The Bible Lessons:
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 40:1-11
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42
General Comments:
1. Epiphany is a rough season for we Lutherans. That's because historically, Lutherans have been good about doing acts of mercy and kindness, but reticent about verbally sharing their faith with others or inviting folks to worship. The Epiphany season of the Church Year, with its focus on the ways in which the identity of God has been revealed in Jesus Christ, also is a call to followers of Christ to share their faith in Christ, to be witnesses.
The lessons for this coming Sunday contain strong affirmations of the universal Lordship of the God first revealed to Israel and ultimately disclosed in the person of Jesus, along with calls to share that God with the whole world.
2. Isaiah 49:1-7: This passage presents us with the second "servant song" from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. The first one was our first lesson last Sunday.
3. In any book of Old Testament prophecy, texts usually deal with both immediate contexts and secondarily, more distant ones.
Some scholars claim that this passage deals most immediately with the Babylonian king, Darius, who God chose to help the Israelite exiles to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. (Thanks to my colleague, Chris Adams, for pointing this out.)
4. Be that as it may, the passage is more significantly, a call to God's servant--Israel and ultimately, Jesus--to be "a light to the nations." What's striking is the counterintuitive call issued by God to His servants in verse 6. It basically says, "Because you failed to win My own people back, I'm now going to send you with a message of salvation to the whole world."
This is similar to the counterintuitive call Jesus issues to His disciples in Matthew 28:19-20. In it, He essentially says, "You scattered to the four winds when I was arrested and crucified. The only one who came close to being dependable was Peter. He stayed close to me...then denied me three times. Now that you've failed at that, I want you to go to all the world, making disciples of all nations."
In spite of their failings and with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, Jesus' first witnesses fulfilled that mission. It remains the Christian mission today in spite of our failings.
5. Psalm 40:1-11: This is an exuberant affirmation of one who has given witness of the greatness and grace of God.
6. 1 Corinthians 1:1-9: Paul here opens his letter to the first century Greek church of Corinth. Some wonder if, given the overt sinning of the Corinthian church, Paul is being disingenuous in his opening affirmation of the congregation. He tells people who, in just a few verses, he will scorn for their selfishness, sexual immorality, and spiritual pride, "I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given to you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him..."
Is Paul just buttering up the Corinthian congregation? I don't think so. Two points...
(1) The Bible teaches that, so long as we live on this earth, believers in Jesus are simultaneously "saints and sinners." A saint is one who imperfectly turns from sin and believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and God. Although I'm a saint, I'm also a sinner. This was true of the members of the Corinthian church, as much as it is of me...and all believers.
(2) Notice that Paul doesn't laud the Corinthians here for any great works of love or faith. He's thankful that the grace of God, the force which turns sinners into sinners, has been given to them. Paul might like the church members that C.S. Lewis mentions in The Screwtape Letters--the fanatical bridge player, the vain person with the ridiculous hat, people whose sinful habits haven't gone away although they are believers in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit won't exorcise the last vestiges of sin from us on this side of the grave. The "old Adam" and the "old Eve" don't give up easily. But it's a testimony to God's grace--His charitable acceptance of repentant sinners--that even people like fanatical bridge players, vain egomaniacs, recovering alcoholics and junkies, and other sinners like me are nonetheless part of His kingdom. No doubt this is why Paul's expression of thankfulness for the grace that's come to the Corinthian Christians is genuine.
7. John 1:29-42: Twice in our lesson, John identifies Jesus as "the Lamb of God."
Those familiar with Old Testament sacrificial law will know that each year on Yom Kippur--the Day of Atonement--a pure, unblemished lamb was sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem. That lamb bore the sins committed by God's people Israel in the preceding year.
But in Jesus, John identifies the Lamb Whose death on a cross will atone for the sins of the entire world. Jesus underscores the universality of His mission in John 3:16, of course. The New Testament book of Hebrews, written, or more accurately, preached, by a Jewish Christian to other Jewish Christians, asserts that Jesus' sacrificial death wiped out the power of sin and death over believers in Christ "once and for all."
8. Two mega-themes suggest themselves as one reads our Gospel lesson, each encapsulated in a word. The words are: abide or live (meno in the original Greek) and witness (martureo in the original Greek). (An allied word to the second is semeia, meaning sign. More on that momentarily.)
John is obsessed with the incarnation, the enfleshment of God in the person of Jesus. His prologue, for example, speaks of the Word made flesh who dwelt among us (John 1:14). Jesus is the active, life-giving Word of God. Once, in a particular place and time, He lived, remained, or dwelt among us. The word meno is used repeatedly in John's Gospel. It can be translated as lived, dwelt, abided, or remained. Jesus uses this verb repeatedly, for example, when He speaks of how He abides in the Father and we are to abide in Him (John 15).
In this Sunday's Gospel lesson, the question posed by John's disciples to Jesus is to be taken both literally and figuratively, I suppose. They want to know where Jesus is staying or living.
But, at another level, they want to know if Jesus is with them. Is He with the human race? Or is He just one more promising savior who lets us down in the end? We human beings, in spite of pretending to be world weary or cynical, are constantly looking for saviors, be they politicians, entertainment personalities, psychologists, financial gurus, generals, or preachers. All will disappoint, especially if they spend their time trying to prove themselves to us. Jesus has nothing to prove. He tells us, as He did John the Baptist's disciples, "Come and see."
9. John's Gospel is often referred to as "a book of signs." In John 20, the evangelist gives a mission statement for his Gospel:
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)The Gospel of John is designed to be a witness--or a sign--that points others to Jesus Christ as "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).
Throughout the Gospel, Jesus performs signs and a premium is put on witnessing. (The word for witness in the original Greek of the New Testament is martureo, from which our word, martyr comes. Witnesses don't always meet with happy endings here on earth, which may partly explain why we are sometimes hesitant to share our faith with others. I'm not throwing stones; I'm as hesitant as the next person.)
As Brian Stoffregen points out, Jesus Himself is a sign of a sort in John's Gospel. Here, He's called "the Word," a message from God pointing us to salvation and new life.
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