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Monday, March 30, 2009

+ H O L Y + W E E K, 2 0 0 9 +



Lexegete ™ | Year B | Mark | Holy Week

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Sunday of the Passion
Palm Sunday | April 5, 2009

Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16 - Procession with Palms

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16 (5)
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1 – 15:47 or Mark 15:1-39 [40-47]

Prayer of the Day

Everlasting God, in your endless love for the human race you sent our Lord Jesus Christ to take on our nature and to suffer death on the cross. In your mercy enable us to share in his obedience to your will and in the glorious victory of his resurrection, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OR
Sovereign God, you have established your rule in the human heart through the servanthood of Jesus Christ. By your Spirit, keep us in the joyful procession of those who with their tongues confess Jesus as Lord and with their lives praise him as Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OR
O God of mercy and might, in the mystery of the passion of your Son you offer your infinite life to the world. Gather us around the cross of Christ, and preserve us until the resurrection, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Gospel Acclamation

Christ humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death | on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above | every name. (Phil. 2:8-9)
Color: Scarlet/Purple
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1a. CONTEXT: Mark 14:1-15:47

The exegete at this point is advised to review Edgar Krentz' Introduction to
Year B found in LEXEGETE. If Mark is a Passion Narrative with a long
introduction, nearly the whole of the gospel is the context. Jesus' Passion
has been formally predicted three times. This is also Palm Sunday; the
triumphal entry leads to the cleansing of the Temple, which is the
immediate occasion of hostility toward Jesus. The stubborn stupidity of
the disciples, previously emphasized by Mark, is climaxed at Gethsemane
and in Peter's denial. In Bethany, Jesus is anointed as Messiah
(cf. Caesarea-Philippi, 8:27- 33), and Jesus sees this gesture as ironical.
The Passover season recalls the feeding of the Five Thousand Four
Thousand. The deliberate misunderstanding of Jesus' mission continues
in the hearings before the high priest and Pilate.

There is a sharp break between Chaps. 13 and 14, but the two are
linked by the Mt. of Olives locale and the Son of Man theme (13:3; 14:62).
There is no break between 15:39 and 15:40, but the story now moves to the
burial and the empty tomb--the last of many surprises in the gospel.
13:3 and 14:62 make it likely that Mark believes Jesus will return to
Galilee (16:7) as Son of Man.

The trial before Pilate exhibits Mark's irony. The people prefer Barabbas,
and the soldiers hail Jesus as King of the Jews. Mark interprets the
Crucifixion in the light of Pss. 22 and 69, identifying Jesus with the
faithful sufferer. The only completely positive characters are the
centurion (15:39) and the women.

The Reign of God, so important in earlier part of the gospel, is
mentioned in 14:25. W.H. Kelber's theory is that Mark expects the
Kingdom to be established in Galilee. The audience for which Mark
writes is an important part of the context. The first readers/hearers
must have known Alexander and Rufus (15:21; in Galilee or Rome?).
It is also important that Mark's gospel is the first complete
document of this kind. Except for such collections as Q, the
Church has been dependent on oral tradition; now the tradition
becomes fixed and codified.


1b. Text (Shorter Reading): Mark 15:1-39

15:1 As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

15:2 Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" He answered him, "You say so."

15:3 Then the chief priests accused him of many things.

15:4 Pilate asked him again, "Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you."

15:5 But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

15:6 Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked.

15:7 Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection.

15:8 So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom.

15:9 Then he answered them, "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?"

15:10 For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over.

15:11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.

15:12 Pilate spoke to them again, "Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?"

15:13 They shouted back, "Crucify him!"

15:14 Pilate asked them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Crucify him!"

15:15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

15:16 Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort.

15:17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him.

15:18 And they began saluting him, "Hail, King of the Jews!"

15:19 They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him.

15:20 After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

15:21 They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.

15:22 Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull).

15:23 And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it.

15:24 And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.

15:25 It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.

15:26 The inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews."

15:27 And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.

15:28

15:29 Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days,

15:30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!"

15:31 In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself.

15:32 Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

15:33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

15:34 At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

15:35 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, "Listen, he is calling for Elijah."

15:36 And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down."

15:37 Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

15:38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

15:39 Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was God's Son!"


1b. Text: Mark 14:1-15:47

ESV:


The Plot to Kill Jesus

14:1 It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, 2 for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”
Jesus Anointed at Bethany

3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, [1] as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii [2] and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Judas to Betray Jesus

10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
The Passover with the Disciples

12 And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” 13 And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, 14 and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” 16 And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

17 And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18 And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 19 They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” 20 He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
Institution of the Lord's Supper

22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the [3] covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus Foretells Peter's Denial

26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ 28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” 29 Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” 30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” 31 But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane

32 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” [4] 35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 37 And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. 41 And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus

43 And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. 44 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” 45 And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 46 And they laid hands on him and seized him. 47 But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant [5] of the high priest and cut off his ear. 48 And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? 49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” 50 And they all left him and fled.
A Young Man Flees

51 And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Jesus Before the Council

53 And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. 54 And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. 55 Now the chief priests and the whole Council [6] were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. 56 For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. 57 And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” 59 Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. 60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” [7] 61 But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63 And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. 65 And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.
Peter Denies Jesus

66 And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway [8] and the rooster crowed. [9] 69 And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” 71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” 72 And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept. [10]
Jesus Delivered to Pilate

15:1 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole Council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified

6 Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. 7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9 And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14 And Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged [11] Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Jesus Is Mocked

16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), [12] and they called together the whole battalion. [13] 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
The Crucifixion

21 And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22 And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). 23 And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25 And it was the third hour [14] when they crucified him. 26 And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” 27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. [15] 29 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31 So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
The Death of Jesus

33 And when the sixth hour [16] had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. [17] 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he [18] breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son [19] of God!”

40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
Jesus Is Buried

42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. [20] And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph [21] bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

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[1] 14:3 Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13
[2] 14:5 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer
[3] 14:24 Some manuscripts insert new
[4] 14:34 Or keep awake; also verses 37, 38
[5] 14:47 Greek bondservant
[6] 14:55 Greek Sanhedrin
[7] 14:60 Or Have you no answer to what these men testify against you?
[8] 14:68 Or forecourt
[9] 14:68 Some manuscripts omit and the rooster crowed
[10] 14:72 Or And when he had thought about it, he wept
[11] 15:15 A Roman judicial penalty, consisting of a severe beating with a multi-lashed whip containing imbedded pieces of bone and metal
[12] 15:16 Greek the praetorium
[13] 15:16 Greek cohort; a tenth of a Roman legion, usually about 600 men
[14] 15:25 That is, 9 a.m.
[15] 15:27 Some manuscripts insert verse 28: And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “He was numbered with the transgressors”
[16] 15:33 That is, noon
[17] 15:33 That is, 3 p.m.
[18] 15:39 Some manuscripts insert cried out and
[19] 15:39 Or a son
[20] 15:44 Or Pilate wondered whether he had already died
[21] 15:46 Greek he

ESV Bible © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
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GREEK:

14.1 ην δὲ τὸ πάσχα καὶ τὰ ἄζυμα μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας. καὶ ἐζήτουν οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς πῶς αὐτὸν ἐν δόλῳ κρατήσαντες ἀποκτείνωσιν: 2ἔλεγον γάρ, Μὴ ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ, μήποτε ἔσται θόρυβος τοῦ λαοῦ. 3Καὶ ὄντος αὐτοῦ ἐν Βηθανίᾳ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ Σίμωνος τοῦ λεπροῦ κατακειμένου αὐτοῦ ἦλθεν γυνὴ ἔχουσα ἀλάβαστρον μύρου νάρδου πιστικῆς πολυτελοῦς: συντρίψασα τὴν ἀλάβαστρον κατέχεεν αὐτοῦ τῆς κεφαλῆς. 4ἦσαν δέ τινες ἀγανακτοῦντες πρὸς ἑαυτούς, Εἰς τί ἡ ἀπώλεια αὕτη τοῦ μύρου γέγονεν; 5ἠδύνατο γὰρ τοῦτο τὸ μύρον πραθῆναι ἐπάνω δηναρίων τριακοσίων καὶ δοθῆναι τοῖς πτωχοῖς: καὶ ἐνεβριμῶντο αὐτῇ. 6ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν, Ἄφετε αὐτήν: τί αὐτῇ κόπους παρέχετε; καλὸν ἔργον ἠργάσατο ἐν ἐμοί. 7πάντοτε γὰρ τοὺς πτωχοὺς ἔχετε μεθ' ἑαυτῶν, καὶ ὅταν θέλητε δύνασθε αὐτοῖς εὖ ποιῆσαι, ἐμὲ δὲ οὐ πάντοτε ἔχετε. 8ὃ ἔσχεν ἐποίησεν: προέλαβεν μυρίσαι τὸ σῶμά μου εἰς τὸν ἐνταφιασμόν. 9ἀμὴν δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, ὅπου ἐὰν κηρυχθῇ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον εἰς ὅλον τὸν κόσμον, καὶ ὃ ἐποίησεν αὕτη λαληθήσεται εἰς μνημόσυνον αὐτῆς. 10Καὶ Ἰούδας Ἰσκαριὼθ ὁ εἷς τῶν δώδεκα ἀπῆλθεν πρὸς τοὺς ἀρχιερεῖς ἵνα αὐτὸν παραδοῖ αὐτοῖς. 11οἱ δὲ ἀκούσαντες ἐχάρησαν καὶ ἐπηγγείλαντο αὐτῷ ἀργύριον δοῦναι. καὶ ἐζήτει πῶς αὐτὸν εὐκαίρως παραδοῖ. 12Καὶ τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν ἀζύμων, ὅτε τὸ πάσχα ἔθυον, λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ, Ποῦ θέλεις ἀπελθόντες ἑτοιμάσωμεν ἵνα φάγῃς τὸ πάσχα; 13καὶ ἀποστέλλει δύο τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς, Ὑπάγετε εἰς τὴν πόλιν, καὶ ἀπαντήσει ὑμῖν ἄνθρωπος κεράμιον ὕδατος βαστάζων: ἀκολουθήσατε αὐτῷ, 14καὶ ὅπου ἐὰν εἰσέλθῃ εἴπατε τῷ οἰκοδεσπότῃ ὅτι Ὁ διδάσκαλος λέγει, Ποῦ ἐστιν τὸ κατάλυμά μου ὅπου τὸ πάσχα μετὰ τῶν μαθητῶν μου φάγω; 15καὶ αὐτὸς ὑμῖν δείξει ἀνάγαιον μέγα ἐστρωμένον ἕτοιμον: καὶ ἐκεῖ ἑτοιμάσατε ἡμῖν. 16καὶ ἐξῆλθον οἱ μαθηταὶ καὶ ἦλθον εἰς τὴν πόλιν καὶ εὗρον καθὼς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἡτοίμασαν τὸ πάσχα. 17Καὶ ὀψίας γενομένης ἔρχεται μετὰ τῶν δώδεκα. 18καὶ ἀνακειμένων αὐτῶν καὶ ἐσθιόντων ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν, Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι εἷς ἐξ ὑμῶν παραδώσει με, ὁ ἐσθίων μετ' ἐμοῦ. 19ἤρξαντο λυπεῖσθαι καὶ λέγειν αὐτῷ εἷς κατὰ εἷς, Μήτι ἐγώ; 20ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Εἷς τῶν δώδεκα, ὁ ἐμβαπτόμενος μετ' ἐμοῦ εἰς τὸ τρύβλιον. 21ὅτι ὁ μὲν υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὑπάγει καθὼς γέγραπται περὶ αὐτοῦ, οὐαὶ δὲ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐκείνῳ δι' οὗ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου παραδίδοται: καλὸν αὐτῷ εἰ οὐκ ἐγεννήθη ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος. 22Καὶ ἐσθιόντων αὐτῶν λαβὼν ἄρτον εὐλογήσας ἔκλασεν καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς καὶ εἶπεν, Λάβετε, τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου. 23καὶ λαβὼν ποτήριον εὐχαριστήσας ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἔπιον ἐξ αὐτοῦ πάντες. 24καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ αἷμά μου τῆς διαθήκης τὸ ἐκχυννόμενον ὑπὲρ πολλῶν: 25ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐκέτι οὐ μὴ πίω ἐκ τοῦ γενήματος τῆς ἀμπέλου ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης ὅταν αὐτὸ πίνω καινὸν ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ. 26Καὶ ὑμνήσαντες ἐξῆλθον εἰς τὸ Ὄρος τῶν Ἐλαιῶν. 27Καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι Πάντες σκανδαλισθήσεσθε, ὅτι γέγραπται, Πατάξω τὸν ποιμένα, καὶ τὰ πρόβατα διασκορπισθήσονται: 28ἀλλὰ μετὰ τὸ ἐγερθῆναί με προάξω ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν. 29ὁ δὲ Πέτρος ἔφη αὐτῷ, Εἰ καὶ πάντες σκανδαλισθήσονται, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐγώ. 30καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Ἀμὴν λέγω σοι ὅτι σὺ σήμερον ταύτῃ τῇ νυκτὶ πρὶν ἢ δὶς ἀλέκτορα φωνῆσαι τρίς με ἀπαρνήσῃ. 31ὁ δὲ ἐκπερισσῶς ἐλάλει, Ἐὰν δέῃ με συναποθανεῖν σοι, οὐ μή σε ἀπαρνήσομαι. ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ πάντες ἔλεγον. 32Καὶ ἔρχονται εἰς χωρίον οὗ τὸ ὄνομα Γεθσημανί, καὶ λέγει τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, Καθίσατε ὧδε ἕως προσεύξωμαι. 33καὶ παραλαμβάνει τὸν Πέτρον καὶ [τὸν] Ἰάκωβον καὶ [τὸν] Ἰωάννην μετ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἤρξατο ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι καὶ ἀδημονεῖν, 34καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς, Περίλυπός ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή μου ἕως θανάτου: μείνατε ὧδε καὶ γρηγορεῖτε. 35καὶ προελθὼν μικρὸν ἔπιπτεν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ προσηύχετο ἵνα εἰ δυνατόν ἐστιν παρέλθῃ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ ἡ ὥρα, 36καὶ ἔλεγεν, Αββα ὁ πατήρ, πάντα δυνατά σοι: παρένεγκε τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο ἀπ' ἐμοῦ: ἀλλ' οὐ τί ἐγὼ θέλω ἀλλὰ τί σύ. 37καὶ ἔρχεται καὶ εὑρίσκει αὐτοὺς καθεύδοντας, καὶ λέγει τῷ Πέτρῳ, Σίμων, καθεύδεις; οὐκ ἴσχυσας μίαν ὥραν γρηγορῆσαι; 38γρηγορεῖτε καὶ προσεύχεσθε, ἵνα μὴ ἔλθητε εἰς πειρασμόν: τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα πρόθυμον ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἀσθενής. 39καὶ πάλιν ἀπελθὼν προσηύξατο τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον εἰπών. 40καὶ πάλιν ἐλθὼν εὗρεν αὐτοὺς καθεύδοντας, ἦσαν γὰρ αὐτῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ καταβαρυνόμενοι, καὶ οὐκ ᾔδεισαν τί ἀποκριθῶσιν αὐτῷ. 41καὶ ἔρχεται τὸ τρίτον καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς, Καθεύδετε τὸ λοιπὸν καὶ ἀναπαύεσθε; ἀπέχει: ἦλθεν ἡ ὥρα, ἰδοὺ παραδίδοται ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰς τὰς χεῖρας τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν. 42ἐγείρεσθε ἄγωμεν: ἰδοὺ ὁ παραδιδούς με ἤγγικεν. 43Καὶ εὐθὺς ἔτι αὐτοῦ λαλοῦντος παραγίνεται Ἰούδας εἷς τῶν δώδεκα καὶ μετ' αὐτοῦ ὄχλος μετὰ μαχαιρῶν καὶ ξύλων παρὰ τῶν ἀρχιερέων καὶ τῶν γραμματέων καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων. 44δεδώκει δὲ ὁ παραδιδοὺς αὐτὸν σύσσημον αὐτοῖς λέγων, Ὃν ἂν φιλήσω αὐτός ἐστιν: κρατήσατε αὐτὸν καὶ ἀπάγετε ἀσφαλῶς. 45καὶ ἐλθὼν εὐθὺς προσελθὼν αὐτῷ λέγει, Ῥαββί, καὶ κατεφίλησεν αὐτόν. 46οἱ δὲ ἐπέβαλον τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῷ καὶ ἐκράτησαν αὐτόν. 47εἷς δέ [τις] τῶν παρεστηκότων σπασάμενος τὴν μάχαιραν ἔπαισεν τὸν δοῦλον τοῦ ἀρχιερέως καὶ ἀφεῖλεν αὐτοῦ τὸ ὠτάριον. 48καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Ὡς ἐπὶ λῃστὴν ἐξήλθατε μετὰ μαχαιρῶν καὶ ξύλων συλλαβεῖν με; 49καθ' ἡμέραν ἤμην πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ διδάσκων καὶ οὐκ ἐκρατήσατέ με: ἀλλ' ἵνα πληρωθῶσιν αἱ γραφαί. 50καὶ ἀφέντες αὐτὸν ἔφυγον πάντες. 51Καὶ νεανίσκος τις συνηκολούθει αὐτῷ περιβεβλημένος σινδόνα ἐπὶ γυμνοῦ, καὶ κρατοῦσιν αὐτόν: 52ὁ δὲ καταλιπὼν τὴν σινδόνα γυμνὸς ἔφυγεν. 53Καὶ ἀπήγαγον τὸν Ἰησοῦν πρὸς τὸν ἀρχιερέα, καὶ συνέρχονται πάντες οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς. 54καὶ ὁ Πέτρος ἀπὸ μακρόθεν ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ ἕως ἔσω εἰς τὴν αὐλὴν τοῦ ἀρχιερέως, καὶ ἦν συγκαθήμενος μετὰ τῶν ὑπηρετῶν καὶ θερμαινόμενος πρὸς τὸ φῶς. 55οἱ δὲ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ ὅλον τὸ συνέδριον ἐζήτουν κατὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ μαρτυρίαν εἰς τὸ θανατῶσαι αὐτόν, καὶ οὐχ ηὕρισκον: 56πολλοὶ γὰρ ἐψευδομαρτύρουν κατ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἴσαι αἱ μαρτυρίαι οὐκ ἦσαν. 57καί τινες ἀναστάντες ἐψευδομαρτύρουν κατ' αὐτοῦ λέγοντες 58ὅτι Ἡμεῖς ἠκούσαμεν αὐτοῦ λέγοντος ὅτι Ἐγὼ καταλύσω τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον τὸν χειροποίητον καὶ διὰ τριῶν ἡμερῶν ἄλλον ἀχειροποίητον οἰκοδομήσω: 59καὶ οὐδὲ οὕτως ἴση ἦν ἡ μαρτυρία αὐτῶν. 60καὶ ἀναστὰς ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς εἰς μέσον ἐπηρώτησεν τὸν Ἰησοῦν λέγων, Οὐκ ἀποκρίνῃ οὐδέν; τί οὗτοί σου καταμαρτυροῦσιν; 61ὁ δὲ ἐσιώπα καὶ οὐκ ἀπεκρίνατο οὐδέν. πάλιν ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ἐπηρώτα αὐτὸν καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ, Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ εὐλογητοῦ; 62ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν, Ἐγώ εἰμι, καὶ ὄψεσθε τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκ δεξιῶν καθήμενον τῆς δυνάμεως καὶ ἐρχόμενον μετὰ τῶν νεφελῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. 63ὁ δὲ ἀρχιερεὺς διαρρήξας τοὺς χιτῶνας αὐτοῦ λέγει, Τί ἔτι χρείαν ἔχομεν μαρτύρων; 64ἠκούσατε τῆς βλασφημίας: τί ὑμῖν φαίνεται; οἱ δὲ πάντες κατέκριναν αὐτὸν ἔνοχον εἶναι θανάτου. 65Καὶ ἤρξαντό τινες ἐμπτύειν αὐτῷ καὶ περικαλύπτειν αὐτοῦ τὸ πρόσωπον καὶ κολαφίζειν αὐτὸν καὶ λέγειν αὐτῷ, Προφήτευσον, καὶ οἱ ὑπηρέται ῥαπίσμασιν αὐτὸν ἔλαβον. 66Καὶ ὄντος τοῦ Πέτρου κάτω ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ ἔρχεται μία τῶν παιδισκῶν τοῦ ἀρχιερέως, 67καὶ ἰδοῦσα τὸν Πέτρον θερμαινόμενον ἐμβλέψασα αὐτῷ λέγει, Καὶ σὺ μετὰ τοῦ Ναζαρηνοῦ ἦσθα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. 68ὁ δὲ ἠρνήσατο λέγων, Οὔτε οἶδα οὔτε ἐπίσταμαι σὺ τί λέγεις. καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἔξω εἰς τὸ προαύλιον [:καὶ ἀλέκτωρ ἐφώνησεν]. 69καὶ ἡ παιδίσκη ἰδοῦσα αὐτὸν ἤρξατο πάλιν λέγειν τοῖς παρεστῶσιν ὅτι Οὗτος ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐστιν. 70ὁ δὲ πάλιν ἠρνεῖτο. καὶ μετὰ μικρὸν πάλιν οἱ παρεστῶτες ἔλεγον τῷ Πέτρῳ, Ἀληθῶς ἐξ αὐτῶν εἶ, καὶ γὰρ Γαλιλαῖος εἶ. 71ὁ δὲ ἤρξατο ἀναθεματίζειν καὶ ὀμνύναι ὅτι Οὐκ οἶδα τὸν ἄνθρωπον τοῦτον ὃν λέγετε. 72καὶ εὐθὺς ἐκ δευτέρου ἀλέκτωρ ἐφώνησεν. καὶ ἀνεμνήσθη ὁ Πέτρος τὸ ῥῆμα ὡς εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι Πρὶν ἀλέκτορα φωνῆσαι δὶς τρίς με ἀπαρνήσῃ: καὶ ἐπιβαλὼν ἔκλαιεν.

15.1Καὶ εὐθὺς πρωῒ συμβούλιον ποιήσαντες οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς μετὰ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ γραμματέων καὶ ὅλον τὸ συνέδριον δήσαντες τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἀπήνεγκαν καὶ παρέδωκαν Πιλάτῳ. 2καὶ ἐπηρώτησεν αὐτὸν ὁ Πιλᾶτος, Σὺ εἶ ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων; ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς αὐτῷ λέγει, Σὺ λέγεις. 3καὶ κατηγόρουν αὐτοῦ οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς πολλά. 4ὁ δὲ Πιλᾶτος πάλιν ἐπηρώτα αὐτὸν λέγων, Οὐκ ἀποκρίνῃ οὐδέν; ἴδε πόσα σου κατηγοροῦσιν. 5ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς οὐκέτι οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίθη, ὥστε θαυμάζειν τὸν Πιλᾶτον. 6Κατὰ δὲ ἑορτὴν ἀπέλυεν αὐτοῖς ἕνα δέσμιον ὃν παρῃτοῦντο. 7ἦν δὲ ὁ λεγόμενος Βαραββᾶς μετὰ τῶν στασιαστῶν δεδεμένος οἵτινες ἐν τῇ στάσει φόνον πεποιήκεισαν. 8καὶ ἀναβὰς ὁ ὄχλος ἤρξατο αἰτεῖσθαι καθὼς ἐποίει αὐτοῖς. 9ὁ δὲ Πιλᾶτος ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς λέγων, Θέλετε ἀπολύσω ὑμῖν τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Ἰουδαίων; 10ἐγίνωσκεν γὰρ ὅτι διὰ φθόνον παραδεδώκεισαν αὐτὸν οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς. 11οἱ δὲ ἀρχιερεῖς ἀνέσεισαν τὸν ὄχλον ἵνα μᾶλλον τὸν Βαραββᾶν ἀπολύσῃ αὐτοῖς. 12ὁ δὲ Πιλᾶτος πάλιν ἀποκριθεὶς ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς, Τί οὖν [θέλετε] ποιήσω [ὃν λέγετε] τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Ἰουδαίων; 13οἱ δὲ πάλιν ἔκραξαν, Σταύρωσον αὐτόν. 14ὁ δὲ Πιλᾶτος ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς, Τί γὰρ ἐποίησεν κακόν; οἱ δὲ περισσῶς ἔκραξαν, Σταύρωσον αὐτόν. 15ὁ δὲ Πιλᾶτος βουλόμενος τῷ ὄχλῳ τὸ ἱκανὸν ποιῆσαι ἀπέλυσεν αὐτοῖς τὸν Βαραββᾶν, καὶ παρέδωκεν τὸν Ἰησοῦν φραγελλώσας ἵνα σταυρωθῇ. 16Οἱ δὲ στρατιῶται ἀπήγαγον αὐτὸν ἔσω τῆς αὐλῆς, ὅ ἐστιν πραιτώριον, καὶ συγκαλοῦσιν ὅλην τὴν σπεῖραν. 17καὶ ἐνδιδύσκουσιν αὐτὸν πορφύραν καὶ περιτιθέασιν αὐτῷ πλέξαντες ἀκάνθινον στέφανον: 18καὶ ἤρξαντο ἀσπάζεσθαι αὐτόν, Χαῖρε, βασιλεῦ τῶν Ἰουδαίων: 19καὶ ἔτυπτον αὐτοῦ τὴν κεφαλὴν καλάμῳ καὶ ἐνέπτυον αὐτῷ, καὶ τιθέντες τὰ γόνατα προσεκύνουν αὐτῷ. 20καὶ ὅτε ἐνέπαιξαν αὐτῷ, ἐξέδυσαν αὐτὸν τὴν πορφύραν καὶ ἐνέδυσαν αὐτὸν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ. καὶ ἐξάγουσιν αὐτὸν ἵνα σταυρώσωσιν αὐτόν. 21Καὶ ἀγγαρεύουσιν παράγοντά τινα Σίμωνα Κυρηναῖον ἐρχόμενον ἀπ' ἀγροῦ, τὸν πατέρα Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ Ῥούφου, ἵνα ἄρῃ τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ. 22καὶ φέρουσιν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὸν Γολγοθᾶν τόπον, ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον Κρανίου Τόπος. 23καὶ ἐδίδουν αὐτῷ ἐσμυρνισμένον οἶνον, ὃς δὲ οὐκ ἔλαβεν. 24καὶ σταυροῦσιν αὐτὸν καὶ διαμερίζονται τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, βάλλοντες κλῆρον ἐπ' αὐτὰ τίς τί ἄρῃ. 25ἦν δὲ ὥρα τρίτη καὶ ἐσταύρωσαν αὐτόν. 26καὶ ἦν ἡ ἐπιγραφὴ τῆς αἰτίας αὐτοῦ ἐπιγεγραμμένη, Ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων. 27Καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ σταυροῦσιν δύο λῃστάς, ἕνα ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ ἕνα ἐξ εὐωνύμων αὐτοῦ. 28Καὶ 29οἱ παραπορευόμενοι ἐβλασφήμουν αὐτὸν κινοῦντες τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν καὶ λέγοντες, Οὐὰ ὁ καταλύων τὸν ναὸν καὶ οἰκοδομῶν ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις, 30σῶσον σεαυτὸν καταβὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ. 31ὁμοίως καὶ οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς ἐμπαίζοντες πρὸς ἀλλήλους μετὰ τῶν γραμματέων ἔλεγον, Ἄλλους ἔσωσεν, ἑαυτὸν οὐ δύναται σῶσαι: 32ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰσραὴλ καταβάτω νῦν ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ, ἵνα ἴδωμεν καὶ πιστεύσωμεν. καὶ οἱ συνεσταυρωμένοι σὺν αὐτῷ ὠνείδιζον αὐτόν. 33Καὶ γενομένης ὥρας ἕκτης σκότος ἐγένετο ἐφ' ὅλην τὴν γῆν ἕως ὥρας ἐνάτης. 34καὶ τῇ ἐνάτῃ ὥρᾳ ἐβόησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς φωνῇ μεγάλῃ, Ελωι ελωι λεμα σαβαχθανι; ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον Ὁ θεός μου ὁ θεός μου, εἰς τί ἐγκατέλιπές με; 35καί τινες τῶν παρεστηκότων ἀκούσαντες ἔλεγον, Ἴδε Ἠλίαν φωνεῖ. 36δραμὼν δέ τις [καὶ] γεμίσας σπόγγον ὄξους περιθεὶς καλάμῳ ἐπότιζεν αὐτόν, λέγων, Ἄφετε ἴδωμεν εἰ ἔρχεται Ἠλίας καθελεῖν αὐτόν. 37ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἀφεὶς φωνὴν μεγάλην ἐξέπνευσεν. 38Καὶ τὸ καταπέτασμα τοῦ ναοῦ ἐσχίσθη εἰς δύο ἀπ' ἄνωθεν ἕως κάτω. 39Ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ κεντυρίων ὁ παρεστηκὼς ἐξ ἐναντίας αὐτοῦ ὅτι οὕτως ἐξέπνευσεν εἶπεν, Ἀληθῶς οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος υἱὸς θεοῦ ἦν. 40*)=ησαν δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες ἀπὸ μακρόθεν θεωροῦσαι, ἐν αἷς καὶ Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ καὶ Μαρία ἡ Ἰακώβου τοῦ μικροῦ καὶ Ἰωσῆτος μήτηρ καὶ Σαλώμη, 41αἳ ὅτε ἦν ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ ἠκολούθουν αὐτῷ καὶ διηκόνουν αὐτῷ, καὶ ἄλλαι πολλαὶ αἱ συναναβᾶσαι αὐτῷ εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα. 42Καὶ ἤδη ὀψίας γενομένης, ἐπεὶ ἦν παρασκευή, ὅ ἐστιν προσάββατον, 43ἐλθὼν Ἰωσὴφ [ὁ] ἀπὸ Ἁριμαθαίας εὐσχήμων βουλευτής, ὃς καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν προσδεχόμενος τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ, τολμήσας εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς τὸν Πιλᾶτον καὶ ᾐτήσατο τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. 44ὁ δὲ Πιλᾶτος ἐθαύμασεν εἰ ἤδη τέθνηκεν, καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος τὸν κεντυρίωνα ἐπηρώτησεν αὐτὸν εἰ πάλαι ἀπέθανεν: 45καὶ γνοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ κεντυρίωνος ἐδωρήσατο τὸ πτῶμα τῷ Ἰωσήφ. 46καὶ ἀγοράσας σινδόνα καθελὼν αὐτὸν ἐνείλησεν τῇ σινδόνι καὶ ἔθηκεν αὐτὸν ἐν μνημείῳ ὃ ἦν λελατομημένον ἐκ πέτρας, καὶ προσεκύλισεν λίθον ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν τοῦ μνημείου. 47ἡ δὲ Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ καὶ Μαρία ἡ Ἰωσῆτος ἐθεώρουν ποῦ τέθειται.

Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 26th edition
© 1979, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart;

The Greek New Testament, 3rd edition
© 1975, United Bible Societies, London


2. ANALYSIS: Mark 14:1-15:47

14:1-2. The authorities do not want to have Jesus arrested during
the festival, but this is what actually happened. Vs. 2 is often thought
to be a tradition matching John 18:28, that Jesus was put to death before
the festival began. Alternatively, it may be Mark's irony: the plans
went awry.

The Passion Narrative is generally terse and factual with little
miracle or theological interpretation. It is now doubted that it
existed in connected written form prior to Mark, but it is fairly
homogeneous and the sequence of events was known. Mark certainly
colored it with his own theology. But vss. 3-9 are his work, and they
interrupt a narrative that continues in vss. 10f. Mark's story is
probably more primitive than Luke 7:36-38, and John 12:18

14:3. katakeimenou autou - literally "as he was reclining," but the
woman anoints Jesus' head to consecrate him as Messiah, and in a
village the people were probably seated on the floor. Perfumes were
kept in tubular flasks, usually of glass, but the shape was called
alabastron because sometimes they were made of alabaster.

14:8. Anyone who is Messiah in these days is anointed only for his burial.

14:9 reflects the sentiment of Mark and of the Church.

14:12. From the Jewish point of view, the lambs were not slain
on the first day of unleavened bread (15 Nisan, which began as
sundown), but on the 14th.

14:14. kataluma - a guest room, previously arranged for the occasion.
anagaion, an upstairs room.

14:18. "He who is eating with me;" cf. Ps. 41:9. Other fulfilments of O.T.
prophecy are noted in vss. 21, 27, 49.

14:22f. eulogeisas and eucharisteisas are interchangeable; one thanks
God by blessing him (saying something good about him). Mark regards
these as Passover blessings over the bread and the wine. To them Jesus
adds, "Take it; this is my Body." The disciples are to participate in the
blessings brought by his coming death.

14:24. The blood of the covenant: in the ceremony of ratification (Exod.
24:6-8) the people are leagued with God when the blood is dashed first
on the altar and then on the congregation.

14:25. Reunion in the Kingdom of God might take place in Galilee (14:28;
16:7).

14:26. If this was a Passover, the hymns might be the second part of the
Hallel (Pss. 115-118). The N.T. often interprets Ps. 118 as a prophecy of
Christ.

14:32-42. This is an interlude showing signs of Mark's theology, language
and irony, and a pathos unique in Mark. The traditional sites of Gethsemane
(Russian and Latin) are on the extreme west slope of the Mount of Olives.

14:33f. Ekthambetsthai kai adeimonein, distressed and agitated (NRSV),
but the words express shuddering awe. His sorrow is so great that he is
near death. Contrast John 12:27f.

14:36,38. Echoes of the Lord's Prayer. gregorette, keep awake, keep alert,
resumes 13:33-37. This great word of Christian devotion is echoed in the
proper name Gregory.

14:44. susseimon, sign or signal. asphalos, securely; they must get the right
man and seize him.

14:45. The kiss identified Jesus to his captors; it is also ironical.

14:51f. Like the Gethesemane story, this is almost like a dream-sequence.
Is this the young man (angel) of 16:5?

14:53-65. The hearing appears to be an informal examination designed
to collect evidence; it does not conform to rabbinical laws regarding trials.
For evidence elsewhere that Jesus spoke against the Temple, see Mark 13:2;
Luke 19:44; Matt. 23:38=Luke 13:35, but especially Mark 11:17.

14:61f. The dialogue is from the point of view of Christian theology.
In Judaism the Messiah is not necessarily a "son of the Blessed," i.e. God
(though see Ps. 2:7). Jesus answers, "I am" (cf. Exodus 3:14) but immediately
speaks of the Son of Man (cf. Mark 8:31). Ps. 110:1 and Dan. 7:13 are part of
the background, but this refers not to the ascent of the Son of Man, instead
to his return (Mark 13:26).

14:63. Not blasphemy in the strictest sense.

14:65. "received him with blows;" NRSV, "took him over and beat him."

14:66-72. Many regard the story as only the climax of Mark's program to
discredit Peter and the Twelve. But if the original audience knew the whole
story of Peter, does it also suggest that even this man who denied his Lord
could be restored? First hinted in Luke 22:32.

14:72. kai epibalon aklalen is puzzling; probably "he broke down and wept"
(NRSV). A variant in D,Theta, Old Latin,etc. reads "he began to weep;"
Matt. 26:75 and Luke 22:62 substitute "he went out and wept bitterly."

15:1-47. The account is generally terse and sober. Although the evangelists
excuse Pilate as much as possible, he is the one responsible for Jesus'
death and acts in the interest of imperial policy.

15:1. Certain members of the Sanhedrin hold a consultation (symboulion);
the actual trial now follows.

15:2. "King of the Jews" was the title of Herod the Great. Its use here and
in vss. 7,12,18,26 shows that the charge was treason against the emperor
(cf. John 19:12). Pilate is not interested in the religious issues. su legeis,
"It is YOU (emphatic) who use these words." According to Mark, Jesus could
not deny that in some sense he was the Messiah (cf. 14:62).

15:6f. There is no independent evidence that Pilate was accustomed to grant
such an amnesty, but it is conceivable. Barabbas was one of the insurgents (stasiastai) in a recent uprising; the political situation was sensitive.

15:9-11. Pilate evidently did not think Jesus dangerous, and he is ironical
when he calls him King of the Jews. It was not mere envy or jealousy
(phthonos) that impelled the chief priest; they though of Jesus as an actual
threat because the "cleansing" of the Temple was an insult to their authority.
In Mark the crowd is usually friendly or at least neutral; here it is a hostile
mob. The variant in Matt. 27:16f., "Jesus Barabbas or Jesus the so-called
Messiah," may reflect an actual tradition.

15:16. praitorion, government house; Pilate's residence and headquarters
when in Jerusalem, probably Herod's old palace on the west side of the city,
near the Jaffa gate. The whole speira (the 2nd Italian cohort?) could consist
of 600 men.

15:17-19. The soldiers give Jesus mock-royal honors. An emperor would be
hailed with the words, Ave, Caesar, victor, imperator.

15:21. Mark's first readers, in Rome or Galilee, could have known Alexander
and Rufus; the other evangelists did not. Simon was compelled to carry the
cross beam which would be nailed to a pole or tree already standing.
Discovery in Jerusalem of the bones of a man crucified in the 1st century
illustrates the method of execution; see "Crucifixion, Method of,"
Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Suppl. 199-200.

15:23. esmurnismenon hoinon, wine infused with myrrh to deaden pain.

15:24. Garments of a condemned man were perquisites of his executioners,
but there is also an echo of Ps. 22:18.

15:25. The third hour, approximately 9 a.m.

15:27. leistas, properly "bandits;" the term sometimes refers to guerrillas.
Luke 23:39-43 expands the story, and later tradition even gives names to
the two.

15:32. "the anointed, the King of Israel" is a more exalted and theological
title than "King of the Jews."

15:33. Sixth and ninth hours, about noon and 3 p.m. The darkness suggests
Amos 8:9 or Jer. 15:9.

15:34. Ps. 22:1 is quoted in Aramaic, not Hebrew; Matt. 27:46 changes the
first two words to Eli, Eli, which could more easily be misheard as a call
to Elijah. This can be thought of as a cry of despair, or as a prayer in which
Jesus identified himself with the ancient sufferer.

15:36. hoksos - cheap sour wine, perhaps given to Jesus to quench his thirst.
Ps. 69:21 may have influenced this tradition. It is not certain if the man
actually expected Elijah to come. aphete idomen, "let us see;" very colloquial.

15:37. phonein megalein, "great," i.e. loud voice, here and in vs. 34, may be
the shout of a hero. Ignatius of Antioch (ca. A.D. 115) says to the
Philadelphians, "When I was among you, I cried out with megalei phonei,
a voice of God..." (Philad. 7:1).

15:38. Mark may have thought of the tearing of the veil of the Temple as
a sign of God's judgment; in Heb. 9:19-25 it symbolizes the direct access
to God's presence made possible by Jesus' death.

15:39. Jesus' final cry, rather than the miracle of the veil, may have led
the centurion to exclaim that Jesus was a "son of God." To a pagan this
meant only a semi-divine hero, but to Mark much more; it resumes "son of
God" in 1:1.

15:40f. Everyone, including the disciples, had fled, and only the women
were present. These three were the first to learn the news of Jesus'
resurrection. Mary Magdalene, according to John 20:11-18, actually saw
the Lord. Mary the mother of James the younger (or "small") and Joses is
probably not Jesus' mother (but cf. 6:3). Luke 8:2 mentions two others who
had followed Jesus to Jerusalem, Susanna and Joanna; the latter is also at
the empty tomb (Luke 24:10).

15:43. euscheimon, "respected" or "honorable," but the word can mean
"wealthy," as Matt. 27:57 understands it. bouleuteis, councillor, a member
of the Great Sanhedrin or of a local court. As a devoted Jew, he expected
the Kingdom of God. Matt. 27:57 claims him as a disciple; a secret one,
in John 19:38.

15:44. Crucifixion was execution by torture, and a victim might suffer for
several days.

15:46. The tomb was hewn out of the limestone bedrock, like many
tombs in and near Jerusalem. For archaeological evidence regarding
crucifixion and the identification of the site with the traditional Holy
Sepulchre, see John Wilkinson, Jerusalem as Jesus Knew It (London: Thames
and Hudson, 1978), pp. 144-159. A disk-shaped stone could be rolled to
close the entrance.


3. STRATEGY: Mark 14:1-15:47

The Passion Narratives practically preach themselves, and this is
especially true when Bach's St. Matthew Passion is sung, or when
members of the congregation read the parts of various persons in the
story. The homily therefore need not be long.

The preceding Sunday, Lent 5, is rather directly related to Holy Week;
see, e.g., John 12:20-33. The service leaflet or bulletin for that day might
encourage the people to read Mark 14-15 as a personal preparation and to
note certain important points, especially the simplicity and power of
the narrative.

Several possible approaches for the homilist follow:

1 - The Cross as Jesus' act of obedience (Mk. 14:33-36), in
which he continued his work for the Reign of God (14:25).

2 - Selecting some particular aspect of the story: Jesus before
the Sanhedrin or before Pilate; the minor actors, Simon of Cyrene, the centurion, the women.

3 - The unholy alliance of state and religious authorities
in a judicial murder.

4 - Paul's paradox: "stumbling-block to the Jews, nonsense to
Gentiles, but to us...Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God" (1 Cor. 1:23f.).

5 - How does the Cross save us? There are many theories of the
Atonement, but consider:
a) We are united with Christ, not just emotionally; for he leads
us to follow the way of the Cross. This is the theme of Mark
8:34-37 and the entire story of the journey to Jerusalem,
9:30-10:52. b) The resurrection showed that the Cross was
God's victory over the powers of evil (Col. 2:13-15;cf. Luke
10:17-20; John 12:31f.; Rev. 12:7-12).

Exegete - Sherman E. Johnson, ThD,PhD †
Dean Emeritus, Visiting Professor of New Testament
Church Divinity School of the Pacific , Episcopal Church in America






Editor's Note:

There is no better preparation for Holy Week than to spend at least some time this week with J.S.B. in meditation. It is the choral sine qua non for entry into the Easter Season.

Some of the most poignant and soul-stirring themes of all time are found within the St. Matthew Passion, not only in terms of the main theme (O Sacred Head) repeated in several variations, but also in sub-themes, such as:

Pare-toi, mon coeur, pour lui;
Tu vas etre le sepulcre ou Jesus dort et repose,
Car c'est en toi desormais,
C'est en toi qu'il veut faire sa demeure;
Monde, adieu, descends en moi,
O Jesus, descends en moi!

In some peculiar way, this passage (Aria Nr. 75) touches me because it so reminds me of the prayer my Großmutter, Anna Weiß, taught me and which her great-grandchildren pray:

Ich bin klein, mein Herz ist rein, niemand darf im wohnen,
als Jesus allein. AMEN.





__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________









Monday in Holy Week

April 6, 2009
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 36:5-11 (7)
Hebrews 9:11-15
John 12:1-11

Prayer of the Day
O God, your Son chose the path that led to pain before joy and to the cross before glory. Plant his cross in our hearts, so that in its power and love we may come at last to joy and glory, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.


Gospel Acclamation
May I never boast of | anything
except the cross of our Lord | Jesus Christ. (Gal. 6:14)

Color: Scarlet/Purple

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Tuesday in Holy Week

April 7, 2009
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 71:1-14 (6)
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
John 12:20-36

Prayer of the Day
Lord Jesus, you have called us to follow you. Grant that our love may not grow cold in your service, and that we may not fail or deny you in the time of trial, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Gospel Acclamation
May I never boast of | anything
except the cross of our Lord | Jesus Christ. (Gal. 6:14)

Color: Scarlet/Purple

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Wednesday in Holy Week

April 8, 2009
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 70 (1)
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 13:21-32

Prayer of the Day
Almighty God, your Son our Savior suffered at human hands and endured the shame of the cross. Grant that we may walk in the way of his cross and find it the way of life and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Gospel Acclamation
May I never boast of | anything
except the cross of our Lord | Jesus Christ. (Gal. 6:14)

Color: Scarlet/Purple











__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________










< LEXEGETE ™ >


© 2009 TISCHREDE SOFTWARE | http://www.Yourobtsvt.blogspot.com









__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


_

Monday, March 16, 2009

Echoes of Ayres...and Dad...and The Republic.

My Father, a Wartburg Seminary Grad, always believed that History was the proper
preparation for ministry, and ought to be a major part of the "training in Christianity" he imparted to his fifty years of confirmation classes. He actually used a 1940's book called HISTORY of the BIBLE in the CHURCH, sort of an early forerunner to Tim Lull's great textbook, Called to Confess Christ (1980).

I bring this up because, as I listen to a lot of preaching in a lot different settings (including TV, radio, podcast, etc.) I see that the "Humiliation of the Word" once predicted by Jacques Ellull seems to often creep back in to the Church's view of the present. Why is this? I believe this is true because our preaching has not always had the calm confidence of a fully trans-historical viewpoint. There was a fine example of such a viewpoint--in which time is somehow transcended--in the Financial Times this past weekend. Harry Eyres, who writes a weekly column on art and culture for FT.com, compared our present day economic crisis with the world in Plato's Republic, and found it inspiring and even more "relevant" than most of our latter day wordslingers
(Jim Cramer v. John Stewart, for instance).

Dave Buehler | MacAdemia™


=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+




Here's the full article:

Echoes of Plato today

By Harry Eyres

Published: March 14 2009 01:10 | The Financial Times

I have just been giving a talk about Plato at the Aldeburgh Literary Festival – or rather engaging in a Platonic dialogue with Irene Noel-Baker, the only translator I know who has ever dared to render the great poet- banisher into verse. This has meant going back to one of those texts that repay endless rereading; I always expect to be surprised by The Republic (despite, or because of, being the author of a small book on the subject), but this time I am amazed by its relevance to our particular dark and uncertain time, as if it had been written not in 380BC but the day before yesterday.

The bit that grabs me is the section on democracy in the entertaining description of a downward, vicious spiral of corrupt societies. I suppose everyone knows that Plato had a low opinion of democracy. But usually this is the cue for thoughtful consideration to be replaced by righteous indignation. How could anyone prefer the cruel, militaristic, apartheid and philistine regime of ancient Sparta to the rich democracy of Athens, celebrated in the noble words of Pericles’ funeral oration and adorned with works of art and architecture (the Parthenon, the statues, the black figure vases) that still draw the crowds?

But if you go back to the words themselves, written with a playfulness and grace that have eluded most readers and nearly all translators, you find much food for thought, or arguments that should not be dismissed out of hand.

First of all, Socrates, the main speaker in The Republic, does not deny the attractions of democracy. If constitutions were goods on sale in a shop, everyone would choose democracy – it is like a coat of many colours compared to a suit of sombre grey. “There is liberty, and lots of freedom of speech, and the individual is free to do as she or he likes.”

This sounds pretty good. But might excessive liberty end up enslaving us, both our minds and our societies, rather than setting us free?

To explain how this could happen, Socrates starts with finance. Democracy evolves from oligarchy, the system in which wealth is what counts. “The [oligarchic] Rulers, who are in power because they have amassed so much wealth, do not want to prohibit by law the extravagance of the young, and stop them from wasting their money and ruining themselves. Their intention is to make loans to such imprudent people or by buying up their property to hope to increase their own wealth and influence ... The moneymakers continue to inject the toxic sting of their loans wherever they can, and to ask for high rates of interest, with the result that the city becomes full of lazy drones and paupers.” Has any better diagnosis of the origins of the credit crunch been written recently?

Democracy fosters all sorts of unnecessary desires and appetites. We end up getting addicted to these desires and appetites, and so, as Plato says, “the likely outcome of excessive freedom is only slavery in the individual and in the society”.

Then, even more ominously: “Probably then tyranny develops out of no other constitution than democracy – from the very heights of liberty, I take it, to extreme and savage servitude.” Words that could have been inscribed on the grave of the Weimar Republic. Democracy is “a wonderfully pleasant way of carrying on in the short term”, as Socrates puts it. But chronic short-termism could be its fatal flaw. Politicians have to pander to electors; weak government is the result, in which tough decisions are endlessly put off. Plato would have been darkly amused by our attempts to deal with climate change, as short-term decisions to build runways trump long-term attempts to curb emissions, or carbon trading schemes turn into perverse incentives to pollute.

But it is not only as a stern critic of democracy that we want to celebrate Plato. Somehow, The Republic is always turned into a gloomy tract or something like a government white paper. One aspect that gets left out is love. No doubt Plato speaks about love with still greater freedom, playfulness and humour in The Symposium and in Phaedrus. But there is still a lot of love in The Republic.

Socrates famously concluded that there will only be justice in the city when philosophers rule, or “when those now called kings and potentates be imbued with a sufficient measure of philosophy”. But what does he mean by a philosopher? A philosopher is first of all a kind of lover, someone who loves wisdom, that is to say a joyful, insatiable polymath, not a dry and dusty specialist.

Love is what sets the whole thing going – the passionate and excited love of inquiry that prolongs a short walk down to Piraeus into one of the great thought-adventures in human history. I happen to disagree with Plato on democracy – not that his criticisms are without weight, but that they are outweighed by the criticisms to be levelled against the other systems he apparently preferred.

But returning to this most thought-provoking of all books written in the West is always a tonic and refreshment to the mind – like going back to the music of JS Bach. As Emerson said: “He points and quibbles; and by and by comes a sentence that moves the sea and land.”

harry.eyres@ft.com | More columns at www.ft.com/eyres

----------------------------------------------------


© The Financial Times Limited 2009

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

+ LENT FIVE + 2009 +




Lexegete™ | Year B | Mark
________________________________________

Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 29, 2009
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12 (10) or Psalm 119:9-16 (11)
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

Prayer of the Day
O God, with steadfast love you draw us to yourself, and in mercy you receive our prayers. Strengthen us to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, that through life and death we may live in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Gospel Acclamation
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a | single grain;
but if it dies, it | bears much fruit. (John 12:24)


1. Context - John 12:20-33

The writer of John’s Gospel, by carefully utilizing significant bits of detail,
always drops major theological hints, via the context, into all of the discourses attributed to Jesus. It requires the reader of John 12:20-33 to look backward from the text to the beginning of chap. 12 where the evangelist begins to build the audience, create the scene, designate the time critical to understanding this discourse. The festival mentioned is the Feast of Passover, Israel’s annual remembrance of their most critical hour in history--God’s deliverance, liberation and salvation in the Exodus. This is no ordinary time in a daily routine, but a time of tedious preparation for asking the pivotal question of Pascha: “Why is this night different?” This time of preparation finds Jesus in the home of his closest friends--not exclusively with the Twelve--Martha serving, Lazarus at table with him and Mary anointing him for his burial, over the self-serving protestations of Judas, the keeper of the money-bag and soon-to-be betrayer. In the background the chief priests are plotting to kill both Jesus and Lazarus because their supporters are becoming believers in Jesus. Jesus’ approach to Jerusalem is accompanied by the great crowd and their cry for salvation (“Hosanna!”), the messianic symbol of donkey colt and the waving of the nationalistic symbol of palm branches--the equivalent of political placards. Along the sidelines the Pharisees are heard jealously muttering about how the whole world is going after Jesus.

The array of the privileged and the outcast is being tediously prepared for the reader. This is no ordinary moment in Jesus’ ministry. Events, people, time--the ingredients for effecting salvation are accumulating. The tension heightens as Greek proselytes incessantly pester Jesus’ Greek-named disciple from a fishing village in the Greek-dominated tetrarchy of Phillip to let them “see” Jesus. He joins forces with Jesus’ other Greek-named disciple from the same village, and together these two [who themselves are not in the inner circle of the Twelve, but who know all about being sought out to see and follow Jesus, and who brought others to “come and see” him too, Jn. 1:35-46] , provide the necessary ingredients for eliciting Jesus’ last public remarks before disappearing from public view, as unbelief prevails and fear cuts off confession (36b-43).

1b. Text: John 12:20-33

ESV:




GREEK:

20 ησαν δὲ Ελληνές τινες ἐκ τῶν ἀναβαινόντων ἵνα προσκυνήσωσιν ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ: 21οὗτοι οὖν προσῆλθον Φιλίππῳ τῷ ἀπὸ Βηθσαϊδὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, καὶ ἠρώτων αὐτὸν λέγοντες, Κύριε, θέλομεν τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἰδεῖν. 22ἔρχεται ὁ Φίλιππος καὶ λέγει τῷ Ἀνδρέᾳ: ἔρχεται Ἀνδρέας καὶ Φίλιππος καὶ λέγουσιν τῷ Ἰησοῦ. 23ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἀποκρίνεται αὐτοῖς λέγων, Ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. 24ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου πεσὼν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἀποθάνῃ, αὐτὸς μόνος μένει: ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ, πολὺν καρπὸν φέρει. 25ὁ φιλῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἀπολλύει αὐτήν, καὶ ὁ μισῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον φυλάξει αὐτήν. 26ἐὰν ἐμοί τις διακονῇ, ἐμοὶ ἀκολουθείτω, καὶ ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ ἐκεῖ καὶ ὁ διάκονος ὁ ἐμὸς ἔσται: ἐάν τις ἐμοὶ διακονῇ τιμήσει αὐτὸν ὁ πατήρ. 27Νῦν ἡ ψυχή μου τετάρακται. καὶ τί εἴπω; Πάτερ, σῶσόν με ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης; ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο ἦλθον εἰς τὴν ὥραν ταύτην. 28πάτερ, δόξασόν σου τὸ ὄνομα. ἦλθεν οὖν φωνὴ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, Καὶ ἐδόξασα καὶ πάλιν δοξάσω. 29ὁ οὖν ὄχλος ὁ ἑστὼς καὶ ἀκούσας ἔλεγεν βροντὴν γεγονέναι: ἄλλοι ἔλεγον, Ἄγγελος αὐτῷ λελάληκεν. 30ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν, Οὐ δι' ἐμὲ ἡ φωνὴ αὕτη γέγονεν ἀλλὰ δι' ὑμᾶς. 31νῦν κρίσις ἐστὶν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, νῦν ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου ἐκβληθήσεται ἔξω: 32κἀγὼ ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, πάντας ἑλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν. 33τοῦτο δὲ ἔλεγεν σημαίνων ποίῳ θανάτῳ ἤμελλεν ἀποθνῄσκειν.


Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 26th edition
© 1979, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart;

The Greek New Testament, 3rd edition
© 1975, United Bible Societies, London



2. Analysis: John 12:20-33

V. 20 - Greeks - Hellein, not Hellenisteis (Greek-fearing Jews); possibly
proselytes who have converted to the Jewish faith or “god-fearers,”
Gentiles who have affiliated with the Jewish community through education
and worship. Their mentions follows immediately on the heels of the
Pharisees’ remark that all the world has gone after Jesus, and precipitates
Jesus’ declaration that a point of transition has been reached.


V. 21 - Bethsaida, “house of fishing” - the location of which is not
absolutely certain. Perhaps it is the fishing village on the N.E. shore of Lake
Galilee that lies on the margin between Herod Antipas’ Galilee and the
Tetrarchy of Phillip. It was the home of Peter, Andrew and Phillip.

V. 21 - SEE, eideo; lit. to see, perceive - but in Johannine thought; usually associated with believing in and knowing the earthly Jesus and has a sense
of revelation when linked with doksa, cf. John 1:35-46;6:30.

V. 23 - hora - hour; in the Fourth Gospel usage with the definite article or pronominal adjective indicates a special period in Jesus’ life. This is the first time Jesus says that his hour has come. Previously it was either not yet (2:4; 7:30; 8:20) or coming (4:21,23;5:25;28). With this pivotal moment identified, this pericope becomes the hinge of John’s Gospel and by implication the clue
to understanding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Vs. 23,28 - DOKSA - glorified - cf. “see” and significance of seeing and/or believing the earthly Jesus. In the 4th Gospel the doksa of God is clearly visible in Jesus’ life to all who will see by faith (1:14; 2:11;1 1:4,40; 12:38-43). Used in this pivotal discourse, the doksa is now embracing the cross.

V. 25 - phileo/miseo - love/hate ; apollumi/phylassoo - destroys/preserves;
five other forms of this saying are found in the Synoptics (Matt. 10:39;
16:25;Mk. 8:35; Lk. 9:24; 17:33; cf. Lk. 14:26). The strong contrasts
employed by the evangelist express the implied preference of the latter
option. Extreme caution should be exercised in interpreting this paradox
(or either of its companions that bracket it) so that self-denigration,
self-hatred and the various contributors to low self-esteem are not
identified as the preferred attitude.

Remember that Jesus’ audience at this point does not include those
privileged few who have realized a 20th Century autonomous selfhood, but
the excluded multitudes for whom massive suffering and dehumanization is
the oppressive reality. It is helpful to look the Mary/Judas incident of
vs. 3-08 for a fleshing-out of the marked contrasts of this paradox. Jesus
said Mary had kept her ointment for the day of his burial. Judas, whose
disloyalty will betray Jesus to his enemies and death, “keeps” the
money-bag and steals from it!

V. 27 - Tarassoo - troubled - this is John’s clue that the reader is getting
another view of the agony experienced in the Gethsemane tradition of the
Synoptics (Mk. 14:34-41). This pericope is obviously intended as a Passion
narrative and assigned to Lent 5 because of a no-longer-observed tradition
of calling this Passion Sunday.





V. 32,34 - hypsoo - lifted up - cf. 3:14; 8:28, where it is also used in
connection with “Son of Man”. The evangelist clearly wants to indicate
that it was a real, flesh-and-blood Jesus who was crucified. The double
meaning often associated here as “exaltation” should not be allowed to
become a glorification of death so much as a celebration of the gift of life
that it passed on when concrete actions put one’s life on the line for the
sake of radical love expressed in the face of evil and injustice. Jesus is
concerned that the grain of wheat not remain alone but bear the bountiful
fruit of relationship and servanthood (vs. 24, 26).


V. 32 - pantas elkoo - draw all (people) - cf. 6:44; the NRSV correctly
translates the male and female plural so that the inclusive nature of the
attraction to Jesus of all humankind is acknowledged. The Pharisees have
already admitted that they are powerless and that the “whole world is going
after him.” Here Jesus explains his attractiveness in the face of the
massive human suffering that is the reality of human history; yes, even the
“Son of Man’s”. Converted to seeing Jesus’ willingness to risk, even unto
death, opens others to seeing that only the power of radical love has
sufficient drawing power to enable it to live on in our world. There are no
ways around crucifixions, given the power of evil in the world.



But the attraction of love is not that it perpetuates crucifixions, but
brings them to an end in a world where they would go on and on. In the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus, we are drawn near to the God Jesus makes

visible--the God who has become a part of the struggle of life and against death.



3. Strategy: John 12:20-33

I. Passing on the Gift of Life

Thesis: None of us were born only do die, but we were meant to have the gift
of love, to know the power of love, and to pass it on.
Focusing Text - 12:24-26

Homiletical moves:

1 - Are we to interpret Jesus’ death on the cross as the culmination of
a life lived in a headlong race toward Golgotha seeking suffering as an end
in itself that completes the human drama once and for all...? OR

2 - Is it more faithful to interpret the cross as the price Jesus paid
for refusing to abandon the radical activity of love––the expression of an
all-inclusive love; that welcomes servant–like Marthas, brought–from-the-
dead Lazaruses, extravagant Marys, rabble-rousing common folk who are
foolish enough to believe that God is still delivering them from captivity,
and religious outsiders who don’t measure up to all the rules...?


AND THEREFORE CONCLUDE THAT...

3 - Jesus’ sacrifice was for the cause of radical love. He accepted
sacrifice in order to pass on the gift of love. He expressed, embodies, shares
and celebrates the gift of life as his death calls us into the power of
personhood, passed on to us by others who have persisted as he did in
radical mutuality and reciprocity.


II - Lenten Doxology

Thesis - We are converted from despair to hope by faith in the ever-present
reality of God’s visibility in Jesus. Focusing Text - 12:23, 27-8.


Homilietical Moves:



1 - Sundays in Lent are not required to reflect the penitential nature of
the 40 days of the Lenten season. “Every Sunday is a little Easter.”


2 - The glorification of God in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection
rescues the cross from merely sentimental platitudes about it being
“an emblem of suffering and shame,” and instead awakens hope within us that all the powers of death and destruction can be radically broken.


3 - The hour has come for us as well--we who are separated by time and space from these initial events, and who also wish to see Jesus by faith. It is ours to know as well that God does not desire death, but honors new life, new possibilities, real efficacy.


4. References: John 12:20-33


Harrison, Beverly Wilding, “The Power of Anger in the Work of Love: Christian Ethics for Women and Other Strangers,” Feminist Theology, A Reader, ed. Ann Loades, SPCK, 1990, pp. 210-12.

Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel According to John I-XII, Anchor Bible, Doubleday & Co., 1966.

Ruether, Rosemary. To Change the World. Crossroads, 1989, pp. 19-30.


5. Music Suggestions: John 12:20-33

Passing on the Gift of Life - “Now the Green Blade Riseth” &“What Wondrous love is this?”

Lenten Doxology - “All Glory, Laud and Honor”esp. v. 4 & “Sing with All the Saints in Glory”

Exegete - Linda K. Clark, United Methodist Church


+ LENT FOUR + 2009 +



LEXEGETE™ | YEAR B | MARK
___________________________________
FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
MARCH 22, 2009
NUMBERS 21:4-9
PSALM 107:1-3, 17-22 (19)
EPHESIANS 2:1-10
JOHN 3:14-21

PRAYER OF THE DAY
O GOD, RICH IN MERCY, BY THE HUMILIATION OF YOUR SON YOU LIFTED UP THIS FALLEN WORLD AND RESCUED US FROM THE HOPELESSNESS OF DEATH. LEAD US INTO YOUR LIGHT, THAT ALL OUR DEEDS MAY REFLECT YOUR LOVE, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, OUR SAVIOR AND LORD, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, ONE GOD, NOW AND FOREVER.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS | ONLY SON,
SO THAT EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE E- | TERNAL LIFE. (JOHN 3:16)

___________________________________________________

1. CONTEXT: JOHN 3:14-21

MARTIN LUTHER SAID "[IN] JOHN'S GOSPEL ... YOU DO FIND DEPICTED IN MASTERLY
FASHION HOW FAITH IN CHRIST OVERCOMES SIN, DEATH , AND HELL, AND GIVES LIFE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND SALVATION. THIS IS THE REAL NATURE OF THE GOSPEL." (LW 35:361-362) LUTHER ALSO WROTE: "THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST GLORIOUS GOSPELS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. IT WOULD BE A GOOD THING TO INSCRIBE THIS TEXT IN GOLDEN LETTERS UPON YOUR HEART, AND SEE TO IT THAT YOU KNOW THE WORDS BY HEART AND REPEAT THEM AT LEAST ONCE A DAY. FOR HERE ARE WORDS TO MAKE A SAD MAN GLAD, WORDS THAT WOULD EVEN REVIVE A DEAD MAN IF HE BUT HELD THEM FAST." WEAVING FIGURATIVE TERMS THAT ALL HIS READERS WOULD UNDERSTAND (BECAUSE OF THEIR COMMONNESS) WITH CONTRASTING CONCEPTS (EG. LIGHT/DARKNESS ETC.), JOHN SHARES THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS TO CHRISTIANS WHO PROBABLY ALREADY KNEW MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE. HE ALSO ATTEMPTS TO REFUTE SOME OF THE HERESY FLOATING AROUND IN ASIA MINOR NEAR THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. THE SO-CALLED NICODEMUS DISCOURSE AFTER V. 12 BECOMES A STRING OF LOOSELY RELATED SAYINGS LINKED WITH ONE ANOTHER BY KEY WORDS , (EG. JUDGMENT IN VVS. 17 & 18) WHAT DISTINGUISHES THIS PASSAGE IS ITS DISPLAY OF THE PROMINENT THEOLOGICAL THEMES IN THE GOSPEL . WE FIND ELEMENTS OF PRE-DESTINATION, DOCTRINE OF SIN, DUALISM (EG. LIGHT & DARKNESS), BAPTISM, SPIRIT LIFE, ESCHATOLOGY, ETERNAL LIFE, RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, AND SIN. IF THERE IS A COMMON THREAD, IT MIGHT BE FOUND IN THE POSSIBILITIES MADE AVAILABLE TO HUMANITY AS A RESULT OF CHRIST. THOSE NEW POSSIBILITIES MEAN THAT GOD HAS PROVIDED A WAY BY WHICH HUMANS CAN BE RESCUED FROM THEIR PLIGHT BECAUSE THEY ARE ALIENATED FROM THEIR CREATOR AND THEIR TRUE IDENTITY (LIGHT). SUCH A RESCUE IS LIKE A NEW BIRTH WHICH CAN ONLY BE AFFECTED BY DIVINE POWER AND COMMENCES NEW AND AUTHENTIC LIFE. IT IS A NEW BIRTH ENTIRELY BEYOND HUMAN CONTROL AND MANIPULATION AND ENTIRELY IN THE HANDS OF GOD. VERSE 16 IS PROBABLY THE BEST KNOWN PASSAGE IN ALL OF SCRIPTURE. LUTHER CALLED IT THE GOSPEL IN MINIATURE, OR IN A NUTSHELL.

1B. TEXT: JOHN 3:14-21

ESV:

14 AND AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE WILDERNESS, SO MUST THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP, 15 THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. [1]

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD



16 “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, [2] THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. 17 FOR GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, BUT IN ORDER THAT THE WORLD MIGHT BE SAVED THROUGH HIM. 18 WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM IS NOT CONDEMNED, BUT WHOEVER DOES NOT BELIEVE IS CONDEMNED ALREADY, BECAUSE HE HAS NOT BELIEVED IN THE NAME OF THE ONLY SON OF GOD. 19 AND THIS IS THE JUDGMENT: THE LIGHT HAS COME INTO THE WORLD, AND PEOPLE LOVED THE DARKNESS RATHER THAN THE LIGHT BECAUSE THEIR WORKS WERE EVIL. 20 FOR EVERYONE WHO DOES WICKED THINGS HATES THE LIGHT AND DOES NOT COME TO THE LIGHT, LEST HIS WORKS SHOULD BE EXPOSED. 21 BUT WHOEVER DOES WHAT IS TRUE COMES TO THE LIGHT, SO THAT IT MAY BE CLEARLY SEEN THAT HIS WORKS HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT IN GOD.”
FOOTNOTES

3:15 SOME INTERPRETERS HOLD THAT THE QUOTATION ENDS AT VERSE 15
3:16 OR FOR THIS IS HOW GOD LOVED THE WORLD
__________________________________________________________________________

GREEK:

14ΚΑῚ ΚΑΘῺΣ ΜΩΫΣῆΣ ὝΨΩΣΕΝ ΤῸΝ ὌΦΙΝ ἘΝ Τῇ ἘΡΉΜῼ, ΟὝΤΩΣ ὙΨΩΘῆΝΑΙ ΔΕῖ ΤῸΝ ΥἹῸΝ ΤΟῦ ἈΝΘΡΏΠΟΥ, 15ἽΝΑ ΠᾶΣ Ὁ ΠΙΣΤΕΎΩΝ ἘΝ ΑὐΤῷ ἜΧῌ ΖΩῊΝ ΑἸΏΝΙΟΝ. 16ΟὝΤΩΣ ΓᾺΡ ἨΓΆΠΗΣΕΝ Ὁ ΘΕῸΣ ΤῸΝ ΚΌΣΜΟΝ, ὭΣΤΕ ΤῸΝ ΥἹῸΝ ΤῸΝ ΜΟΝΟΓΕΝῆ ἜΔΩΚΕΝ, ἽΝΑ ΠᾶΣ Ὁ ΠΙΣΤΕΎΩΝ ΕἸΣ ΑὐΤῸΝ ΜῊ ἈΠΌΛΗΤΑΙ ἈΛΛ' ἜΧῌ ΖΩῊΝ ΑἸΏΝΙΟΝ. 17Οὐ ΓᾺΡ ἈΠΈΣΤΕΙΛΕΝ Ὁ ΘΕῸΣ ΤῸΝ ΥἹῸΝ ΕἸΣ ΤῸΝ ΚΌΣΜΟΝ ἽΝΑ ΚΡΊΝῌ ΤῸΝ ΚΌΣΜΟΝ, ἈΛΛ' ἽΝΑ ΣΩΘῇ Ὁ ΚΌΣΜΟΣ ΔΙ' ΑὐΤΟῦ. 18Ὁ ΠΙΣΤΕΎΩΝ ΕἸΣ ΑὐΤῸΝ Οὐ ΚΡΊΝΕΤΑΙ: Ὁ ΔῈ ΜῊ ΠΙΣΤΕΎΩΝ ἬΔΗ ΚΈΚΡΙΤΑΙ, ὍΤΙ ΜῊ ΠΕΠΊΣΤΕΥΚΕΝ ΕἸΣ ΤῸ ὌΝΟΜΑ ΤΟῦ ΜΟΝΟΓΕΝΟῦΣ ΥἹΟῦ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ. 19ΑὝΤΗ ΔΈ ἘΣΤΙΝ Ἡ ΚΡΊΣΙΣ, ὍΤΙ ΤῸ ΦῶΣ ἘΛΉΛΥΘΕΝ ΕἸΣ ΤῸΝ ΚΌΣΜΟΝ ΚΑῚ ἨΓΆΠΗΣΑΝ ΟἹ ἌΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ ΜᾶΛΛΟΝ ΤῸ ΣΚΌΤΟΣ Ἢ ΤῸ ΦῶΣ, ἮΝ ΓᾺΡ ΑὐΤῶΝ ΠΟΝΗΡᾺ ΤᾺ ἜΡΓΑ. 20ΠᾶΣ ΓᾺΡ Ὁ ΦΑῦΛΑ ΠΡΆΣΣΩΝ ΜΙΣΕῖ ΤῸ ΦῶΣ ΚΑῚ ΟὐΚ ἜΡΧΕΤΑΙ ΠΡῸΣ ΤῸ ΦῶΣ, ἽΝΑ ΜῊ ἘΛΕΓΧΘῇ ΤᾺ ἜΡΓΑ ΑὐΤΟῦ: 21Ὁ ΔῈ ΠΟΙῶΝ ΤῊΝ ἈΛΉΘΕΙΑΝ ἜΡΧΕΤΑΙ ΠΡῸΣ ΤῸ ΦῶΣ, ἽΝΑ ΦΑΝΕΡΩΘῇ ΑὐΤΟῦ ΤᾺ ἜΡΓΑ ὍΤΙ ἘΝ ΘΕῷ ἘΣΤΙΝ ΕἸΡΓΑΣΜΈΝΑ.


2. ANALYSIS: JOHN 3:14-21

V. 14-15

IN VSS. 14-15 JESUS PROCEEDS TO THE ACTUAL ANSWER TO NICODEMUS' QUESTION,
"HOW CAN THINGS LIKE THIS HAPPEN," BEING BORN ANEW THROUGH THE SPIRIT CAN
COME ABOUT ONLY AS A RESULT OF JESUS' CRUCIFIXION, RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.

NUMBERS 29:1FF TELLS HOW MOSES RAISED UP A BRONZE SERPENT ON A POLE, AND
THE PEOPLE WHO GAZED UPON IT WERE HEALED OF THE BITES OF POISONOUS SNAKES.
THE COMPARISON WITH JESUS' CRUCIFIXION IS THAT THOSE WHO LOOK UPON THE SON OF MAN
... LIFTED UP UPON THE CROSS WITH THE EYES OF FAITH WILL BE GIVEN LIFE.

LIFTED UP (HYPSOO) IS ONE OF JOHN'S SEVERAL EXPRESSIONS FOR THE CRUCIFIXION. THE WORD WAS USED IN DESCRIBING CRUCIFIXIONS BUT ALSO OF THE EXALTATION OF A KING, THE ENTHRONEMENT OF A RULER. JOHN'S PLAY ON THE WORD HINTS AT HIS UNDERSTANDING OF THE CROSS--CHRIST'S CRUCIFIXION IS HIS ENTHRONEMENT AS KING. CHRIST'S EXALTATION ON THE CROSS IS NEVER SEPARATED FROM THE THOUGHT OF HIS EXALTATION TO HEAVEN. THIS SAME WORD "HYPSOUN" IS USED IN ACTS 2:33-34 FOR DESCRIBING THE ASCENSION OF JESUS. SO IN JOHN "BEING LIFTED UP" DESCRIBES ONE CONTINUOUS ACTION OF ASCENT: JESUS BEGINS HIS RETURN TO THE FATHER AS HE APPROACHES DEATH AND COMPLETES IT ONLY WITH HIS ASCENSION. IT IS THE UPWARD SWING OF THE GREAT PENDULUM OF THE INCARNATION CORRESPONDING TO THE DESCENT OF THE WORD WHICH BECAME FLESH. THE FIRST STEP IN THE ASCENT IS WHEN JESUS IS LIFTED UP ON THE CROSS: THE SECOND WHEN HE IS LIFTED UP TO HEAVEN.

MUST (DEI) SUGGESTS THE DETERMINATION OF THE DIVINE PLAN FOR JESUS. ALL OF
THIS IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ETERNAL LIFE (ZOE AIONOIS V. 15). IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT THE ADJECTIVE (AIWNOIS) IS USED BY JOHN ONLY IN THE EXPRESSION (ZOE AIWNOIS) - LITERALLY "THE LIFE OF THE AGE TO COME." IT REFERS NOT ONLY TO LIFE BEYOND DEATH BUT ALSO TO THE QUALITY OF THE LIFE OF FAITH RIGHT NOW. THAT IS, THAT WHICH IS PROPERLY A FUTURE BLESSING BECOMES A PRESENT FACT IN VIRTUE OF THE REALIZATION OF THE FUTURE IN CHRIST.


V. 15 SHOWS WHY JESUS INTRODUCED INTO THE DISCOURSE THE IMAGERY OF BEING LIFTED UP, NAMELY, THAT HIS BEING LIFTED UP WILL LEAD TO THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE TO ALL WHO BELIEVE IN JESUS. THIS ETERNAL LIFE IS THE LIFE OF THE SONS OF GOD, THE LIFE BEGOTTEN FROM ABOVE, THE LIFE BEGOTTEN OF THE SPIRIT. WHEN JESUS WILL BE LIFTED UP IN CRUCIFIXION AND ASCENSION, HIS COMMUNICATION OF THE SPIRIT WILL CONSTITUTE A FLOWING SOURCE OF LIFE FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN HIM.


V. 16-18
V. 16 MARKS A DEPARTURE FROM THE ACTUAL DISCOURSE WITH NICODEMUS. IT IS SAFE TO ASSUME THAT NICODEMUS HAS FADED OUT OF THE PICTURE AND JOHN IS PONDERING OVER THE MYSTERY OF GRACE BY WHICH LAW AND JUDGMENT HAVE BEEN SUPERSEDED BY GOSPEL AND FORGIVENESS. THE ROLE OF GOD THE FATHER NOW BECOMES PROMINENT. THE IMAGERY HERE OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC ECHOES CLEARLY THROUGH WITH THE USE OF THE "ONLY" SON WHOM HE "LOVED," AND YET WAS STILL WILLING TO SACRIFICE HIM. NOW THE FATHER STEPS IN AND ACTUALLY DOES WHAT HE HAD ONLY TESTED ABRAHAM TO DO--GIVING HIS "ONLY" SON BECAUSE HE "LOVED" THE WORLD. [REMEMBER THE BLESSING TO ABRAHAM THAT THROUGH HIM ALL NATIONS, IE. "THE WORLD," WOULD BE BLESSED.]


AGAPE, FOUND 7 TIMES IN JOHN, AGAPAN FOUND 37 TIMES--ONE OF THE MOST
IMPORTANT WORDS IN JOHN. THIS CORRESPONDS TO THE FACT THAT WHILE GOD LOVES
THE WORLD (KOSMOS) HIS LOVE ONLY BECOMES EFFECTIVE AMONG THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN CHRIST. FOR THE REST LOVE TURNS AS IT WERE, TO JUDGMENT. LOVE SEEMS TO BE, FOR JOHN, A RECIPROCAL RELATION. THE FATHER LOVES THE SON, AND THE SON LOVES THE FATHER. JESUS LOVES HIS OWN, AND HIS OWN LOVE, OR SHOULD LOVE, ONE ANOTHER. THEY MUST ALSO LOVE HIM. JOHN, ULTIMATELY DEVELOPS THE CONCEPTION OF LOVE AS THE NATURE OF GOD HIMSELF.

SECONDLY, JOHN SHOWS US THE ESSENCE OF THAT LOVE. WE MUST REMEMBER THAT
THE INITIATIVE IN ALL SALVATION LIES WITH GOD. SOME TIMES WE TALK AS IF GOD
HAD TO BE PACIFIED, AS IF HE HAD TO BE PERSUADED TO FORGIVE. SOMETIMES WE
SPEAK AS IF WE WOULD SEE GOD AS A STERN, ANGRY, UNFORGIVING GOD AND SEE JESUS AS GENTLE, LOVING AND FORGIVING. SOMETIMES WE TALK AS IF JESUS DID SOMETHING WHICH CHANGED THE ATTITUDE OF GOD TOWARDS US FROM CONDEMNATION TO FORGIVENESS. BUT THIS VERSE TELLS US THAT IT WAS WITH GOD THAT IT ALL STARTED. IT WAS GOD WHO SENT HIS SON, AND HE SENT HIM BECAUSE HE LOVED US. AT THE BACK OF EVERYTHING IS THE LOVE OF GOD.

VERSE 16 EXPANDS THE MEANING OF THE CROSS FOR JOHN. THE FATHER'S SON IS
GIVEN (EDOKEN) OUT OF LOVE AND TO EXPRESS THE DIVINE CARING. ETERNAL LIFE TIES THIS VERSE WITH THE PREVIOUS ONE. WORLD (KOSMOS) IS OFTEN USED IN A
PEJORATIVE WAY IN JOHN TO SPEAK OF THE REALM OF UNBELIEF AND IS SYNONYMOUS IN SUCH CASES WITH "DARKNESS." IF ITS NEGATIVE SENSE IS INTENDED HERE, IT UNDERSCORES THE QUALITY AND EXTENT OF GOD'S LOVE FOR THE FALLEN WORLD. THE WORD PERISH (APOLETAI) STANDS AS THE OPPOSITE OF ETERNAL LIFE. TO PERISH IS TO LIVE APART FROM GOD AND TO EXPERIENCE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THAT SEPARATION.

V. 16-17 EMPLOY ANOTHER OF JOHN'S FAVORITE CHRISTOLOGICAL THEMES, NAMELY,
THE SON IS SENT BY THE FATHER. THE PURPOSE OF HIS MISSION IS NOT CONDEMNATION (KRINO) BUT SALVATION. HERE AND AT 12:47 THE PURPOSE OF CHRIST'S MISSION IS NOT JUDGMENT, BUT SALVATION; STILL IN OTHER PLACES (5:30, 8:16 & 26 FOR EXAMPLE) IT IS SAID THAT JESUS DOES JUDGE. THE POINT IS THAT JUDGEMENT IS NOT THE GOAL OF THE REVELATION, ALTHOUGH IT INVARIABLY RESULTS. SAVED (SOTHE) MEANS BROUGHT TO ETERNAL LIFE. V. 18 EXPLAINS THAT JUDGMENT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF ONE'S DECISION TO BELIEVE OR NOT BELIEVE. TO FAIL TO BELIEVE IS TO BE JUDGED IN THE SENSE OF BEING CONDEMNED; TO BELIEVE IS TO PASS BEYOND JUDGMENT. JOHN ALMOST ALWAYS USES (KRINO) IN ITS NEGATIVE SENSE OF CONDEMNATION, AS THE RSV TRANSLATES IT HERE. THAT IS, THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN CHRIST (THOSE WHO HAVE COME TO THE LIGHT) ESCAPED JUDGMENT (CONDEMNATION) ALTOGETHER, WHILE THOSE WHO DID NOT BELIEVE BY THAT VERY FACT SENTENCED THEMSELVES.



V. 19-21
V. 19 ISSUES THE SOBERING JUDGMENT THAT HUMANITY IS CONDEMNED FOR ITS PREFERENCE FOR THE DARKNESS EVEN WHEN THE LIGHT IS IN THE WORLD. JOHN IS PROFOUNDLY REALISTIC REGARDING THE DEPRAVITY OF HUMANITY. JESUS IS A PENETRATING LIGHT THAT PROVOKES JUDGMENT BY MAKING IT APPARENT WHAT A MAN IS. THE ONE WHO TURNS AWAY IS NOT AN OCCASIONAL SINNER, BUT ONE WHO "PRACTICES WICKEDNESS"; IT IS NOT THAT HE CANNOT SEE THE LIGHT, BUT THAT HE HATES THE LIGHT. SIN IN JOHN IS A QUESTION OF RADICAL SIN. DEEDS (ERGA) GIVE EXPRESSION TO THE TRUE NATURE OF A PERSON; AND WHEN THOSE ACTS CANNOT STAND IN THE LIGHT, IT DEMONSTRATES THE PERSON'S LOVE OF THE DARKNESS. A PERSON OF THE DARKNESS DOES NOT WANT THEIR DEEDS EXPOSED (ELENCHTHE, LITERALLY REPROVED--AS IN V. 20). BEHAVIOR WHICH IS TRUE (ALETHEIA) IS BEHAVIOR CONSISTENT WITH THE TRUTH OF THE REVELATION, AND SUCH BEHAVIOR IS DONE WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE DIVINE. (V. 21). THIS CONCLUSION CONCERNING DARKNESS MAY BE AN IMPLICIT JUDGMENT OF NICODEMUS WHO CAME UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS TO SEE JESUS (V. 2). THE DUALISTIC VOCABULARY HAS REMARKABLE RESEMBLANCES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, ESPECIALLY 1QS III-IV. (EG. LIGHT/DARKNESS; PR PRACTICING WICKEDNESS/DOING TRUTH).



3. STRATEGY: JOHN 3:14-21

THERE WAS A DELIGHTFUL LITTLE SERMON BY ROY HARRISVILLE IN A COLLECTION OF SERMONS CALLED "PICK UP YOUR TRUMPET" (P. 86 - AUGSBURG, MINNEAPOLIS, 1970) ENTITLED "IF I WERE GOD." IT MIGHT STIMULATE YOUR THINKING ABOUT THIS PASSAGE. IAN MACPHERSON IN "BIBLE SERMON OUTLINES" (ABINGDON, 1966), PP. 5,6 DEVELOPED A MASTERFUL OUTLINE FOR THIS TEXT:


1: THE FACT: "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD..."

2: THE ACT: "THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON..."

3: THE PACT: "THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT
PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE."


ANOTHER APPROACH WOULD BE TO LOOK AT GOD'S LOVE AND TO ASK THREE BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT IT:


1) HOW BROAD IS GOD'S LOVE?

2)HOW LONG IS GOD'S LOVE?

3) HOW HIGH IS GOD'S LOVE?

(SEE THE OLD HYMN ON THIS THEME "O LOVE, HOW DEEP, HOW BROAD, HOW HIGH!").


THE PREACHER COULD TAKE MANY DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THIS TEXT. IN FACT, THAT MAY BE THE PROBLEM IT POSES FOR US. THERE IS SO MUCH IN IT, IT IS SOMETIMES DIFFICULT TO REALLY PREACH A SERMON THAT FULLY MEASURES UP TO IT. IN FACT A RENOWNED SCOTTISH EVANGELIST, ASKED WHY HE NEVER TOOK JOHN 3:16 AS HIS TEXT, REPLIED, "NA,NA! I HAVE THAT IN EVERY SERMON I PREACH." HAVING SAID THAT, THERE ARE SOME DIRECTIONS WE COULD TAKE. ONE APPROACH THAT THE PREACHER COULD TAKE WOULD BE TO GIVE SOME EXAMPLES OF DEEP, ABIDING LOVE, TO CONTRAST THAT WITH GOD'S LOVE. A SECOND STEP WOULD BE TO LOOK AT EVIL IN THE WORLD AND ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF EVIL. FINALLY, CONCLUDING BY LOOKING AT THE WAY GOD'S LOVE IS SUPERIOR BOTH TO OUR LOVE AND THE EVIL IN THE WORLD.

AS WE LOOK AT SOME PEOPLE WHO SHOWED LOVING ACTS, SOME THAT COME TO MIND INCLUDE THE DISCOVERY OF A WAY OF TREATING DIABETES, OR ALBERT SCHWEITZER, OR THE EXAMPLE OF FATHER MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE WHO OFFERED TO TAKE THE PLACE FOR SOMEONE AT AUSCHWITZ. THE POINT IS THAT IN THESE EXAMPLES WE FIND A KIND OF DEEP AND ABIDING LOVE. FOR LOVE IS NEVER WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF SACRIFICE. THE NEXT STEP WOULD BE TO CONTRAST THAT WITH THE NOBLEST OF ALL SACRIFICES "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON ..." GOD IS THE EMBODIMENT OF LOVE. GOD PERSONIFIES LOVE. WHATEVER WE CAN KNOW OF LOVE, WE KNOW IT IN THE CONTEXT AND THE SELF-DISCLOSURE OF GOD. HERE IS A HEAVENLY FATHER WHO HAS LOVED HIS ONLY SON FROM ALL ETERNITY. YET, THE FATHER LOVES US SO MUCH HE WOULD SEND HIS ONLY SON TO US. THE SOLE DOUBTFUL ELEMENT IS ONLY OUR RESPONSE TO THIS GIFT. JOHN SAYS, "THE LIGHT CAME INTO THE WORLD, BUT MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT. BONHOEFFER ONCE SAID, "GOD MADE MAN, AND MAN MADE HIMSELF A SINNER." IT WAS BONHOEFFER WHO ONCE OFFERED HIS OWN FOOD TO A HUNGRY FELLOW INMATE AND THEN WAS FORCED TO LISTEN WHILE THE MAN, AN AVOWED ATHEIST, BITTERLY COMPLAINED ABOUT GOD. "HE NEVER DID ANYTHING FOR ME," THE MAN GRUMBLED. BONHOEFFER REPLIED, "HE JUST GAVE YOU MY BREAKFAST." ANOTHER TIME HE AND A GERMAN ARMY CORPORAL, DURING AN INTENSE ALLIED NIGHT BOMBING OF BERLIN, VIEWED THE HOLOCAUST FROM A PRISON ROOF. "CAN YOU LOOK AT THIS AND BELIEVE IN GOD," THE CORPORAL ASKED? "HOW COULD A LOVING FATHER LET THIS HAPPEN?" BONHOEFFER REPLIED, "HOW COULD WE LET THIS HAPPEN TO A LOVING FATHER?"

ANOTHER APPROACH WOULD BE TO LOOK AT THE IMAGES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS. WHO OF US, REALLY DOES WANT TO STAND IN THE FULL GLARE OF THE LIGHT THAT COMES FROM GOD? WHO COULD SURVIVE IT? STILL, LIGHT PERFORMS MANY FUNCTIONS. THAT LIGHT CAN TEACH US ABOUT GOD--IT CAN TEACH US ABOUT OURSELVES AND IT CAN EXPOSE US. IN FACT THERE ARE SOME WHO DO NOT WANT THE LIGHT. WHAT THEY HAVE IN MIND IS SOMETHING THAT COULD ONLY BE DONE IN THE DARK. SO MUCH DO THEY DESPISE THE LIGHT THAT THEY WOULD EXTINQUISH IT IF THEY COULD. I SUSPECT THERE WERE SURELY SOME WHO WALKED FROM THE CROSS SAYING, "GOOD RIDDANCE." "WELL, THAT IS THAT." "NOW WE CAN GET ON WITH IT ." THE POINT IS THAT A PERSON WHO SQUARES THEIR HEART AND HAND, WHO LETS THE INTENT OF THEIR HEART SHAPE THE DEEDS OF THEIR LIVES, IS THE PERSON WHO HAS NO FEARS. WANT TO LIVE WITHOUT ANXIETY, WITHOUT GUILT, WITHOUT FEAR? THEN WE NEED TO LIVE AS NOT TO FEAR THE LIGHT.

4. HYMN SUGGESTIONS: JOHN 3:14-21

LBW 88 "O LOVE HOW DEEP, HOW BROAD, HOW HIGH"
LBW 98 "ALAS AND DID MY SAVIOR BLEED"
LBW 448 "AMAZING GRACE"
LBW 292 "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD"




5. REFERENCES: JOHN 3:14-21

THE ANCHOR BIBLE - THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN R. BROWN N.Y. 1966

THE AUGSBURG COMMENTARY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ROBERT KYSAR
MINNEAPOLIS 1986

THE FOURTH GOSPEL E.C. HOSKYNS ED. F.N. DAVEY LONDON 1947

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN C.K. BARRETT SPCK LONDON 1966

THE INTERPRETER'S BIBLE LUKE-JOHN ABINGDON NASHVILLE, 1952

NEW TESTAMENT WORDS WILLIAM BARCLAY SCM PRESS LONDON 1964




EXEGETE: PASTOR . JAMES STEINBRECHER, PHD, IS A RETIRED ELCA PASTOR LIVING IN NEW LISBON, WI.





+ LENT THREE + 2009 +



LEXEGETE™ | YEAR B | MARK
______________________________________________________
Third Sunday in Lent
March 15, 2009
Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19 (8)
I Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22

Prayer of the Day
Holy God, through your Son you have called us to live faithfully and act courageously. Keep us steadfast in your covenant of grace, and teach us the wisdom that comes only through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Gospel Acclamation
We proclaim Christ | crucified,
the power of God and the wis- | dom of God. (1 Cor. 1:23, 24)


________________________________________________________________________________

Joseph, Guardian of Jesus
March 19, 2009
2 Samuel 7:4, 8-16 Psalm 89:1-29 (2)
Romans 4:13-18 Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a

Prayer of the Day
O God, from the family of your servant David you raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the husband of his blessed mother. Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Gospel Acclamation
We have a building from God, a house not | made with hands,
eternal | in the heavens. (2 Cor. 5:1)

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1. Context: John 2:13-22

Herod began to rebuild the Temple during the 18th year of his reign (20-19 B.C.) and it was not completed until around A.D. 63 or 64. It was destroyed by the troops of Titus, the Roman general, in the year A.D. 70. Since the text indicates that the construction was forty-six years underway, this would place the event of this text around A.D. 27 or 28.

The "Cleansing of the Temple" story occurs in John's Gospel account after the sign at the Wedding in Cana. In the Synoptics, this event is placed during the week of the crucifixion. In all cases, the incident occurs at the time of Passover (the first of three in John's account, while the Synoptics record only one visit to Jerusalem). And only John directly associates the event with the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple.

Both Zechariah and Malachi spoke about the Messianic Age in terms of an entrance into the Temple. "And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day." (Zechariah 14:21b NRSV) "See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the LORD whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple." (Malachi 3:1 NRSV) Jesus is the Messianic messenger entering the Temple to cleanse and purify. (Also compare Jeremiah 7:11, the lamenting the profaning of the Temple.)

Matthew and Luke demonstrate that Jesus cleanses the Temple because of the abuse of worship. Mark's emphasis includes the failure to open the Temple to all peoples. (The fact that the money-changing took place in the Court of the Gentiles denied Gentiles the possibility of prayer in that place.) John's focus is the Temple itself, thus emphasizing that Jesus is replacing the "old" with the "new." In John alone does Jesus compare the Temple to his body. The distorted charge of blasphemy concerning the Temple occurs in Matthew's account of Jesus' trial, not John's.


Finally, since John placed this event so early in his account, he probably had a reason. Perhaps that reason is stated most clearly in John 20:31 (NRSV): "... so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God..." By telling the story in his way, it is possible that John is placing this claim up front.


1B. TEXT: JOHN 2: 13-22

13Καὶ ἐγγὺς ἦν τὸ πάσχα τῶν Ἰουδαίων, καὶ ἀνέβη εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ὁ Ἰησοῦς. 14καὶ εὗρεν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ τοὺς πωλοῦντας βόας καὶ πρόβατα καὶ περιστερὰς καὶ τοὺς κερματιστὰς καθημένους, 15καὶ ποιήσας φραγέλλιον ἐκ σχοινίων πάντας ἐξέβαλεν ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ, τά τε πρόβατα καὶ τοὺς βόας, καὶ τῶν κολλυβιστῶν ἐξέχεεν τὸ κέρμα καὶ τὰς τραπέζας ἀνέτρεψεν, 16καὶ τοῖς τὰς περιστερὰς πωλοῦσιν εἶπεν, Ἄρατε ταῦτα ἐντεῦθεν, μὴ ποιεῖτε τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός μου οἶκον ἐμπορίου. 17Ἐμνήσθησαν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτι γεγραμμένον ἐστίν, Ὁ ζῆλος τοῦ οἴκου σου καταφάγεταί με. 18ἀπεκρίθησαν οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, Τί σημεῖον δεικνύεις ἡμῖν, ὅτι ταῦτα ποιεῖς; 19ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Λύσατε τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγερῶ αὐτόν. 20εἶπαν οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι, Τεσσεράκοντα καὶ ἓξ ἔτεσιν οἰκοδομήθη ὁ ναὸς οὗτος, καὶ σὺ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγερεῖς αὐτόν; 21ἐκεῖνος δὲ ἔλεγεν περὶ τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ. 22ὅτε οὖν ἠγέρθη ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἐμνήσθησαν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτι τοῦτο ἔλεγεν, καὶ ἐπίστευσαν τῇ γραφῇ καὶ τῷ λόγῳ ὃν εἶπεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς.

2b. John 2:13-22 (NRSV)

13)The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

14)In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

15)Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
16)He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"

17)His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."

18)The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"
19)Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

20)The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?"

21) But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

22) After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.


2. ANALYSIS: John 2:13-22



2:13 - pascha - Passover. In the depth of all possible meaning, this is not a mere reference to a specific Jewish Passover in the years of Jesus' ministry. Rather, it is primarily a reference to the Passover of Jesus (death and resurrection -- clearly seen as the text unfolds). As the "old" Passover was the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, now centered in the Jerusalem Temple, the "new" Passover is beginning and will be centered in Christ. In the old Temple, those who were faithful worshiped God by sacrificing animals -- but such butchering would no longer be a part of "Temple worship." The "new" Passover will bring a "new" Temple and therefore new "Temple worship."

2:14 - kermatistes - money changer. Literally this word refers to one who exchanges (cuts into small pieces) large money into small. In the old order this was a necessary Temple task. But not in the new order. A new wholeness is on the horizon.

2:15 - ekballo - bring forth, cast out, drive out, expel, send away. 2:15 - anastrepho - to overturn. These verbs are a summary of the ministry of Jesus -- casting out hypocrisy and overturning the old and bringing in the new.

2:17 - zelos - "zeal." Devotion, allegiance and respect. Jesus had a PASSION, complete zeal, a consuming (even time-consuming) zeal, for God's will. the cleansing of the Temple might be seen, simply, as an outward manifestation of that inner zeal. This zeal will cost Jesus his life, it will consume and destroy (katesthio) him. The remembering of Psalm 69:9a is a messianic interpretation. "It is zeal for your house that has consumed me." Psalms 69:9a (NRSV) The verb, though, has been changed from past to future tense -- an obvious look forward to the events that WILL take place in the life Jesus.

2:18 - semeion - a miracle, sign, token, wonder. There is a clear desire to experience something supernatural. John's emphasis on "semeion," in general, demonstrates that those without faith were simply MISSING the presence of the supernatural. John demonstrated that Jesus' ministry was a "ministry of signs" -- and those who asked for a sign were missing what was clearly right in front of them -- Jesus himself!


2:19 - luo - to break up, destroy. The authorities took Jesus literally; but John makes it clear for us that that interpretation was unwarranted (verse 21).

2:19,22 - egeiro - raise up, awake, lift up. In Mark 14:58, we find the term used is "oikodomeo" meaning to build or construct as a house-builder. (Note that, John uses "oikodomeo" in verse 20, translated "under construction" in the NRSV.) John's use of "egeiro" in both of these verses are a clear indication that Jesus in referring to the Resurrection.

2:20 Note that where Mark wrote: "...and in three days I will build another, not made with hands" (Mark 14:58 NRSV) -- John refers to the same Temple: "I will raise it up." (John 2:20 NRSV)

2:22 - pisteuo - to have faith in, to entrust oneself. 2:22 - logos - the word. John's theology, his purpose for writing, and his desire for his readers is summarized clearly in this verse. (cf. John 20:31)



3. STRATEGY: John 2:13-22

This text provides us with a number of possibilities; but each ought to bring the hearer to a challenge to accept, in faith, the word of Christ -- to accept, in faith, the death and resurrection and all that that means for the life of the believer. The text provides various "springboards" to get to the proclamation.

This text is about the Resurrection breaking into the world. And the transformation is not easy. It takes the crack of a whip! This "CRACK!" however is not merely a judgment on the old; it is a crack of hope, of rebuilding, of resurrection. When John was writing this text, the Temple had been destroyed. One message to the community of believers, then, could have been NOT to yearn for "the good ole' days" when they went up to the Temple at Passover. The focus of faith is now the "NEW" Passover! This theme could be highlighted around a title: "Wise Up, O Saints of God!" or "Cracking the Whip!" For, there are yearnings and longings in our lives that need to be cast out and/or overturned.


A theme such as "Zeal For Your House" of "Consuming Zeal" can focus on our personal relationship with God in Christ. Our attitude towards God is an essential element in this relationship. If we wish to "trade" or "negotiate" with God, our relationship is of the old order. One of the "old prayers" might go like this: "God if you do just this one thing I want, I promise I will..." This is not the relationship Christ has led us into; and it was certainly not the relationship of Christ with the Father. What would "zeal" consist of in my relationship with God? And what zeal would the Holy Spirit shower into my heart in this place, day and time? (Another possible theme is "Nothing To Trade.")


The Temple of Jesus' body will be destroyed; death is inevitable. The popular series "Star Trek" opens with the statement that "space" in the final frontier. An approach centering on death could carry the title: "Death: The Final Frontier." This rewording makes the same point that the title of a book by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross "Death: The Final Stage of Growth." In that book, Kuebler-Ross emphasizes that there is an urgency for each human being, no matter how many days or weeks or months or years one has left to live, to be committed to growth. This text from John is a call to growth, which takes place in the context of faith in Jesus Christ and the Resurrection. (By the way, another part of that "Star Trek" opening uses the phrase "To boldly go..." Our call to "boldly grow" -- in faith, unto eternal life -- is set forth by the example and word of Jesus.)







"When I come upon death's door,
and face my darkest hour,
The sun will shine forevermore
with Resurrection-Power."

(From a hymn ©1990 by Ralph J. Mineo)



Exegete: Rev. Ralph J. Mineo is Pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran, North Baltimore, Ohio.

































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