Who Interprets Faithfully?

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Friar Musings

Salvation Has Come: Questions on Resurrection (continued)

The Question. “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ ²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. ³⁰Then the second ³¹and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. ³²Finally the woman also died. ³³Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.”

The Sadducees are attempting to destroy Jesus’ credibility by raising the question of who interprets Moses faithfully, as they seek to demonstrate the alleged unreasonableness of faith in the resurrection of the dead, which Jesus shares. The starting point of the question concerns levirate marriage. Continue reading →

Sadducees and Resurrection

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Friar Musings

Salvation Has Come: Questions on Resurrection (continued)

Luke 20:28-40: ²⁷Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to him, ²⁸saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ ²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. ³⁰Then the second ³¹and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. ³²Finally the woman also died. ³³Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” ³⁴Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; ³⁵but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. ³⁷That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; ³⁸and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” ³⁹Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” ⁴⁰And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

Commentary. In the opening verse Luke introduced the Sadducees and that they did not believe in the resurrection. Both of these ideas need some background Continue reading →

Salvation Has Come: Questions on Resurrection

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Friar Musings

Context. Last week’s gospel, the encounter with Zacchaeus, was the last personal encounter prior to Jesus’ arrival at Jerusalem. Since early in the summer Jesus has been traveling to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) and now has finally arrived. Yet there is much that the Ordinary Time sequence passes over between the Sunday gospels Continue reading →

Finding the Lost…and then what?

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Friar Musings

Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector and a wealthy man. In his day and age these were not things that would endear him to his fellow Jews. Zacchaeus worked for the occupying Roman government, extorted taxes and fees from his own countrymen, and became wealthy in the process. He was not part of the Roman world. He was not part of the Jewish world. He is betwixt and between. He is lost

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” The story of Jesus and Zacchaeus is a story of the seeker encountering the lost. And in that encounter, what was lost is found. A heart was changed. The one whose choices in life led to exclusion from his people and family seems to have made an abrupt about-face. Choices were being unmade and consequences of choices were bring undone. Continue reading →

Jesus and Zacchaeus – Saving What Was Lost

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Friar Musings

Luke 19:1-10. ¹He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. ²Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, ³was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. ⁵When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” ⁶And he came down quickly and received him with joy. ⁷When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” ⁸But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” ⁹And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

Salvation. Jesus’ words in v. 9 are literally: “Today salvation has happened to/in this house(hold), because also this one is a son of Abraham.” Continue reading →

A Warning About Cheap Grace

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Friar Musings

The story of the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus is always seen as a moment of grace. Is it possible to be too gracious? Should Jesus have told Zacchaeus to straighten up his act before he invited himself to his house? Couldn’t Jesus’ actions have been interpreted as condoning the tax collector’s sinfulness? Isn’t that the accusation against the Christian Churches of Germany after WWII? Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship) at the advent of WWII wrote famously on “cheap grace.” Continue reading →

Jesus and Zacchaeus – Conversion

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Friar Musings

Zacchaeus’ Speech. Zacchaeus, in spite of his reputation, is an attractive person. In our brief meeting, qualities akin to those of Peter emerge. Zacchaeus is spontaneous and impetuous, given to extravagant statements. But there is a deep genuineness. Though he is a person of some importance, his position does not prevent him from climbing the sycamore tree nor from publicly admitting his guilt and professing his repentance. Jesus says this is a son of Abraham, even if he is a tax collector. He should not be ostracized because of his failings but helped to find his way back to the flock. Continue reading →

Jesus and Zacchaeus – Seeing and Salvation Comes

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Friar Musings

Luke 19:1-10. ¹He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. ²Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, ³was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. ⁵When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” ⁶And he came down quickly and received him with joy. ⁷When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” ⁸But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” ⁹And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

Commentary. At first glance we might expect this to be another parable challenging the rich. The rich have not fared well in Luke’s gospel. Jesus pronounces woes upon the rich (6:24). God called the rich farmer a fool (12:16, 20) and required his soul of him. The rich man went to Hades while Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham, and Jesus observed how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven (18:23, 25). Zacchaeus is a “wealthy man” (19:2) Continue reading →

Jesus and Zacchaeus – Context

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Friar Musings

Context. A long section of the Gospel of Luke is passed over as we move from the 30^th to the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C:

18:15-17 The Little Children
18:18-25 The Rich Ruler
18:26-30 The Demands of Discipleship
18:31-34 The Third Passion Prediction
18:35-43 The Blind Beggar

For many weeks the Sunday gospels have been accounts are that are unique to Luke. At the beginning of his narrative of the journey to Jerusalem (9:51), Luke departed from the outline of Mark and began introducing material from sources either personal or common to Matthew and himself. At this point Luke begins to follow Mark again. The paragraphs below provide a very brief description of these passages: Continue reading →

Finishing the Race

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Friar Musings

“Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.” Well, I sure hope this parable isn’t addressed to me. It is just a story, a parable, right?

But then stories and parables invite us to identify with characters – even if we don’t get a lot of choices here. We can be the Pharisee, but then it’s pretty clear that’s not a great choice. You can almost hear the hubris, the pride, and the scorn in his prayer: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous – or even like this tax collector.”

I suspect most of us would favor the tax collector. He seems to be the epitome of humility, is sincere, prayerful, and a model of conversion and penitence. Continue reading →

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