When Adam and Eve sin, they are sent into exile away from the Garden of Eden. As they exit, cherubim with flaming swords guard the land of Eden so that no one will be able to enter and eat from the tree of life. Over-arching the whole story of the Bible, we see that this is an expression of God's wrath which will ultimately serve the purpose of his love. He sends Adam and Eve away the same way that he sends Israel into exile in Babylon - return in resurrection to their land can happen once they have died the death of exile.
The curse of disobedience is death. Adam and Eve will die. Death marks the punishment. Death also marks the terms of re-entry into God's presence and Eden. Leithart writes:
"Yahweh stationed cherubim at the gate of the garden to guard against every attempt at reentry. From Adam on, if anyone wanted to enter the presence of God, he would have to pass through the sword and fire of the cherubim. No man could return to feast in the presence of God unless he first died. Yahweh performed the first sacrifice by providing animal skins for Adam and Eve, and from that point on no one could approach God's presence unless he were clothed in an animal. He could return to life, feasting and the presence of God only by passing through death." (Delivered, 77)
Adam journeys from Eden outside, and the entrance back in is barred. The difference expressed in this geography is great. Adam was under rules of "taste not touch not" to prepare him for mature kingship. His destiny, along with Eve, is a priestly rule in creation, offering the inherent, latent, and as-yet-uncovered goodness of creation back to God. (Gen. 1:27-30) When he prematurely eats the fruit, he is expressing impatience with his own vulnerability. The serpent, in lifting up the truth that eating the fruit makes one like God, (Gen. 3:22), downplays (and outright denies) the other truth that Adam will die. Adam, in fleeing his created vulnerability, falls into an even worse vulnerability to death. Outside the gates of Eden, everything is subject to this vulnerability. Adam is no longer a ruler-in-training, but a slave.
Paul describes how the judgment and verdict on Adam is death and how the power of death then delivers all creation to a slavery under the dominion of death. This is what Paul means by 'condemnation' in Romans 5.
Whereas Adam's journey is from Eden out, Jesus' journey is from outside Eden back in. He crosses over from the world of death back into Eden. He is uniquely able to do this because he is God's Son. He always lives by the Spirit. Jesus' flesh is created by the Spirit, and in the flesh he lives by the Spirit. He is a heavenly man who has entered fully into a humanity that is in opposition to God, but he does not make common cause with humanity in its opposition to God. Come from Eden, he creates Eden everywhere he goes. But unless he dies, this is no different than Torah, because the world is still under the power of death, and still lives by flesh. His crucifixion is a submitting of his own flesh to the fiery swords of the cherubim guarding Eden. Presenting himself as the representative of a humanity enslaved to sin and death, Jesus breaks the curse on all humanity. The veil is torn. Resurrection is a re-presentation of the new humanity that undoes the former order. In Jesus, Adam is no longer a slave, but is a ruler again.
Paul goes on to describe how the judgment and verdict on Jesus is resurrected life and how the power of life then delivers all creation to a new dominion of life in the Spirit. This is what Paul means by 'justification' in Romans 5.
Debates about what justification means reflect some of the same difficulties I talked about in my post about "Recapitulation: a (Lengthy) Interlude." The atonement motifs all need each other. Motifs like 'substitution' specialize in the forgiven guilt of the individual sinner, but when abstracted from its natural soil in the Scripture, it can over-emphasize God's justice without adequately accounting for his love. Likewise, justification can be seen to reflect a forensic cleaning of the individual through that individual's own faith but which then consistently reduces Scriptural motifs about the corporate 'body' of Christ back to the looming, solitary individual. Motifs like 'apocalyptic war' specialize in God's victory over powers of evil in the world quite apart from the individual's thoughts and feelings, but when abstracted away from the Scripture, it can over-emphasize God's love (universal salvation) without adequately accounting for his justice. Likewise, justification is seen as universal, but it reduces this to say that 'everyone is saved' without adequately accounting for the biblical themes of baptism, faith, and entrance into the church. I think the way forward is in seeing that the Scripture accounts for both motifs and accounts equally for God's love and justice. Becoming more biblical will entail seeing justification as what happens to Jesus primarily, and secondarily to sinners and to the world. Trying to grasp the universality of justification as something for "all people" (Rom. 5:18) will be like trying to grasp a cloud of smoke when we don't stay rooted in the particularity of Jesus' completed work.
We will see more in future posts about how the 'universal' quality of justification is rooted in the 'particularity' of Jesus. We'll find that the objective, world-changing quality of what Jesus has done will entail looking at church a different way - not as merely a collection of 'saved' people, but as a completely new way of living in the world. When church is presented primarily as just a collection of people, we are falling into too much of a religious/secular divide: you have your grocery store for your food, your gym for staying in shape, your school for training in your chosen career field, and your church for salvation and knowing God. But church isn't just a time and a place to think about religious things. Church is a new people who think differently about everything. We should look at church not merely sociologically - the way we see it, but theologically - the way Jesus sees it. Church is new creation - new Adams and Eves who have re-entered Eden, living by the Spirit because they are gathered out of the fleshly dynamics of the world, offering the inherent, latent, and as-yet-uncovered goodness of creation back to God. It can only be this as we see the world gathered around Jesus. He is the key, start to finish, the Alpha and the Omega (Rev. 1:8). To put it another way, the world needs to become church.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Lent 2019: Friday, March 29 - Abraham's Righteousness
In Romans 4:13-14, Paul writes:
"It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression."
Paul is trying to clarify for his Roman readers the proper role that Torah plays in God's divine economy. For Paul, Torah's role has been supplanted by Christ. Torah could never put flesh to death. As Leithart writes: "(Torah) enables communion with Yahweh and promotes peace among nations under the conditions of flesh." (Delivered, 104) Ultimately, the promise given to Abram about nations being blessed can't be fulfilled by Torah. It can't break the curse of Babel which has divided the nations. Many Jews in Paul's day, intimidated by Rome, wanted to lean harder into differentiating themselves from the Gentile nations. Paul's reaction to this is similar to Jesus': flesh has overwhelmed the law and kept the promise from being fulfilled. Torah had become an obstacle.
Furthermore, the justice Torah aimed at all along has now been accomplished in Christ. Paul doesn't really talk about Christ until the end of Romans 4. For the most part, he talks about Abraham. Paul introduces Abraham here to reorient his readers: the promise to Abraham, and God's Torah, though flowing in the same direction, hit a road block because Torah got caught in the weeds of sinful flesh. Jesus has broken through so that blessing can flow to Israel and to the nations. Jesus fulfills the promise to Abraham.
Early in the chapter, Paul references Genesis 15:6 where we're told that Abraham believed God's promise. Because he believed God, he was credited with righteousness. (Rom. 4:9) Paul's main point is that Abraham was credited with righteousness and given promises before he was ever circumcised. This order is significant for Paul. Because circumcision comes later, the promise must stay primary. Circumcision, or on any of the Torah rituals that came after the promise can't become the boundary-markers for who is in the people of God. Abraham's righteousness precedes Torah.
We need to look into the idea of being "credited" with righteousness. Many people have a credit card. Credit cards are certainly different than what is being described here. Money is expected to be paid back. It's hard to image how this could be the case with righteousness. But they are similar in one sense. Even if all my money runs out and my bank account is zero, I still have a credited account. Furthermore, (leaving aside for a moment the question of whether it would be wise or not) my bank might give me opportunities to increase that line of credit at a future point. This is our question: Is Abraham's righteousness for that moment in time, or is it something being held over for later? It all depends on what righteousness is. What is this righteousness?
If Abraham's credited righteousness is forgiveness of sins, it would be something given to him in the moment. But any look back at Genesis 12-25 would suggest that forgiveness of sins is not primarily what Abraham is worried about. Of course he is a sinner, but his primary worry is how God's promise will go forward if he and Sarah cannot have children. He is worried, but he believes. He believes, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that God can do it. What is the evidence? As we've recounted in the "Circumcision" post, the evidence to the contrary is Abraham and Sarah's advanced age, and apart from her age, Sarah's barrenness. Despite this evidence, Abraham believes. Paul writes: "(Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." (Rom. 4:20-22). This 'righteousness' still could certainly still include forgiveness of sins, but primarily it has to do with God's promise of descendants.
But Paul goes on to say this:
"The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Rom. 4:23-25)
We see now what Paul has been building up toward. "Righteousness" for both Abraham and for us has to do with believing God can bring life from the dead. And of course, this is Abraham's predicament. Paul writes: "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead." (Rom. 4:19). His body, Sarah's womb - both are dead with regard to what they needed for God's promise. They need to hope for life from the dead.
That Abraham's righteousness is 'credited' to him may not mean that it was given to him in the moment, but it served as more of a promissory note when what he hopes for finally comes. In a sense that is Isaac because Isaac is the promised child. As Leithart writes, "Isaac's birth is a type of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead womb of the earth, from the dead womb of humanity and the dead womb of Sarah-Israel." (Delivered, 344). But of course this is not only what Abraham hopes for. The promise can't go forth without Isaac. But Isaac is not where it ends. The promise is that Abram will be the father of many nations. And when Jesus rises, he fulfills Israel's blessing to the nations. He brings justice by creating a new just people. This is ultimately what Abraham looks to. Believing ultimately that God would bring life from the dead curses - this is Abraham's righteousness. It is ours as well.
We can find more reinforcement for this in what Paul says in Romans 4:6:
"However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness."
If 'ungodly' refers to Abraham, we are puzzled, because the Abraham narrative is not primarily about his sin. But if the 'ungodly' refers to Gentile nations, it makes more sense. God makes promises to Abraham about Gentile nations. Abraham believes the promises. Peter Leithart writes:
"It is plausible, if not unquestionable, that Abraham's faith in the "justification of the ungodly" is not confidence in his own standing before God but confidence in the promise that Yahweh would issue a verdict at some point in the future to deliver ungodly Gentiles from the curses of Eden and Babel...The specific promise in Genesis 15 is that Abraham's seed will be like the stars, and that is extended to Genesis 17:5 with the promise that Paul quotes in Romans 4:17: that Abraham would be the "father of many nations." This is what Abraham believed when he trusted "him who justifies the ungodly," and that means that "justification of the ungodly" is equivalent to "God extending the Abrahamic promise to the nations." (Delivered, 342)
Abraham is a model for us in this way. Abraham is credited with righteousness not because he believed God would credit him with righteousness, but because Abraham believed in a promise about future resurrection. The content of the righteous, justified person's faith is resurrection. Jesus' resurrection justifies because it is a verdict that Jesus is in the right and because it delivers Jesus from the powers of sin, death, and the devil. (Leithart calls it a 'deliverdict') And as Paul writes in verse 25, this has ramifications for us too: "(Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." Justification then is a good verdict about our sinful flesh being put to death, and also the hopeful expectation that we have been delivered into resurrected life in the Spirit. Justified people believe that dead things will come to life because Jesus came back to life. As we trust that God has issued the delivering verdict in Jesus, that same delivering verdict comes to us.
Abram trusted that a son would rise from his and Sarah's 'dead' bodies and that this would lead to the "justification of the ungodly," the fulfillment of God's promise to bring blessing to the nations through him. From our vantage point, we trust that Jesus' resurrection brings blessing to Israel, and from Israel to the nations, as one new people live in constant fellowship with their risen Lord. Our vantage points are different. Abram looked forward to Jesus, while we look back. Abram had very dim hints of what was to come while we have four separate gospel accounts of Jesus' life. A lot is different. Yet we still look out at this world, and we look within ourselves, and we wonder how on earth God will set everything right. Despite the perceived obstacles, we trust God. And in this regard, we have so much to learn from Abraham's faith, because he did the same thing.
"It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression."
Paul is trying to clarify for his Roman readers the proper role that Torah plays in God's divine economy. For Paul, Torah's role has been supplanted by Christ. Torah could never put flesh to death. As Leithart writes: "(Torah) enables communion with Yahweh and promotes peace among nations under the conditions of flesh." (Delivered, 104) Ultimately, the promise given to Abram about nations being blessed can't be fulfilled by Torah. It can't break the curse of Babel which has divided the nations. Many Jews in Paul's day, intimidated by Rome, wanted to lean harder into differentiating themselves from the Gentile nations. Paul's reaction to this is similar to Jesus': flesh has overwhelmed the law and kept the promise from being fulfilled. Torah had become an obstacle.
Furthermore, the justice Torah aimed at all along has now been accomplished in Christ. Paul doesn't really talk about Christ until the end of Romans 4. For the most part, he talks about Abraham. Paul introduces Abraham here to reorient his readers: the promise to Abraham, and God's Torah, though flowing in the same direction, hit a road block because Torah got caught in the weeds of sinful flesh. Jesus has broken through so that blessing can flow to Israel and to the nations. Jesus fulfills the promise to Abraham.
Early in the chapter, Paul references Genesis 15:6 where we're told that Abraham believed God's promise. Because he believed God, he was credited with righteousness. (Rom. 4:9) Paul's main point is that Abraham was credited with righteousness and given promises before he was ever circumcised. This order is significant for Paul. Because circumcision comes later, the promise must stay primary. Circumcision, or on any of the Torah rituals that came after the promise can't become the boundary-markers for who is in the people of God. Abraham's righteousness precedes Torah.
We need to look into the idea of being "credited" with righteousness. Many people have a credit card. Credit cards are certainly different than what is being described here. Money is expected to be paid back. It's hard to image how this could be the case with righteousness. But they are similar in one sense. Even if all my money runs out and my bank account is zero, I still have a credited account. Furthermore, (leaving aside for a moment the question of whether it would be wise or not) my bank might give me opportunities to increase that line of credit at a future point. This is our question: Is Abraham's righteousness for that moment in time, or is it something being held over for later? It all depends on what righteousness is. What is this righteousness?
If Abraham's credited righteousness is forgiveness of sins, it would be something given to him in the moment. But any look back at Genesis 12-25 would suggest that forgiveness of sins is not primarily what Abraham is worried about. Of course he is a sinner, but his primary worry is how God's promise will go forward if he and Sarah cannot have children. He is worried, but he believes. He believes, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that God can do it. What is the evidence? As we've recounted in the "Circumcision" post, the evidence to the contrary is Abraham and Sarah's advanced age, and apart from her age, Sarah's barrenness. Despite this evidence, Abraham believes. Paul writes: "(Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." (Rom. 4:20-22). This 'righteousness' still could certainly still include forgiveness of sins, but primarily it has to do with God's promise of descendants.
But Paul goes on to say this:
"The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Rom. 4:23-25)
We see now what Paul has been building up toward. "Righteousness" for both Abraham and for us has to do with believing God can bring life from the dead. And of course, this is Abraham's predicament. Paul writes: "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead." (Rom. 4:19). His body, Sarah's womb - both are dead with regard to what they needed for God's promise. They need to hope for life from the dead.
That Abraham's righteousness is 'credited' to him may not mean that it was given to him in the moment, but it served as more of a promissory note when what he hopes for finally comes. In a sense that is Isaac because Isaac is the promised child. As Leithart writes, "Isaac's birth is a type of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead womb of the earth, from the dead womb of humanity and the dead womb of Sarah-Israel." (Delivered, 344). But of course this is not only what Abraham hopes for. The promise can't go forth without Isaac. But Isaac is not where it ends. The promise is that Abram will be the father of many nations. And when Jesus rises, he fulfills Israel's blessing to the nations. He brings justice by creating a new just people. This is ultimately what Abraham looks to. Believing ultimately that God would bring life from the dead curses - this is Abraham's righteousness. It is ours as well.
We can find more reinforcement for this in what Paul says in Romans 4:6:
"However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness."
If 'ungodly' refers to Abraham, we are puzzled, because the Abraham narrative is not primarily about his sin. But if the 'ungodly' refers to Gentile nations, it makes more sense. God makes promises to Abraham about Gentile nations. Abraham believes the promises. Peter Leithart writes:
"It is plausible, if not unquestionable, that Abraham's faith in the "justification of the ungodly" is not confidence in his own standing before God but confidence in the promise that Yahweh would issue a verdict at some point in the future to deliver ungodly Gentiles from the curses of Eden and Babel...The specific promise in Genesis 15 is that Abraham's seed will be like the stars, and that is extended to Genesis 17:5 with the promise that Paul quotes in Romans 4:17: that Abraham would be the "father of many nations." This is what Abraham believed when he trusted "him who justifies the ungodly," and that means that "justification of the ungodly" is equivalent to "God extending the Abrahamic promise to the nations." (Delivered, 342)
Abraham is a model for us in this way. Abraham is credited with righteousness not because he believed God would credit him with righteousness, but because Abraham believed in a promise about future resurrection. The content of the righteous, justified person's faith is resurrection. Jesus' resurrection justifies because it is a verdict that Jesus is in the right and because it delivers Jesus from the powers of sin, death, and the devil. (Leithart calls it a 'deliverdict') And as Paul writes in verse 25, this has ramifications for us too: "(Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." Justification then is a good verdict about our sinful flesh being put to death, and also the hopeful expectation that we have been delivered into resurrected life in the Spirit. Justified people believe that dead things will come to life because Jesus came back to life. As we trust that God has issued the delivering verdict in Jesus, that same delivering verdict comes to us.
Abram trusted that a son would rise from his and Sarah's 'dead' bodies and that this would lead to the "justification of the ungodly," the fulfillment of God's promise to bring blessing to the nations through him. From our vantage point, we trust that Jesus' resurrection brings blessing to Israel, and from Israel to the nations, as one new people live in constant fellowship with their risen Lord. Our vantage points are different. Abram looked forward to Jesus, while we look back. Abram had very dim hints of what was to come while we have four separate gospel accounts of Jesus' life. A lot is different. Yet we still look out at this world, and we look within ourselves, and we wonder how on earth God will set everything right. Despite the perceived obstacles, we trust God. And in this regard, we have so much to learn from Abraham's faith, because he did the same thing.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Lent 2019: Thursday, March 28 - Coverings
The holy of holies is the throne room for the Lord. There is only one piece of furniture in this room: the ark of the covenant. Exodus 25:17-22 describes the cover for the ark:
"Make an atonement cover of pure gold - two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites."
As we've noted in the post, "Slip Past the Cherubim," the cherubim remind us of Eden. Cherubim guarding the holy of holies reminds the priest that God will one day open Eden again. The furniture is also a picture of the whole cosmos. (A House for My Name, 83) The ark is God's footstool. It corresponds to the earth. The cherubim throne is heaven. The cover is the firmament, the "vault" or "sky" of Genesis 1:8, stretching over the earth.
This covering already seems to take on more weight than being merely the cap for the ark of the covenant. Once a year, God did away with all Israel's sins on the Day of Atonement, or the Day of Coverings. The atonement cover plays a significant role in the events of this day. Aaron is to slaughter a bull to make atonement for himself and his own family. He sprinkles the blood on the atonement cover. He then slaughters a goat, sprinkling its blood on the atonement cover as well. It is an atonement made for the Most Holy Place itself, a type of reinvestiture, but it is also an atonement for "himself, his household, and the whole community of Israel." (Lev. 16:17) The priest dies and rises. The whole community dies and rises. It is judgment day. It is also resurrection day.
God shows that he is not lenient on the Day of Atonement. Throughout the centuries with Israel, he is accused of being lenient. Habakkuk complains: "Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?" (Habakkuk 1:3) Paul mentions the Lord's "forbearance" in which he had left sins unpunished. (Rom. 3:25) Peter Leithart writes:
"Some crimes make the land unclean (Deuteronomy 21:1-9), and the defiled land cries out for the death of the criminal, as Abel's blood cries out against Cain (Genesis 4:10). So also, the defiled altar, which is made of earth, cries out for the death of the sinner and has to be sprinkled with blood." (A House for My Name, 91)
There are impurities that can only be dealt with on the Day of Atonement, when they are brought all the way into God's presence, all the way into his throne room. This is where God shows that he is just. And this is quite hidden. Only the high priest gets to see it. And even he is instructed to light up such a cloud of incense that he can't see the atonement cover, lest he die. (Lev. 16:13)
We don't see what is truly going on here until Jesus dies on the cross. Paul describes Jesus' cross as a "sacrifice of atonement" in Romans 3:25. Paul seems to be describing the place of atonement, the atonement cover. Jesus is the covering where the blood is sprinkled and displayed before the Lord's throne and atones for the "whole community." The death of the goat on all those Days of Atonement was only prefiguring the ultimate Day of Atonement when all of Israel's sins are dragged out and placed upon Jesus.
This does not mean God is mad at Jesus. God is in Jesus bearing this sin. In fact, God has been bearing Israel's sin all along. In Exodus 34, God says: "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." (Ex. 34:6-7) The word expressed here as 'forgiving' can also be rendered 'lifting', 'carrying,' 'taking,' or 'bearing.' In many sin offerings, priests would bear the guilt of the people. But let's face it: as Habakkuk knew very well, sin remained. On the Day of Atonement, the sanctuary itself bore the guilt. God bears sin, and has been bearing it all along. On the Day of Atonement, God atones. On judgment day, God is judged.
In the last post I mentioned that from one perspective, the story of Jesus is a story of a criminal who is tried and executed. But what Paul is saying in 3:25 is that a cross on Golgotha is the new place of atonement. It is the new holy of holies. The change of geography signifies everything. The temple was a picture of the whole world: the Lord in his throne room, the priests in the holy place, Israel in the courtyards, and outside, all the mass of fleshly humanity - the Gentile nations. The cross completes God's journey out of his house. He stepped out from the holy of holies, walked amongst humanity in the flesh, and re-established his temple and his new most holy place outside the walls of the temple. Leithart calls this a "seismic shift." The sanctuary is now inside out. Not only all of Israel's sin, but all the world's sins are dragged out and placed on Jesus on this day of Atonement.
In the Letter to the Hebrews, the author writes that it used to be that the high priest would bring the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place, and would reserve their unclean carcasses for someplace outside the camp. (Hebrews 13:11-12). Now that the world's atonement has been made in the unclean nether-regions, what use is there for a holy of holies anymore? What was so holy that Aaron couldn't even look at it is now completely public, on a cross at Golgotha, before the eyes of Jew and Gentile alike. The dividing walls are down. What use is there left for priest, temple veil, and all the rituals? In Jesus, justice is achieved in the form of a new community of Jews and Gentiles, a new humanity who come charging into Eden. As Leithart puts it, "what has been whispered in secret has been shouted from the hilltop of Calvary." (Delivered, 201)
If the hidden atonement deep within the sanctuary was for the "whole community of Israel," how much more is the public atonement of Christ at the inside-out sanctuary - a cross "outside the city gate" - for the whole world?
We mentioned at the start that the most holy place has one piece of furniture: an ark at the base with cherubim up above, and in the middle, the atonement cover. We also mentioned that this is a picture of the cosmos, with the cherubim representing the heavens above, the ark representing the earth beneath, and the atonement cover representing the "sky" wrapped around the earth. Since Jesus is the true atonement cover, Jesus is the true firmament stretching over the earth, "the one mediator between heaven and earth." (Delivered, 340) Jesus' work has a universal scope and a cosmic significance. Nothing is the same.
In Romans 3:21-26, Paul writes:
"But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in (or, 'through the faithfulness of') Jesus to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."
Ultimately, we see here that Jesus establishes justice, and that it is a good thing. Flesh has been forbidden from Eden under the punishment of death. Now a death has happened, and Eden is here. Jesus, the representative of Israel and also of the world, becomes the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement, and enters into Eden on our behalf. Eden is with him. Justice is with him. He is the breaker of curses, who founds a new community beyond the scope of sinful flesh and death. He is just and the new community he forms is itself justice.
If I think only individually about my own sin, justice is a bad thing, and I want God to either dismiss it or take all the costs of it. But if I think about justice the way Habakkuk did, as something to yearn for, then we can see the way Jesus' ministry perfectly sums up the Day of Atonement. God showed he was just and he dealt with sin there once and for all for the whole people. And so it is with Jesus and the sin of the whole world. It was all exposed and punished. But Jesus also sums up the veiled secret of the Day of Atonement and it's been hard to keep it quiet ever since:
God bears the sin. All of it.
"Make an atonement cover of pure gold - two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites."
As we've noted in the post, "Slip Past the Cherubim," the cherubim remind us of Eden. Cherubim guarding the holy of holies reminds the priest that God will one day open Eden again. The furniture is also a picture of the whole cosmos. (A House for My Name, 83) The ark is God's footstool. It corresponds to the earth. The cherubim throne is heaven. The cover is the firmament, the "vault" or "sky" of Genesis 1:8, stretching over the earth.
This covering already seems to take on more weight than being merely the cap for the ark of the covenant. Once a year, God did away with all Israel's sins on the Day of Atonement, or the Day of Coverings. The atonement cover plays a significant role in the events of this day. Aaron is to slaughter a bull to make atonement for himself and his own family. He sprinkles the blood on the atonement cover. He then slaughters a goat, sprinkling its blood on the atonement cover as well. It is an atonement made for the Most Holy Place itself, a type of reinvestiture, but it is also an atonement for "himself, his household, and the whole community of Israel." (Lev. 16:17) The priest dies and rises. The whole community dies and rises. It is judgment day. It is also resurrection day.
God shows that he is not lenient on the Day of Atonement. Throughout the centuries with Israel, he is accused of being lenient. Habakkuk complains: "Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?" (Habakkuk 1:3) Paul mentions the Lord's "forbearance" in which he had left sins unpunished. (Rom. 3:25) Peter Leithart writes:
"Some crimes make the land unclean (Deuteronomy 21:1-9), and the defiled land cries out for the death of the criminal, as Abel's blood cries out against Cain (Genesis 4:10). So also, the defiled altar, which is made of earth, cries out for the death of the sinner and has to be sprinkled with blood." (A House for My Name, 91)
There are impurities that can only be dealt with on the Day of Atonement, when they are brought all the way into God's presence, all the way into his throne room. This is where God shows that he is just. And this is quite hidden. Only the high priest gets to see it. And even he is instructed to light up such a cloud of incense that he can't see the atonement cover, lest he die. (Lev. 16:13)
We don't see what is truly going on here until Jesus dies on the cross. Paul describes Jesus' cross as a "sacrifice of atonement" in Romans 3:25. Paul seems to be describing the place of atonement, the atonement cover. Jesus is the covering where the blood is sprinkled and displayed before the Lord's throne and atones for the "whole community." The death of the goat on all those Days of Atonement was only prefiguring the ultimate Day of Atonement when all of Israel's sins are dragged out and placed upon Jesus.
This does not mean God is mad at Jesus. God is in Jesus bearing this sin. In fact, God has been bearing Israel's sin all along. In Exodus 34, God says: "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." (Ex. 34:6-7) The word expressed here as 'forgiving' can also be rendered 'lifting', 'carrying,' 'taking,' or 'bearing.' In many sin offerings, priests would bear the guilt of the people. But let's face it: as Habakkuk knew very well, sin remained. On the Day of Atonement, the sanctuary itself bore the guilt. God bears sin, and has been bearing it all along. On the Day of Atonement, God atones. On judgment day, God is judged.
In the last post I mentioned that from one perspective, the story of Jesus is a story of a criminal who is tried and executed. But what Paul is saying in 3:25 is that a cross on Golgotha is the new place of atonement. It is the new holy of holies. The change of geography signifies everything. The temple was a picture of the whole world: the Lord in his throne room, the priests in the holy place, Israel in the courtyards, and outside, all the mass of fleshly humanity - the Gentile nations. The cross completes God's journey out of his house. He stepped out from the holy of holies, walked amongst humanity in the flesh, and re-established his temple and his new most holy place outside the walls of the temple. Leithart calls this a "seismic shift." The sanctuary is now inside out. Not only all of Israel's sin, but all the world's sins are dragged out and placed on Jesus on this day of Atonement.
In the Letter to the Hebrews, the author writes that it used to be that the high priest would bring the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place, and would reserve their unclean carcasses for someplace outside the camp. (Hebrews 13:11-12). Now that the world's atonement has been made in the unclean nether-regions, what use is there for a holy of holies anymore? What was so holy that Aaron couldn't even look at it is now completely public, on a cross at Golgotha, before the eyes of Jew and Gentile alike. The dividing walls are down. What use is there left for priest, temple veil, and all the rituals? In Jesus, justice is achieved in the form of a new community of Jews and Gentiles, a new humanity who come charging into Eden. As Leithart puts it, "what has been whispered in secret has been shouted from the hilltop of Calvary." (Delivered, 201)
If the hidden atonement deep within the sanctuary was for the "whole community of Israel," how much more is the public atonement of Christ at the inside-out sanctuary - a cross "outside the city gate" - for the whole world?
We mentioned at the start that the most holy place has one piece of furniture: an ark at the base with cherubim up above, and in the middle, the atonement cover. We also mentioned that this is a picture of the cosmos, with the cherubim representing the heavens above, the ark representing the earth beneath, and the atonement cover representing the "sky" wrapped around the earth. Since Jesus is the true atonement cover, Jesus is the true firmament stretching over the earth, "the one mediator between heaven and earth." (Delivered, 340) Jesus' work has a universal scope and a cosmic significance. Nothing is the same.
In Romans 3:21-26, Paul writes:
"But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in (or, 'through the faithfulness of') Jesus to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."
Ultimately, we see here that Jesus establishes justice, and that it is a good thing. Flesh has been forbidden from Eden under the punishment of death. Now a death has happened, and Eden is here. Jesus, the representative of Israel and also of the world, becomes the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement, and enters into Eden on our behalf. Eden is with him. Justice is with him. He is the breaker of curses, who founds a new community beyond the scope of sinful flesh and death. He is just and the new community he forms is itself justice.
If I think only individually about my own sin, justice is a bad thing, and I want God to either dismiss it or take all the costs of it. But if I think about justice the way Habakkuk did, as something to yearn for, then we can see the way Jesus' ministry perfectly sums up the Day of Atonement. God showed he was just and he dealt with sin there once and for all for the whole people. And so it is with Jesus and the sin of the whole world. It was all exposed and punished. But Jesus also sums up the veiled secret of the Day of Atonement and it's been hard to keep it quiet ever since:
God bears the sin. All of it.
Friday, April 5, 2019
Lent 2019: Wednesday, March 27 - Why Wasn't That Enough?
If we recap the first eight posts, we can say this: when Adam and Eve sin, they exhibit a fleshly impatience for maturity. They are cut off from Eden, and the cost of re-entry is death. Death functions in the world as a power. Fear of death and the need to set up boundaries against it leads humanity to live by flesh - creating unjust structures of clean and unclean, pure and impure. In order to destroy flesh without bringing death, God enrolls Abraham in a project in flesh warfare. They are marked in the flesh by circumcision, and their tabernacles under Moses are a parody of the fleshly sacrifices of other societies. Where their sacrifices policed distance between gods and people and between have's and have-not's, God's sacrifices followed a logic of access. It wasn't "you aren't allowed in here," but rather, "you aren't allowed in here...until you've had your bath." It's about making a way for flesh to enter into the presence of God, and re-entering Eden. Ultimately, instead of being a parody, the project of Israel became more of a way of separating themselves from God than actually drawing near. In other words, they became just like what they were intended to parody.
We saw this in the first eight posts. After our (lengthy) interlude in post nine about atonement theories (how God makes us "at-one" through Jesus), we spent nine posts asking what it would look like if God came out from his throne room in the holy of holies in the temple and walked around among his people. In looking at Matthew's gospel, we found that Jesus recapitulates the whole story of Israel, all its leaders, all its prophets, all its sacrificial structure. He gathers it all up and brings it to fulfillment.
Now we ask why that wasn't enough? If Jesus' life so thoroughly followed the logic of being a new temple, such that religious habits of how hands were washed, how the sabbath was honored, who were acceptable dining companions were now being redefined around Jesus, why did it have to end in tragedy? Why did he have to die?
Peter Leithart depicts a process of increasing direct engagement between Jesus and his opposition:
"Jesus died because his purposes and program for Israel clashed with the agenda of the Jewish leaders at every crucial point. The Jewish leaders considered Jesus a transgressor of Torah, who not only failed to keep Torah here and there but who overturned Torah altogether. To Jewish eyes, Jesus was a Sabbath-breaker. He flouted purity regulations, eating at defiled tables. He went freely among compromised Jews and prostitutes. He distributed bread in the wilderness as if he were Yahweh leading a new exodus, but the multitude who ate together was a mixed multitude packed with polluted Gentiles. He spoke with Samaritans, even Samaritan women." (Delivered, 146)
Leithart goes on to say that Jesus did not only accidentally offend Pharisees but transgressed their boundaries on purpose:
"Jesus knew just where the pressure points were, and he courageously acted and spoke to provoke repentance, with the full realization that he would in fact provoke nothing but fury." (148)
These weren't just "breaches of etiquette." Jesus wasn't just being rude. His enacting of Torah and all that the levitical laws and the tabernacle and temple were for - all this went directly against the Pharisaical program such that only one could emerge victorious. Ben Meyer writes:
"The distinctions of clean and unclean and of righteous and sinners shaped and permeated the self-understanding of Judaism. To subvert these distinctions was...a challenge to the social order." (Meyer, quoted in Leithart, 149)
Leithart writes:
"If Jesus' way became the way of Israel, then all the hopes and plans of the Pharisees and scribes were doomed, because their plans and hopes depended on maintaining and tightening the taste-not-touch-nots of their (life)...If Jesus' way became Israel's way, then Israel as the Jewish leaders and teachers knew it would cease to exist. If Jesus was right, then the teachers and leaders of Israel must themselves have been transgressors of Torah. There was a stark choice: Torah or Jesus. For the Jewish leaders, it could not be both." (149)
My putting it this way may seem like only a historical incident and that I'm only retracing what led up to the scene of the crime. But who is at fault? Whose crime is it? Who is on trial? This is where the historical lead-up is so significant. The history is precisely where the divine plan is illuminated. People put a common criminal on trial and execute him. The gospels disclose that God was at work in the trial of this one man, and put the whole world on trial. Everything becomes very dense here as Jesus recapitulates the full sacrificial sequence that Torah prescribed and dies as Israel's representative substitute, even as he has lived as Israel's representative substitute. And in dying for Israel, he also dies for the world. For Israel is the representative of the world, and God's means for delivering it, as he had promised to Abraham so long before.
The last thing we'll say here is that unless Jesus dies, there will be no way back into Eden. True, the God of Eden, the very Word that created it has stepped out into his fleshly world, but that very flesh of the world must be put to death to pass through the gates of Eden. Just as Israel had to be turned from flesh into smoke through unblemished animal sacrifices and fire to slip through the tabernacle veil, just so, there can be no actual access to Eden unless flesh is put to death. Peter Leithart writes:
"Eden could be reentered only by passing through the cherubic sword and fire, only through death and transfiguration. If Jesus had been nothing but a teacher, if he had died a peaceful death in bed, he would not have fulfilled the sacrifices of Israel. Without death and resurrection, he could not have made a way into the presence of the God who is a consuming fire. Apart from his death and resurrection there is no transfiguration of human nature from flesh to Spirit." (Delivered, 286)
We saw this in the first eight posts. After our (lengthy) interlude in post nine about atonement theories (how God makes us "at-one" through Jesus), we spent nine posts asking what it would look like if God came out from his throne room in the holy of holies in the temple and walked around among his people. In looking at Matthew's gospel, we found that Jesus recapitulates the whole story of Israel, all its leaders, all its prophets, all its sacrificial structure. He gathers it all up and brings it to fulfillment.
Now we ask why that wasn't enough? If Jesus' life so thoroughly followed the logic of being a new temple, such that religious habits of how hands were washed, how the sabbath was honored, who were acceptable dining companions were now being redefined around Jesus, why did it have to end in tragedy? Why did he have to die?
Peter Leithart depicts a process of increasing direct engagement between Jesus and his opposition:
"Jesus died because his purposes and program for Israel clashed with the agenda of the Jewish leaders at every crucial point. The Jewish leaders considered Jesus a transgressor of Torah, who not only failed to keep Torah here and there but who overturned Torah altogether. To Jewish eyes, Jesus was a Sabbath-breaker. He flouted purity regulations, eating at defiled tables. He went freely among compromised Jews and prostitutes. He distributed bread in the wilderness as if he were Yahweh leading a new exodus, but the multitude who ate together was a mixed multitude packed with polluted Gentiles. He spoke with Samaritans, even Samaritan women." (Delivered, 146)
Leithart goes on to say that Jesus did not only accidentally offend Pharisees but transgressed their boundaries on purpose:
"Jesus knew just where the pressure points were, and he courageously acted and spoke to provoke repentance, with the full realization that he would in fact provoke nothing but fury." (148)
These weren't just "breaches of etiquette." Jesus wasn't just being rude. His enacting of Torah and all that the levitical laws and the tabernacle and temple were for - all this went directly against the Pharisaical program such that only one could emerge victorious. Ben Meyer writes:
"The distinctions of clean and unclean and of righteous and sinners shaped and permeated the self-understanding of Judaism. To subvert these distinctions was...a challenge to the social order." (Meyer, quoted in Leithart, 149)
Leithart writes:
"If Jesus' way became the way of Israel, then all the hopes and plans of the Pharisees and scribes were doomed, because their plans and hopes depended on maintaining and tightening the taste-not-touch-nots of their (life)...If Jesus' way became Israel's way, then Israel as the Jewish leaders and teachers knew it would cease to exist. If Jesus was right, then the teachers and leaders of Israel must themselves have been transgressors of Torah. There was a stark choice: Torah or Jesus. For the Jewish leaders, it could not be both." (149)
My putting it this way may seem like only a historical incident and that I'm only retracing what led up to the scene of the crime. But who is at fault? Whose crime is it? Who is on trial? This is where the historical lead-up is so significant. The history is precisely where the divine plan is illuminated. People put a common criminal on trial and execute him. The gospels disclose that God was at work in the trial of this one man, and put the whole world on trial. Everything becomes very dense here as Jesus recapitulates the full sacrificial sequence that Torah prescribed and dies as Israel's representative substitute, even as he has lived as Israel's representative substitute. And in dying for Israel, he also dies for the world. For Israel is the representative of the world, and God's means for delivering it, as he had promised to Abraham so long before.
The last thing we'll say here is that unless Jesus dies, there will be no way back into Eden. True, the God of Eden, the very Word that created it has stepped out into his fleshly world, but that very flesh of the world must be put to death to pass through the gates of Eden. Just as Israel had to be turned from flesh into smoke through unblemished animal sacrifices and fire to slip through the tabernacle veil, just so, there can be no actual access to Eden unless flesh is put to death. Peter Leithart writes:
"Eden could be reentered only by passing through the cherubic sword and fire, only through death and transfiguration. If Jesus had been nothing but a teacher, if he had died a peaceful death in bed, he would not have fulfilled the sacrifices of Israel. Without death and resurrection, he could not have made a way into the presence of the God who is a consuming fire. Apart from his death and resurrection there is no transfiguration of human nature from flesh to Spirit." (Delivered, 286)
Lent 2019: Tuesday, March 26 - Nucleus of a Just Human Society
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 is a regimen in achieving a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. What is wrong with the scribes and Pharisees' righteousness? The Torah, or levitical law, achieves justice through what is called the lex talionis, which we could describe as "eye for eye, tooth for tooth." (Ex. 21:24) This is justice because it guards against excessive vengeance. If you knock out one of my teeth, I can't knock out all of your teeth.
Jesus comes teaching a different law: if someone slaps you, turn the other cheek. On first glance, this seems like a dismissal of the lex talionis. But how can this be true justice? Its in-dignifying enough to be slapped once. But twice? And the person gets off scott-free? But if we look more closely, we see that Jesus' new law fulfills the lex talionis. Retribution hasn't been sworn off. The disciple of Jesus has offered to take the retaliatory slap as well.
This gets at the heart of what is wrong with the lex talionis. In a different world perhaps, "eye for an eye" would end a feud. The retaliatory slap closes the loop and nobody's mad anymore. But that's rarely the case. Instead, the feud takes on different forms.
This is the weakness of Torah. Designed to limit the violence of flesh, it instead becomes flesh's accomplice in perpetuating violence. Thus we have the saying: "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." This is the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. It only seeks to curb the effects of flesh, to clean up the mess it leaves behind.
But Jesus' way does end the feud. The disciple may feel like a victim turning the cheek to receive not only the first slap but the second, but this is not really the case. Peter Leithart writes:
"Following these instructions also, subtly, restores the dignity of the person who gets slapped. The slapper wants to treat the slappee as a victim, the object of oppression. The slappee has no choice, no dignity. But when the slapped person turns the other cheek, he wrests initiative out of his opponent's hands. Instead of suffering the shame of being a victim, the disciple takes initiative into his own hands - disciples offer their cheek, remove their undershirt, go a second mile, give to whoever demands (Mt. 5:40-42). In doing so, the disciple also exposes the bully for the brute that he is; turning the tables in a way brings shame on the oppressor." (Delivered, 141)
In this way, the righteousness that Jesus is teaching does not only curb the effects of the flesh. It overcomes the flesh. Living this way targets the flesh in such a way that permits the enemy to be reconciled as a friend. This is true justice - a community "whose life together constitutes a continuous critique of and assault on fleshly division and exclusion, phallic pride and bravado." (Delivered, 144) Imagine if a whole community lived this way! It's the best kind of community to be a part of.
It is a recapitulation of all that Israel was meant to be. Israel was called to be God's means for reuniting the whole world to God. Through his representative, the king of Israel, God would use Israel's law to bring restoration to the whole world. When Jesus comes, he forms an Israel within Israel, twelve disciples from within the twelve tribes of Israel. Where the original Israel had become exhausted and defeated in the battle against flesh, Jesus brings fulfillment to their charter by renewing Torah's assault on fleshly patterns of life. He drives out evil spirits. He delivers vulnerable flesh from the dominating powers of the devil. He heals blind, lame, and mute. Where the original Israel had become a system which gratified the scribes and Pharisees and excluded everyone else, Jesus' new Israel consists of the poor, weak, and vulnerable, and the Scribes and the Pharisees are on the outside looking in.
In Matthew 18, we find this:
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
"He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." (Matt. 18:1-5)
Leithart comments:
"Children become model citizens of the kingdom, exemplifying mature human life. The weak become exemplary, because in their desperate dependence and neediness they display the reality that most human beings cover over with a show of force and achievement, to make a good showing in the flesh." (Delivered, 143)
Finally, Jesus himself is crucial to this new society. He is the kingdom's king. Who is Jesus, after all? Much of what the people around him were wondering is if he were a new king like David? David's significance is that at a certain point in time, all of the promises to Abraham were determined by God to go through David. Before David, Israel stands as a nation on their cumulative obedience. Samuel says in 1 Samuel 12:14 that the king's obedience or disobedience, while important, was not central. Under David and his descendants, this is different. In his covenant with David, God calls David's future son, Solomon, a "son," as in God's son. Up to this point, only the nation of Israel has been described this way. Now the fate of the nation depends much more on the obedience or disobedience of the king. In a significant way, the king doesn't just lead Israel. He represents Israel. He is Israel. In the same way, Jesus doesn't just lead his new Israel. He is the new Israel. He is the new David, the new Solomon, the Davidic king whose kingdom is the nucleus of a just human society, weak people who he delivers from the power of the devil who he then gives authority to deliver others. Within the world of flesh, they live by the Spirit, by the authority and power of the man at the center of their community - Jesus, the man who lives in the flesh entirely by Spirit. He is just and he builds a community of justice around him.
He is God come out from behind his temple veil. He will be struck. And like he taught his disciples, he won't strike back.
Jesus comes teaching a different law: if someone slaps you, turn the other cheek. On first glance, this seems like a dismissal of the lex talionis. But how can this be true justice? Its in-dignifying enough to be slapped once. But twice? And the person gets off scott-free? But if we look more closely, we see that Jesus' new law fulfills the lex talionis. Retribution hasn't been sworn off. The disciple of Jesus has offered to take the retaliatory slap as well.
This gets at the heart of what is wrong with the lex talionis. In a different world perhaps, "eye for an eye" would end a feud. The retaliatory slap closes the loop and nobody's mad anymore. But that's rarely the case. Instead, the feud takes on different forms.
This is the weakness of Torah. Designed to limit the violence of flesh, it instead becomes flesh's accomplice in perpetuating violence. Thus we have the saying: "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." This is the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. It only seeks to curb the effects of flesh, to clean up the mess it leaves behind.
But Jesus' way does end the feud. The disciple may feel like a victim turning the cheek to receive not only the first slap but the second, but this is not really the case. Peter Leithart writes:
"Following these instructions also, subtly, restores the dignity of the person who gets slapped. The slapper wants to treat the slappee as a victim, the object of oppression. The slappee has no choice, no dignity. But when the slapped person turns the other cheek, he wrests initiative out of his opponent's hands. Instead of suffering the shame of being a victim, the disciple takes initiative into his own hands - disciples offer their cheek, remove their undershirt, go a second mile, give to whoever demands (Mt. 5:40-42). In doing so, the disciple also exposes the bully for the brute that he is; turning the tables in a way brings shame on the oppressor." (Delivered, 141)
In this way, the righteousness that Jesus is teaching does not only curb the effects of the flesh. It overcomes the flesh. Living this way targets the flesh in such a way that permits the enemy to be reconciled as a friend. This is true justice - a community "whose life together constitutes a continuous critique of and assault on fleshly division and exclusion, phallic pride and bravado." (Delivered, 144) Imagine if a whole community lived this way! It's the best kind of community to be a part of.
It is a recapitulation of all that Israel was meant to be. Israel was called to be God's means for reuniting the whole world to God. Through his representative, the king of Israel, God would use Israel's law to bring restoration to the whole world. When Jesus comes, he forms an Israel within Israel, twelve disciples from within the twelve tribes of Israel. Where the original Israel had become exhausted and defeated in the battle against flesh, Jesus brings fulfillment to their charter by renewing Torah's assault on fleshly patterns of life. He drives out evil spirits. He delivers vulnerable flesh from the dominating powers of the devil. He heals blind, lame, and mute. Where the original Israel had become a system which gratified the scribes and Pharisees and excluded everyone else, Jesus' new Israel consists of the poor, weak, and vulnerable, and the Scribes and the Pharisees are on the outside looking in.
In Matthew 18, we find this:
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
"He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." (Matt. 18:1-5)
Leithart comments:
"Children become model citizens of the kingdom, exemplifying mature human life. The weak become exemplary, because in their desperate dependence and neediness they display the reality that most human beings cover over with a show of force and achievement, to make a good showing in the flesh." (Delivered, 143)
Finally, Jesus himself is crucial to this new society. He is the kingdom's king. Who is Jesus, after all? Much of what the people around him were wondering is if he were a new king like David? David's significance is that at a certain point in time, all of the promises to Abraham were determined by God to go through David. Before David, Israel stands as a nation on their cumulative obedience. Samuel says in 1 Samuel 12:14 that the king's obedience or disobedience, while important, was not central. Under David and his descendants, this is different. In his covenant with David, God calls David's future son, Solomon, a "son," as in God's son. Up to this point, only the nation of Israel has been described this way. Now the fate of the nation depends much more on the obedience or disobedience of the king. In a significant way, the king doesn't just lead Israel. He represents Israel. He is Israel. In the same way, Jesus doesn't just lead his new Israel. He is the new Israel. He is the new David, the new Solomon, the Davidic king whose kingdom is the nucleus of a just human society, weak people who he delivers from the power of the devil who he then gives authority to deliver others. Within the world of flesh, they live by the Spirit, by the authority and power of the man at the center of their community - Jesus, the man who lives in the flesh entirely by Spirit. He is just and he builds a community of justice around him.
He is God come out from behind his temple veil. He will be struck. And like he taught his disciples, he won't strike back.
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Lent 2019: Monday, March 25 - Abraham
In Matthew 8:5-13, a centurion approaches Jesus to ask for his servant to be healed. Two things strike us about this. One, the centurion simply approaches Jesus. This story appears among a cluster of other stories in which Jesus touches diseased, unclean, demon-possessed people. All these people, the Gentile centurion included, would have aroused an "ick" from the Israelites of that day. But as we've seen in the post on 'cleaning,' Jesus lives by Spirit in the flesh, and spreads health to the sick bodies.
Many societies with caste systems have had a social bottom rung. Often they are called untouchables. What led to Israel having this caste system? Not the Bible itself! Marilynne Robinson writes:
"The provisions for the poor which structure both land ownership and the sacred calendar in ancient Israel, the rights of gleaners and of those widows, orphans, and strangers who pass through the fields, and the cycles of freedom from debt and restoration of alienated persons and property, all work against the emergence of the poor as a class, as people marked by deprivation and hopelessness." (When I Was a Child, 77)
This echoes what we've seen, that Torah (levitical law) was not a means of separation from God chiefly, but was a way for people of flesh and under the power of death to have real access to Eden again. Robinson's quote helps us to see the true liberality of Torah to "work against the emergence of the poor as a class."
Torah is not opposed to the promise of Abraham, but rather is part of carrying it out. It is part of God's larger program of putting flesh to death. In this way, Israel would be the carrier of blessing to the Gentiles. Gentiles were only a problem if Israel lost her moors and became like the Gentiles. But as long as Israel followed her charter, the blessings flowed. Peter Leithart writes:
"Yahweh's life, blessing and gifts were available in the sanctuary, and he drew near to Israel to distribute those gifts, not only to Israel but also through them to the world. He gave his oracles to Israel so that Israel may become a light to the nations and a teacher of the wise. While Israel alone was the priestly people, the caretaker of Yahweh's house, Israel cared for the house on behalf of the nations. At the Feast of Booths, she offered seventy bulls for the seventy nations, and so offered up the world to the Creator." (Delivered, 103)
Leithart maintains that "in Torah, a Gentile is no more defiling than an Israelite." (103) No caste system. No untouchables. In fact, when Israel becomes like the Gentiles, when they start to boast in the flesh that God is at war against, when they live like Gentiles and set up hierarchies and caste systems, God turns to the Gentiles. And Israel has indeed become like the Gentiles in Jesus' day. They're not fulfilling their mission, causing what we earlier called a 'traffic jam' that is keeping blessing from reaching the nations. Jesus comes as a new Israel, the 'seed' of Abraham who fulfill this vocation. (Gal. 3:16) When Jesus acts like a true temple, bringing healing to lepers, demoniacs and Gentiles like our centurion, they oppose him more and more.
The second thing that strikes us about the centurion is his faith. He recognizes, as other Israelites don't, that Israel's prophets have healed, but never like this. Where others like Elijah and Elisha have called upon God to heal, they never healed simply by their own authority, as Jesus does. The centurion identifies this. Jesus is impressed and it inspires him to speak of things still to come:
"I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 8:11-12)
Jesus is speaking about Pentecost and also about the ultimate destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. God will come at Pentecost and through his Spirit will make a temple of all nations in Jesus' followers. This will fulfill the promise to Abraham that the nations will be blessed in his 'seed,' Jesus.
The Gentiles who were far from God are brought near. In Jesus' healing of the centurion's servant, they are brought so near that Jesus' word of healing leaps across the city blocks of Capernaum. The curse of Babel is not yet overcome. The promise to Abraham not yet fulfilled. The world is yet to be brought fully into God's fold. But here we see Jesus extending his welcome and fellowship to the world. In Jesus, God has crossed over from the holy of holies, passed through the outer holy place, ventured beyond the courtyard into fellowship with the Gentiles. The ladder between heaven and earth is here. All that was promised to Abraham is coming to pass.
Many societies with caste systems have had a social bottom rung. Often they are called untouchables. What led to Israel having this caste system? Not the Bible itself! Marilynne Robinson writes:
"The provisions for the poor which structure both land ownership and the sacred calendar in ancient Israel, the rights of gleaners and of those widows, orphans, and strangers who pass through the fields, and the cycles of freedom from debt and restoration of alienated persons and property, all work against the emergence of the poor as a class, as people marked by deprivation and hopelessness." (When I Was a Child, 77)
This echoes what we've seen, that Torah (levitical law) was not a means of separation from God chiefly, but was a way for people of flesh and under the power of death to have real access to Eden again. Robinson's quote helps us to see the true liberality of Torah to "work against the emergence of the poor as a class."
Torah is not opposed to the promise of Abraham, but rather is part of carrying it out. It is part of God's larger program of putting flesh to death. In this way, Israel would be the carrier of blessing to the Gentiles. Gentiles were only a problem if Israel lost her moors and became like the Gentiles. But as long as Israel followed her charter, the blessings flowed. Peter Leithart writes:
"Yahweh's life, blessing and gifts were available in the sanctuary, and he drew near to Israel to distribute those gifts, not only to Israel but also through them to the world. He gave his oracles to Israel so that Israel may become a light to the nations and a teacher of the wise. While Israel alone was the priestly people, the caretaker of Yahweh's house, Israel cared for the house on behalf of the nations. At the Feast of Booths, she offered seventy bulls for the seventy nations, and so offered up the world to the Creator." (Delivered, 103)
Leithart maintains that "in Torah, a Gentile is no more defiling than an Israelite." (103) No caste system. No untouchables. In fact, when Israel becomes like the Gentiles, when they start to boast in the flesh that God is at war against, when they live like Gentiles and set up hierarchies and caste systems, God turns to the Gentiles. And Israel has indeed become like the Gentiles in Jesus' day. They're not fulfilling their mission, causing what we earlier called a 'traffic jam' that is keeping blessing from reaching the nations. Jesus comes as a new Israel, the 'seed' of Abraham who fulfill this vocation. (Gal. 3:16) When Jesus acts like a true temple, bringing healing to lepers, demoniacs and Gentiles like our centurion, they oppose him more and more.
The second thing that strikes us about the centurion is his faith. He recognizes, as other Israelites don't, that Israel's prophets have healed, but never like this. Where others like Elijah and Elisha have called upon God to heal, they never healed simply by their own authority, as Jesus does. The centurion identifies this. Jesus is impressed and it inspires him to speak of things still to come:
"I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 8:11-12)
Jesus is speaking about Pentecost and also about the ultimate destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. God will come at Pentecost and through his Spirit will make a temple of all nations in Jesus' followers. This will fulfill the promise to Abraham that the nations will be blessed in his 'seed,' Jesus.
The Gentiles who were far from God are brought near. In Jesus' healing of the centurion's servant, they are brought so near that Jesus' word of healing leaps across the city blocks of Capernaum. The curse of Babel is not yet overcome. The promise to Abraham not yet fulfilled. The world is yet to be brought fully into God's fold. But here we see Jesus extending his welcome and fellowship to the world. In Jesus, God has crossed over from the holy of holies, passed through the outer holy place, ventured beyond the courtyard into fellowship with the Gentiles. The ladder between heaven and earth is here. All that was promised to Abraham is coming to pass.
Lent 2019: Saturday, March 23 - Eden
In Matthew 17, Jesus goes up a mountain with several of his disciples:
"After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
"Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
"While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
"When the disciples hear this, they fell down terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
"As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead." (Matt. 17:1-9)
According to Peter Leithart, we see Jesus as a new Moses, a new high priest, and a new Adam in this scene. (Jesus as Israel, vol. 2, 69)
The mount of Transfiguration is like the mount of Sinai, where Moses went up and met with God in a cloud. Jesus shines as Moses face shined upon returning from meeting with God. Those present are exhorted to "listen," suggesting that Jesus, like Moses, brings a law and a teaching. Also, the disciples want to build tabernacles, just like Israel built a tabernacle at the foot of Sinai.
Jesus is a new high priest. Although Israel's priests wore clothes of great glory and beauty, sparkling with precious stones and golden thread, on the Day of Atonement, the great high priest wore a simple white garment, which is how Jesus' clothes are described here. Jesus as high priest enters into the holy of holies, into the Father's glory, which as we've discussed, means entering into Eden.
Just before they go up the mountain, Jesus tells his disciples that some of them will see "the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (Matt. 16:28) And they do! They see the new Adam. Just as Adam was created on the sixth day, Jesus is glorified in this place on the sixth day. Just as the Spirit overshadowed the creation in the beginning of Genesis, a cloud overshadows Jesus and the disciples on the mountain. When the disciples see Jesus alone again after the cloud leaves, they talk about resurrection, or new creation.
All the echoes of mountains in the Bible go back to the mountain of Eden. In the same way, this mountain signifies a new Eden, a new garden, a place where a new Adam will bask in God's glory. Instead of the old Adam's failure and his spreading death to all, the new Adam will spread glory to other Adams and Eves. In the scene of the transfiguration, Jesus shows his disciples what has been true all along. Being with Jesus is to have re-entered Eden.
"After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
"Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
"While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
"When the disciples hear this, they fell down terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
"As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead." (Matt. 17:1-9)
According to Peter Leithart, we see Jesus as a new Moses, a new high priest, and a new Adam in this scene. (Jesus as Israel, vol. 2, 69)
The mount of Transfiguration is like the mount of Sinai, where Moses went up and met with God in a cloud. Jesus shines as Moses face shined upon returning from meeting with God. Those present are exhorted to "listen," suggesting that Jesus, like Moses, brings a law and a teaching. Also, the disciples want to build tabernacles, just like Israel built a tabernacle at the foot of Sinai.
Jesus is a new high priest. Although Israel's priests wore clothes of great glory and beauty, sparkling with precious stones and golden thread, on the Day of Atonement, the great high priest wore a simple white garment, which is how Jesus' clothes are described here. Jesus as high priest enters into the holy of holies, into the Father's glory, which as we've discussed, means entering into Eden.
Just before they go up the mountain, Jesus tells his disciples that some of them will see "the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (Matt. 16:28) And they do! They see the new Adam. Just as Adam was created on the sixth day, Jesus is glorified in this place on the sixth day. Just as the Spirit overshadowed the creation in the beginning of Genesis, a cloud overshadows Jesus and the disciples on the mountain. When the disciples see Jesus alone again after the cloud leaves, they talk about resurrection, or new creation.
All the echoes of mountains in the Bible go back to the mountain of Eden. In the same way, this mountain signifies a new Eden, a new garden, a place where a new Adam will bask in God's glory. Instead of the old Adam's failure and his spreading death to all, the new Adam will spread glory to other Adams and Eves. In the scene of the transfiguration, Jesus shows his disciples what has been true all along. Being with Jesus is to have re-entered Eden.
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