respond to you? It’s perfectly okay to go “off script” here and imagine something entirely new if that’s what God brings to you.
- Imagine you are one of the other ten disciples, listening to James and John. Do you feel their indignation or something else?
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© 2024 Kelly Sollinger