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Bible Tuesday for Christ the King Sunday, 2014

Bible Tuesday for Christ the King Sunday, 2014

Ezekiel 34:11-24

1For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

17As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats: 18Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet? 19And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?20Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, 22I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.

Israelite kings were frequently referred to by God as shepherds; not flock owners, but shepherds. The beginning of this 34th chapter of Ezekiel is a repudiation of the king, courtiers, high priest, and Temple leaders of Israel. God accuses and convicts them of not shepherding but rather taking advantage of Israel, causing them to sin and fall into captivity of Babylon.

When the nation of Israel was first formed from the descendants of Abraham, God spoke through prophets saying that God, alone, is the leader of Israel and that the people needed neither prince nor king, as God was their head. But the people showed great fear at receiving God as their leader and always asked for an intermediary. The judges, and later the kings, of Israel filled that role, assisted by the Temple clergy. However, most of the leadership of Israel succumb to their own greed and/or power mongering and failed to fulfill the role to which God called them.

In this section of Ezekiel, God reclaims the role of sole leader of Israel that God had saved for Himself. God promises to gather together all the sheep that have been scattered during the fall of Israel to Assyria and Judah to Babylon.

Throughout history there have been organizations/companies that have profited from war. By this text, we can assume this is also the case in exilic Israel. The second half of the above text castigates the monarchy and religious leadership of Israel for building bigger thrones and lining their own pockets in this crisis.

Psalm 95:1-7

A Call to Worship and Obedience

1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

6 O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!

In reading texts like the above, it is important to recognize that while Judaism was from its inception monotheistic, nevertheless, the Jews from Abraham though Babylonian Exile did believe in other gods and goddesses, they just didn’t worship them. The curriculum vitae and credentials of Yahweh is that He was THE CREATOR of all that exists! The other gods and goddesses were part of the creation Yahweh made. This concept of Yahweh is exemplified in this psalm.

Ephesians 1:15-23

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love* towards all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God* put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Paul has greeted the congregation in Ephesus in his letter to them immediately preceding the pericope above. Then Paul goes on to pat them on the back for their reputation of faith and charitable acts. Paul asks God for the gift of wisdom for this congregation, that they might discern God’s will and the life to which God has called them.

In this passage, Paul appears to believe that Jesus became more than just the average person when God worked power through Jesus by raising him from the dead. That is very different than believing that Jesus was, and always has been God, as the gospel of John tells us. (“In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God…”)

Matthew 25:31-46

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

To clarify terminology, sheep and goats were grazed together and equally edible for ancient Israelites. Both were raised for hides (and wool), as well as milk and meat. However, goats were, and are, much smarter than sheep, and were frequently used as leaders in the flocks. That sheering time, goat would lead the flock to the sheerer, but then be separated from the sheep, while the sheep were sheered.

In this parable, all nations, which is synonymous for all peoples, are gathered for judgment before Jesus. At the beginning, Jesus refers to himself as “Son of Man” and then two sentences later as “the King.” In some ancient texts, “Son of Man” merely means “a human” while in others it means “a human hero” or “messiah”. Jesus may well be utilizing both meanings in this text.

Normal qualities for sheep vs. goats in Israelite lore were that Israelites were sheep and all other “goyim” were goats. Israelites were God’s chosen people while everyone else was a sort of mission field, if the Israelites felt inclines to evangelizing. However, in this parable, the Son of Man/King judges the peoples not by their religion or ethnicity, but by their actions. If the people were humble and charitable, then they were sheep, if not then they were goats. Dr. Martin Luther would call this judgment the search for the fruits of baptism. It is not works righteousness, but rather works being evidence of one’s inculcation of the gospel of God.