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11/26/06 Near the to the Kingdom (Rev. Russell Rathbun)
Scripture Reading - Mark 12: 28-44
Mark 12: 28-44
The dialectic fails to find a synthesis.
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. No that does not happen in the
logical equations of the kingdom of god. It is, this and then its
opposite and then some how the kingdom’s equations resolves with no
resolution—it resolves with both thesis and antithesis present but
neither being themselves quit fully—both being present, butting up
against each other, maybe even becoming intertwined—maybe not
intertwined—maybe entangled is better—bother present, entangled
knocking into each other but never synthesizing.
This is my body, take, eat.
Jesus had been debating the law with the
scribes. One scribe listening in was very impressed. He
liked the way Jesus was answering, so he entered in. He asked
Jesus a question, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus
answers, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the lord is one; you
shall love the Lord your god with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second
is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no
other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe likes this answer, agrees with this
answer and goes on to expound on this answer. It is not that
Jesus has given him a new, commandment, said something that had never
been said before—Jesus’ answer is not original to him—the scribe is not
impressed because the answer is unique, but because it is right.
It is most likely the most common answer.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the lord is
one; you shall love the Lord your god with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
Jesus is reciting the Shema, the most central of all Jewish
prayers. Every male was required to pray this prayer twice a
day. It is the preface to and contains the first of the ten
commandments that God gave Moses. It is a statement of
faith—about who god is and what our relationship to god should
be. The Lord our God is One. It is a statement of
monotheism. There is one god. God is one. God is
all. God is everything. God is OUR God.
You shall love the Lord your god with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all
your strength.—and we are God’s, fully and completely. Every
thing we are and have belong to god. This is how we are to love
our god—with everything we have and are.
Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.
Jesus then combines that with a central statement of
Jewish ethics—You shall love your neighbor as yourself. It is
found in Leviticus, but is also restated by many of the ancient rabbi’s
as the rule that precedes all Jewish ethical law.
Jesus shows himself to be a good scribe (a
interpreter and teacher of the law) and a good rabbi with his
answer.
The scribe says to Jesus, “You are right, teacher;
you have said the truth, he is one, and besides him there is no other
and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and
with all the strength and to love ones neighbor as oneself—this is much
more important that all offerings and sacrifices.”
Jesus responds to the scribes, response by saying to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Jesus sees that not only does this scribe understand
the primacy of these two commandments, which as a said earlier, most
scribes would have, but he relates them to the temple sacrificial
system. The system that Jesus has been condemning through out the
book of Mark most pointedly in the previous chapter when Jesus cleared
the temple it of all the money changers and the sacrifice workers and
shut down the whole system. Jesus has been teaching repeatedly
the temple system of sacrifice and offering was not the system of the
Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is a non-system, where
forgiveness and redemption, Love of God and obedience are
un-systematizable.
Jesus is saying something remarkable, this scribe
understands what his disciples do not; this scribe is a close as anyone
has come to understanding what Jesus is teaching about the Kingdom of
God and the systems of the world.
Now the funny or interesting or ironic (if one can
still use the word) is that this conversation is taking place in the
temple. Obviously, Jesus’ rampage and impassioned teaching has
not had a lasting effect. The temple is back up and running, the
system is back in place.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.
Jesus then goes on to tell all those gathered around
him in the temple, including, I presume the scribes he has been
debating with, about the bankruptcy of those who run the system and
benefit from it, saying, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk
around in long robes, and like to be greeted with respect in the
marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places
of honor at the banquets!
Jesus is referring to the practice of requiring the
widows to make offerings at the temple in spite of the fact that it was
the obligation of the religious leaders to care for the widows from the
temple treasury. These scribes his is talking about, I assume
including some of those in front of him, are benefiting from the most
impoverished of the community. This system enriches the powerful
and keeps makes the poor poorer.
Jesus then sits down opposite the treasury box,
there are thirteen at various places inside the temple complex, and
watches people putting money in the treasury box. The text says,
“Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in
two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he says to
his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more
that all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them
have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has
put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Jesus sits down and watches people making their
offerings to the temple treasury—and he almost seems wistful, he says
to his disciples, pointing out the widow, now look at that isn’t that
beautiful, what that widow is doing. Giving everything she has,
everything she has to live on—like now she has nothing to live on, gave
it all to the bankrupt temple system which oppresses the people and
contradicts the kingdom of god—isn’t that beautiful?
Why does Jesus let her do it, let alone admire
it? Why is he even in the temple acting like he didn’t yell and
scream and smash everything up the last time he was there? This widow
is participating in the system that he condemns. This system that
is Anti—anti the kingdom of god—And what will that money be used
for? Not just her small amount, that is all she had to live on,
but the large amounts that the rich folk gave? It will go to
continue to support the system and enrich the religious leaders.
Why doesn’t he stop her? Why doesn’t he stop them all? Why
doesn’t he start smashing again? Is it because of the way she has
given? Because she gave everything to God like the greatest of all
commandments said to? Is she loving god with all everything she
had? Or has she just eternalized her oppression? Jesus knows she
is not giving the money to god—she is giving it to the system. Is
it ok or even beautiful to participate in the system if you are
motivated by the love of god? If you are mistaken in your
understanding of what you are doing? Or is she somehow subverting
the system by obeying it?
The dialectic fails to find a synthesis.
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. No that does not happen in the
logical equations of the kingdom of god. It is, this and then its
opposite and then some how the kingdom’s equations resolves with no
resolution—it resolves with both thesis and antithesis present but
neither being themselves quit fully—both being present, butting up
against each other, maybe even becoming intertwined—maybe not
intertwined—maybe entangled is better—bother present, entangled
knocking into each other but never synthesizing.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.
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