Here is the final Bible Study summary in our study of John's Gospel. Our next study will be "A New Kind of Christianity" by Brian D. McLaren (2010) HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY. Further information about the study will appear shortly. Keep checking the web page - we'll post details as soon as they are fixed.
Peace, Linda
As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.
Background reading to study # 14- Written That You May Believe, chapter 14.
The Gospel of John #14 – Contemplation and Ministry 08.26.10
Chapter 21 is an addition – a redaction. Chapter 20:30-31 appears to be the original ending to the Gospel. The first twenty chapters were probably written around 90-95 CE, the final chapter perhaps around ten years later. What could have happened in this period to warrant the introduction of this material?
Chapter 21 accepts the pastoral ministry of Peter, but recognizes that it comes with a cost. It hints at two very different concepts of how Christian community should be. The Jerusalem-based Petrine Church and the non-hierarchical Johannine community. The chapter recognizes the role of Peter but also validates the Johannine relationship. It advocates a kind of co-existence.
Chapter 21 of John demonstrates the tension between the figures of Peter and the Beloved Disciple. The Beloved Disciple is not identified with any particular person. The figure is left empty of identifiers so that the reader may enter into that space. The Beloved Disciple recognizes the Lord before Peter. He is the primary proclaimer of the gospel message. While Peter has pastoral authority, he is secondary to the Beloved Disciple – dependent on his/her witness.
So what is this rivalry about? For Schneiders the thematic at work is the tension between Ministry and Contemplation. Ministry is exemplified by the pastoral role of Peter (this passage where Jesus tells him to “feed my sheep” is the source of the word “pastor”); the Contemplative - that is the immediate vision and receptivity to Jesus shown by the Beloved Disciple – stands in contrast to this. Schneiders, therefore, separates the contemplative and the active.
Peter is a leader of men. The disciples follow him. He is to be a “fisher of men” and hauls in the net alone(v.11). The 153 fish represent all the then known nations of the world. By the time that the Gospel was completed, Peter had already emerged as a symbolic, heroic, hierarchical figure following his martyred death in the persecution of Nero in 63-65 CE. Jesus asks Peter three times “Do you love me?” This seems to refer to Peter’s three denials of Jesus in chapter 18, but also points to something more. Jesus is addressing the person who is to become the figure representing the authority and leadership of the established church. He asks him “Do you [really] love me?” It is a question addressed to all Christians in positions of power.
The Peter of the Gospels emerges as one who is more comfortable with the idea of the triumphant Messiah. He rebukes Jesus when he says he has to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die (Mt 16:22). He wants to build a booth for Jesus on the mountain after his transfiguration (Mt 17:4), to create a monument. He is willing to fight to protect Jesus at his arrest – cutting off the ear of the high priest’s slave (Jn 18:10). In John 13:6 he initially refuses to have Jesus wash his feet. For Peter, the holy and powerful is to be kept out of the dirt of world and Jesus’ action turns his world upside down. It upsets the worldly order.
Jn 21: 18-19 has Jesus telling Peter “When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go”. He is indicating the martyrdom of Peter who was traditionally crucified upside down in Rome. Peter’s heroic martyrdom cemented his position as symbolic leader. Peter asks what will happen to the Beloved Disciple, will he also suffer? Jesus replies “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” The word for “remain” is the same as that translated “abide”, found in Chapter 15 in the discourse about the vine and branches. The word has intense significance.
“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete”.
The Beloved Disciple is asked to abide until Jesus comes. To abide in his love. In the intensity of today’s violent, media-driven world, we also need this relationship with Jesus. The institutions are no longer enough to counter the violence (undifferentiation) of the world. The institutions are in decline and Christians are seeking a new monasticism that merges ministry and contemplation. The Johannine message is rising up with more relevance. Jesus calls us into relationship that will stand even if the institutions fail. Peter is going to die, but the “beloved disciple” will abide/remain.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
John #13
Apologies for the late posting of these next two Bible Study Summaries, both of which have a resurrection theme. Peace, Linda
As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written that you may believe: Encountering Jesus in the fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.
Background reading to study # 13- Written that you may believe chapter 13 -14.
The Gospel of John #13 – Mary Magdalene 08.19.10
Mary Magdalene is the foundational witness in the Gospel of John. Mary Magdalene is not mentioned by name before the crucifixion scene in 19:25. In John she is the sole first witness of the resurrection. In Matthew and Mark she is one of the women who go to the empty tomb, and in Matthew one of a group who see the Risen Jesus (28:8-10) but in John she is the first and only witness. (The longer ending in Mark echoes and seems to get its information from John.) This also contrasts with the account written by Paul in 1 Cor 15:3-8. This is a report of the resurrection that Paul received - a report of the tradition that dates from about three or four years after the death of Jesus. It is a very primitive narrative. In this Jesus appears first to Cephas (Peter) then to the Twelve, then to more than five hundred “adelphoi” – translated either as “brothers” or “brothers and sisters”. In this account the foundational witness is to men recognized as the officials of the church.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark (longer ending) and John represent a different tradition that goes against the official version. (Luke has the two disciples walking to Emmaus as the first witnesses – though on their return they hear that Jesus has already appeared to Peter. In this Luke belongs to the tradition that accepts the primacy of Peter). The fact that an alternative, and counterintuitive version even exists in the tradition gives it credence. It is just so unlikely that such an account, centering on women, would have been created by design. It is therefore more likely to be true.
John boils it down to one woman thus radicalizing the Matthew tradition. Like other figures in John, Mary Magdalene is a person with whom the reader can identify and whose story brings us into relationship with Jesus. So Mary Magdalene is both a named historical figure who also has a paradigmatic role. The primary purpose of the Gospel is to achieve this relationship– it is “written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (Jn 20:31). The author is interested in leading the reader to a point of connection. John’s account is not an official formula like Paul’s – rather it ends with a relationship. For John relationship trumps authority.
In Jn 20:11-18 Jesus finds Mary Magdalene grieving and in distress compounded by thoughts that his body has been desecrated. He asks her “Whom are you looking for?” This evokes the call of the disciples in Jn 1:38 “What are you looking for?” The disciples in chapter one address him as “Rabbi” (1:38). When Jesus speaks Mary’s name she replies “Rabbouni” which means dear teacher – a relational term of affection. This also echoes chapter 10 when Jesus, as shepherd to his flock, calls each of his sheep by name.
Literary evidence points to a rivalry between Mary Magdalene and Peter as primary witness. Many of the Gnostic gospels, for example, display this rivalry. In part their rejection by orthodoxy can be attributed to this. The Magdalene strand was not suppressed completely and has been preserved in Matthew, Mark and most particularly by John. This is important for the church today as the sacred order is collapsing around us. Both Catholic and Protestant churches have adopted the male, hierarchical, Petrine tradition (even those with women ministers). The Magdalene foundational witness is feminine, non-legal, non-hierarchical and relational. It points not to Peter (hierarchy), not even to faith, but relationship of love as the new primordial foundation.
Unlike the Synoptics, John’s Gospel does not have a glorious resurrection or ascension passage. For John Jesus’ passion and death is his glorification. Resurrection is not a dramatic reversal or divine vindication, but a communication of the glorification that has already taken place. The resurrection appearances explore through the disciples’ encounters the effect and meaning of Jesus’ glorification. Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life” not “I am the resurrected one”. His glory is the possibility that we might enter into resurrected life through relationship with him.
In Jn 20:11 it is till dark, painting a predawn obscurity. The tomb is placed in a garden by John, and Jesus is mistaken as the gardener. This evokes the Garden of Eden and the image of a new creation. Mary peers into the tomb. This verb is used just three times in the New Testament – twice in John and the third time by Luke in a passage probably borrowed from John. It is the same word used in the Septuagint Song of Songs to describe the action of the lover who peers into the window searching for her beloved. (Song of Songs2:9). The garden backdrop and the peering evoke the Song of Songs – a hymn of the covenant love between Israel and YHWH which was read at the Passover. The Song of Songs is secular erotic love poetry which at the time of Jesus had been validated as part of the tradition. It was recognized as an allegory of the love relationship between God and his people.
Mary Magdalene (the beloved) searches for her lover. Earlier, in the same chapter, the Beloved Disciple also peered in the tomb (same verb) looking for Jesus. Jesus is the lover who has given himself completely. The story seeks to rebuild the relationship lost in Eden. Mary Magdalene as “woman” becomes a paradigm for the Johannine community, the church, the new people of God who are seeking this relationship.
In v. 17 Jesus says “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and say to them ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’”. This has traditionally been interpreted as Jesus not wanting Mary to touch him because he is in some mystical place between this world and the next and he does not want her to interfere with his leaving the physical realm. This dualist understanding does not fit with Johannine theology which understands Jesus as already glorified through his crucifixion. He has not yet ascended because the fullness of his glorification is realized only when everyone has been told about it. Mary Magdalene is the primordial witness to this new intensity of relationship, but it cannot remain exclusive to her. The discovery of how to love must be shared. The prohibition is against making an exclusive relationship – go and tell my brothers and sisters! The discovery of how to be a true lover must be shared. The full realization of his glory comes through all people entering into a love relationship with Jesus. (See Jn 17:10 “All mine are yours and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them” and Jn 12:32 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”)
Mary is told to deliver a message to the disciples – now siblings with Jesus. The quotation marks added by modern editors seem to give Mary the role of secretary. “Say to them ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ ” makes it seem as though Jesus is referring to the Father and God of his brothers alone. If these quotation marks are removed (they would not have existed in the Greek) then the God and Father belong to Mary and the disciples collectively and the message relates first to her. Jesus uses the present tense “I am ascending”. He is still ascending to his Father. Until the whole world accepts Jesus and enters into this relationship modeled by Mary his ascension is not complete.
As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written that you may believe: Encountering Jesus in the fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.
Background reading to study # 13- Written that you may believe chapter 13 -14.
The Gospel of John #13 – Mary Magdalene 08.19.10
Mary Magdalene is the foundational witness in the Gospel of John. Mary Magdalene is not mentioned by name before the crucifixion scene in 19:25. In John she is the sole first witness of the resurrection. In Matthew and Mark she is one of the women who go to the empty tomb, and in Matthew one of a group who see the Risen Jesus (28:8-10) but in John she is the first and only witness. (The longer ending in Mark echoes and seems to get its information from John.) This also contrasts with the account written by Paul in 1 Cor 15:3-8. This is a report of the resurrection that Paul received - a report of the tradition that dates from about three or four years after the death of Jesus. It is a very primitive narrative. In this Jesus appears first to Cephas (Peter) then to the Twelve, then to more than five hundred “adelphoi” – translated either as “brothers” or “brothers and sisters”. In this account the foundational witness is to men recognized as the officials of the church.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark (longer ending) and John represent a different tradition that goes against the official version. (Luke has the two disciples walking to Emmaus as the first witnesses – though on their return they hear that Jesus has already appeared to Peter. In this Luke belongs to the tradition that accepts the primacy of Peter). The fact that an alternative, and counterintuitive version even exists in the tradition gives it credence. It is just so unlikely that such an account, centering on women, would have been created by design. It is therefore more likely to be true.
John boils it down to one woman thus radicalizing the Matthew tradition. Like other figures in John, Mary Magdalene is a person with whom the reader can identify and whose story brings us into relationship with Jesus. So Mary Magdalene is both a named historical figure who also has a paradigmatic role. The primary purpose of the Gospel is to achieve this relationship– it is “written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (Jn 20:31). The author is interested in leading the reader to a point of connection. John’s account is not an official formula like Paul’s – rather it ends with a relationship. For John relationship trumps authority.
In Jn 20:11-18 Jesus finds Mary Magdalene grieving and in distress compounded by thoughts that his body has been desecrated. He asks her “Whom are you looking for?” This evokes the call of the disciples in Jn 1:38 “What are you looking for?” The disciples in chapter one address him as “Rabbi” (1:38). When Jesus speaks Mary’s name she replies “Rabbouni” which means dear teacher – a relational term of affection. This also echoes chapter 10 when Jesus, as shepherd to his flock, calls each of his sheep by name.
Literary evidence points to a rivalry between Mary Magdalene and Peter as primary witness. Many of the Gnostic gospels, for example, display this rivalry. In part their rejection by orthodoxy can be attributed to this. The Magdalene strand was not suppressed completely and has been preserved in Matthew, Mark and most particularly by John. This is important for the church today as the sacred order is collapsing around us. Both Catholic and Protestant churches have adopted the male, hierarchical, Petrine tradition (even those with women ministers). The Magdalene foundational witness is feminine, non-legal, non-hierarchical and relational. It points not to Peter (hierarchy), not even to faith, but relationship of love as the new primordial foundation.
Unlike the Synoptics, John’s Gospel does not have a glorious resurrection or ascension passage. For John Jesus’ passion and death is his glorification. Resurrection is not a dramatic reversal or divine vindication, but a communication of the glorification that has already taken place. The resurrection appearances explore through the disciples’ encounters the effect and meaning of Jesus’ glorification. Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life” not “I am the resurrected one”. His glory is the possibility that we might enter into resurrected life through relationship with him.
In Jn 20:11 it is till dark, painting a predawn obscurity. The tomb is placed in a garden by John, and Jesus is mistaken as the gardener. This evokes the Garden of Eden and the image of a new creation. Mary peers into the tomb. This verb is used just three times in the New Testament – twice in John and the third time by Luke in a passage probably borrowed from John. It is the same word used in the Septuagint Song of Songs to describe the action of the lover who peers into the window searching for her beloved. (Song of Songs2:9). The garden backdrop and the peering evoke the Song of Songs – a hymn of the covenant love between Israel and YHWH which was read at the Passover. The Song of Songs is secular erotic love poetry which at the time of Jesus had been validated as part of the tradition. It was recognized as an allegory of the love relationship between God and his people.
Mary Magdalene (the beloved) searches for her lover. Earlier, in the same chapter, the Beloved Disciple also peered in the tomb (same verb) looking for Jesus. Jesus is the lover who has given himself completely. The story seeks to rebuild the relationship lost in Eden. Mary Magdalene as “woman” becomes a paradigm for the Johannine community, the church, the new people of God who are seeking this relationship.
In v. 17 Jesus says “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and say to them ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’”. This has traditionally been interpreted as Jesus not wanting Mary to touch him because he is in some mystical place between this world and the next and he does not want her to interfere with his leaving the physical realm. This dualist understanding does not fit with Johannine theology which understands Jesus as already glorified through his crucifixion. He has not yet ascended because the fullness of his glorification is realized only when everyone has been told about it. Mary Magdalene is the primordial witness to this new intensity of relationship, but it cannot remain exclusive to her. The discovery of how to love must be shared. The prohibition is against making an exclusive relationship – go and tell my brothers and sisters! The discovery of how to be a true lover must be shared. The full realization of his glory comes through all people entering into a love relationship with Jesus. (See Jn 17:10 “All mine are yours and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them” and Jn 12:32 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”)
Mary is told to deliver a message to the disciples – now siblings with Jesus. The quotation marks added by modern editors seem to give Mary the role of secretary. “Say to them ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ ” makes it seem as though Jesus is referring to the Father and God of his brothers alone. If these quotation marks are removed (they would not have existed in the Greek) then the God and Father belong to Mary and the disciples collectively and the message relates first to her. Jesus uses the present tense “I am ascending”. He is still ascending to his Father. Until the whole world accepts Jesus and enters into this relationship modeled by Mary his ascension is not complete.
John #12
As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus In The Fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.
Background reading to study # 12- Written That You May Believe chapter 12.
The Gospel of John #12 – Seeing and Believing 08.12.10
This study is of the passage found in Jn 20:1-10 –the account of Peter and the Beloved Disciple at the empty tomb. Mary discovers the empty tomb and runs to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple. The Beloved Disciple outruns Peter, reaching the tomb first. Peter enters the tomb and sees the linen wrappings lying there with the head cloth rolled up in a place by itself.The Beloved Disciple enters, sees and believes.
The Beloved Disciple is never named. He (or she) is a literary construct that allows the reader to enter into the narrative by associating with the figure. The Beloved Disciple represents the Christians of the Johannine community – the model Christian. The Beloved Disciple reaches the tomb ahead of Peter. This is mentioned three times. The text acknowledges that there is a rivalry between Peter and the Beloved Disciple (which is also evident in chapter 21). While Peter enters the tomb first, the Beloved Disciple reaches the tomb first and is the first to believe.
The Beloved Disciple has looked inside and seen the linen cloths, but when he enters the tomb the head cloth is also visible. What is it about the head cloth that promotes this belief?
Schneiders makes a connection between the face cloth and the veil that Moses puts aside after coming down the mountain, having seen God. In the same way Jesus puts aside the veil of his flesh in the resurrection. He puts aside the world to go to his Father. The head cloth symbolically represents this. However this seems to buy into a dualist theology that is not Johannine. Here Schneiders reverts to an old metaphysics that is incongruent with the rest of the Gospel. For Schneiders the face cloth is a sign, a sign that creates belief. However if this is so, it is not an effective one because it points outside this world. Jesus’ other signs in John (for example water, healing, bread and light) are immediate, physical and take place in the world. Here (according to Schneiders) the sign points to an Old Testament textural reference to suggest a metaphysical reality.
So what is the significance of the head cloth? Often it is depicted as a flat piece of cloth placed over the face of Jesus (like a smaller version of the shroud of Turin). In the Lazarus story in Jn 11:44 there is mention of a similar cloth: “The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘unbind him, and let him go.’” This cloth (and the head cloth of Jesus) was likely a cloth wrapped around the face and jaw to stop the jaw dropping and staying fixed that way because of rigor mortis. This practice is still used today when laying out a corpse to make the corpse more presentable for viewing by the family.
This head cloth was not just dropped with the rest of the linen cloths but “rolled up (or around) in a place by itself”. This implies that it was deliberately wrapped up and placed by someone. Or, it could mean it retained its form from the head and was simply taken off and set aside. In any case it suggests Jesus took the wrapping off himself. Someone removing the body would surely not have taken the time to remove his linen cloths – or if they had (in order to create the illusion of resurrection) would not have thought to have carefully placed the face cloth in a separate place. In other words this seems simply another Johannine realist detail that goes with faith in a transformed human world. And in this case the belief of the Beloved Disciple comes simply because he has come to a position where he is required to make a leap of faith. Circumstantial evidence can bring you to a certain point, but belief cannot be arrived at through logic or reason alone. It is his personal relationship with and knowledge of Jesus that tips the balance.
Nevertheless it happens in a real world. For the Beloved Disciple the head cloth is the phenomenological sign that leads him to believe. For Thomas it is touching Jesus’ wounds, for Mary Magdalene it is hearing Jesus call her by name. Each person has a different process of relating to the new reality which is the resurrection.
Background reading to study # 12- Written That You May Believe chapter 12.
The Gospel of John #12 – Seeing and Believing 08.12.10
This study is of the passage found in Jn 20:1-10 –the account of Peter and the Beloved Disciple at the empty tomb. Mary discovers the empty tomb and runs to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple. The Beloved Disciple outruns Peter, reaching the tomb first. Peter enters the tomb and sees the linen wrappings lying there with the head cloth rolled up in a place by itself.The Beloved Disciple enters, sees and believes.
The Beloved Disciple is never named. He (or she) is a literary construct that allows the reader to enter into the narrative by associating with the figure. The Beloved Disciple represents the Christians of the Johannine community – the model Christian. The Beloved Disciple reaches the tomb ahead of Peter. This is mentioned three times. The text acknowledges that there is a rivalry between Peter and the Beloved Disciple (which is also evident in chapter 21). While Peter enters the tomb first, the Beloved Disciple reaches the tomb first and is the first to believe.
The Beloved Disciple has looked inside and seen the linen cloths, but when he enters the tomb the head cloth is also visible. What is it about the head cloth that promotes this belief?
Schneiders makes a connection between the face cloth and the veil that Moses puts aside after coming down the mountain, having seen God. In the same way Jesus puts aside the veil of his flesh in the resurrection. He puts aside the world to go to his Father. The head cloth symbolically represents this. However this seems to buy into a dualist theology that is not Johannine. Here Schneiders reverts to an old metaphysics that is incongruent with the rest of the Gospel. For Schneiders the face cloth is a sign, a sign that creates belief. However if this is so, it is not an effective one because it points outside this world. Jesus’ other signs in John (for example water, healing, bread and light) are immediate, physical and take place in the world. Here (according to Schneiders) the sign points to an Old Testament textural reference to suggest a metaphysical reality.
So what is the significance of the head cloth? Often it is depicted as a flat piece of cloth placed over the face of Jesus (like a smaller version of the shroud of Turin). In the Lazarus story in Jn 11:44 there is mention of a similar cloth: “The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘unbind him, and let him go.’” This cloth (and the head cloth of Jesus) was likely a cloth wrapped around the face and jaw to stop the jaw dropping and staying fixed that way because of rigor mortis. This practice is still used today when laying out a corpse to make the corpse more presentable for viewing by the family.
This head cloth was not just dropped with the rest of the linen cloths but “rolled up (or around) in a place by itself”. This implies that it was deliberately wrapped up and placed by someone. Or, it could mean it retained its form from the head and was simply taken off and set aside. In any case it suggests Jesus took the wrapping off himself. Someone removing the body would surely not have taken the time to remove his linen cloths – or if they had (in order to create the illusion of resurrection) would not have thought to have carefully placed the face cloth in a separate place. In other words this seems simply another Johannine realist detail that goes with faith in a transformed human world. And in this case the belief of the Beloved Disciple comes simply because he has come to a position where he is required to make a leap of faith. Circumstantial evidence can bring you to a certain point, but belief cannot be arrived at through logic or reason alone. It is his personal relationship with and knowledge of Jesus that tips the balance.
Nevertheless it happens in a real world. For the Beloved Disciple the head cloth is the phenomenological sign that leads him to believe. For Thomas it is touching Jesus’ wounds, for Mary Magdalene it is hearing Jesus call her by name. Each person has a different process of relating to the new reality which is the resurrection.
Monday, August 23, 2010
John #11
Find below the next Bible Study summary - a reminder that older summaries can now be found using the Present Study tab on the home page. - Linda
As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus In The Fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.
Background reading to study # 11- Written that you may believe chapter 10.
The Gospel of John #10 – The Community of Eternal Life (Part 2) 07/29/10
In John’s gospel the raising of Lazarus is the event that precipitates the arrest of Jesus. In the Synoptics this event is the clearing of the Temple (Mk 11:15-33). Jesus has just entered Jerusalem in triumph, enters the sacred space, drives out the money changers and stops the sacrifices. He demonstrates his charismatic and political power. He holds the people spellbound.
In Mk 11: 25-26 Jesus says “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses”. He says this in the context of the temple – the place where people go to make themselves right with God. It becomes his rationale for shutting the temple down. There is no need for sacrifice or offerings – it is in forgiving your enemies that your offences against God will be forgiven.
In John this same event is placed at the beginning of the Gospel. (Jn 2:13-23). In v. 18 the authorities ask him for a sign that proves his right to clear the temple. Jesus replies, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. John is signaling that the key sign of the Gospel is going to be the resurrection. From the very start of his ministry John indicates that the new life that Jesus brings replaces the need for the temple and sacrifice.
The raising of Lazarus is the last act of Jesus’ ministry in John’s Gospel. It holds the same place as the clearing of the temple in the Synoptics and is linked in the gospel of John to the clearing of the temple passage in chapter 2. Both take place at the time of Passover. In both cases (2:23 and 11: 45) many come to believe in Jesus because of his signs/what had been seen. Both passages are concerned with resurrection and life.
In Jn 11:25 Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”. Jesus substitutes himself for the temple because he offers the endless life of forgiveness. When in chapter 2 he talks of destroying this temple and the comment says he is talking of his body– he does not mean the temple of his body in the modern moral sense of this phrase. He means that in his person he has replaced the temple, through forgiveness. The sign that he gives for this will be resurrection – endless life.
Forgiveness makes you vulnerable. To forgive means to open oneself to violence. Humanly speaking it is almost impossible to overcome our instinct for survival. If someone is really threatening my life I cannot let them do it unless I am convinced that my life is somehow secure. Jesus combines forgiveness and life through the promise of resurrection. We are set free to forgive and live.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life because of forgiveness. Fundamentalists, zealots and extremists are OK with dying for their cause, without having to forgive. They are looking to escape this life for a martyr’s paradise. Resurrection is about a belief in renewed life here in this life. Lazarus is the sign of this resurrection. Resurrection implies forgiveness and vice versa. Unless Jesus had forgiven he would not have risen. And without his trust in the Father and his hope in resurrection, he could not have forgiven so completely. Without the resurrection, Jesus’ project would have failed.
Jesus also changes our relationship with God through forgiveness. There is no more need for sacrifice. Temples are human constructs where negotiation takes the place of forgiveness. It is a place where the holy can be contained and controlled. In abolishing the temple we no longer have control.
Lazarus was dead for four days, Jesus was raised after three. The early Christians associated themselves with Lazarus – like him we will follow Jesus’ resurrection and be raised on “the fourth day”. Resurrection allows Christians to see death differently. It is no longer the definitive end of life. Nor is it the separation of spirit to another realm. Rather it is like a long exhale – while we wait to inhale again. It is like we do not actually die - “everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”. It is a negation of death. A Christian doesn’t expect to die. Forgiveness brings us fullness of life. Resurrection is therefore not a reward, but the natural consequence of forgiveness.
As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus In The Fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.
Background reading to study # 11- Written that you may believe chapter 10.
The Gospel of John #10 – The Community of Eternal Life (Part 2) 07/29/10
In John’s gospel the raising of Lazarus is the event that precipitates the arrest of Jesus. In the Synoptics this event is the clearing of the Temple (Mk 11:15-33). Jesus has just entered Jerusalem in triumph, enters the sacred space, drives out the money changers and stops the sacrifices. He demonstrates his charismatic and political power. He holds the people spellbound.
In Mk 11: 25-26 Jesus says “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses”. He says this in the context of the temple – the place where people go to make themselves right with God. It becomes his rationale for shutting the temple down. There is no need for sacrifice or offerings – it is in forgiving your enemies that your offences against God will be forgiven.
In John this same event is placed at the beginning of the Gospel. (Jn 2:13-23). In v. 18 the authorities ask him for a sign that proves his right to clear the temple. Jesus replies, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. John is signaling that the key sign of the Gospel is going to be the resurrection. From the very start of his ministry John indicates that the new life that Jesus brings replaces the need for the temple and sacrifice.
The raising of Lazarus is the last act of Jesus’ ministry in John’s Gospel. It holds the same place as the clearing of the temple in the Synoptics and is linked in the gospel of John to the clearing of the temple passage in chapter 2. Both take place at the time of Passover. In both cases (2:23 and 11: 45) many come to believe in Jesus because of his signs/what had been seen. Both passages are concerned with resurrection and life.
In Jn 11:25 Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”. Jesus substitutes himself for the temple because he offers the endless life of forgiveness. When in chapter 2 he talks of destroying this temple and the comment says he is talking of his body– he does not mean the temple of his body in the modern moral sense of this phrase. He means that in his person he has replaced the temple, through forgiveness. The sign that he gives for this will be resurrection – endless life.
Forgiveness makes you vulnerable. To forgive means to open oneself to violence. Humanly speaking it is almost impossible to overcome our instinct for survival. If someone is really threatening my life I cannot let them do it unless I am convinced that my life is somehow secure. Jesus combines forgiveness and life through the promise of resurrection. We are set free to forgive and live.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life because of forgiveness. Fundamentalists, zealots and extremists are OK with dying for their cause, without having to forgive. They are looking to escape this life for a martyr’s paradise. Resurrection is about a belief in renewed life here in this life. Lazarus is the sign of this resurrection. Resurrection implies forgiveness and vice versa. Unless Jesus had forgiven he would not have risen. And without his trust in the Father and his hope in resurrection, he could not have forgiven so completely. Without the resurrection, Jesus’ project would have failed.
Jesus also changes our relationship with God through forgiveness. There is no more need for sacrifice. Temples are human constructs where negotiation takes the place of forgiveness. It is a place where the holy can be contained and controlled. In abolishing the temple we no longer have control.
Lazarus was dead for four days, Jesus was raised after three. The early Christians associated themselves with Lazarus – like him we will follow Jesus’ resurrection and be raised on “the fourth day”. Resurrection allows Christians to see death differently. It is no longer the definitive end of life. Nor is it the separation of spirit to another realm. Rather it is like a long exhale – while we wait to inhale again. It is like we do not actually die - “everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”. It is a negation of death. A Christian doesn’t expect to die. Forgiveness brings us fullness of life. Resurrection is therefore not a reward, but the natural consequence of forgiveness.
America!
I began writing the following piece before this latest item of news hit our screens, and when it did I went back and finished it: Gainesville, Florida, the Dove World Outreach Center has announced a Burn Quran Day, planning the burning of the Quran to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks…
America, fearful freaking America. A great big beautiful country occupied by a beautiful people occupied in turn by an ideology of absolute selfhood and absolute violence to defend it.
America, named after Amerigo who circumnavigated the twin continents, wrapping them in a single act of imagination, and now that imagination, or its northern half, grips the earth like a fearful vice.
America, America, when will you see that you are the most Christian of nations, the most Christianly sick, the most full up with half-cooked, failed and poisoned Christianity? You had no Middle Ages, no chorus of cathedrals, no network of monasteries, no begging bowls of friars. Of course, yes, there were abuses in all that, we know that and have heard it many times. But there was also mutuality, community, an experiencing of the self as stand-in for the other. The self in its deepest self as already the other, as simply (an)other other…the precondition for love. From where did the American absolute self come from?
And now we have a church burning the Quran, the most absolute of gestures against the other, to erase their words. And not just any words but words which belong to a billion and a half people, a huge communal other whose voice this “Dove World” church wishes to erase. For those for whom the bible is an authoritative book there may even be a verse that might seem to encourage the burning of the scriptures of others. But what I do know is that the founder of Christianity, Jesus who told us actually how to read our bible, said this: “Woe to the world because of scandals [i.e. violent behaviors that cause mental or emotional falling down in others—the mimetic contagion of violence]. Scandals are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the scandal comes” (Matt. 18: 7); “If anyone compels you to go one mile [read military forces with power of empressment, i.e. any violent force which constrains us] go two miles with him” (Matt. 5:41); “You have heard that it was said ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I say to you, love your enemies” (Matt. 5: 43-44).
In fact Jesus is the one who has made the absolute self impossible, again and again making the hidden, despised, hated other return to view, and thereby hangs the deep sickness of Christianity, its deep internal self-hatred and anger. The only way the Christian self can uphold itself in absolute terms is through the backing of an ultimate Absolute Self, God, the One who crushes the other with absolute impunity, Jesus included. Where did this so-called Christian God come from? It came from the dark side of the Middle Ages which constructed its theology out of metaphysics and feudal violence and which North American Christianity has no problem inheriting. God, the Father of Jesus, needed some place to put his terminal violence in response to sin, so he put it on his Son. Even so is absolute violence toward the other built in to the Christian thought of things. Even so does the Christian God crush its Jesus!
But no matter how we kill the other to establish the self, the other returns to challenge it. And, again, it does so expressly because of Jesus—patiently, subversively, irresistibly working to overturn formal Christianity—through his teaching and above all rising from the dead and vindicating every victim of our violence. All violence is bad faith (i.e. just as much our own issue as to do with the one we’re attacking) because Jesus has shown it to be so. But it is worst faith when it is Christian violence.
American Christians will never be happy and America itself will never be happy unless it accepts a God who is as profoundly accepting and loving of the other as Jesus was. A God who gives and forgives out of the well of his/her own self-for-other (the Trinity!), not out of any supposed objective order of justice and compensation. After all what would a truly just God do, settle accounts with sin by an answering violence, or change the roots of our humanity so sin, and violence, may no longer exist?
America, fearful freaky America, crammed out with bombs and guns and people itching to employ them, let it all go! Surrender your famous super self, your righteousness and private salvation. Hand yourself over to your brother, your sister, without reserve, without fear!
America, named after Amerigo who circumnavigated the twin continents, wrapping them in a single act of imagination, you are always talking about Jesus, now is the time to let your imagination be his!
Tony
America, fearful freaking America. A great big beautiful country occupied by a beautiful people occupied in turn by an ideology of absolute selfhood and absolute violence to defend it.
America, named after Amerigo who circumnavigated the twin continents, wrapping them in a single act of imagination, and now that imagination, or its northern half, grips the earth like a fearful vice.
America, America, when will you see that you are the most Christian of nations, the most Christianly sick, the most full up with half-cooked, failed and poisoned Christianity? You had no Middle Ages, no chorus of cathedrals, no network of monasteries, no begging bowls of friars. Of course, yes, there were abuses in all that, we know that and have heard it many times. But there was also mutuality, community, an experiencing of the self as stand-in for the other. The self in its deepest self as already the other, as simply (an)other other…the precondition for love. From where did the American absolute self come from?
And now we have a church burning the Quran, the most absolute of gestures against the other, to erase their words. And not just any words but words which belong to a billion and a half people, a huge communal other whose voice this “Dove World” church wishes to erase. For those for whom the bible is an authoritative book there may even be a verse that might seem to encourage the burning of the scriptures of others. But what I do know is that the founder of Christianity, Jesus who told us actually how to read our bible, said this: “Woe to the world because of scandals [i.e. violent behaviors that cause mental or emotional falling down in others—the mimetic contagion of violence]. Scandals are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the scandal comes” (Matt. 18: 7); “If anyone compels you to go one mile [read military forces with power of empressment, i.e. any violent force which constrains us] go two miles with him” (Matt. 5:41); “You have heard that it was said ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I say to you, love your enemies” (Matt. 5: 43-44).
In fact Jesus is the one who has made the absolute self impossible, again and again making the hidden, despised, hated other return to view, and thereby hangs the deep sickness of Christianity, its deep internal self-hatred and anger. The only way the Christian self can uphold itself in absolute terms is through the backing of an ultimate Absolute Self, God, the One who crushes the other with absolute impunity, Jesus included. Where did this so-called Christian God come from? It came from the dark side of the Middle Ages which constructed its theology out of metaphysics and feudal violence and which North American Christianity has no problem inheriting. God, the Father of Jesus, needed some place to put his terminal violence in response to sin, so he put it on his Son. Even so is absolute violence toward the other built in to the Christian thought of things. Even so does the Christian God crush its Jesus!
But no matter how we kill the other to establish the self, the other returns to challenge it. And, again, it does so expressly because of Jesus—patiently, subversively, irresistibly working to overturn formal Christianity—through his teaching and above all rising from the dead and vindicating every victim of our violence. All violence is bad faith (i.e. just as much our own issue as to do with the one we’re attacking) because Jesus has shown it to be so. But it is worst faith when it is Christian violence.
American Christians will never be happy and America itself will never be happy unless it accepts a God who is as profoundly accepting and loving of the other as Jesus was. A God who gives and forgives out of the well of his/her own self-for-other (the Trinity!), not out of any supposed objective order of justice and compensation. After all what would a truly just God do, settle accounts with sin by an answering violence, or change the roots of our humanity so sin, and violence, may no longer exist?
America, fearful freaky America, crammed out with bombs and guns and people itching to employ them, let it all go! Surrender your famous super self, your righteousness and private salvation. Hand yourself over to your brother, your sister, without reserve, without fear!
America, named after Amerigo who circumnavigated the twin continents, wrapping them in a single act of imagination, you are always talking about Jesus, now is the time to let your imagination be his!
Tony
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
John #10
Here is the next Bible Study Summary. Tony presents the material each week. I take notes during the study and of the related group discussion. This summary is my interpretation and ordering of those notes. All but the most recently posted study are now located together under the new "Present Study" tab located on the home page. I will continue to post the most current study here on the blog page. Peace, Linda
This week’s study includes a general look at the women in the Gospels. It does not bear directly on the Lazarus story, but is made up in large part of the evening’s conversation. Our Lazarus study continues next week…
As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus In The Fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.
Background reading to study # 10- Written that you may believe chapter 10.
The Gospel of John #10 – The Community of eternal life (Part 1) 07.22.10
We have been using Schneider’s book to provide a framework for understanding John’s Gospel. Her process is to first explore the text as literature, then historically, theologically and finally spiritually. Like in much of the Gospel, she sees the author as having constructed most of the narrative in Chapter 11. While there seems to be a traditional oral source for the story of the raising of Lazarus, it is also clearly marked by Johannine theology and concerns. It is the highly constructed culmination of the Book of Signs. It marks the turning point in the Gospel that leads to Jesus’ arrest. In the Synoptics this event is the (historically more likely) closing down of the temple sacrifices. For John, the raising of Lazarus is the event that makes Jesus untenable for the Jewish authorities. Chapter 12 is a bridging chapter that leads to the Book of Glory. There the anointing by Mary points to Jesus’ death, and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to his resurrection. The Book of Glory begins in Chapter 13 with the events leading up to the Passover.
At John 11:2 there is a reference to an event that has not yet happened (Mary’s anointing of Jesus). This implies a strong familiarity with the oral tradition within the Johannine community. Jesus travels to Bethany after hearing that Lazarus is ill. Lazarus is the brother of Martha and Mary. Martha is not a proper name rather it is a word that means “mistress of the home” or “Lady”. It is the feminine of maran (as in maranatha “come Lord”). Mary could be Mary Magdalene – who was named for a place “Mary of Magdala” rather than the more usual “daughter of x” (bath). The Mary in John 11 could have lived as a “sister” to the lady of the house in Bethany. Mary of Magdala is mentioned first by name in Jn 19:25 and then appears in the resurrection accounts. The logic is that it is highly unlikely there would be two Marys of such critical intimacy to Jesus, one to anoint him prior to his passion, the other to be first witness of the resurrection.
Mary is Jesus’ disciple – she sits at the feet of Jesus (Lk 10:38-42). Jesus defends Mary’s decision in a society that excluded women from taking this role. In John 12:1-8 it is Mary who anoints Jesus as Messiah – again breaking the rules. In Jn 11:17 it is Martha who meets Jesus on the road to Bethany. She says, “Lord if you had been here…,” and then goes on to say “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him”. She instigates a conversation (like the Samaritan woman at the well) that leads to one of Jesus’ crucial “I am” sayings: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (v.25-26).
At the time of the Gospel’s composition Christians were dying. A lot of the original witnesses had also died. It was a contemporary concern – the meaning of death in a post-resurrection world. They had expected Jesus to return soon, had not expected to have to deal with death. This passage helps understand the meaning of death – that even if you die, you don’t die.
Martha declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. This is equivalent to the declaration by Peter at Caesarea Philippi in Matthew. It is the most developed confession in the fourth Gospel. Again it gives pivotal status to a woman.
Martha goes home and calls Mary using the words “the teacher is here” (v.28) underscoring Mary’s role as disciple. When Mary Magdalene greets Jesus in the Garden after his resurrection she calls him “Rabbouni” which means “beloved teacher”. This might be another indication that Mary of Bethany is in fact Mary Magdalene. Mary goes quickly to greet Jesus repeating Martha’s words “Lord if you had been here…” She kneels at his feet (reminiscent of sitting at his feet). Unlike Martha who makes a powerful theological statement, Mary weeps. Jesus is “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” (v.33). It is at this point, rather than after the big doctrinal statement, that he is moved to raise Lazarus.
Mary models human anguish and Jesus enters into her pain. The raising of Lazarus is not just the story of overcoming death, but of human anguish, the catastrophe of death and separation. Mary is the representative figure who brings Jesus into this space, in the same way that she appropriates the role of anointer. Her tears anoint him into the human condition and his role within it.
The Gospel Women
It is not easy to get all of the women (especially the Marys) in the Gospels straight. Mary was a prestigious, and therefore common name - Miriam being the sister of Moses. At the cross Mary of Bethany is not mentioned, however, Mary Magdalene is. In Jn 19:25 standing at the cross are “his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene”. Mary the wife of Clopas could be the other of the two disciples mentioned in the post-resurrection account found in Luke 24:18 (the walk to Emmaus), one of whom is called Cleopas. “The one of them whose name was Cleopas, answered him…” It is possible, even likely, that the second disciple was his wife – Mary.
Luke does not mention the women around the cross – but after the resurrection they are listed as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women. (Lk 24:10). Joanna is the wife of Herod’s steward (Luke 8:1-3) and Mary the mother of James refers to Jesus’ mother, Mary. James was known as the “brother of the Lord” by the early church. Mary is not named as Jesus’ mother by Luke because Jesus’ teaching in the Synoptic Gospels was so fiercely against giving any prestige to his birth family, both because of the character of the kingdom and possibly as a way of deflecting any attempts at building a family dynasty. Mary is also named as the mother of Jesus’ brothers in Mark 15:40 “Mary the mother of James the younger and Joses”. Compare also Mk 6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” Only in John’s Gospel is Mary clearly named as Jesus’ mother. John uses Mary to illustrate the crucial importance of women to Jesus, making use of the natural role and prestige of a woman close to him, his mother. However, for John she is a powerfully symbolic figure, representing “woman”, i.e. the earth, wisdom, femininity. This is signaled by Jesus calling her “woman” rather than “mother”.
Jesus’ mother Mary became prominent in the 4th and 5th centuries. This was related to the theological arguments that were occurring at that time – was Jesus considered to be God after his baptism (when the spirit alighted upon him – “adoptionism”) or from the womb? Orthodox Christianity concluded that his divinity was integral to his humanity – that it was not an added layer – and must therefore have been present from the beginning. Mary therefore began to be known as the “Mother of God”. It was a doctrinal decision that attempted to uphold the true divinity of Jesus connected to his humanity– but it had the effect of making Mary less human and more divine. The later doctrine of the Immaculate Conception cemented this.
In John 8: 2-11 there is the account of the woman caught in adultery. The earliest Greek manuscripts do not include the story. It appeared to have been a free-floating account that was eventually placed at this point in John’s Gospel (probably because of John’s sympathy for women) in the 5th century. It has a different writing style, however, and may actually fit better in Luke 21. Traditionally the woman has been associated with Mary Magdalene (from whom “seven demons had gone out” Lk 8:2) but there is no scriptural evidence for this.
This week’s study includes a general look at the women in the Gospels. It does not bear directly on the Lazarus story, but is made up in large part of the evening’s conversation. Our Lazarus study continues next week…
As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus In The Fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.
Background reading to study # 10- Written that you may believe chapter 10.
The Gospel of John #10 – The Community of eternal life (Part 1) 07.22.10
We have been using Schneider’s book to provide a framework for understanding John’s Gospel. Her process is to first explore the text as literature, then historically, theologically and finally spiritually. Like in much of the Gospel, she sees the author as having constructed most of the narrative in Chapter 11. While there seems to be a traditional oral source for the story of the raising of Lazarus, it is also clearly marked by Johannine theology and concerns. It is the highly constructed culmination of the Book of Signs. It marks the turning point in the Gospel that leads to Jesus’ arrest. In the Synoptics this event is the (historically more likely) closing down of the temple sacrifices. For John, the raising of Lazarus is the event that makes Jesus untenable for the Jewish authorities. Chapter 12 is a bridging chapter that leads to the Book of Glory. There the anointing by Mary points to Jesus’ death, and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to his resurrection. The Book of Glory begins in Chapter 13 with the events leading up to the Passover.
At John 11:2 there is a reference to an event that has not yet happened (Mary’s anointing of Jesus). This implies a strong familiarity with the oral tradition within the Johannine community. Jesus travels to Bethany after hearing that Lazarus is ill. Lazarus is the brother of Martha and Mary. Martha is not a proper name rather it is a word that means “mistress of the home” or “Lady”. It is the feminine of maran (as in maranatha “come Lord”). Mary could be Mary Magdalene – who was named for a place “Mary of Magdala” rather than the more usual “daughter of x” (bath). The Mary in John 11 could have lived as a “sister” to the lady of the house in Bethany. Mary of Magdala is mentioned first by name in Jn 19:25 and then appears in the resurrection accounts. The logic is that it is highly unlikely there would be two Marys of such critical intimacy to Jesus, one to anoint him prior to his passion, the other to be first witness of the resurrection.
Mary is Jesus’ disciple – she sits at the feet of Jesus (Lk 10:38-42). Jesus defends Mary’s decision in a society that excluded women from taking this role. In John 12:1-8 it is Mary who anoints Jesus as Messiah – again breaking the rules. In Jn 11:17 it is Martha who meets Jesus on the road to Bethany. She says, “Lord if you had been here…,” and then goes on to say “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him”. She instigates a conversation (like the Samaritan woman at the well) that leads to one of Jesus’ crucial “I am” sayings: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (v.25-26).
At the time of the Gospel’s composition Christians were dying. A lot of the original witnesses had also died. It was a contemporary concern – the meaning of death in a post-resurrection world. They had expected Jesus to return soon, had not expected to have to deal with death. This passage helps understand the meaning of death – that even if you die, you don’t die.
Martha declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. This is equivalent to the declaration by Peter at Caesarea Philippi in Matthew. It is the most developed confession in the fourth Gospel. Again it gives pivotal status to a woman.
Martha goes home and calls Mary using the words “the teacher is here” (v.28) underscoring Mary’s role as disciple. When Mary Magdalene greets Jesus in the Garden after his resurrection she calls him “Rabbouni” which means “beloved teacher”. This might be another indication that Mary of Bethany is in fact Mary Magdalene. Mary goes quickly to greet Jesus repeating Martha’s words “Lord if you had been here…” She kneels at his feet (reminiscent of sitting at his feet). Unlike Martha who makes a powerful theological statement, Mary weeps. Jesus is “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” (v.33). It is at this point, rather than after the big doctrinal statement, that he is moved to raise Lazarus.
Mary models human anguish and Jesus enters into her pain. The raising of Lazarus is not just the story of overcoming death, but of human anguish, the catastrophe of death and separation. Mary is the representative figure who brings Jesus into this space, in the same way that she appropriates the role of anointer. Her tears anoint him into the human condition and his role within it.
The Gospel Women
It is not easy to get all of the women (especially the Marys) in the Gospels straight. Mary was a prestigious, and therefore common name - Miriam being the sister of Moses. At the cross Mary of Bethany is not mentioned, however, Mary Magdalene is. In Jn 19:25 standing at the cross are “his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene”. Mary the wife of Clopas could be the other of the two disciples mentioned in the post-resurrection account found in Luke 24:18 (the walk to Emmaus), one of whom is called Cleopas. “The one of them whose name was Cleopas, answered him…” It is possible, even likely, that the second disciple was his wife – Mary.
Luke does not mention the women around the cross – but after the resurrection they are listed as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women. (Lk 24:10). Joanna is the wife of Herod’s steward (Luke 8:1-3) and Mary the mother of James refers to Jesus’ mother, Mary. James was known as the “brother of the Lord” by the early church. Mary is not named as Jesus’ mother by Luke because Jesus’ teaching in the Synoptic Gospels was so fiercely against giving any prestige to his birth family, both because of the character of the kingdom and possibly as a way of deflecting any attempts at building a family dynasty. Mary is also named as the mother of Jesus’ brothers in Mark 15:40 “Mary the mother of James the younger and Joses”. Compare also Mk 6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” Only in John’s Gospel is Mary clearly named as Jesus’ mother. John uses Mary to illustrate the crucial importance of women to Jesus, making use of the natural role and prestige of a woman close to him, his mother. However, for John she is a powerfully symbolic figure, representing “woman”, i.e. the earth, wisdom, femininity. This is signaled by Jesus calling her “woman” rather than “mother”.
Jesus’ mother Mary became prominent in the 4th and 5th centuries. This was related to the theological arguments that were occurring at that time – was Jesus considered to be God after his baptism (when the spirit alighted upon him – “adoptionism”) or from the womb? Orthodox Christianity concluded that his divinity was integral to his humanity – that it was not an added layer – and must therefore have been present from the beginning. Mary therefore began to be known as the “Mother of God”. It was a doctrinal decision that attempted to uphold the true divinity of Jesus connected to his humanity– but it had the effect of making Mary less human and more divine. The later doctrine of the Immaculate Conception cemented this.
In John 8: 2-11 there is the account of the woman caught in adultery. The earliest Greek manuscripts do not include the story. It appeared to have been a free-floating account that was eventually placed at this point in John’s Gospel (probably because of John’s sympathy for women) in the 5th century. It has a different writing style, however, and may actually fit better in Luke 21. Traditionally the woman has been associated with Mary Magdalene (from whom “seven demons had gone out” Lk 8:2) but there is no scriptural evidence for this.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Hot Love
The earth is cooking and no one can turn down the gas. That seems the necessary conclusion from this sizzling summer. 2010 is on track to be the hottest year on record, measuring average temperatures of both land and ocean.
Temperatures to date are 1.22 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th-century average (figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association). In June the temperature map for the continents showed hot weather pretty much everywhere, which is unusual. Moscow is experiencing a prolonged heatwave with temperatures constantly in the nineties, while smoke from wildfires in the surrounding countryside create an apocalyptic event, obscuring the sun and making the air unbreathable. Carbon monoxide levels have been six times above safe concentrations. Elsewhere a giant ice sheet broke away from a major glacier in Greenland, an enormous frozen pizza four times the size of Manhattan and over sixty stories thick. As it floats south its melt water is adding volume to the ocean equivalent to the annual outflow of a major river.
Here in upstate New York it has been hot but there is also another geophysical feature that grabs attention and underlines the significance of all this. The landscape here is marked dramatically by the last ice age, with deep long gouges in the earth indicating the paths of the great glaciers. The neighborhood in Syracuse known as “The Valley” is actually the physical product of an enormous glacier, and you can follow its spectacular path miles farther to the south along Route 81. The great ice rivers melted and retreated roughly ten thousand years ago, a mere blink-of-an-eye on the geological timeline but of immense importance to humankind. It was during this brief breathing space that agriculture and civilization developed and virtually all established culture defining who we now are and how we live as a race. Our current human experiment emerges in an astonishingly narrow frame of time, and seeing it in this way means three things.
First, time truly time is of the essence. Everything for us has always happened in an accelerated manner and the biblical urgency that “now is the favorable moment” and “walk while you have the light” is founded in anthropological fact. We have relatively very little time in which to find our meaning and peace as an intelligent life form. Second, geophysical factors strongly shape this narrow frame of time. Jesus himself used meteorological examples when he told the Pharisees to read the signs of the times (“You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky...", Matt.15:3), as if he already connected the weather and the general human crisis he was confronting. Third—and against the first two—it is now an absolutely typical arrogance of our dominant culture almost completely to ignore this intimate connection and instead see itself in divine and metaphysical terms separated from the earth and from time itself.
Even as they jacked up the AC in their paneled rooms the Senate blocked any form of climate legislation this session. Meanwhile down in the Gulf if there ever was a sign for the times here was one. The venting of 4.9 million barrels of oil from the broken stack was run continually on national TV, like some horrible sci.fi. spigot of grease for basting and roasting our planet in its own built-in oven dish. Surely it should have impressed our body-souls with how borderline our situation truly is. But no, the metaphysics of greed and wealth have trumped all realism and truth. What can possibly restore good sense?
Only love. You can argue the facts of climate change until you’re sweating and superheated yourself but that only fuels the reactive vigor of metaphysics. We are beyond justice and good sense. But, in deeper truth, care for the planet is rooted in love, in Jesus’ loving wisdom of flowers-more-glorious-than-Solomon and birds cared for by the Father. A Christian community living intentionally in the Holy Spirit will restore the planet each and every time it loves. Only love overcomes metaphysics. Only love contains its own built-in environment in which everything can live and is already fully alive. Therefore, the rising red in the thermometer requires an equally rising vein of charity. For every degree of heat the planet goes up we are inspired to create a new angle of love, an added degree of love for each person, for our enemies, for ourselves. We cannot know how this will affect things, how it will redeem the planet from its present crisis. But we can be sure that love hopes and believes all things. And, in addition, love from the Holy Spirit is a prism in which we can already see the earth green and crystalline as in the eye of God, as God created it to be. We can be sure that this earth will one day exist, that this is how the actual earth will be, because the eye of love never blinks.
Temperatures to date are 1.22 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th-century average (figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association). In June the temperature map for the continents showed hot weather pretty much everywhere, which is unusual. Moscow is experiencing a prolonged heatwave with temperatures constantly in the nineties, while smoke from wildfires in the surrounding countryside create an apocalyptic event, obscuring the sun and making the air unbreathable. Carbon monoxide levels have been six times above safe concentrations. Elsewhere a giant ice sheet broke away from a major glacier in Greenland, an enormous frozen pizza four times the size of Manhattan and over sixty stories thick. As it floats south its melt water is adding volume to the ocean equivalent to the annual outflow of a major river.
Here in upstate New York it has been hot but there is also another geophysical feature that grabs attention and underlines the significance of all this. The landscape here is marked dramatically by the last ice age, with deep long gouges in the earth indicating the paths of the great glaciers. The neighborhood in Syracuse known as “The Valley” is actually the physical product of an enormous glacier, and you can follow its spectacular path miles farther to the south along Route 81. The great ice rivers melted and retreated roughly ten thousand years ago, a mere blink-of-an-eye on the geological timeline but of immense importance to humankind. It was during this brief breathing space that agriculture and civilization developed and virtually all established culture defining who we now are and how we live as a race. Our current human experiment emerges in an astonishingly narrow frame of time, and seeing it in this way means three things.
First, time truly time is of the essence. Everything for us has always happened in an accelerated manner and the biblical urgency that “now is the favorable moment” and “walk while you have the light” is founded in anthropological fact. We have relatively very little time in which to find our meaning and peace as an intelligent life form. Second, geophysical factors strongly shape this narrow frame of time. Jesus himself used meteorological examples when he told the Pharisees to read the signs of the times (“You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky...", Matt.15:3), as if he already connected the weather and the general human crisis he was confronting. Third—and against the first two—it is now an absolutely typical arrogance of our dominant culture almost completely to ignore this intimate connection and instead see itself in divine and metaphysical terms separated from the earth and from time itself.
Even as they jacked up the AC in their paneled rooms the Senate blocked any form of climate legislation this session. Meanwhile down in the Gulf if there ever was a sign for the times here was one. The venting of 4.9 million barrels of oil from the broken stack was run continually on national TV, like some horrible sci.fi. spigot of grease for basting and roasting our planet in its own built-in oven dish. Surely it should have impressed our body-souls with how borderline our situation truly is. But no, the metaphysics of greed and wealth have trumped all realism and truth. What can possibly restore good sense?
Only love. You can argue the facts of climate change until you’re sweating and superheated yourself but that only fuels the reactive vigor of metaphysics. We are beyond justice and good sense. But, in deeper truth, care for the planet is rooted in love, in Jesus’ loving wisdom of flowers-more-glorious-than-Solomon and birds cared for by the Father. A Christian community living intentionally in the Holy Spirit will restore the planet each and every time it loves. Only love overcomes metaphysics. Only love contains its own built-in environment in which everything can live and is already fully alive. Therefore, the rising red in the thermometer requires an equally rising vein of charity. For every degree of heat the planet goes up we are inspired to create a new angle of love, an added degree of love for each person, for our enemies, for ourselves. We cannot know how this will affect things, how it will redeem the planet from its present crisis. But we can be sure that love hopes and believes all things. And, in addition, love from the Holy Spirit is a prism in which we can already see the earth green and crystalline as in the eye of God, as God created it to be. We can be sure that this earth will one day exist, that this is how the actual earth will be, because the eye of love never blinks.
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