June 30, 2024 -- 6th Sunday after Pentecost

                                 Biblical Words                                              [888]

II Samuel 1:1, 17-27; Psalm 130; II Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43.

Grief and anxiety come to the faithful, but the Lord responds in God’s own time.

The readings for this Sunday present people expressing deep and profound feelings.

Such feelings are called forth by the death of loved ones (David and Jairus), the depths from which one speaks of one’s own iniquities (Psalm 130), and the anguish of many years of pain and ostracism (the woman with the blood-flow).  Only the Epistle reading, about the collection to sustain the saints in Judea, is more occupied with the ordinary world. 

II Samuel 1:1, 17-27. 

The reading from the Prophets is David’s lament over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, a poem that gave European rhetoric the outcry, 

“How the mighty have fallen!”  

While modern Biblical scholars have doubted that the religious poetry of the Psalms comes in any substantial way from a historical David, this archaic poem of lamentation is thought to have come from David himself.  Its power and beauty have been uniformly praised. 

The lament comes from the trials of war; the mighty have fallen “in the midst of battle” (verse 25), and the prowess of Saul and Jonathan as warriors is celebrated (verse 22).  Not mentioned at all in the poem is that David himself is a warrior, who will in fact revenge the deaths of Saul and Jonathan and conquer the Philistines. 

This poem is like a funeral oration that concentrates single-mindedly on the glory and greatness of what has been lost.  David had a strong loyalty toward King Saul (verse 24) and an even stronger love for Jonathan (verse 26).  That meant that it was now a time to weep, and the present moment is one in which “the weapons of war [have] perished!” (verse 27). 

Historically, the man David had much to gain from the deaths of Saul and Jonathan.  It reduced the obstacles to his becoming king of Israel himself.  A cynical reading of his purposes in this lament would ascribe it to good media management, unbounded praise for the leaders now out of the way – in order to capture the support of their followers. 

Such manipulative motives, however, look a bit like modern projections back on people of an ancient culture.  If Saul and Jonathan had been slain in worthy battle against Israel’s oppressors, it was the doing of God (as had been the great defeat of Israel in Eli’s time, I Samuel 4). 

David was a charismatic leader through whom God would work out a destiny of God’s own choosing; David’s role was to exert himself as adroitly and effectively as possible, mindful always of the primacy of his God, and trust that the “glory” (actually “beauty”) of Israel would once again shine from a high place (see verse 19). 

Psalm 130. 

The Psalm for this Sunday has been known through Christian centuries by the Latin of its opening words:  de profundis, “out of the depths.”  It is the sixth of the seven Penitential psalms, though hope and trust are more pronounced here than in some of the other Penitentials. 

Let’s pause over the Hebrew word translated “depths,” which occurs five times in the Hebrew Bible.  It is poetic and cosmic in its reverberations: 

I am sinking into the slimy deep and find no foothold;

I have come into the watery depths;

the flood sweeps me away.  (Psalm 69:2  NJPS)

Rescue me from the mire; let me not sink;

let me be rescued from my enemies,

and from the watery depths. (Psalm 69:14  NJPS) 

Was it not you who dried up the sea,

the waters of the great deep;

who made the depths of the sea

      a way for the redeemed to cross over? (Isaiah 51:10 NRSV) 

In a taunt song over Lady Tyre, portrayed as a magnificent commercial ship, her goods are lost in the depths. 

Now you are wrecked by the seas,

      in the depths of the waters;

your merchandise and all your crew

      have sunk with you. (Ezekiel 27:24) 

It is from these cosmic depths that our psalmist prays: 

Our of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 

In Psalm 130 these depths are all the powers that threaten to overwhelm the speaker, but particularly the “iniquities” of one’s life (verse 3). 

If we imagine David uttering this psalm, the depths could be the defeat and occupation of Israel by Philistines after Saul’s death.  Israel calls from these depths and hears the injunction to “wait for the Lord” (verses 5-6).  Whatever plans a David might make for deliverance, “It is [the Lord] who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities” (verse 8). 

II Corinthians 8:7-15.  

The Epistle reading is not about death, but about living generously as servants of the Christ.  The passage urges the Corinthians to be generous and eager in their collection to assist the poverty-laden believers in Judea. 

There is one note that links with the depths of the other readings:  “For you know the generous act [literally “grace,” charis] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (verse 9, NRSV).  This probably echoes the view of Christ’s work sung of in Philippians 2:6-11.  Christ “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” 

In God’s work of redemption, Christ went down into the depths of human life to transform it and make humans rich.  The Corinthians are imitators of Christ when they yield up some of their meager wealth to save and ease the trials of distant fellow believers. 

Mark 5:21-43.  

The Gospel reading is the account of two healing miracles, one inserted into the other. 

Jesus is fresh off the boat from the East Bank when an esteemed religious leader of the community hurries up to him, falls at his feet, and begs desperately for Jesus to come and save his daughter, who is on the verge of death.  Mark’s account emphasizes the desperation of the father. 

While Jesus is on his way, our attention is directed to the crowd where there also is a desperate woman.  She has suffered for twelve years from a continual menstrual flow, and the best medical practice has only impoverished her without providing a cure. 

Whatever the medical dangers of her condition, it rendered her a social outcast. 

According to the lore that became firm Judean practice, blood was a highly contaminating substance.  Consequently, during menstruation women were ritually unclean and could engage in no normal contact even with family members.  (The law for this woman’s case is in Leviticus 15:25-30.)  She could probably be in this crowd only by deception and a daring violation of the rules. 

This desperate woman pursues her own plan and determines to grasp a hope of cure by touching a magic garment, that of the now famous healing teacher.  In the crowd she grabs an edge of Jesus’ garment and experiences a shock through her body:  she knows in her inner depths that healing has happened. 

But Jesus turns and confronts her:  she has not been furtive enough; she is caught in the act and falls down before Jesus in fear and pleads her story.  Jesus knows in his depths what has happened.  He blesses her, and tells her it is her faith, not some magic, that has made her well. 

Meanwhile word comes that the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue ruler, has died.  To a collapsing father, Jesus says, Don’t be afraid, only keep faith. 

At the house there is a tumult of grief with weeping and wailing.  Jesus puts everybody out except the parents and his three most confidential disciples.  He then takes the twelve-year-old girl by the hand and commands her in her native tongue (Aramaic), “Little lamb, get up!”  She does so and proceeds to walk around.  Mark then relates that Jesus urged them to keep it a secret – a likely prospect! – and tells them to feed the healthy little creature. 

The Gospel tells the story of an impending, then actual, death.  In the world’s ordinary events the young girl would have been a tragic statistic.  But God “does not delight in the death of the living” (Wisdom, 1:13, an alternate reading for this Sunday). 

No, the Reign of God has started a campaign in Galilee – it is breaking in at surprising moments and in unexpected ways.  Jesus moves with confidence against the prevailing opinion that Death has won this person.  He takes her hand – surrounded by those who love her and those who follow him faithfully – and presents her living, ready for something to eat.  (The mourning, and her fasting, are at an end.) 

 

June 23, 2024 -- 5th Sunday after Pentecost

                                 Biblical Words                                                       [887]

I Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23) 32-49; Psalm 9:9-20; II Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41. 

In God’s work there are victories, times when the storm of chaos is overcome by a word of peace.

I Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23) 32-49.  

Our readings about the beginning of kingship in Israel bring us to the famous story of David and Goliath.  The last half of I Samuel is about David, the true and future king, in his relations to Saul, the once and failing king. 

First is how David became a public person. 

There are two ways that David gets introduced to Saul’s court:  In one David is brought to court to play soothing music to still Saul’s troubled soul (I Samuel 16:14-23).  In the other, David shows up as an intrusive brat (see 17:28) on the field of battle and wins his credentials as a warrior.  The Goliath story is the second of these introductions of David to Saul’s court. 

The center of the David and Goliath story is David’s report to Saul of his powers to protect the sheep from lions and bears – with God’s help, to be sure (verses 32-37).  Given David’s experience at wrestling and killing aggressive lions, this loud-mouthed giant, Goliath, will be no trouble.  After all, he has insulted the Lord and Israel. 

After rejecting the cumbersome armor Saul puts on him, David selects his smooth stones, approaches the boastful giant in bronze armor, and pierces his forehead with an accurate shot from his sling (verses 38-49).  It was indeed a heroic entry into the ranks of Saul’s warriors and men at court. 

Scholars have long recognized, of course, that the story has been well tailored and fluffed in the media centers of Jerusalem, probably starting in Solomon’s time if not in David’s.  

In the official annals (the Pentagon archives, as it were), credit for shooting down Goliath went to a fighter named Elhanan.  “Then there was another battle with the Philistine at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam” (II Samuel 21:19). 

Later, in the times of David’s kingship, those archives showed that Elhanan served in the King’s elite guard in Jerusalem (23:24).  At such a time it would have been fair to credit David with the victories of his men, especially after David was forced to retire from active battle (21:15-17).  As we have it, however, the famous deed of slaying Goliath has been transferred to the divinely chosen youth at a time when his royal destiny still lay far ahead. 

The scribes of Solomon’s court knew that there was something special about the young David.  As a mature leader, he brought about greater changes in their world than anyone in many centuries.  He had to have been God’s man, and thus a heroic man, from the beginning. 

David and Goliath was made into a great story, and has become the universal symbol of the triumph of the worthy one who is also a hopeless underdog. 

Psalm 9:9-20. 

The Psalm reading is a selection from a psalm that ended up being split into two psalms in the Hebrew text, giving what Protestant Bibles have as Psalms 9 and 10.  (They are still one psalm in the ancient Greek and Latin translations, and therefore also in Orthodox and older Roman Catholic Bibles.)  

There is a difference in emphasis, however, between the resulting psalms:  Psalm 9 is mainly a thanksgiving for God’s victory, appropriate for David to sing after his triumph over Goliath.  Psalm 10, on the other hand, is mainly a prayer that God will defeat the arrogant wicked, suitable for Saul to have prayed before David showed up! 

The concluding verses of our reading declare that the weak are protected against the arrogance of the nations: 

The wicked shall depart to Sheol,

         and the nations that forget God. 

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

         nor the hope of the poor perish forever. 

Rise up, O Lord!  Do not let mortals prevail;

         let the nations be judged before you. 

Put them in fear, O Lord;

         let the nations know that they are only human. 

(Verses 17-20, NRSV.)

II Corinthians 6:1-13.  

The Epistle reading is a passage that makes a powerful appeal to the Corinthians to affirm the validity of Paul’s apostleship, and to make a move from their side toward reconciliation with him. 

As in his other writings, Paul makes amazing rhetorical use of lists.  Here he tumbles out a wildly-improbable stream of credentials for an apostle – the kind of apostle that he is.  In verses 4-8, he ticks off 24 conditions that constitute his apostolic credentials (following NRSV punctuation).  

Then comes this magnificent climax (in the New Jerusalem Bible translation): 

 

[We are] taken for impostors and yet we are genuine;

unknown and yet we are acknowledged;

dying, and yet here we are, alive;

scourged but not executed;

in pain yet always full of joy;

poor and yet making many people rich;

having nothing, and yet owning everything.  (Verses 8-10.) 

The world presents floods of hardships and waves of troubles to these apostles struggling to keep the ship of faith afloat.  Yet, dying they are still alive, poor they make many rich. 

Mark 4:35-41.  

The Gospel reading takes Jesus and the disciples from teaching the people in parables to battling the elements for a mission beyond the sea.  Our passage is the story of Jesus calming the storm.  It is a delightful piece of narrative, with nice touches of detail – such as the other boats that are with him (verse 36). 

It is, however, clearly a symbolic narrative.  The wind (anemos here, not pneuma) and the sea are the elements of chaos against creation. 

Review.  In Mark so far, Jesus has carried healing and hope into the villages of Galilee (1:21-45), brought opposition from religious authorities out into the open (2:1-3:6), organized the disciples in the face of opposition (3:7-35), and made the first attempts to teach the meaning of the kingdom of God (4:1-34).  Now, a kind of new departure occurs as they launch into the deep for their next level of engagement between the Spirit and the works of evil. 

Jesus sets out on the lake with the disciples.  The waves roar up to threaten the little ark like the waves of chaos in the psalms of God’s enthronement – “the floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring” (Psalm 93:3, NRSV). 

After he calms all with his words of peace, Jesus says to the terrified disciples, “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?” (verse 40) – as if to say, Don’t you remember the rest of the psalm?  

“More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters,

      more majestic than the waves of the sea, 

      majestic on high is the Lord!"   

The work of the Lord moves onward to cross this troubled sea. 

June 16, 2024 -- 4th Sunday after Pentecost

                                             Biblical Words                                         [886]

I Samuel 15:34-16:13; Psalm 20; II Corinthians 5:6-17; Mark 4:26-34.

God’s reign moves secretly toward great outcomes, claiming both bodies and hearts.  

I Samuel 15:34-16:13.  

The reading from the Historical Books takes us to the second episode concerning the emergence of kingship in Israel.  This topic is mostly about David, who is the central figure of the books of Samuel after I Samuel 16. 

This is the anointing of David.  A main emphasis in this story is on God’s knowledge of the inner character of persons.  This includes the always-surprising truth that the least likely candidate may be the best. 

Samuel is sent on a secret mission to Bethlehem, knowing that a new king is in the making.  Bethlehem is a small town and Jesse with his several strong sons is clearly the leading figure in the community.  Samuel's coming is a scary thing to the local people, who come trembling to ask “Do you come peaceably?” (verse 4, NRSV).  The entire episode bears an aura of covert action and mystery.  God is up to something in the midst of devious human circumstances. 

As the ceremonies progress, Jesse’s eldest son is introduced and Samuel is sure this handsome and impressive young man must be God’s choice for the next king.  God’s response is, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, …for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (verse 7). 

The selection process continues until all candidates have been rejected.  The person sought is not present!  There must be someone else – somewhere.  Jesse finally reports that there is one youngest son who only does shepherd duties, not yet having reached warrior status.  When this handsome teenager has been brought, God says, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one” (verse 12).  

Anointing is something that happens to the body, but it signifies an inner state of divine charisma.  The figure of destiny for Israel has been selected, and David becomes the Anointed One of God. 

Psalm 20. 

The Psalm reading is an emphatic and unambiguous royal psalm. 

It is a liturgical response by an Israel that believed and hoped completely in the Anointed One who ruled in Yahweh’s name from Zion.  It is at once a prayer and a confession of faith that God will hear the king in times of danger, will accept his offerings, and will give him victory. 

The psalm keeps perspective, however, by affirming that victory comes from relying on God, not on superior chariots. 

II Corinthians 5:6-17.  

The Epistle reading presents, on a more profound level, the theme that God knows the inner being and that worldly appearances are not what count.  Here too, anointing happens to the body, but it signifies an inner state of divine empowerment. 

First, concerning bodily life.  In the larger context Paul has said, “Even though our outer nature is wasting away [we are getting older], our inner nature is being renewed day by day” (II Corinthians 4:16, NRSV).  He goes on to refer to bodily life as “being at home in the body”; but if we are “at home” in the body, we are at the same time “away from the Lord” (verse 6). 

Clearly being “at home” in the body is not just a physical condition; it is also an attitude.  It is the attitude of investing this life with our hopes and confidence.  Those who live by faith “would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (verse 8). 

The distinction between “at home” and “away” in relation to the body is not just future; it is present, in the experience of ecstasy (which literally means “standing outside [oneself]”).  Ecstasy is what Paul refers to when he says, “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you” (verse 13). 

Having ecstatic experiences is like speaking in tongues.  It may be great for the person having the experience, but it is not constructive for the community (see I Corinthians 14:1-6).  On the other hand, bodily life is necessary to the reality of personal existence with God.  It is life lived in the body that stands before the Lord in the last judgment (verse 10), and it was in the body that Jesus made the sacrifice that offered release from sin for all people (verses 14-15). 

Nevertheless, life beyond the body is so important that Paul asserts that everyone should be viewed in that way all the time.  “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view [literally “according to flesh”]; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.  So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation...” (verses 16-17). 

Life in the body has transcendent meaning because it is what we are before God.  Life in the body is the whole person continually related to the ultimate requirement and grace of the Holy One. 

Mark 4:26-34.  

As the Gospel readings continue in Mark, we come to the chapter on parables (4:1-34). 

In the Parable of the Growing Seed (verses 26-29) a comparison is made to the kingdom of God.  “The kingdom of God IS as if someone would scatter seed…”  The comparison does not equate the kingdom with the seed, nor with the “man” (the “someone” of NRSV) who sows and harvests the seed.  The comparison is not even with the earth that grows the seed after the man forgets about it. 

As we move through the brief parable, the subjects of the verbs keep shifting.  First the man scatters seed and goes about his daily business; then the seed sprouts and grows; then the earth “produces of itself” stalk, head, and full grain; then the grain has ripened; and finally “he” extends a sickle to cut the grain for the harvest.  There is no single actor here; there is a succession of actors, and all of their actions add up to one EVENT. 

The event is the grain growing from seed to harvest, full cycle. 

The kingdom of God is like a process that goes from seed to harvest.  The long middle part of this process – the growing – is the work of the seed and the earth.  It goes on by itself (the Greek word in verse 28 is automatē, as in our word “automatic”).  At the critical point, the grain is ripe, the harvest is ready. 

The question to the hearer of the parable is, Where are we in the process?  Has the grain fully ripened?  Is it yet time for the harvest?  Those are the questions the parable is intended to inspire about the imminent coming and presence of the kingdom of God. 

In the Parable of the Mustard Seed (verses 30-32) there is also a comparison to the kingdom of God.  “With what can we compare the kingdom of God…  It is like a mustard seed…” 

The marvelous thing about the mustard seed is also that it represents a process of growing and maturing.  When sown it “is the smallest of all the seeds on earth”; yet it becomes “the greatest of all shrubs.”  It is so grand that it imitates the world-tree.  It “puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade” (compare Ezekiel 17:23). 

Both the grain and the mustard seed are fast growing plants.  Things move right along, whether the humans around pay attention or not.  And they move toward an end, toward a climax.  The grain gets ripe – and after that it will rot in the field if not harvested.  The mustard bush gets very large, supporting many bird homes.  Their growth is INEVITABLE, and when it is complete, something must happen! 

The kingdom of God is at hand; it is at a climax.  There is no putting it off to a more convenient time.  That, undoubtedly, is the punch line of these two parables, in Jesus’ time – and since.  

 

June 9, 2024 -- 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

                              Biblical Words                                          [885]

I Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15); Psalm 138; II Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35. 

God’s Reign outlasts human kings, the death of mortals, and plunders the house of the Strong Man.

I Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15). 

All of the books of Samuel and Kings are about kingship in Israel and Judah: 

·        how kingship itself emerged in Israel,

·        how the particular kingship of David and his dynasty was selected,

·        how the one kingdom split into two, and (at great length)

·        how those smaller kingdoms struggled until each was destroyed by great empires of the east – understood as God’s judgment on the unfaithful Israelite rulers and their realms. 

In the macro-vision spanning all scripture, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were an interruption in the kingship of Yahweh over Israel. 

If Israel had remained faithful after the death of Joshua (see Joshua 24) there would have been no need for kingship; Israel would have prospered and endured.  At the other end of the history, hundreds of years later, in the modest days of the Persian Empire, the little temple-state of Yehud (Judah) was ruled by high-priests faithful to Yahweh, and they needed no kings to complicate their favor from their Persian overlords.  The glory days of David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah were only an interlude in the true reign of God, the Theocracy in which Yahweh alone was King. 

Our reading.  The selections from I Samuel present the first stage of that Theocratic viewpoint.  

The Israelites demand a king, “so that we also may be like other nations” (verse 20).  The Israelites are, of course, rejecting the leadership of Samuel in this request, and when Samuel consults Yahweh, Yahweh says, in effect, “Don’t take it to heart.  They have been rejecting me like this for generations, ever since I brought them out of Egypt” (verse 8). 

(On the various Biblical presentations of Samuel, see below, Special Note:   Samuel and the Theocracy.) 

However, this is the moment in history when Yahweh is going to let the Israelites go their own way:  Let them have their kingship, only be sure you tell them how oppressive it is going to be, so later they will know they brought this misery on themselves (the gist of verses 9 and 18). 

In these verses we are hearing only one side of the argument, of course.  Throughout Israelite history, till at least the time of Ezra, there seems to have been two views on kingship:  For it, and against it.  The “against” voice is heard in I Samuel 8 and some verses of 10 and 12; in later readings we will also hear the voice “for” kingship! 

Psalm 138. 

The psalm reading is unrestrained praise of Yahweh, whose reputation extends throughout the world (known to “the gods,” as well as to “all the kings of the earth,” verses 1 and 4). 

Even though the psalm heading says “of David,” given our reading above we may fancy that this psalm is Samuel’s speech, raising high his swan song with Yahweh: 

We (You, Yahweh, and I) have done well; when I called you answered (verse 3). 

We know these rebellious Israelites are in for a bad run, and we know the theocracy was a good thing for them.  For what has been, I greatly thank you, and celebrate your world-wide reputation – even if the unwise Israelites do not recognize what a good thing they have had! 

II Corinthians 4:13-5:1. 

The Epistle reading is about personal resurrection -- the greatest change in God’s rule over the faithful from the glory times of Israel to the faithful service of the Jesus followers.  (The Old Testament does not have belief in resurrection -- with one late exception in Daniel 12:2.) 

The reading starts out in the middle of some arguments, but soon moves to a very powerful focus:  we hear a couple of the strongest affirmations in the New Testament of the future resurrected life of the believer! 

"We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence.... For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."  (Verses 14 and 5:1, NRSV.) 

It is not often acknowledged in Christian writings, but this emphatic and very confident faith in the resurrection was the result of Paul’s rearing and faith as a Pharisee! 

The Pharisees were the first religious party to insist as a basic doctrine of faith that the faithful would be resurrected to a future life.  Paul, and eventually all other Jesus followers, accepted that doctrine as a basic presupposition of the religious life.  (See the words of Jesus in Luke 12:4-5, = Matthew 10:28.)  

It was, however, a new thing in the religious universe of the Judaism of the Roman period.  (The Sadducees, for example, did not believe in the resurrection.)  The belief in the resurrection was the gift of the Pharisees to all later Judaism and Christianity! 

All Christian Biblical scholars, who think the doctrine of the personal resurrection of the believer is an important matter, should read a chapter in Ellis Rivkin’s book, The Shaping of Jewish History (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971; reissued, with expansions, under the title,  The Unity Principle, by Behrman House, 2003).  The chapter to read is, “The Pharisaic Revolution:  A Decisive Mutation” (pp. 42-83 in Scribner’s ed., pp. 49-99 in Behrman ed.). 

Here is one critical quotation from that chapter: 

For this was the essence of the Pharisaic revolution:  God offered the individual, through the system of the twofold Law, eternal life in the world to come, and eventually bodily resurrection; this was the reward for loyalty to the twofold Law.  By this shift in sanctions the Pharisees transformed Judaism [from a priestly religion of temple and rituals] into a religion of personal, individual salvation.  (Page 53, Scribner’s ed.) 

Long before he met Jesus, Paul learned of the resurrection from his Pharisee teachers. 

Mark 3:20-35. 

The Gospel reading presents two moments when the Reign of God appears among people.  The people (even Jesus’ family) think Jesus, the bearer of God’s power, is either crazy or demon-possessed!  

This is a long passage with two main parts:  the framing narrative about Jesus’ family (verses 21, 31-35), and the confrontation with the Jerusalem scribes about the source of Jesus’ power over evil spirits (verses 22-30). 

Jesus’ family.  The passage says Jesus went “home” (verse 19b, NRSV).  This is probably Peter’s house in Capernaum rather than Nazareth.  Jesus’ only venture back to Nazareth was rather a failure, as Mark reports it (6:1-6).  He probably understands Jesus’ family to travel a day’s journey up to Jesus’ base of mission, only to be snubbed because of Jesus’ main priority, the will of God (verse 35). 

Being relatives of a Messiah could be a very trying experience! 

Beelzebul (Satan).  But the main message of the passage is about the new power Jesus brings.  Confronted with amazing healings and exorcisms of demonic powers, the authorities of Judaism up in Jerusalem have to come up with some PR to put down the new provincial faith healer.  They do not deny his power!  Instead, they ascribe it to the Evil One.  This new man is not from God; he is in cahoots with Satan!  

“Beelzebul” was already an old title.  An Elijah story going back seven hundred years before Jesus refers to “Ba‘al-zebub,” Lord of the Flies (II Kings 1:2).  That version of the name was a deliberate Israelite distortion of the title “Ba‘al-zebul,” Lord of the Boundary (Realm), an honorable name of a god of healing in the Philistine city of Ekron. 

It may be noted that Mark says Jesus replied to these accusers “in parables” (verse 23).  Jesus says, in effect, If you are going to use the language of mythology to talk about my power and the demonic world, I will also use figurative language to answer you. 

Jesus’ reply is probably more famous because Abraham Lincoln quoted it than because it is scripture:  “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.  And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come” (verses 25-26, NRSV). 

The point is that Satan’s “house” has been assaulted.  “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered” (verse 27).  An escape of prisoners from the house of the Evil One has begun, and a procession of escapees is following Jesus in great joy and thankfulness (see verse 20) – even if his family does think he is crazy! 

People may say they are waiting for God’s reign instead of for human rulers, but do they really know what to expect? 

 

Special Note:  Samuel and the Theocracy

Those who wish to read the scriptures as consistent and harmonious in their several parts have a special challenge with Samuel.  He simply acts differently and reflects quite different viewpoints in different parts of I Samuel.  He does not hang together as a consistent historical agent, much less as a comprehensible personality. 

There are in fact about five Samuels, each with his own strand of traditional material in the book of First Samuel. 

First there is Samuel the “seer” or “man of god” who is locally famous for giving divine guidance on human problems, such as finding lost donkeys (I Samuel 9:5-10:7).  The reciter of this strand of tradition carefully explains, “for the one who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer” (I Samuel 9:9).  This Samuel can be directed by God to anoint future kings, though always secretly (I Samuel 10:1 and 16:1-13), and he may be associated with guilds of “prophets” noted for their ecstatic outbursts (besides I Samuel 10:5-6, see especially 19:18-24). 

The Second Samuel is the priest, trained at the prominent sanctuary of Shiloh in the tribal territory of Ephraim.  This is the Samuel of Hannah’s vow, which makes Samuel part of the resident staff under the head priest Eli (I Samuel 1-2).  His priestly role is also emphasized later at Mizpah (Benjamin territory), though his cultic actions there are mingled with his figure as a “judge” (I Samuel 7:7-9). 

Third is Samuel the prophet.  In one sense the Seer is a prophet (as the first reciter told us), but in I Samuel 3 we get Samuel as a prophet distinguished from others and given a special message from Yahweh.  (Like most prophetic “calls” in Israelite tradition, this “call narrative” is in fact a divine sanction of a particular message, not simply of special powers for the prophet.)  The message Samuel was impelled to deliver from the night-speaking God was that the “house” of Eli the priest was doomed (I Samuel 3:10-14). 

While the Prophetic Samuel starts at Shiloh in continuity with the old priesthood, the mature prophet Samuel is associated with Ramah and a circuit of towns related to it, all of which are in the territory of Benjamin (I Samuel 7:15-17).  This prophetic Samuel is on his way to being the king-maker of the rest of I Samuel, though the Deuteronomistic traditionists (collectors of the traditions in Joshua to II Kings) undoubtedly built upon an older prophetic image of Samuel. 

The Fourth Samuel is the construction of the Deuteronomistic traditionists.  This is the figure of the king-maker who was guided by Yahweh in detail in conceding that Israel could have kings and in sanctioning the new kings by anointing them, as well as in dooming the disobedient Saul and his dynasty (I Samuel 8, 10:17-25; 12, and 15). 

This is Samuel the agent of the Theocracy. 

Probably related to this king-maker Samuel, and definitely a Deuteronomistic construction, is the Fifth Samuel, the “judge” as presented in I Samuel 7.  That chapter presents Samuel as a perfect (and final) “judge” in line with the Deuteronomistic theory of judges (Judges 2:11-23). 

This Samuel delivers the Israelites from the Philistines (by doing the liturgy, not by leading in battle) and they have perfect peace for twenty years.  (There may have been older views of Samuel as an actual judge for the local people, with a judicial circuit and sons expected to succeed him, I Samuel 7:16-8:3.  This, however, was no more than a hook for the fully blown “judge” of the finished chapter 7.) 

This is the final exaltation of the Theocracy – of rule by God instead of by humans.  On this view, all that Israel needs is the right man as “judge” on Yahweh’s side (such as the high priest in the time of the Persian empire).  Given this, any request to have “a king like all the nations” can only be perverse and wicked disloyalty to God!