Baptised and loved as God's children!

Acts 3:12-19, 1 John 3:1-7 & Luke 24:36-48

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

We heard last week from Father Peter of the complete amazement of the disciples at the sudden re-appearance of Jesus - an understandable reaction!  We heard also of Thomas, who in his very human way found the whole situation just too much to take in, and had the same kind of doubts that many of us probably would have had…….needing to see and hold Jesus for himself before he was able to believe that it was really happening.

In our reading today from Luke’s gospel Jesus once again appears to the disciples. Perhaps to say that he “appears” is actually pretty inadequate, conjuring up, as it may, an image of smoke and mirrors, an illusion……nothing more than a magic trick! Yet here he is, right in front of them (they are probably rooted to the spot scared stiff), telling them to reach out and touch the reality in front of them. Touch and see his hands and feet. This was no illusion……Jesus was right there, standing before them. The same Jesus who only a few days before had endured the most horrendous torture and execution was now standing with his disciples, speaking and sharing a meal with them. These were not the actions of a ghost or the result of the disciple’s imaginations!

 In the confusion of that room where they were gathered, Jesus reminds them once again that everything that had happened (and that continues to happen) is in fulfilment of scripture. His death and resurrection were not in vain, there was a divine purpose to all that was happening. A purpose that would bring about repentance and forgiveness and ultimately reconcile humanity to God.

Today we celebrate with Louis and his family as we welcome him into the church family. As promises are made on his behalf he becomes a child of God. As our second reading from the First Letter of John says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are” (1 Jn 3:1). We add our support and prayers to those of his parents and Godparents as he begins his journey of faith through baptism.

And of course, through baptism we are all children of God! It has been said many times from this pulpit, that the love of God for each of us is so completely and absolutely unlimited in its depth that we can barely comprehend it.  And we are called children of God, not simply because we woke up one morning and decided on a whim to come along to church……we are called children of God because he first loved us and draws us to himself. That love is an unconditional love!

We are not always understood by those outside the church, sometimes perhaps, we don’t even fully understand ourselves. And like children there are times when we sometimes fight and argue, but none of that takes away the love of God for us. We are called not only to stand with and support one another, but also to walk alongside. As we are often told by Father Andrew…..take a look around you, see who is sitting in front or behind you. It is these people who we are united to in our own baptism; it is these people who are our sisters and brothers in the family of Christ. We walk this journey of discovery together. It is through our baptism that we symbolically bury our old sinful self and are raised up into our new life in Jesus. We become reconciled to the one who created and loves us, and we are called not to keep that love for ourselves, but to proclaim it from the rooftops that it is available to all.

Yet sometimes perhaps, going back to the disciples in the room, confused and not really understanding what was going on, we too are full of doubts and insecurities. It’s natural enough to want to be in control of things and fully understand what is going on…..but at that moment in time that simply wasn’t happening for the disciples. This was a group of people who had spent the last few years following their Lord. They had lived with and supported one another, at times they had disagreed and agued with one another. But at the end of the day this group of stalwart disciples was momentarily thrown into complete confusion and fear by the reappearance of the Lord they thought was dead!

 This was a whole new experience for them that completely defied everything that common sense and logic told them. Even when they reached out and touched Jesus they weren’t fully convinced he was real until he ate with them. As on so many other occasions Jesus used the opportunity of a shared meal to help them understand the reality of what was in front of their eyes.

May we, as we support Louis in his baptism, and perhaps recall our own baptismal promises, know more fully the reality of what it is to be children of God. May we allow his love to overcome our own doubts and insecurities, and may we each become vessels by which his love is poured out to others.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

What is the Value of Studying a Gospel in its Own Right?

This essay intends to discuss the importance of studying a gospel in its own right, looking particularly at Matthew’s Gospel. When the four gospels are examined together it is easy to see how they both compliment and contradict each other. It is only when reading each gospel in depth on its own terms that it is possible to appreciate what it is that makes a particular gospel distinctive. Each gospel writer had his own particular emphasis and audience in mind when it was being written.

Matthew’s gospel, despite being the first of the four gospels in the New Testament is unlikely to have been the first one actually written (most modern scholars give that distinction to Mark’s gospel). Reading through Matthew’s gospel one quickly becomes aware of the “Jewish flavour” to the writing, moreso than in any of the other three gospels. While the other gospels tend to be more outreaching in their scope, Matthew is more concerned with reaching the Jewish audience of the day. This theory is supported when one sees that the author makes more extensive use of the Old Testament than the other gospel writers in his quest to convince the Jews of the validity of Jesus as the promised Messiah. The author’s intention could be summed up by his quote of Jesus, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matt 5:17). The law (of Moses) was a rule of life and relationship with God that was unique to the people of Israel. For Jesus to say that he was the fulfillment of the law would make sense at that time only in a Jewish context, something that the immediate audience of the gospel would be able to understand.

Assuming that Mark’s gospel was the first to be written, most modern scholars accept the theory that much of Matthew (and indeed Luke) was based upon material taken from Mark. Matthew’s gospel however is around 50 percent longer than Mark’s, so it is apparent that the author uses material that was not available to the writer of Mark. Some of this material is shared by Luke and is known as “Q”. Brown states, “Mark had been designed to make Jesus intelligible to a Gentile audience; and Matthew, in order to serve a community that was becoming more and more Gentile, found Mark a useful framework into which to incorporate Q, a very Jewish collection of Jesus’ teaching.” Even when recounting the same events Matthew is generally shorter than Mark, using Mark more as a frame on which to hang his own take on the proceedings, and going on to add material such as the genealogy and infancy storylines in a way that would make it more relevant to his target audience.

Given that the Old Testament depicts the Jewish people as God’s “chosen people”, it is important to understand something of the cultural and religious background. Matthew’s gospel begins by tracing the lineage of Jesus through David, back to Abraham. This account, while not being strictly accurate is intended to show the reader the pedigree of Jesus as the Messiah, by linking him through the generations to the great prophets and kings of Israel.

Jewish identity was important to the target audience in those days in much the same way as it is in modern day Israel, and this emphasis on Jesus’ Jewish roots has a twofold effect. Firstly, as we have seen, it makes visible the historical continuation of Jesus with those who have gone before him, something that was of great importance to the original readers of the gospel. Secondly, it allows readers of subsequent generations (including our own) a greater insight into the Jewish background of Jesus and the context out of which he came, something which is not presented quite as prominently in the other gospels.

One of the central themes found in the gospel is that of Jesus as teacher. This brings us back to Jesus’ claim to fulfill rather than destroy the law. He was not there to bring down the great teachings of the Old Testament prophets, but rather to bring those teachings to completion. Matthew groups the teaching of Jesus into five main sections (chapters 5-7; 10; 13; 18 and 24-25). The most well known of these teaching sessions is the “Sermon on the Mount” (ch 5-7) and echoes the time Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai.

Johnson makes the link between Jesus and Torah in Matthew. Torah (Law) was the central rule of living that governed every aspect of the life for the observant Jew. He speaks of the eternal nature of Torah and how “Taking upon oneself the observance of Torah was to “take on the yoke of the kingdom of heaven” ” . Because to Matthew’s audience every aspect of life was viewed in terms of how it related to Torah it became necessary to come to a new understanding of the Law. Johnson argues that this “new understanding” is found in Jesus. He goes on to describe Jesus as “Teacher of Torah, Fulfillment of Torah, and the Personification of Torah” . He is portrayed throughout the gospel as a great teacher as he holds his lengthy discourses, and rather than doing away with what has been passed down in Torah he is shown to radically re-interpret it. The Sermon on the Mount shows a number of examples of Jesus re-interpreting the law. Two notable instances are in chapter five, verses 38-39 and 43-44, where Jesus speaks about a new attitude towards ones enemy. It is an attitude of love and selflessness, rather than one that seeks vengeance. In this sense he is teaching a new way of life that reaches beyond the Torah as originally received.

He becomes in Matthew, not only the “teacher”, but also the “fulfillment” of the law. Matthew’s genealogical account at the very beginning of his gospel emphasizes the long and honourable line of ancestors culminating in announcing Jesus as the Messiah (Matt 1:16). The author then goes on in the gospel on numerous occasions to speak of Jesus in terms of “fulfillment” of various Old Testament prophecies, where the words of the prophets are applied to Jesus in order to show the work of God through him. Such “fulfillment” passages may be found in 1:22-23; 2:5-6; 3:3; 4:14-16; 21:4-5, and numerous other times in Matthew’s writing. This literary device is used to firmly fix in the mind of the reader/hearer the idea that Jesus has come to bring about the purposes of God as revealed to the prophets and original recipients of Torah.

As I have outlined in this essay by focusing on Matthew, each gospel writer can be better appreciated for their contribution to the whole story of Jesus by looking at each one through the particular lens in which they view their own world. In the case of Matthew it is a very Jewish lens, seeking to show the relevance of the ancient prophecies which he saw fulfilled in the person of Jesus. When one is able to look at each of the gospels in this way it is possible to build up the sense of a “bigger picture” formed from a number of different, yet in many ways very similar sketches of Jesus life, and therefore come to understand more fully the inter-relation of the four gospels with one another.

 Bibliography

Brown, R.E; An Introduction To The New Testament, Doubleday, 1997

Brown, R.E., Fitzmeyer, J, A. & Murphy, R. E. (eds), The New Jerome Bible Commentary, Prentice Hall, 1990

Burridge, R.A; Four Gospels, One Jesus?, SPCK, 1994

Burkett, D; An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity, Cambridge, 2002

Drane, J; Introducing the New Testament, Lion, 1999

Ehrman, B. D; The New Testament, Oxford University Press, 2008

Johnson, L. T; The Writings of the New Testament, SCM Press, 1999

Lamentations for Holy Saturday by Palestrina