SECOND SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS – JANUARY 3, 2010
John on December 19, 2009 in January 3 2010, Lectionary, Year C | No Comments »[AUTHOR’S NOTE: We have the unusual opportunity of choosing between several lessons celebrating distinctive aspects of the liturgical and secular calendars: The Second Sunday after Christmas; The Holy Name of Jesus; and The New Year. All three sets of lessons are set out below.]
JEREMIAH 31:7-14. Scholars tell us that this passage contains ideas not found in Jeremiah’s prophecies, but which are very prominent in Isaiah 40-66, the work of an unknown prophet or his followers during the exile in Babylon. It promises Israel’s return from exile in many foreign lands and the re-establishment of the nation to everyone’s joy and prosperity. This redemptive action will result from nothing other than God’s gracious goodness.
PSALM 147:12-20. The second of five Hallelujah psalms which close the Psalter celebrates the special relationship Israel had with God. Its message is summed up in the words of vs. 20: “He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances.”
SIRACH 24:1-12. (Alternate) The book known as “the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach” (aka Ecclesiasticus from the Latin name given to it by St. Jerome) was not included in the Hebrew Scriptures nor in Protestant Bibles. It was among the several books known as Wisdom literature included in the Scriptures of Roman Catholicism. Dating from the 2nd century BCE, it consists of maxims and aphorism of worldly wisdom and social prudence.
This passage presents Wisdom personified as a woman speaking before the assembly of heaven. She describes herself as participating in creation even though she herself was created by God. She also claims a God-given special role in Israel’s destiny as the chosen people.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 10:15-21. (Alternate) Like Sirach, Proverbs, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, the Wisdom of Solomon, was included in the Wisdom literature of Roman Catholicism, but not in the Hebrew Scriptures or Protestant Bibles. Although attributed to King Solomon, it was composed in Greek in the last century BCE by a Greek speaking Jew. This passage describes how Wisdom, again personified as a woman played a role in Israel’s Exodus from Egypt.
EPHESIANS 1:3-14. In writing to the Colossian congregation threatened by a destructive heresy, Paul opened his letter with some very kind and generous words. He praised them for remaining faithful to the gospel and the Christian way of love that Epaphras had taught them. He prayed that they would continue to grow in their knowledge of God’s will and strong in their witness to the faith as they had first received it. This is still an appropriate message for us who are so easily persuaded by the attitudes and practices of our own culture to adopt some other alternative than the Christian way.
JOHN 1:10-18. Looking at Jesus from the perspective of perhaps sixty years after his death on the cross, John assessed what the coming of Jesus into the world really meant. For those who believed in him and accepted the grace and truth now available through him, it meant a new life of spiritual power as the children of God. So also it may be for us as we complete one year and are about to begin a new year of living in God’s grace.
A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.
JEREMIAH 31:7-14. One of the most obvious revelations of the current Christological debate is the strength of the literalist approach to scripture, even in the mainline churches. Here is a passage which offers an excellent opportunity to discuss in a sensible way, the composite nature of the scriptures as we presently have them and the still valuable spirituality of the message conveyed in the words. God as the gracious providential Protector and Redeemer of Israel IS the story of the Old Testament to which all the priestly, prophetic and poetic voices contributed, no matter when or where they appeared throughout Israel’s history. Thus the editors who put together the Book of Jeremiah could include a poem from the later, but unknown, prophet of the Exile among the oracles of the prophet whose ministry may have ended soon after Jerusalem was devastated by the Babylonians in 586 BC and most of the leading citizenry, the prophet among them, were led away into exile.
PSALM 147:12-20. From the temple liturgy for the New Year or the Feast of Tabernacles comes this Hallelujah Chorus celebrating God as the Creator of the universe and Sustainer of Israel. It is believed to have been composed as a liturgical psalm in the early 4th century BC. The influence of the prophetic oracles of the unknown prophet of the Exile (Isaiah 40-66) can be detected in several places.
EPHESIANS 1:3-14. John C. Kirby, formerly of McGill University, Montreal, made a strong case that this prayer at the beginning of Ephesians, “both in language and in form, is patterned after the Jewish berakah, a prayer of praise and blessing of which there are numerous examples in the Old Testament. He points out that some scholars divide these poetic verses into stanzas having separate themes.
OTOH, Kirby suggests that the ideas so tumble over one another as to defy such analysis. He accepts the view of another scholar, Masson, that “the tone of wonder and awe which runs through the whole passage, the slow mediatative style, the solmenity of the language, the repetition of the phrase ‘to the praise of his glory,’ which is the main purpose of all berakoth, show us the origin of this way of approaching God. Thoroughly Christian in content – though many of the ideas have been taken over from Judaism they have been baptized into Christ – it is yet thoroughly Jewish in attitude.”
JOHN 1:10-18. What the gospel meant to John’s audience certainly would not be what it may mean to us 1900 years later. He was writing for a Hellenistic culture from a Hebraic perspective. He chose the word Logos to describe Jesus which he may well have drawn from Philo, the Alexandrian Jew steeped in Greek thought who was a contemporary of both Jesus and Paul. His emphasis in this passage is to focus attention on both the continuity and the discontinuity between Israel’s tradition and that which the Christian gospel was bringing to the Greek-speaking world.
In his New Testament Words, (Westminster Press, 1974) William Barclay has a helpful comment on the way John used this word as a bridge between the two cultures:
“In Jewish thought we have two great conceptions at the back of the idea of Jesus as the Word, the Logos of God. First, God’s word is not only speech; it is power. Second, it is impossible to separate the ideas of Word and Wisdom; and it was God’s Wisdom which created and permeated the world which God made….
“The idea of a mind, a Logos ruling the world fascinated the Greeks…It was the Logos which put sense into the world. Further, the mind of man himself was a little portion of this Logos….This conception was brought to its highest peak by Philo, who was an Alexandrian Jew, and who had the aim of joining together in one synthesis the highest thought of Jew and Greek….
“Now we can see what John was doing when he uttered his tremendous statement, ‘The Word was made flesh.’ (i) He was clothing Christianity in a dress that a Greek could understand…. (ii) He was giving us a new Christology…. (a) Jesus is the creating power of God come to men. He does not only speak the word of knowledge; he is the word of power. He did not come so much to say things to us, as to do things for us. (b) John is the incarnate mind of God. We might well translate John’s words, ‘The mind of God became a man.’”
INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
The Holy Name Of Jesus – January 1, 2010
NUMBERS 6:22-27. This passage may be more familiar to congregations as a benediction at the close of worship or in a traditional baptismal liturgy. In the thought of its own time God’s blessing consisted of material things as well as spiritual benefits.
PSALM 8. The psalmist first contemplates the glory of God manifested in the wonders of the heavens. And yet, the psalmist also reflects on the minute place of humanity in such a vast universe.
GALATIANS 4:4-7. Unfamiliar with the later tradition of the virgin conception of Jesus, Paul gave a theological and scriptural interpretation to the birth of Jesus. He focused on the redemption of all humanity effected through Jesus, the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. Stating that God’s Son was “born of a woman, born under the law,” he places Jesus in continuity with Jewish tradition.
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11. (Alternate) This early Christian hymn may well have been composed by Paul himself. Nowhere else in all his letters does he rise to such eloquence of speech or give such a clear definition of how the apostolic church understood the Jesus story.
LUKE 2:15-21. This passage with its more homely happiness and wonder is frequently hidden behind the angelic announcement and glorious rejoicing in the previous verses. It is best read slowly and with emphasis on each scene: the shepherds’ surprise at the angels’ message; their hasty decision to go to Bethlehem to find the child; the discovery of the manger where the baby lay as they had been told. (If vs. 16 is read in haste we can even get all three of the Holy Family into the manger at same time!) The mention of Mary’s meditation as the shepherds departed to spread the good news left a quieter mood in the stable. Finally, the naming of Jesus at the time of his circumcision according to the Jewish custom is the one link Luke’s nativity story has with Matthew’s.
A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.
NUMBERS 6:22-27. This passage may be more familiar to congregations as a benediction at the close of worship or in a traditional baptismal liturgy. It may have existed from earlier times and have been incorporated into the priestly document (P) now forming part of the Pentateuch. Its words are similar to those found in Pss. 67:1 and 4:6b. The basic concept is that of divine grace. The Mishnah, a rabbinical interpretation of the Torah dating about 200 CE, held that it was used daily in the temple.
As it stood in the thought of its time Yahweh’s blessing consisted in material things as well as spiritual benefits. Plentiful crops, productive herds, seasonable weather, even military victory would be sincerely hoped for. These were seen as acts of divine providence for Yahweh’s people. A shining face would have been interpreted as a sign of pleasure. When shown to other people, it indicated a strong personal relationship (cf. Pss. 31:16; 80:3, 7, 19) or a bond of friendship (2 Sam. 2:22; Job 22:26). That, of course, was the permanent relationship of Yahweh to Israel.
Peace – Shalom – is still the standard blessing of the Middle East. Shalom is more than an absence of discord. It represents a state of well-being and security, something sadly lacking in the interpersonal and communal relationships of the modern Middle East. While visiting there, I approached and made eye-contact with a man of Arabic descent. I spoke the traditional greeting in Hebrew- Shalom. Then I repeated it in Arabic version – Salaam. He responded in exactly the same way. I wondered if both of us felt safer because of that momentary eye-contact and greeting.
PSALM 8. The psalmist first contemplates the glory of God manifested in the wonders of the heavens. One can imagine a devout courtier like Isaiah standing on the flat rooftop of his Jerusalem home or a herdsman like Amos watching over his resting flock on a Judean hillside. As either of them gazed into the heavens he would have sen the panoply of stars spread out above him or possibly a full moon rising over Jordan. We who have spent summer nights at Canadian camps and cottages or watched the northern lights illuminate a winter sky know well how such a scene gives one an overwhelming sense of how infinitely small and insignificant we are.
And yet, the psalmist reflects not only on the minute place of humanity in such a vast universe. He also brings his faith to bear on his sense of smallness. He knows that we have a special relationship with the Creator of this universe and hence a special relationship with the created world in which we presently live. (vss. 5-8).
The environmental issues for us are vastly different than they were when this psalm was composed. Sadly, by taking the text literally, we have excessively exploited our role as God’s vice-regents with “dominion” over nature. That calls for repentance and radical change in our attitudes and our actions, individually, communally, globally. We must think of ourselves as stewards rather than masters of creation. We can only continue to praise our Sovereign Lord’s majestic name if we accept total responsibility for restoring our right relationship with God’s creation.
GALATIANS 4:4-7. Unfamiliar with the later tradition of the virgin conception, Paul gave a theological and scriptural interpretation to the birth of Jesus. Stating that God’s Son was “born of a woman, born under the law,” he places Jesus in continuity with Jewish tradition. In some respects, this could be interpreted as a rebuttal of the doctrine of the virgin conception, although Paul probably did not intend it to be so. He may not even have known about the somewhat later tradition cited only in Matthew and Luke.
If Jesus was born “under the law,” then his birth must have been regarded as the natural result of human sexual activity rather than the asexual descriptions of later Gospels. For Mary to have given birth before marriage would have been a serious transgression of the law as defined by Deut. 22:13-28 and as alluded to in Matthew’s narrative. As a child bride prior to pubescence, common in those days, she could have conceived before her menstrual cycles began. Geza Vermes argues this position in his The Nativity: History and Legend (Penguin 2006). Paul, however, wrote to the Galatians circa 50 CE, possibly 25-30 years before the birth narratives were written. If there was an earlier tradition of the virgin conception, Paul did not share it.
Instead he focused on the redemption of all humanity effected through Jesus, the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. The phrase “the fullness of time” expresses the prophetic view that God is sovereign over all history. So God’s plan will be fulfilled according to God’s timing when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, reigns as the divinely appointed sovereign of the world. The redemption of which Paul spoke (vs. 5) began with coming of Jesus, the Messiah. This “already but not yet” eschatological process will be completed only at the Parousia.
Paul conceived the idea of believers being adopted as children of God and heirs with Christ (vs. 5b-7) as the fulfillment of both his Jewish heritage and his Christian faith. This was also the new status of the Galatians. God’s promise to Abraham, including freedom and election as God’s chosen people, had been made good through Jesus. But the Christian communities in Galatia included Gentiles as well as Jews. The main theme of the letter declared that Gentiles and Jews alike were now freed from slavery to “the elemental spirits of the world” (vs. 3) and to the law of Moses. In Greek mythical thought, present also in late Jewish apocalypticism, the elemental spirits were believed to rule human lives as well as the natural world. Paul was contemptuous of this polytheistic idolatry.
The new relationship with God through Christ made everything different in their relationships with each other and with the particular cultural milieu in which they lived. Paul would spell out just what that meant in the latter segment of the letter (especially 5:13-6:10). So as well as fulfilling their heritage, the relationships born of their new-found faith in Jesus Christ, rather than any previously held convictions, would also give rise to a definite discontinuity with that same heritage. Their new spiritual inheritance as a result of receiving the gift of the Spirit made all this possible.
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11. (Alternate) This early Christian hymn may well have been composed by Paul himself. Nowhere else in all his letters does he rise to such eloquence of speech or give such a clear definition of how the apostolic church understood the Jesus story.
As a rabbinical student in Jerusalem before his conversion Paul would have heard of three significant elements of this song: Its lyrical form was similar to the great Levitical hymns of the temple. The apostolic story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was a personal concern of his teacher, Rabbi Gamaliel. The humble poverty of the Christian community was well known too, made up as it was predominately of Galileans and the lower classes with few men and women of prominence among them.
In carefully constructed Greek words and phrases, Christ is seen as the key figure in a divine drama in which he yields up his co-existence with God, assumes human form and suffers the humiliation of death by crucifixion. Those who have difficulty understanding whether or not Jesus was divine has only to consider Paul’s statement about his true nature. The word huparchein (translated as “being”) described the very inner nature or essence of a person. As William Barclay said: “It describes the innate, unchangeable, unalterable characteristics and abilities of a man which, in spite of all the chances and the changes, and in any circumstances, remains the same.” (The Letter to the Corinthians: Daily Bible Readings. 1957, 43.) Coupled with that was the Greek word for “form.” In this case, morph‚ was used rather than schema. Morph referred to the essential form as opposed to the outward form, schema, that continually changed. So Jesus’ unchangeable nature was divine.
At the same time, Paul said, Jesus did not think that his divinity “was something to be exploited” as the NSRV puts it. Again the Greek word is beautifully descriptive. Harpagmos comes from the verb which means “to snatch” or “to clutch.” Either English word would fit the situation. As Barclay points out, either he had no need to snatch at equality with God; or he did not need to clutch it, “as if to hug it jealously to himself. And to refuse to let it go.” On the contrary, Paul says in amazement, Jesus gave it all up, humiliating himself as a slave obedient to the point of suffering the utmost shame of crucifixion in total contrast to the glory and honour of divinity. Barclay again: “There is no passage in the whole New Testament which so movingly sets out the utter reality of the godhead and the manhood of Jesus Christ, and which makes so vivid the inconceivable sacrifice that Christ made when he laid aside his godhead and took manhood upon him. How it happened we cannot tell. The end is mystery, but it is the mystery of a love so great that we can never fully understand it, although we can blessedly experience it and adore it.”
The hymn does not end there however. It goes on to sing of the exaltation of Jesus to the place of glorious sovereignty with God where heavenly and earthly worship is offered to him as to God.
The confession ‘Jesus is Lord” is at once the earliest Christian creed and an acknowledgment of Jesus’ divinity. Paul used that designation only three times in his letters and each time with worshipful sincerity and awe. The other two are found in Romans 10:9 and 1 Corinthians 12:3. This was said to be the essential confession each convert repeated at baptism. All the Philippians had made this same confession. All later creeds of the Christian church derived from it. There was – and is – nothing more that needs to be said as a statement of faith. For all time, this confession commits the one who says it sincerely to a life in which Jesus reigns supreme and so fulfills the will and purpose of God.
LUKE 2:15-21. This passage with its more homely happiness and wonder is frequently hidden behind the angelic announcement and glorious rejoicing in the previous verses. It is best read slowly and with emphasis on each scene: the shepherds’ surprise at the angels’ message; their hasty decision to go to Bethlehem to find the child; the discovery of the manger where the baby lay as they had been told. (If vs. 16 is read in haste we can even get all three of the Holy Family into the manger at same time!) The mention of Mary’s meditation as the shepherds departed to spread the good news left a quieter mood in the stable. Finally, the naming of Jesus at the time of his circumcision according to the Jewish custom is the one link Luke’s nativity story has with Matthew’s.
The name Jesus, however significant to us, was not unique in any way. It was common enough in earlier Hebrew literature. Its original form was Joshua, or more fully Yehoshuah, and meant as Matthew pointed out, “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh saves.” In his various histories of the Jews, Josephus named nineteen persons with that same name all from the 1st century CE. It has been hinted that the name increased in popularity reflecting a growing nationalism after the Maccabean War (165 BCE) and even more so during Roman times after 65 BCE. Some manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew named Barabbas, Jesus Barabbas to distinguish him from Jesus of Nazareth who died in his stead (Matt. 27:16-17). A novel, Barabbas, by the late Swedish Nobel laureate for 1941, Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974), gave considerable emphasis to the way the coincidence of names affected the robber in the years after the crucifixion.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
New Year’s Day – January 1, 2010
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-13. The reading of this passage is customary at the beginning of a New Year. It emphasizes the significance of passing time and change. But it also reflects the deep sense of changelessness that Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, (Heb. Qoheleth) expressed with a remarkable frankness.
PSALM 8. [See above re The Holy Name of Jesus.)
REVELATION 21:1-6A. John has a vision of the whole of creation redeemed and renewed at the end of history. This is what awaits the faithful and thus makes endurable those bitter experiences of persecution experienced by the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia.
MATTHEW 25:31-46. This parable tells us that the reign of Christ will begin with a final judgment. But it is a parable, a metaphorical story told to persuade people on how to live as they prepare for that inevitable experience, not a description of what the event will be like whenever it occurs. The story also has an eschatological and a messianic emphasis set in place by its very first clause, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all his angels with him ….” That is a typical description from the apocalyptic tradition derived from Jewish literature of the late centuries BCE greatly influenced by forerunners in both the prophetic and possibly the wisdom traditions. (See Ezekiel 38-39; Isaiah 24-27; Zechariah 12-14.) Its stock-in-trade was revelation through visionary experience. This parable contains some very vivid images of that kind.
A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-13. The reading of this passage is customary at the beginning of a New Year. It emphasizes the significance of passing time and change. But it also reflects the deep sense of changelessness that Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, (Heb. Qoheleth) expressed with a remarkable frankness.
He is not an atheist, but neither did he share the traditional Jewish theology of Yahweh’s choice of Israel as a special people. He even counseled against unquestioniedparticipation in the traditional religious rites of Israel. In the end, he is both an agnostic – one cannot know God, but only acknowledge God’s existence and power – and a fatalist – nothing can be done to change the way things are.
How then did it become a part of the Hebrew Scriptures? We simply do not know for sure, but it must have won approval of the religious authorities and the worshiping community as the canon was being finalized during the 1st century CE. So it must have been in common use during that time and finally was authorized on the grounds that it was genuine religious teaching.
The book is thought to have originated during the time of Alexander the Great and his immediate successors. That was time of great upheaval, uncertainty and insecurity for Israel and its religious institutions. The sentiments of this passage that everything must happen in its own time according to God’s timing and not our own were probably very helpful to some who struggled to believe in a divine purpose for human life and history.
PSALM 8. [See above re The Holy Name of Jesus.)
REVELATION 21:1-6A. John has a vision of the whole of creation redeemed and renewed at the end of history. This is what awaits the faithful and thus makes endurable those bitter experiences of persecution experienced by the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia.
Many Old Testament references colour this vision – the creation, the city, the bride. Perhaps the most important insight of the passage is that “now God’s dwelling is among mortals.” (vs. 3) This reaffirms God’s coming into the world in Jesus Christ for the single purpose of redeeming the world and reconciling humanity and all creation to God’s original purpose.
The late Principal George B. Caird, of Mansfield College, Oxford, wrote in his magisterial commentary on this passage, “In some ways this is the most important part of the book, as it is certainly the most familiar and beloved.” It is the promised answer to the plea of every martyr, “If only we knew where it is all going to end! Much of John’s vision, and much of the human history it depicts and interprets, becomes intelligible, credible, tolerable, when we know the answer. Here is the real source of John’s prophetic certainty.” (The Revelation of St. John the Divine. Black’s New Testament Commentary, 1968.)
The image of the vanishing sea has great significance. It represents the ending of history in the same way that creation out of chaos began history when “the earth was a formless void and darkness was over the face of the deep.” (Gen. 1:1-2) The descent of the holy city, New Jerusalem, and the voice from heaven announcing its meaning, also represents a whole new order that is taking place. The distinction between heaven and earth disappears. No longer is heaven the dwelling of God and earth the dwelling of humans. Now God’s dwelling is with us. The Incarnation has reached its true end: Immanuel, God with us. (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23) As we have seen above, the bride from heaven are also a quotation from Isaiah 25:6-8.
The voice from the throne is, of course, the voice of God first heard at the very opening of John’s visions (Rev.1:8). All things are being made new; a complete transformation is taking place, not just in the seven churches to which John was commanded to write, but in all places of God’s dominion, God is forever making all things new. Paul had the same vision as voiced in 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:16-18; 5:16-17; Col.3:1-4. But John sees it on a cosmic scale whereas Paul saw it in the individual believer. As Caird put it: “Blind unbelief may see only the outer world, growing old in its depravity and doomed to vanish before the presence of holiness; but faith can see the hand of God in the shadows, refashioning the whole. The agonies of earth are but the birth-pangs of a new creation.”
God’s naming of the Alpha and the Omega do not mean that God is just at the beginning and the end, as the deist philosophy would have it, creating then allowing creation to run without intervention. God is the living God who confronts humanity at every step of the way. All that we have and are as humans within God’s creation, and above all our salvation, is the work of God from start to finish. God requires nothing of us but the openness of faith, a thirst for God to be satisfied with nothing less that the water of life.
MATTHEW 25:31-46. This parable tells us that the reign of Christ will begin with a final judgment. But it is a parable, a metaphorical story told to persuade people on how to live as they prepare for that inevitable experience, not a description of what the event will be like whenever it occurs. The story also has an eschatological and a messianic emphasis set in place by its very first clause, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all his angels with him ….” That is a typical description from the apocalyptic tradition derived from Jewish literature of the late centuries BCE greatly influenced by forerunners in both the prophetic and possibly the wisdom traditions. (See Ezekiel 38-39; Isaiah 24-27; Zechariah 12-14.) Its stock-in-trade was revelation through visionary experience; and this parable contains some very vivid images of that kind.
In vss. 31 and 32 there are two images of the judgment which may seem to be unusually juxtaposed. The first envisages a typical a royal court where the monarch is surrounded by courtiers and the whole populace is gathered before the throne waiting for a critical decision. The second describes the much humbler scene of a shepherd at the end if a day separating sheep from goats as they enter the fold for the night. The task was an easy one, for in the Middle East sheep are generally white and goats black. The monarch’s task might not be so easy, for the character of human beings is much more complex.
The story does simplify the basis on which the judgment is made. It has to do with how each person responds to everyday opportunities to help others in need. The length and detail with which this poignant emphasis is described assures even the hasty reader that this is what the story means. The reign of Christ and God’s eternal judgment are going on right now with each decision and action we take. How we live today has eternal consequences. We are to witness to the reign of Christ in the way we serve him in faithfulness, kindness and love to our neighbors in need.
Yet this parable is not a simple story offering polite moral counsel for those seeking for ethical behavior to create a kinder, gentler, self-satisfied society. Coming as it does immediately before the Passion story, this parable connects our time in history and the time of Jesus as an historical person with the reality of eschatological judgment at the end of time. The way this parable describes how the faithful are to live is the way Jesus lived “as one that served.” His actions constantly affirmed his messianic character.
Matthew constantly reminded his audience of this in his choice of names by which he referred to Jesus of Nazareth, in this instance the OT messianic figure of the Son of Man. As he turned to the all important concluding section of his gospel, Matthew was saying that in Jesus the Messiah the divine judgment which Israel has anticipated for so long had arrived. The gospel speaks across the millennia with the same clarion call of judgment: the crucified and risen Jesus, the ever present ‘God with us,’ is now deciding who will have a part in the eternal reign of love fulfilled in God’s creation. One could not find a better lesson for the beginning of a New Year.
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