Bible Tuesday for Pentecost V 2016

Isaiah 65:1-9

65 I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that did not call on my name.
2 I held out my hands all day long
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;
3 a people who provoke me
to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
and offering incense on bricks;
4 who sit inside tombs,
and spend the night in secret places;
who eat swine’s flesh,
with broth of abominable things in their vessels;
5 who say, “Keep to yourself,
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all day long.
6 See, it is written before me:
I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their laps
7 their iniquities and their ancestors’ iniquities together,
says the Lord;
because they offered incense on the mountains
and reviled me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
full payment for their actions.
8 Thus says the Lord:
As the wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, “Do not destroy it,
for there is a blessing in it,”
so I will do for my servants’ sake,
and not destroy them all.
9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;
my chosen shall inherit it,
and my servants shall settle there.

The Israelites return from exile in Babylonia to find Jerusalem completely devastated. The city is burned to the ground, the Temple is gone, and the sacred vessels were carried off as plunder. The people cry out to God in accusation, “You have struck those [the returning
exiles] who would gladly do justice.” Believing that God has allowed Jerusalem to fall as punishment of Israeli for its many sins, the Israelites cry, “It is because YOU are angry that we have sinned.” This passage in the 65th chapter of Isaiah is God’s response to Israel’s accusations.

God states that during all of the years leading up to the exile and during the exile, God was faithful to the covenant with Israel, but Israel was a “disloyal people” who “followed their own designs.” “Sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on tiles” are worship practices to Canaanite gods. These were frequently done on the highest topographical locations, hence the term, “they made offerings upon the mountains and affronted Me upon the hills.”

Despite Israel’s many sins of unfaithfulness, God pledges God will not destroy Israel completely, but will build a great people from those who are still faithful to God(Hebrew Study Bible translation). Psalm 22:19-28

19 But you, O Lord, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,
my life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!

From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried to him.

25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.

This is the psalm Jesus quotes from the cross, perhaps in keeping with ancient death bed traditions. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!” In this chosen pericope, the psalmist pleads, “Do something good for me, God, so that I can sing your praise and brag about you!” “Pay attention to those whom the godless have brought low!”

The psalm goes on to sing God’s praise, trusting that God will answer the previous pleas. The psalmist then admonishes, “You who fear the Lord,” and “All you offspring of Jacob,” to also fear and praise God.

Galatians 3:23-29

23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Paul argues here, and in other letters, that the Law of Moses was only temporary, to be replaced by faith into Jesus. Using analogies of a prison/guard here, and of a tutor elsewhere, Paul teaches that the law was not a means to itself, nor God’s highest creation for humanity, but rather a guide toward God. Since humanity misunderstood the Law and made it a means of score keeping by which one earns God’s favor, God, himself, came in Jesus. Jesus is the example of how humans are to know/love God and live through that knowledge and love.

While the Law of Moses defined and divided humanity into the clean and the unclean, Jew and goyim (not Jew), male and female, Jesus defines all humanity as forgiven. Therefore, Paul proclaims, in Christ there are no distinctions! All are made equally guilty under the law by failure to keep the Law, and all are made free by Jesus through the forgiveness of sin.

Luke 8:26-39

26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— 29 for Jesus[ had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed.37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenesasked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

The passage begins, “Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee,” which is a plain way of saying that Jesus and the disciples “aren’t in Kansas anymore.” They have crossed into non-Jewish territory. This is the first of several occasions in Luke where Jesus leads his disciples off their home turf, likely a first for all of them.

Now in “unclean” territory, what is the first thing that Jesus and the disciples encounter? A severely mentally disturbed, naked man screaming at them! You can just hear the disciples’ throughts: “This is why we should have STAYED AT HOME!” If that were not enough, these are swine keeping people with a herd just over yonder!

Luke makes very clear the distinction between those who recognize Jesus as Son of God and those who don’t, nowhere more clearly than in this story. The demons which possess this tragic man know and fear Jesus, while the people of the town completely reject Jesus.

Abyss: In Hebrew folklore, the abyss is the bottomless pit reserved for God’s enemies.

Legion: In Middle eastern culture, to know one’s name is to have a measure of control over that one. In the Roman army, a Legion of soldier is 4,000 – 6,000 soldiers.

“Declare how much God has done for you.” Here is the first commissioned evangelist in the gospel of Luke, a healed man, only recently clothed, who heretofore has lived in a grave yard. This guy has a steep uphill battle for credibility with this swine herding community, but that is the job Jesus hands him.