Sixth Sunday after Epiphany – Year C

Sermon Notes from the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People

RCL Readings – Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; I Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26

ACNA Readings – Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; I Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26

Seasonal Introduction.  Following the Christmas season, Christians around the world celebrate Epiphany. While the story of a Jewish baby born in his ancestral home may be interesting it would hardly be remarkable, let alone world-changing. But Christmas isn’t only about a human baby boy, it is about God coming to dwell among men as a man. During the season of Epiphany, we look at how God revealed Himself, starting with the pagan magi and ending with Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain. 

Common Theme. In each of the readings, there is a comparison between those who trust in God and those who do not trust in God. On the one side is life and even happiness and on the other side is death and futility. The problem is, we so often choose to trust in something someone or something other than God.

Hebraic Context. From Psalm 1 to the Sermon on the Plain (and the Sermon on the Mount) there is an understanding that the humble person who trusts in God will be blessed. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” But there are several words in the Scriptures that have an aspect of “blessing”. The strongest is ברך (barak, bless or ευλογει eulogei in the Greek) “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” This kind of blessing is usually accompanied by promises and actions that will, indeed, bless the one you are blessing. The word for blessing, or blessed, that we will see so often in our texts—from Jeremiah 17, Psalm 1, and Luke 6—is אשרי (ashrei, happy) or, as it’s translated into Greek and used in Luke, μακαριος (makarios, happy).

Happy, in many of our minds, is quite different from blessed, so it might surprise us when we hear in Job 5:17, “Happy is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.” It may be true that we are blessed when God reproves us—He is drawing us back to Him—but does it make us feel happy? Do we feel happy when people hate us, exclude us, and declare that we are evil?

If we understand happiness to simply be an emotion, the answer is likely, “No!” But Hebrew is quite unlike English, Korean, or Arabic in that it doesn’t have the vast vocabulary available to it that many other languages have. In English, one may be happy, or blessed, or joyful, or full of glee, we might be delighted or jubilant (and that list can go on). But in Hebrew a single word isn’t stuck with a single, specific meaning because the same root word is used for many ideas. It is packed with meaning based on the word itself, the many words that come out of the root of the word, as well as the cultural, literary, and even historical context. Oftentimes, the first time a word is found in the Bible is always remembered in that context. Love, as spoken of first in Genesis 22, is usually seen in the context of sacrifice. Happiness (אשרי), as first spoken of in Deuteronomy 33, is connected to the tribe of Asher through wordplay (Asher was named because his birth made Leah happy) but then more fully it is forever connected to a people saved by the LORD. And so אשרי (ashrei, happy) is connected to אושר (osher, happiness) but it is also connected to God rather than an emotional state of mind.

The final words of Moses to Israel recorded in Deuteronomy 33:29 starts by stating “Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD.” In Psalm 1 the man is happy because he delights in the law of the LORD. In Jeremiah 17:7, the man is happy because he trusts in the LORD. In Luke 6, the disciples will be happy if they act as the prophets before them had, on account of the Son of Man—in service to Jesus. 

The alternative to trusting in God and His law may seem like it would bring happiness, but it does not. Josephus, a Jewish historian, stated “[the serpent] persuaded the woman, out of malicious intention, to taste of the tree of knowledge, telling them, that in that tree was the knowledge of good and evil; which knowledge, when they should obtain, they would lead a happy life; nay, a life not inferior to that of a god.” We know the end of that hope for a happy life, a life not inferior to that of a god. Relying on anyone other than God does not lead to a happy life but brings death. 

Today, אושר (osher, happiness) includes an idea of being rich, but not in material matters—it’s the idea of being enriched, there is an outpouring of goodness that leads to happiness with the understanding that God is the source of all goodness. To be a happy, blessed, person isn’t a promise of a some-time future in heaven either. We can stand happy in our current situations knowing that we trust in God and any suffering we face should be on account of obedience to God—and that can only be a good thing.

Jeremiah 17:5-10. There is very little to distinguish Jeremiah 17:5-8 from Psalm 1 except the context. While Psalm 1 allows for a somewhat idealized idea of a blessed man by streams of water, Jeremiah uses this idyllic, botanical illustration of a blessed man trusting God in the midst of woe and destruction. Rather than focusing mostly on the blessed man, the placement of Jeremiah’s message highlights the one who is cursed.

The picture is clear for those who have been able to visit the wilderness of Judea and the Dead Sea. The desert will provide no nutrients or water by which a tree, even a shrub, might live long. Trusting in man will have the same result in our lives. To insure His listeners understand that He is talking to them, God (through Jeremiah) states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

The blessed man, of course, trusts in the LORD. But, again, Jeremiah is talking to a people who have put their trust in everything but God—the Temple, Baal, their leader, and even Egypt. There is a tree that Jeremiah has already spoken of that provides fruit, whose leaves remain green in both the heat and cold of Israel. It is the olive tree. God called Judah and Jerusalem “a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.” He also declared that He would consume the tree’s branches with a great tempest of fire. In both Jeremiah 11 and Jeremiah 17, not only is there an ever green leafed tree but God declares that “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind” and so the link is clear. 

What is interesting about the olive tree is that it is almost impossible to destroy. If you burn an olive tree it will regrow. If you cut down an olive tree it will regrow. If anything at all of the olive tree is left, it will regrow. The olive tree endures and it is faithful. The olive branch, as seen in the story of Noah, represents God’s covenantal faithfulness in remembering Noah and those on the ark. Even if the tree goes through a refining fire, there is always life and hope and faith.

Jeremiah is preaching to Judah and Jerusalem and they are like that little shrub, dying by the wilderness of the Dead Sea. But God planted them as an olive tree, perhaps burnt by fiery judgment, and Jeremiah is always clear that they can (and should) turn back and trust in the LORD.

Psalm 1. In Jeremiah 17, God declares that the man who is blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD. Psalm 1 says that the man who is blessed is the one who delights in the law (torah) of the LORD. Why not simply delight in the LORD? The law, even of God, is often mocked and denigrated by the world. But, unfortunately, it seems like many Christians also denigrate it. First, they devalue it by their words and then, because they don’t understand its importance, devalue it by their actions. 

This may come from the translation of torah as “law” combined with John 1:17 which has been translated “For the Law was given through Moses; but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The conjunction “but” sets Jesus and grace in opposition to Moses and the law. However, a literal translation shows that there is no conjunction in the text. Instead, this verse is a culmination of a passage exalting God’s boundless grace towards us—first with his instruction; then fully in His Son. “From the fullness of his grace we have received grace upon grace. For the Torah was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

In these two passages, Jeremiah 17 and Psalm 1, there is a parallel between the torah of the LORD and the LORD Himself. Torah is not God. But it is the guidance of a good God that wants us to trust Him, live according to His guidance, and live. Rabbi Simlai noted that Moses gave 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands (with several hundred more in the New Testament). David reduced them to eleven commands in Psalm 15; Isaiah made them six (33:14-15); Micah bound them into three (6:8); Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbour as yourself. The law and prophets hang on these commandments – this is the instruction of God.

Psalm 1:1 states that whether we are walking, standing, or sitting we should turn from evil even as Psalm 1:2 states that we should meditate on the torah of the LORD both day and night. Once more, we see the Psalmist borrowing from the Sh’ma where, whether we are sitting, walking, or lying down we should meditate on the command of God and teach it to our children, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” 

In obedience there is prosperity. The man can be happy in following the God who is faithful and “knows the way of the righteous”. We’ve been burnt too many times by the prosperity gospel and we also know that we cannot earn our way to God through our own works—these are both heresy and a shallow understanding of the faith. But we still should understand that there is a Biblical perspective that physical blessing is tied to obedience. We should not strip away the physical and material blessings of the here and now because there is something greater in the future. God gave us the Torah that we might love Him and live. Surely if we do love Him as He instructs us then that will lead us to being more blessed, more happy—even on this material world.

I Corinthians 15:12-20.  In the Mishnah there is an argument that Paul may have been familiar with as the divide between the Pharisees and Sanhedrin accelerated. Sanhedrin 10.1 says that there are a few people who will have no part in the World-to-Come. Primary among them are those who say the Torah does not teach that there is a resurrection of the dead. It goes on to say that Epicureans will also have no place in the World-to-Come. Paul, in I Corinthians 15, first makes a statement of fact in the first 11 verses followed by very thorough logical and philosophical arguments. If there is no resurrection from the dead, not even the Messiah, why live as a people who are hated, excluded, reviled, and spurned as evil when you can be an epicurean—revelling in a luxurious life in this world? That would truly be pitiful.

If the resurrection of Jesus did not occur there should be no Christianity as the apostles and prophets would all be liars and not to be trusted. But Jesus’ resurrection was not only factual, with hundreds of witnesses, but effective. God didn’t simply raise Jesus from the dead because a mistake had been made and suddenly the Son was dead and, “oops, that wasn’t supposed to happen, I’d better bring Him back.” If the resurrection had not occurred, we “are still in [our] sins”. The reverse must also be true, the resurrection means that we can be redeemed from our sins.

If the prophets and apostles spoke the truth about God, then living as an epicurean will not bring happiness. Righteousness, faithfulness, and obedience to the God of life brings life and with it a tangible happiness. But if we ignore what God has done and trust in man or in riches it will only bring death and destruction. There are both long-term ramifications as well as physical ramifications in the here and now. And Jesus is raised from the dead so we have a hope that is eternal as we too will be raised from the dead.

Luke 6:17-26. Matthew 5-7 is the famous sermon on the mount while Luke 6 is both shorter and seems to be more oriented to the present, material world than Matthew’s record of Jesus’ teaching. The subtle differences have led some to question the source material of Matthew and Luke or even the validity of a Bible if the writers can’t agree on the words of Jesus. However, Luke 6:17 starts by reminding the reader of Jesus’ popularity as an itinerant preacher. 

People from as far away as Jerusalem and Sidon came to hear Jesus and be healed by Him. They aren’t all going to arrive on the same day or even the same month. Many may have returned to their homes and told their friends and families to go listen to this authoritative preacher and healer from Galilee. As such, it should not be a surprise that Jesus would teach the same sermons on many occasions. Jesus’ message may have been similar, but not always precisely the same, as a different crowd gathered around Him each time and even the language He taught in may have changed from Hebrew to Aramaic to Greek depending on the make-up of the crowd.

In the Sermon on the Plain (to distinguish it from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount), the beatitudes are not spiritualized. While Matthew says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” Luke simply says, “Blessed are you who are poor”. Rather than “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” Luke records Jesus as preaching “Blessed are you who are hungry now.” Rather than trying to figure out which author had the better source material (and so was more true to Jesus’ teaching) perhaps we should assume that Jesus, like God, cared about people both spiritually and physically.

Jesus compares the people He is talking with to the Biblical prophets: I and II Kings speak of prophets who were physically hungry; Jeremiah is named the weeping prophet; while some of the prophets came from wealthy families, many became poor; and they were certainly reviled in their time. But God brings comfort to those who are physically in need; God redeems people not just for the world-to-come but for today even as He redeems people today for the world-to-come. 

Tractate Bava Batra 11a gives an illustration of a king whose ancestors had gathered great riches. King Munbaz decided to feed the poor and give justice to the needy. When confronted with his expenditure of money, he reminded his advisors that his ancestors “stored up something that does not generate profit” as the money simply sat in the treasury. But King Munbaz, as he helped people in this present world, was “storing up something that generates profit… I am storing up treasures of souls”. Matthew and Luke present slightly different beatitudes, but both the spiritual and the physical are important to God. The church should be the first to follow God’s gracious mercy to the poor, the hungry, and those who mourn as we follow His example.

Luke also highlights those who will not be happy, like King Munbaz’ ancestors who simply stored up gold in a treasury. “Woe to you who are rich”. They are only physically rich, not spiritually rich. As pointed out in the readings from Jeremiah 17 and Psalm 1, trusting in God rather than man should make us happy (or blessed). But Jesus told His disciples, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Trusting in anything but God will lead to a life that is very deceptive. We may think we have life and so we don’t seek life, but without the goodness of God there is no life, no happiness.

Hebraic Perspective. God tells Israel, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” He continues by telling them to “choose life.” How do they do that? Obviously, by “loving the LORD your God.” But it is also by “obeying His voice and holding fast to Him.” All of Scripture points towards God being a God of life. He extends His life to those who trust in Him and delight in His torah. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” 

I Corinthians 15 makes it clear that the life we have, if it is only on earth, is to be pitied. We may as well eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Instead, we are so often pitied or even hated because we choose to believe that it is better to live a life of obedience and subjection to God than a life of temporal delights (assuming that is our choice).

But we should not pity ourselves. By turning to God we live—death only comes from turning away from God. So what can we do if the world hates us? Rejoice. What happens when we trust in God and His torah? We can be happy. This life we have isn’t the end, there is a resurrection and eternal life, but it is still a life we can live with God—a life that God declares to be happy. Sadly, so often we instead choose to trust in something that does not give life.

Endnotes

1. The Hebrew language is largely based on a root word, generally consisting of three consonants, upon which nouns, verbs, adjectives, gerunds can evolve. For instance, א∙ש∙ר can become אושר (osher, happiness), אשרי (ashrei, blessed or happy), מאושר (meushar, fortunate), or אשור (ishur, approval or confirmation).
2.  Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.42
3. Jeremiah 11:16-17
4. Makkot 23b.18-24a.26
5. We should be aware that there are leaders in the Church that do not believe in the factual, bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Either they are heretical or even antichrists or there should be no church as there is no reason for it to exist.
6. While scholars in the 19th-20th centuries continuously argued that Aramaic was the common spoken language of 1st century Judea, this hypothesis has been repeated without much actual evidence as almost factual due to various biases. Luke was specifically pointed out as having many Semitic phrases, although most of them are actually closer to Hebrew phrases than Aramaic—which, given the assumptions of scholars, was confusing to them. Mark, on the other hand, clearly does possess a number of Aramaisms. Meanwhile, Ephrem of Syria (an early Church father) believed Matthew to have been written originally in Hebrew. Today, a lot of study is showing that Hebrew was likely the more commonly used language among the Jewish people in Israel in the 1st Century. The vast majority of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Hebrew, although some were found written in Aramaic, Greek, and even Arabic and Latin. For more information on the languages of 1st Century Israel, see R. Steven Notley, Randall Buth, The Language Environment of First Century Judaea: Jerusalem Studies in the Synoptic Gospels, Volume Two
7. Deuteronomy 30:15-20