John 18:28-40 (John 18:33-37)

This passage occurs in the Narrative Lectionary Year 4 Lenten Cycle.  A portion of this passage, John 18:33-37, appears in the Revised Common Lectionary for Christ the King Sunday.
 
Summary:  Pilate's character in the Gospel of John is complex.  It seems that John wants to drive home the point that not even Pilate is in control of the situation, but only Jesus.  In John's Gospel, Jesus is never the one on trial; humanity is.  Pilate's interview haunts us with the question:  What is truth?  The answer is obviously Jesus, but what does that mean?  And yes, our answer should be slightly offensive.  It got Jesus killed; it should at least get us in a little trouble.

Note for Christ the King Sunday:  This is definitely a passage in which I would include vs 38 - "What is truth?"

μαρτυρεω ("testify", literally martyr, vs 18:37)  This word means to give a witness, like in court.  Jesus takes his place as the first Christian martyr, one who will be killed for the truth.  So many Christians died giving their witness that the word's meaning changed.

βασιλευς ("king", vs. 18:33,37)  BDAG define this as "One who rules as possessor of the highest office in a political realm."  Already this shows Pilate considers the whole trial as a sham.  Could Pilate really execute the king of the Jews?   Obviously not.

ἠγωνίζοντο ("struggle" or "fight", from ἀγωνίζομαι, vs 36)  Jesus says that his followers would be constantly fighting (ἠγωνίζοντο) if his kingdom were of this world.

• This brings into focus "Christ the King" Sunday.  What does it mean for Jesus to be king?!  Always a question.  Many shy away from "Christ the King" Sunday because of its patriarchal overtones.  Added to the church calendar in the 1920s, the Pope who installed it observed the many divisions and wanna-be kings.  The Pope chose to lean into this framework and then undermine it be claiming Christ to be the true King.  To that point, Jesus does not reject his kingship, he rejects Pilate's expectations that this brings with it violence.  As Americans, we continue to hear and perhaps fear that our 2020s mirrors the 1920s in Germany, in which a (pseudo-)Christian nationalism arose.  These verses open up a natural preaching door to reflecting on how (again and again) Christians reject the path of suffering and embrace the path of violence to achieve their ends.  So - do you walk away from the image of Christ the King or live into it?
• The word literally means "agony."  "If my kingdom were of this world, my followers would be agonizing."  Are we as followers of Jesus not expected to have any agony?  It seems that our life will have agony as we embrace the way of the cross...

κοσμος ("world", literally cosmos, vs 18:37)  Just a reminder:  God loves the world, but the world doesn't love back:

• It doesn't understand God (1:10)
• It doesn't give like God (14:27)
• In fact, it hates God (7:7). 

Yet God loves it still.

αληθεια ("truth", vs 18:37,38)  BDAG writes, "truth is a favorite word of the Johannine literature."  Certainly is a core concept:

• John 1:17  The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus
• John 17:17 God's word is truth
• John 14:6 Jesus is the truth
• John 16:13 Spirit leads to truth
• John 8:32 Truth sets on free

Βαραββας ("Barabbas", vs. 40)  This word literally means "Son of the Father."  Quite an irony that "Son of the father" is chosen and its not Jesus!  This also picks up on the irony that the Jewish leaders are concerned about ritual purity as they hand Jesus over to death (18:28)

ληστης ("thief", vs. 40)  The word means robber or "brigand" (a lovely word, right!).  But Josephus, a Jewish historian writing during this time, always uses this word to mean social bandit/revolutionary.  It clearly can mean this too.  If you totally cannot focus on your sermon, you can read about what Josephus says about Jesus here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

Mark 13:1-8

This passage occurs in the Narrative Lectionary, along with Mark 13:24-37.
This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, year B (Most recently: Nov 2024)

Summary:  If I had to preach this text, I would prefer to preach on vs. 13:9-11, which talks about the Spirit's work in and through the church between the first and second coming of Jesus.  But hey, if 1-8 is what you have got, the Greek can still open up some fruitful preaching doors: First, what is the foundation of your life?  And second, what is the destiny of life?

Two key insights:

λιθος ("stone", 13:1,2)
The NRSV translates the second half of verse 13:2 like almost every other translation:
"Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."   However, the text literally reads:
"A stone here will never be permitted upon a stone, which will never be destroyed."

The NRSV translators take this to mean that every stone of this building will be destroyed.  I think it means this, but I also think we can take Jesus a bit more literally at his words:  These stones cannot be laid on the eternal rock, who is him. 

You might say I am digging here, but consider Mark 12:10 -- Jesus refers to himself as the rejected stone which has become the cornerstone.  Jesus builds on this earlier statement and says these stones no longer mean anything in light of him, who is the true and eternal temple.

The basic point, regardless of translation, is that in light of Jesus, the true temple and rock, this temple and rocks are unimportant, finally heretical.  I just think we can safely add that Mark allows Jesus to refer to himself, subtly, as an eternal rock.  Regardless, it brings us to the real helpful preaching point:  What is the foundation in your life?  For 1st century Jews, the temple would have been a foundation piece of their life, a center of mystery and meaning.  Jesus says, this doesn't really matter, he does.  Rather than critique first century Jews, we should ask ourselves:  What idols -- even of our building spaces -- have we built for ourselves?

In fact, the disciples do not use an adjectives to describe the stones, although almost all of the translators use the words "large" or even "magnificent."  The disciples use the word ποταπαι (13.1), which is a question word meaning:  What kind of?  or "Where are they from?"  In short, they ask Jesus a deeper question -- what kind of temple is this in front of us?  It is one made of human hands!

τελος ("end", 13:7)
The NIV translates the second half of verse 7 like almost every other translation
"Such things must happen, but the end is still to come."

The question is, how do we interpret τελος, here translated "end."  It can mean "fulfillment", "destiny", "aim", or even "perfection."  In fact, the translators use "fulfill" when translating συντελεω in verse 4 (the prefix συν- does not significantly change the meaning of the word here).

All too often when we think about the end times we think about...the end...instead of the fulfillment of all God intended for us.  It is too bad this week we do not have the Micah 5 lesson.  How much might our collective imaginations be stirred if we instead thought of them as "fulfillment days."  What must happen for God to fulfill all of God's promises?  What does the fulfillment look like?  In fact, the word Jesus uses to summarize all of this is "ωδιν(ων)" meaning birth pangs.  It is the birth of something new!

A few other notes:
13:2 Jesus twice uses the emphatic "no" construction in Greek "ou mh" ου μη (ie never ain't gonna happen).  This strong negative reinforces my previous argument that the old temple will not rest on the new temple, Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus says anyway, but the actual Greek reveals this in a subtle way.

13:1 The word for "building" here is "oikodomeh" οικοδομαι which can mean structure, but also edification or up-buidling. For example, Romans 14:19, "Let us pursue what leads to peace and the UPBUILDING of one another."

13:3 The phrase here in Greek to describe the disciples is "kata idian," translated "privately" (lit: according to their own).  κατά ιδιαν  This is used throughout the Gospel of Mark; this is the last time anything will be said privately though.  

- Private time with Jesus is necessary for public witness about Jesus

- It is more comfortable to be the church in private than in public!!

Mark 12:38-44

This passage is found in the Revised Common Lectionary Year B (Most recently Nov 10, 2024)

Summary:  This is a case where the Greek does not alter the meaning, but simply forces us to slow down and examine Jesus' familiar words.  Jesus offers a strident critique of an overly consuming, self-aggrandizing and elitist clergy.  Yikes.  More generally, I think Jesus makes a comment on how all of us consume and how we give.

βλεπω (12:38; "see")  The word here for "watch out" is simply the Greek 101 for see; Jesus will tell his followers to "watch out" five times in this section (12:38, 13:5; 9; 23; 33).

γραμματευς (12:38; "scribes") This word has an obvious English cognate:  "Grammar."  The question for us today is, whom do we need to watch out for -- who are the grammarians today?  I struggle with this question a bit more personally -- how do I become a grammarian, who says "no" to the working of the Lord, either in my congregation or in my denomination?  How do I NOT become someone whom Jesus warns against.  The further description of Jesus' critique includes:

they wear στολη (12:38, "stole" or "robe")
and sit in the 
προτοκαθεδρια (12:39, "first seat").  Ouch. 

κατεσθιω (12:40, "devour")  As you guessed, the Bible uses this word in an entirely negative fashion.  It also comes up in the prodigal son, where the son has consumed the father's property (literally, βιος, used also in this passage in vs. 44).  One can read this passage as a narrow critique of 1st century Jewish leadership, more broadly of religious leaders over time, or most broadly, against all over-consumption.  In what ways does our whole culture "devour widows houses while praying long prayers."  A prophetic voice is helpful and perhaps here, but how can this be done so that its not simply an attack on others (or in an election year, people who voted differently), but a call for all of us to repent?

βιος  (12:44, "life"  The woman gives "the whole of her life" The word life here is "bios." So the sermon is not about stewardship of money, but stewardship of everything.  

περισσεύοντος vs ὑστερήσεως ("abundance" and "poverty" 12:44)  Generally the word for "abundance" does not refer to monetary surplus, but all sorts of abundance.  The word poverty (and its lexical sibling), however, generally focuses on a lack of material resources.  The idea of spiritual poverty shows up in lots of other ways in Scripture though, it just doesn't use this particular word.  Nothing too scientific here, just an observation that the Bible is willing to acknowledge both abundance and poverty in material and non-material terms.  This particular passage shows their mis-alignment.  How do you (and your flock) see these in alignment?

Grammar note:  Here we have a substantive participle "the ones who devour" followed by a participle "praying."  There are a couple of ways these two participles (devouring and praying) could be related.  I think the best way to translate the participle "praying" is as a circumstantial participle:  "the ones who devour widows houses while praying long prayers."  Ouch!  They pray while they sin.