Fourth Sunday in Lent 2018 (Cycle B)
March 11, 2018
2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
Ephesians 2:4-10
John 3:14-21
Our first reading this week is from 2 Chronicles. What is unique about this passage is that it comes from the last chapter of the last book in the Hebrew bible, the TaNak. Also, we only read from 2 Chronicles once in the three-year cycle and once in the two year daily cycle from the Lectionary and we never read from 1 Chronicles.
With this understanding right up front, we should be asking ourselves several questions. Why only once in our three-year cycle? Why the last chapter of the last book of the Hebrew bible? What makes this passage so important?
Scholars believe that both books of Chronicles are a rewriting of Israel’s history from the perspective of the post exile priestly writers and probably after the written Deuteronomistic History. While the content of both Deuteronomy and Chronicles seem to be very similar, Chronicles is mostly concerned with the particular interest of the priest. They were concerned about the sabbath observance, ritual specifications and various temple accessories.
The writers are making the point that the glorious past of Israel lies in ruins after the domination by the Persians. They see the only way forward as being identified as Yahweh’s people who place emphasis on Temple worship and Yahweh’s priests.
One of the radical differences we can see between the two is the way the way which they portray the kings of Judah. In particular, David and Solomon are both portrayed as being the ideal kings. Their faults and their sins are overlooked because they are being presented as ideal leaders of the people. David is the model leader, Solomon has no faults, when we know how they both fell into sin in various ways. Even the separation from the northern kingdom is not mentioned by the Chronicler because that does not present a unified front as a people of God. The sinfulness of the past is forgotten, written out of history so that the people have a hope for the future. The basic summary for them was to provide credentials to show that the priests were to be followed going forward in to their future.
This last chapter of the TaNak is a summary of history of Judah, to show how the people were not following its leaders and what they needed to do going forward.
Scholars lean towards someone other than Paul who was the author of this letter to the Ephesians. What makes this letter unique is that in all of the New Testament writings, this is the one letter that describes the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic. It is this teaching on the church that is its main contribution to the scriptures.
Paul’s normal teaching about the church tended to be on the local church, the church where believers gathered to worship with one another. What we see in Ephesians is that the churches begin to develop as an institution. For the author, the church is universal as the body of Christ, with Christ being its head.
While Paul wrote about the head and body as not being distinctive when he taught about the body of Christ, he did stress the unity of the whole. The author of this letter takes this insight from Paul and applies it in regards to the oneness of the Jewish and Gentile Christians in the body of Christ, the church. We are united through the peace of Christ by his shedding of His blood on the cross for all.
Through that redemptive action on the cross, the church has been made holy, blameless, spotless and without wrinkle.
As the author looks back to the holy apostles, he uses building imagery and sees the apostles as the foundation of the church with Jesus as its capstone. He has already begun to see division and splits and how the communities began to lose faith in the origins of their faith. By using Paul’s name, he lends the apostolic authority to the teachings.
The emphasis with todays readings is on the mercy of God through Jesus. Because of his mercy the gentiles did not suffer His wrath. His great love, this saving action is a gift from God which comes through faith and is not something that can be obtained on it own. In other words, you cannot earn your salvation through works.
If anyone has turned on their TV to a sporting event, or attended a large gathering of people, you have bound to see people standing in the crowd with a sign that says John 3:16. You don’t see it or hear too much about it today, but it was very common a few years ago and even the commentators would make not of it.
That is where our gospel takes us today. The author of this fourth gospel will have Jesus start up a conversation with and individual, but then the individual fades away and the dialogue becomes a monologue, a teaching moment for Jesus. He does this often when he want to bring up a new thought or point he is trying to make.
Today he uses Nicodemus to introduce his ideas of God sending His only Son into the world so that those who have faith and believe in Jesus will be saved, will have eternal life.
He continues this teaching on the saving effect of Jesus by using light and darkness with those who do evil choosing the darkness to hide the what they do from others. Those who follow Jesus live in the light and the works they do are seen by all as being done in God.