Biblical Words [732]
What
is wise in the ordinary world may be reversed by divine mercy.
This season of “ordinary time,” devoted to hearing the Biblical traditions in sequence, continues with more readings associated with King Solomon.
This selection from Proverbs gives samples of three kinds of wisdom sayings, teaching respectively
1) enlightened self-interest,
2) a moral order at work in the social universe, and
3) warnings to avoid injustice under threat of God’s punishment.
Each proverb invites us to ponder some aspect of the human world (including God’s work in it), and, learning something, to adjust our conduct accordingly.
Here are my pretty literal translations of the readings.
1 A chosen name is better than great wealth;
A “chosen” name is one that is on a list – a list of those to be invited, or consulted, or approved for credit. “Favor” is attention and consideration at critical moments, especially by someone in a position of power toward someone seeking a “favor” – as when David says to Achish, “If I have found favor in your sight, let a place be given to me…” (I Sam. 27:5).
The proverb affirms that reputation and favor are better than great wealth.
Are
they? If you have the wealth, can’t you
get the favor? Another proverb says, “A
gift opens doors; it gives access to the great” (
2 Rich person and poor person meet;
This
proverb has a near duplicate in 29:13, “Poor person and creditor [Greek text]
meet; the Lord enlightens the eyes of both.”
To translate “meet” as “…have this in common” (
8 One sowing injustice will harvest evil;
This type of wise saying affirms that good consequences will follow from good conduct and bad consequences from bad conduct. The implication is that whatever appearances may be, deep down somewhere, if not openly obvious, wicked work will bring disaster – and good works will receive good rewards.
Seen in a broad perspective, this is a pretty strong affirmation of faith. It is a faith doggedly persisted in by masses of honest folks every day, and the wisdom tradition urges its ultimate truth.
22 Do not rob a poor one because he is poor,
In the form of
instructions from a sage to pupils or a senior official to subordinates, this
wise saying could be straight from the prophets of
The sages and the prophets shared some basic issues of justice!
Psalm 125.
The Psalm is a set of
affirmations about the security of the place allotted to
The hills surrounding the
city of
The psalmist shares that faith in the moral order affirmed in the Proverbs passage.
The Epistle reading continues the rather practical instruction of the Letter from James.
The reading shows an early church life in which there are
considerable differences in the wealth, dress, and neediness of the
members. A variety of people may be
present for Christian services. “For if
a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly [synagogē], and if a poor person in dirty
clothes also comes in…” (verse 2,
Or, in the community where Christians keep track of each other, there could be sharp differences in their goods. “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily need,…” (verses 15-16).
In these conditions of
common life, our speaker highlights two offenses to which church members are
tempted. The first is “favoritism”
(verse 1) or “partiality” (verse 9), an offense that we might call discrimination. Elsewhere early Christian tradition made very
clear that “God shows no partiality” (Romans
The old torah insisted on
strict even-handedness in rendering justice – not even the poor should receive
any favoritism. In the situation
addressed by James, EVEN the poor should be treated with an even hand. “But if you show partiality, you commit sin
and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (verse 9). The shabby homeless one who wanders in to
pray should be treated as respectfully as the lawyer and the first lady of the
city.
The other offense addressed by our reading is lack of mercy, that is, failure to be generous to the needy.
“If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food…and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (verses 15-16). That is, in such a case what has happened to your religion? “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy” (verse 13). And, whether Martin Luther liked it or not (he called James “an epistle of straw”), the gospel pronounced here says, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (verse 17).
The Gospel reading is also about favoritism – discrimination – and about the mercy that gives healing. The reading combines two contrasting episodes while Jesus was traveling in territories that were heavily non-Judean.
The first episode is about the Syrophoenician woman who was outside the allotted place and people to whom Jesus’ mission was directed.
Jesus has gone on retreat – trying to avoid people in his need for a break. A mother, driven by determination to get relief for her daughter, hears of his presence in her region and throws herself at his feet – vacation or no vacation. The narrative explains that she was Greek (the word is hellenis), a Syrophoenician by birth – ethnic labels that make clear she was not an Israelite by any criterion. She is seeking mercy from the now famous teacher and healer, mercy for her demon possessed daughter back home.
In reply to her request,
Jesus is quoted as making the famous (or infamous) remark, “Let the children be
fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the
dogs” (verse 27,
The woman grasps the direction of his response, but driven by her desperation she is inspired to make a wise reply. Yes, but, children being what they are, the dogs will certainly get their share too – from what falls off the table.
The woman believes in both the rightness of her case and in God’s ultimate support. For the only time in the Gospels, Jesus is outdone – and admits as much. “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter” (verse 29). Discrimination and favoritism have been replaced by mercy, and the hearer of the Gospel knows that good news has been proclaimed to the nations!
The second episode of the reading is a very unusual healing of a hearing-and-speech-impaired man. Particularly striking is the almost bumbling manner of the healer’s work. Having taken the man aside so they are alone, Jesus sticks his fingers in the man’s ears, puts spit on his tongue, looks up to heaven, and mutters something in Aramaic – like a magic formula or incantation. This is certainly a different portrayal from the usual magisterial pronouncement of healing that is instantly accomplished. This looks as if we have exposed the hidden truth of Jesus the Magician!
(This episode is sufficiently dark that neither Matthew nor Luke have repeated it from Mark’s Gospel!)
In Mark, however, this healing story has a twin (also omitted by Matthew and Luke) – a story told a little later about healing a blind man in much the same manner. “He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’…Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored…” (Mark 8:23-25).
Commentators have well observed that these two stories, which stand out so graphically from other healing episodes, are symbolic of hearing and seeing the true message of Jesus. These stories are about Jesus transforming the hearing and seeing that the disciples need in order to understand Jesus’ true mission and meaning. These stories are about the great time coming when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5).
The disabled will no longer suffer discrimination, but will receive mercy!
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