The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Wisdom 11:22-12:2
The second half of this book (chps 11-19) explores the theme of God’s fidelity to God’s people in the Exodus. This part of the book is a retelling of the nation’s history in an attempt to explore who God is. The people are in exile, and the temple is gone. All the stories they have are connected to the land and the temple; that was how they knew God in the past. Who is God now? And is any of the old history still relevant?
The passage today is a digression and meditation on the mercy of God.
Theology often grapples with God’s transcendence and God’s immanence. God transcends and goes far beyond any concept, idea, or imagining that we might have of the divine. And yet, it is equally true that God is always so near; God lives within each and every one of us.
The passage begins with God’s transcendence – an image of a God so big that the whole universe is as nothing.
Vv23-24 then remind us of God’s immanence. God exercises patient mercy with each one of us, personally, intended to bring us closer to God. God despises nothing that God has created. And nothing can exist without God’s action in making it so.
V26 suggests a beautiful name of God: Lord and Lover of Souls.
12:1 reminds us that there is a spark of God’s spirit in all created beings. How often do you go looking for that spark in someone, especially someone with whom you disagree on important things?
This passage gives us an image of a patient God, a God who loves us so much she waits and waits and waits for us to turn to her, to seek her out. 11:23 and 12:2 both suggest that God often overlooks sins for the purpose of bringing us to repentance. You can find this echoed in the New Testament in Romans 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:15.
What images and names of God resonate with you? Who do you know God to be?
2 Thessalonians 1:11 – 2:2
Paul writes to the church at Thessalonika to address confusion about the future. When faced with uncertainty and false teaching, he advocates prayer and faith in God.
The passage begins with a prayer by Paul for the community. Notice how Paul prays that God will make them worthy. We cannot make ourselves worthy of God; only God can do that for and within us.
In v12, Paul states the goal of the Christian life: to bring glory to God. In the ancient world, this implied enhancing the status of another. Do our actions enhance the status of God? Do others look at our lives and walk away with a deeper curiosity about or appreciation for the God we serve?
At the beginning of chapter 2, Paul shifts to talk about the parousia, the end of time when Christ will return and God’s kingdom will be made manifest on earth. In his earliest letters, it’s clear that Paul expected this to be imminent, that Jesus would return in Paul’s lifetime. His instructions reflect that expectation. Over time, it became clear to Paul that the timeline might be longer than he first thought. Later, his instructions will reflect this new understanding. The community seems to have been threatened by news that such coming had already happened, and they’ve been left behind. Rather than give a timeline for the coming, Paul writes to strengthen them in their waiting and assure them that nothing has happened yet.
In 2:2, he tells them, Don’t be shaken or unsettled or alarmed over what you hear.
Paul prayed the prayer in vv11-12 constantly for the church at Thessalonika. It is a beautiful model not only for our own intercessory prayer for others, but for our personal prayer for ourselves. Consider writing your own version of the prayer to pray for others or yourself.
Luke 19:1-10
The Setting
We’re technically out of the section in Luke called the Travel Narrative. We now enter into Jesus’ final push towards Jerusalem, the home stretch. The lectionary skipped a lot of chapter 18, but in there, we see Jesus coming up to the city of Jericho.
Jericho was a major city in the conquest of Canaan. In the book of Joshua, chapter 6 recounts that battle and how the walls were brought down.
Jericho has the distinction of being the lowest city on earth: 846 ft below sea level. Jesus is heading to Jerusalem, and the elevation of that city is 2474’ above sea level. So Jesus is still making quite a journey, not just in miles but in elevation. He really is going up to Jerusalem!
In chapter 18, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, he heals a blind man. And now in chapter 19, he’s coming through the town. Vs 1 says he intends to pass through it.
Zacchaeus
In v2, we meet a citizen of the town, Zacchaeus, who the text says is “rich,” the Greek word meaning “fully resourced.” We’ve seen this word a number of times in recent chapters:
- Chp 12 – rich fool parable
- Chp 16 – parable of the shrewd manager
- Chp 16 – the rich man and Lazarus
- Chp 18 – the rich young ruler
In using this word, Luke seems to want us to make connections between these stories.
Zacchaeus’ name means “clean, innocent, and pure.” It is an ironic name because he would be ritually unclean most of the time due to his contact with Gentiles.
It’s worth noting that, even though he was “fully resourced” and rich, we see in v3 that he was still seeking something. In v4, he runs ahead and climbs a tree – neither action was very dignified. This puts us in mind of the actions of the prodigal father.
Jesus turns the tables on Zacchaeus in v5. It was culturally on Zacchaeus to offer the teacher a place in his home. It was somewhat rude for Jesus to invite himself, much less to the home of someone like Zacchaeus.
At this point, Jesus is about 17 miles from Jerusalem, so he would have needed to stay overnight somewhere at some point.
Jesus says he must stay at Zacchaeus’ house today. Today is a significant word throughout Luke’s gospel. Just a few examples of this can be found in 2:11, 4:21, 5:26, 12:28, 13:32-33, 22:34, 22:61, and 23:43.
Another keyword is found in v6: joy. Joy is often associated with metanoia in Luke’s gospel.
In v7, the scene shifts to the crowd accompanying Jesus. It was this crowd that had interfered with Zacchaeus’s being able to see Jesus. The crowd doesn’t think much of Zacchaeus, nor do they now think much of Jesus.
But don’t you love v8?! Zacchaeus has had a change of heart, and he stands his ground against people who don’t approve. In Exodus 22:3, a thief was instructed to restore two animals for each one stolen. Zacchaeus goes double beyond that. This prompts Jesus to exclaim that salvation has arrived, and he calls Zacchaeus a “son of Abraham.”
That last part, no doubt, would have caused a stir in the crowd. Zacchaeus was considered so far out on the margins of faith that he could hardly have been included in the covenant people, true sons of Abraham. This is not the first time Jesus has used this term. In 13:8, he calls a woman a “daughter of Abraham” when healing her. Throughout Luke’s gospel, Jesus is expanding the notion of what it means to be a child of God and who is included in that.
19:10 is the key verse of Luke: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” In Ezekiel 34, there is a prophecy against those who were supposed to be shepherding the people: “You do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.”
This passage started out by saying Zacchaeus was seeking to see Jesus. Turns out, Jesus was already seeking Zacchaeus.
Use this story for imaginative prayer. Who are you in the story? Who else might you be? If you are Zacchaeus, what does Jesus say to you, and how do you respond?
Zacchaeus by Joel Whitehead