Proper 19 – Year C
Sermon Notes from the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People
RCL Readings[1] – Exodus 32:7-14; Psalm 51:1-10; I Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10
ACNA Readings – Exodus 32:1, 7-14; Psalm 51:1-17; I Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10
Seasonal Introduction. This season is often called “Ordinary Time,” a term derived from ordinal, meaning “numbered” or “in sequence.” However, there is nothing ordinary about this time. Rather, it is a time when we may reflect on how God (starting on Trinity Sunday and ending with Christ the King Sunday) has been at work in our own lives, the lives of his people, and how he will continue to work in the days to come. Ordinary Time is a season when we are invited to perceive the mystery of God at work in our daily lives, in the ordinary, in the mundane.
Common Theme. God seeks those who did nothing, or worse than nothing—God seeks those who sinners. But He still desires repentance and faithfulness.
Hebraic Context. In the ancient world, monuments and inscriptions were created to record the achievements of rulers. Occasionally, a successor who disapproved of a predecessor would erase their name or deeds from these monuments, effectively blotting out their legacy. Administrative texts from Egypt and Mesopotamia are also some of the earliest texts we have, including records of justice and judgment, dating from as early as 3,300-3,000 BC onward.
The Scriptures refer to records that God keeps regarding human actions—the transgressions of the wicked and the names of the righteous. The idea of God keeping books leads to more questions than answers.[2] The books written about in Scripture were not understood as metaphorical by early scholars but as literal books in which names are taken down. In fact, Passages such as Psalm 69:28 were taken so literally that their poetic parallelism[3] became a cornerstone for the idea of a third book. This book was thought to record those neither righteous nor damned, who were believed to be condemned for a short time of purgatory in Gehenna before their final judgment.[4] This is largely speculative, but the lack of information about these books and the reason for their existence raises an important question: why would God need books at all?
These books are written about throughout Scripture, from Exodus through Revelation.[5] Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”[6] When Scripture says that God “remembers” or “forgets,” it is not suggesting He cannot recall information—it signals that God is about to act.[7] The same appears to be true of the books. When God opens a book, writes down a name, or blots one out, it is not the work of a divine clerk simply tallying who is good and who is bad. It is the action of a living God, dynamically engaged with His people.
Exodus 32:7-14. God struck Egypt ten times. The plagues were not random; they struck at Egypt’s supposed sources of power. The Nile, the lifeblood of Egypt, simply became blood. None of the gods of Egypt could stand against the God of Abraham. And the king of Egypt, commonly depicted as standing above his prisoners of war with the power to choose life or death over them, was faced with his own choice—one leading to life and the other to death. Additionally, God went before and behind the Israelites in a pillar of cloud and fire. Nevertheless, the people of Israel asked for a god to lead them.[8]
The Israelites wanted to worship the gods that brought them out of the land of Egypt. A complication is that, in Hebrew, the word gods is elohim—Elohim being the most common name for the Lord in Hebrew. This raises the question of whom the Israelites wanted to worship. The Egyptian gods were often depicted as part human and part animal. Did the Israelites want a god like the ones they knew in Egypt? They didn’t ask for Hathor or another god; indeed, Aaron announced a feast to the LORD for the following day. Even if they intended only a representation of God, their worship was inappropriate.[9]
God is to be feared. God is love. God is forgiving and full of grace, yet He is still to be feared—He is still to be obeyed. God saved the people from Egypt and led them to Mount Sinai, where He called them His own. And now the people depicted Him as a mere creature. Later, Balaam described the God of Israel in relation to a similar creature, “The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.” Israel not only made idols at Mount Sinai, they continued to make images for worship—some even presented as the LORD.[10]
And so, in one matter, God and Israel agreed as they declared that it was Moses who brought Israel out of Egypt: “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.”[11] God quotes the Israelites a second time regarding the calves they had made and worshiped with sacrifices, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” As such, God would no longer be their God.
God is a consuming fire. He has never hidden the consequences of sin.[12] The consequence of Israel’s actions at Mount Sinai was that God would consume them and start over with Moses. But God also makes His desire for repentance and resulting forgiveness plain.
Moses, like Abraham before him, interceded on behalf of the target of God’s wrath. His prayer is not long-winded but direct and to the point. Moses asks the Lord to remember His covenant. It’s not that God forgot His promises to Abraham, as that would be impossible. Rather “remembering” in the biblical sense means putting things into action. When “the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help, their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” And so He acted—saving them.
God brought Israel out of Egypt in part because of the promises He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would be numerous and inherit the land of Canaan. Above all, He brought Israel out of Egypt to be His people and He their God. Moses speaks of Israel as God’s people—the ones He saved with great power.
Moses’ intercession was effective. God relented from destroying the people of Israel, showing them repeated mercy. Yet as they continued to turn away, that generation would eventually be consumed by the wilderness, and their children inherited the land of Canaan. Strikingly, through one man’s intercession and God’s promise the people were delivered from disaster—Israel did nothing to deserve this grace, not even realizing how close they were to death. Even so, about three thousand died for their sin.
Psalm 51:1-10.[13] Psalm 51 provides a clear context for David's cry of repentance: “To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”[14] David was publicly confronted with his sin and could have responded with anger, fear, remorse, or true repentance. In this prayer, David does not ask for understanding, nor does he offer an excuse or attempt to contextualize his sinful actions.[15] Instead, he makes a humble request for mercy.[16]
“I know my transgressions” acknowledges that David has indeed sinned and that he bears responsibility. “Blot out my transgressions” proclaims both his need and his desire for those sins to be erased.[17] David asks to be purged with hyssop. David’s mention of hyssop recalls God’s provision of life just prior to the Exodus. Each household was to place the blood of a lamb on the doorpost and lintel of their house with hyssop; only then would the angel of death pass over them. But there is, perhaps, a more pertinent passage.
Leviticus 14:1-32 describes a person with a skin disease who must live outside of the congregation of Israel. Once healed, the person may call a priest to examine the diseased area to confirm the healing.[18] Over the course of eight days, the priest examines the person and offerings are made to God. Hyssop is used in the cleansing process and only then can the man return to the congregation of Israel. Similarly, Numbers 19:14-22 prescribes the use of hyssop to cleanse those who are unclean. If they fail to do so, “that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD.”
In turning away from sin, David seeks more than forgiveness; he longs for a restored relationship with God. He asks God to “restore to me the joy of Your salvation” and pleads that God not remove His Holy Spirit from him.[19]
In return, David commits himself to taking part in the journey of restoration. How? He vows to teach other sinners the ways of God—His judgment, mercy, kindness, and willingness to forgive—while praising God and continuing to come before Him with a broken spirit and a contrite heart. David’s sin was made public, and so too is his restoration. His prayer of contrition has been used in liturgies of repentance by both Jewish people and Christians for millennia, as we cry out for mercy with our own broken and contrite hearts.
I Timothy 1:12-17. Paul gives us an example of sin and mercy—and how useful the law of God is. The law is “for the ungodly and sinners… for murderers.” He proceeds by speaking of his own past. Paul was the foremost of sinners—his feet ran to evil and were “swift to shed innocent blood.”[20] But sandwiched between his words about the law given for sinners and his confession of his own sin, Paul gives thanks to Jesus, who judged him faithful.
Paul was appointed to the service of God while he was still on the road to persecute Jesus and the Church.[21] Paul did nothing to be called faithful. He was not even a good disciple of Gamaliel. He purposely chose to ignore his teacher’s advice while trying to overthrow what God had begun.[22]
Paul does not complain that he was shown mercy in order to display the grace of Jesus—His perfect patience to any who might believe in Him. Instead, Paul can only give thanks and praise. Honor and glory are not ours to grasp—they belong only to God.
Paul’s introduction of the law as good, but given for sinners, together with his own sinful history intertwined with the mercy and faithfulness of God, is itself sandwiched between his charge to Timothy. Jesus may have sought the sinner and given mercy, but we are still called to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” with a pure heart and sincere faith.
Luke 15:1-10. Although Jesus taught that following Him would be difficult, the crowds traveling to Jerusalem still drew near to listen. Luke does not record Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem in strict chronological order. There is little to indicate whether Jesus was in a place like Jericho, where tax collectors, hellenists, and corrupt priests were known to reside, or whether He was traveling to Jerusalem with “tax collectors and sinners” who were making their own pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship God. What Luke does record is that Jesus seems to have welcomed them and eaten with them.
Ritual purity and food consumption became more important during times of foreign rule and exile. Daniel 1:8 states, “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.” This wasn’t simply because the Jewish people refused to eat with Gentiles. Rather, meat and wine were commonly offered to the gods before being consumed by the population.[23] Under the Seleucids, the choice between eating meat offered to foreign gods (along with non-kosher meat, such as pork) and refusing to eat such meat became a matter of life and death.[24] The Roman empire did not place the death penalty for refusing meat offered to idols, but it would have been very difficult to acquire meat that wasn’t offered to idols in many parts of the empire.
Although ritual purity was not necessarily a matter of right, wrong, or sin, no Israelite (or foreigner) was permitted to celebrate the Passover while ritually impure.[25] During the trial of Jesus, John 18:28 states, “They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.” But only the Qumran community constantly kept strict segregation from other Jewish communities.
Nonetheless, the cultural and political struggles within Judaism as many turned away from God to Hellenism (and even to become tax collectors for an oppressor) may have influenced some of the Pharisees and scribes—who normally taught that God desires repentance (teshuvah)—to neglect their own teaching. With the study of Scripture becoming more popular, the ideal of Second Temple Judaism was not strict segregation but teshuvah (תשובה, repentance and a return to God). The Pharisees didn’t need to be taught anything new here but they did need to be reminded that God welcomes the repentant sinner with open arms. And so Jesus gave them a parable.
The parable includes three stories, but Luke presents them as a single parable.[26] At first, the parable is about someone searching for that which was lost. Jesus and His disciples were questioned about His association with sinners several times. Jesus’ response was consistent, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”[27] The idea of a good shepherd searching for a wandering sheep comes directly out of the history of Israel.[28]
Exodus 3:1 states that “Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” Moses, famously, grew up as a prince of Egypt. He did not experience slavery as the rest of the Hebrews did. He was also a murderer. Why was he chosen? And why did it take forty years in exile before God called him?
A midrash developed about Moses’ compassion as a good shepherd. In it, God tested whether Moses would be able to lead Israel. While in the wilderness, a young lamb fled from the flock and wandered away. Moses left the flock behind, pursuing the one young lamb. When Moses found it, he let the lamb drink from a pool of water and then carried the lamb back to the flock. The midrash continues: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said: ‘You have the compassion to behave with the flocks belonging to flesh and blood in this manner; by your life, you will herd My flock, Israel.’”[29]
In Jesus’ parable, the man sought the lost sheep, found it, and carried it home.[30] The sheep did nothing but run away. And yet, when it is brought home by the shepherd, he calls his friends together to rejoice. And then Jesus enigmatically states, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” There is no indication that the sheep repented or came to the shepherd, only that the shepherd searched for and found the sheep.
Likewise, the woman simply lost a coin—it couldn’t grow legs and run away. But, after diligently seeking for the coin, she found it and called her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her. Once more, Jesus spoke of repentance, even though the coin took no actions whatsoever.
As with the sheep and the coin, the lost will never be found on their own. Without the hard work of the shepherd or the woman who searched her home, the lost will be doomed. The sheep and the coin contribute nothing to their being found in the story. Later, Jesus will declare, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Only in the concluding portion of Jesus’ parable, Luke 15:11-32, does he introduce actual repentance. And yet, Jesus concludes each segment with the need for repentance.
Taken as a whole, the parable presents a classic Hebraic paradox. On the one hand, Jesus came to seek and to save. On the other hand, sinners are expected to repent. And all of heaven and earth should rejoice when those who are lost turn back to God.
The Pharisees and scribes knew the importance of repentance and forgiveness. Second Temple literature spoke at some length about it as they read the prophets and came out of exile. As the Pharisees and scribes asked before, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”[31] They should have known the answer. They often preached repentance and encouraged the population to turn to God. But their theology was overshadowed by contemporary politics, anger, jealousy, and segregation. Jesus left them with a final statement, “You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”
Hebraic Perspective. Confession and repentance are powerful recurring themes in both Jewish and Christian theology. Confession is often diminished in comparison to repentance, but Psalm 32:5 says, “‘I acknowledged my sin to You… I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Knowledge (ידע, yada) and confession (ידה, yadah) are perfect for wordplay, since the words are so similar in both sound and meaning.
But confession often comes with additional caveats before forgiveness. In Leviticus 26:40-41 God says, “But if they confess their iniquity… and also in walking contrary to me… if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob.” Numbers 5:7 says, “He shall confess his sins that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.”
Confession shouldn’t always be about the bad things we have done. We not only confess our sins, we also confess the Lord as our Saviour and God. ידה (yadah) is often translated as praise, for it is a confession of truth. After David was delivered from his enemies he declared, “For this I will praise (ידה) you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to Your name.”[32]
Repentance, on the other hand, often doesn’t come with the same caveats as confession. Repentance was regarded as so important that Jewish scholars listed it among seven things purportedly created before the world began: the Torah, the Throne of God, the Garden of Eden, Hell, the Temple, the name of the Messiah, and Repentance.[33] Where does the tradition that repentance predated the world come from? Psalm 90:2-3 states, “before you formed the earth, you said to man ‘return’”.
The word “return” (שוב, shuv) is also the root word for “repentance” (תשובה, teshuva). One aspect of the Hebraic understanding of repentance is a returning to the place where one was before. For a sinner who had departed from God’s presence, this means being restored to His presence. To return doesn’t mean you start a long journey back towards God and might, if you don’t fail, eventually reach Him. Returning means being back in the same place or state that I started—we are immediately back with Him.
The call for God’s people to repent and return to the Lord is particularly evident in the prophets, but it can be found throughout the Scriptures. Acts 3:19 uses the Greek word ἐπιστρέψατε, (epistrephate). Some translators interpret it as “converted” but it also has the Hebraic undertone of תשובה teshuvah.[34] One does not return to something new; one returns to something or somewhere one has already been. When Peter addressed those gathered in the temple, he called them to repent and return back to the God of Israel through the risen Messiah.
But as amazing as repentance is, confession is still necessary. Whether we are confessing our God before the world, “Oh give thanks (הודו, hodu, from ידה, yadah) to the LORD, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever”[35] or we are acknowledging our sin before the LORD, after our confession comes gladness and great rejoicing.
Endnotes
[1] RCL Alternate readings: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14
[2] Revelation 20:12 speaks of multiple books. Is one the Book of Remembrance, found in Malachi 3:16? Is there a book of judgment, or death? Are there other books that God has not revealed to us?
[3] Hebrew poetry often repeats the same idea twice in slightly different phrasing, either to emphasize a point or broaden a point.
[4] Rosh HaShanah 16a.12-17a.6
[5] Exodus 32:32-33, Psalm 69:28, Psalm 12:1, and Malachi 3:16 along with Luke 10:20, Philippians 4:3, Hebrews 12:23, and Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 15, 21:27.
[6] See also Isaiah 44:22, “I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
[7] Likewise, when we are told to “remember” it is never to simply be recalling a memory—it is a call for us to act.
[8] Israel requested a god “who shall go before us.” The nations believed that gods actively guided events, and having a deity “go before” them could bring success in war and trade—assuming the god was more powerful than the one they faced. See: I Samuel 4:1-11; II Chronicles 20:21-23; II Chronicles 32:9-23; Mesha Stele.
[9] Worship of God is not to be taken lightly, as shown with the Golden Calf. See also: Nadav and Abihu, Leviticus 10:1-3; The Ark of the Covenant, I Samuel 6:19-20 and II Samuel 6:6-7; Festivals, Isaiah 1:11-17, 58:1-5; Temple worship, Jeremiah 7:9-15; Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5:1-11; Eucharist, I Corinthians 11:27-32. Hebrews 12:28-29 tells us to “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” In contrast to Exodus 32:1-6, Paul speaks of Jesus as the image of the invisible God. But instead of being inappropriate, Paul continues to state that “in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”
[10] The most famous are the golden calves set up by Jeroboam in Bethel and Dan. But the Mesha Stele speaks of the king of Moab taking the hearth altars (or vessels) of GOD from Mount Nebo—hearth altars that should not have been present. Additionally, archaeologists have found idols and altars throughout Israel.
[11] Exodus 32:1 states, “As for Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
[12] Genesis 2:16-17; Leviticus 26:14-39; Deuteronomy 28:15-68; I Kings 9:6-9; Isaiah 1:19-20; Isaiah 3:11; Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Amos 5:6-7; Matthew 25:41-46; John 8:24; Romans 6:23; James 1:14-15; Revelation 21:8
[13] ACNA includes Psalm 51:11-17
[14] Some Psalters omit the superscription altogether, while most English translations exclude what is, in the Hebrew, the first verse of the psalm, beginning with verse two. They present verse one almost as a heading rather than part of the psalm. This has set a bad precedent as often the superscription is not preached or ignored entirely. However, when the Canon was declared, the superscriptions were part of the Psalms. There have been historical scholars who believe the superscriptions were added much later than the writing of the Psalms (many of these same scholars did not believe in the supernatural, God-breathed nature of the Bible). However, by the time the LXX was written, the superscriptions were already part of the writings and likely had been for quite some time, if not from the time of the original writing. Sometimes the superscription is very simple, “Of David” (Psalm 25 etc.) and sometimes the superscription includes context that has no readily available meaning to us, “To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.” However, many times the superscription gives us such a depth of context that the Psalm may have meant very little to us without it, such as Psalm 88. While the superscription may appear in the same font as modern headings, it is part of the Canon of Scripture and should be read and included in both our preparation and service of worship.
[15] While Saul appears to follow the laws regarding kingship in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 more closely than David, when confronted by God and the prophets he continually made excuses and only showed remorse. God’s rejection of Saul and acceptance of David may seem unjustified at times, but David’s willingness to repent, take responsibility for his sins, and his earnest desire to turn to God are some of the largest distinctions between the two men.
[16] The root of the word is רַחַם (rechem), the Hebrew word for womb. The strong connection of compassion and love that exists between mother and child provides the basis for understanding Biblical mercy. Additionally, the word mercy is רַחֲמִים֙ (rachamim) and is always in the plural form. This may highlight the manifold mercies of God. We may also note, as Christians, that God is often described in the plural: whether at creation, in Genesis 1:26; as the husband of Israel, in Isaiah 54:5; or as the creator, in Ecclesiastes 12:1.
[17] See Hebraic Context
[18] Leviticus 13:1-46
[19] This is a very relevant and practical request of David. I Samuel 16:13-14 gives clear commentary of the Spirit of the LORD coming upon David even as it departed from Saul.
[20] Isaiah 59:7; Proverbs 1:16
[21] Acts 9:1-16
[22] Acts 5:34-39
[23] Today, the same can be seen in halal meats as Muslim butchers recite a blessing to Allah and declare the greatness of Allah as each animal is slaughtered. Only with this blessing, along with the traditional butchering, can the meat be considered halal. While the halal butchering process is similar to the kosher butchering process, the blessing to Allah recited over the meat makes it meat offered to foreign gods. Acts 15:20 states that even Gentile believers in Jesus should “abstain from the things polluted by idols,” leading to a question of whether halal meat, common in many parts of the world, should be eaten by Christians. I Corinthians 8 expands and adds nuance on whether we should, or should not, eat meat offered to idols.
[24] Many faithful Jews were martyred during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes because of their witness and obedience to God in all things—particularly in the consumption of pork. I Maccabees 1:62-63; II Maccabees 6-7.
[25] Numbers 9:6-13; II Chronicles 30:17-20. Sanctification from ritual impurity often only took a day, although it could take as long as a week. Exodus 19:10-11 gives the Israelites two days for consecration in preparation for God to come down on Mount Sinai.
[26] Luke does not speak of three separate parables but a single parable, “την παραβολην”. The parable develops and expands on a single theme rather than being three separate parables.
[27] Luke 5:31-32; Matthew 9:11-13
[28] As always, there is no mention of a specific nation, culture, or place (although Luke does include both a man and a woman in the teaching, as is so common in his writings). But that doesn’t mean that it is devoid of historical context.
[29] Shemot Rabbah 2.2
[30] There is a modern narrative that a shepherd would break the leg of a runaway sheep. He would then carry it everywhere until the sheep fully healed and became fully attached to the shepherd, never to run away again. This appears to be a mid-20th century teaching with little to no corroborating primary source evidence from Scripture or historical sources. The midrashim on Moses and David seem like a more likely source for Jesus’ teaching along with the prophetic sources of good and bad shepherds in Isaiah and Ezekiel.
[31] Luke 5:30
[32] II Samuel 22:50
[33] Torah, from Proverbs 8:22; the throne of God and Temple, Jeremiah 17:12; the garden of Eden, Genesis 2:8; Gehenna, or hell, Isaiah 30:33; the name of the Messiah, Psalm 72:17; Repentance, Psalm 90:2-3. Pesachim 54a and Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 3.4 along with Midrash Rabbah 1.4.
[34] Repentance is translated in the LXX as ἐπιστρέψατε in Ezekiel 14:6; Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:7; II Chronicles 30:6.
[35] I Chronicles 16:7-36