Evangelion: The Women

Frances Biggs: "Women at the Tomb" (n/a)

We seldom ask ourselves what became of the people Jesus healed or otherwise touched, but it beggars the imagination that they would not have longed to follow him. No doubt some of those we read about did follow him., but connections between known named believers and anonymous people Jesus touched is difficult to establish because the gospels rarely name individuals before they come to place their faith in Jesus. Occasionally, however, the gospels vaguely suggest the past of named believers. This is notably the case with the women who followed Jesus:

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. (Lk 8:1–3)

We know virtually nothing about Mary Magdalene or Susanna, but the notice that Joanna was “the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household” brings to mind the royal official whose son Jesus healed upon returning to Galilee.

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee. (Jn 4:46–54)

These women provided the logistical support that sustained the entourage of Jesus. That they should provide such support for Jesus and his followers rather than for their own families suggests at least three possibilities:

·       These women had no families.

·       These were elderly widows whose children had families of their own.

·       Family members of these women were also with Jesus.

Elsewhere we read that the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee (Lk 23:55) included Mary the mother of Jesus, her sister Salome (the mother of the apostles James and John), Mary the mother of James the younger (the other apostle James, father of the apostle Jude) and of Joseph, and Mary Magdalene. The latter were mostly older relatives of Jesus, who stayed with him as he died and took upon themselves the sad task of anointing his body for burial:

Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there. (Mk 15:41–42)

Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. (Mt 27:55–56)

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. (Jn 19:25)

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. (Lk 23:55–56)

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. (Mk 1:16:1)

Mary Magdalene figures prominently in these narratives not because of who she was at that time but because of who she became on the day Jesus rose from the dead—Mary Magdalene was the first witness to the resurrection, and she bore testimony to the apostles themselves of this fact:

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. (Jn 20:11–18)

The complex role of Mary Magdalene and the other women is further borne out by the following notice, which lists the apostles and the women who followed Jesus as those who formed the nucleus of the early church:

Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. (At 1:13–14)

Evangelion: Pontius Pilate

Francis Newton Souza: "The Trial Christ and Pilate" (1984)

 The Gospel of John presents the Roman Governor as a man of this world who primarily concerned himself with the things of this world. Pontius Pilate is initially somewhat relieved to hear Jesus claim to be divine rather than the simply King of Judah, though Caesar formally lay claim to both titles:

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. (Jn 18:33–40)

Pilot cannily acquiesces to the release of Barabbas—“who had taken part in an uprising”—rather than insist on the releases of Jesus—against whom he finds “no basis for a charge against him”—when the Jewish leaders threaten to denounce Pilot as disloyal to Caesar:

The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
(Jn 19:7–16)

And so Jesus is crucified between two violent insurrectionists, and in place of another, for claiming a Lordship both less threatening and more threatening than institutional power. We ourselves experience these same tensions when through fear or jealousy we seek to limit to the lordship of Christ in our lives. The only alternative is to ground our understanding in him alone, seeking him in the trustworthy testimony of those to whom he revealed himself:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 Jn 1.1–3)

The kingdom of God is not an earthly power but rather a community of faith—one that both spans and divides nations, peoples, and tribes—whose growth is as gradual and relentless as the effect of a small amount of yeast on a large amount of dough. Even the Roman Empire proved less powerful and enduring than the Kingdom of God, so why should we devote ourselves to the kingdoms and tribes of this world?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rm 12.1–2)

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Mt 13.33)

And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mk 15:39)

Evangelion: Peter and the Young Ruler

Steve Hawley: "Face of Christ" (2003)

As noted earlier, Peter came—by degrees—to profoundly trust and thereby understand Jesus.

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” (Lk 8:22–25)

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Mt 14:25–33)

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt 16:13–19)

Peter’s confession is the foundation of the church, a temple made of living stones:

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pt 2:4–5)

Such a confession entails surrender, which people often accept so long as the issue is not pressed:

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With human beings this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mk 10:17–27)

The question “Why do you call me good?” is an invitation to recognize that Jesus is God. The young ruler does not understand this, but Jesus has compassion for him because the young man seeks in Jesus a justification which the Law cannot impart. Jesus therefore invites the young ruler to follow him on condition that he give away everything he owns. The request, one as incomprehensible as the request that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, underscores a painful reality at the heart of the gospel: our dependency on Jesus involves our surrender. Our sins accrue to Jesus because he owns us, which is why there is no salvation apart from the resurrection: Jesus can only own us if he is alive. This is why Paul states:

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rm 10:9)

We cannot assume that the young ruler never came to Christ, for we later read that the church in Antioch included a certain Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch. As Jesus observes: “With human beings this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. (Ac 13:1)

Evangelion: Mary and Martha

Sadao Watanabe: "Mary Washing Jesus' Feet" (1968)

 Mary and Martha, two sisters from Bethany, were not among the women who followed Jesus. We first read of them in connection with a visit Jesus makes to Martha’s home after his departure from Galilee:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Lk 10:38–42)

As at the well in Samaria, Jesus here contrasts the relative importance of physical nourishment and spiritual nourishment. One might reasonably ask, however, why Martha’s service is less highly esteemed than Mary’s attentiveness. The answer lies not in an appreciation of the acts themselves but in what Jesus considers his food:

Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food, “said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (Jn 4:31–34)

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (Jn 6:28–29)

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (Jn. 14.5–7)

Jesus is not “the way and the truth and the life” in the sense that he exemplifies Life. He is “the way and the truth and the life” because Life is the result of coming to him. Martha does indeed come to him, and John records her astonishing conviction, following the death of her brother Lazarus, that Jesus can “even now” raise her brother from the dead:

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” (Jn 11:17–27)

After Lazarus is raised, Martha prepares a second dinner to honor Jesus. This time her service is recorded to her honor, though overshadowed by an gesture by Mary that represented the equivalent of one year’s labor:

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (Jn 12:1–3)

A passing notice earlier in John’s account gives us to understand that this is not the first time Mary had performed such a gesture:

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” (Jn. 11:1–3)

John evidently refers to an incident, recorded by Luke, that took place at the house of a Pharisee named Simon the Leper. That Luke does not give the woman’s name is entirely understandable:

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. (Lk 7:36–38)

The extravagant gesture here comes in response to an even more remarkable circumstance, namely the raising of Lazarus from the dead, but what could have occasioned the similar gesture at the house of Simon the Leper? One guess is that Mary was the woman brought before Jesus to be stoned:

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (Jn 8: 3–11) [1]

This brings us back to Martha, whose relative wealth and social standing are indicated by the fact that she owned a house large enough to accommodate the many Jews who came from Jerusalem to console the sisters following the illness and death of their brother Lazarus. The fact that she took in her previously wayward sister and cared for her ailing brother is testimony of her daily unassuming generosity.

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[1] This disputed passage appears to be original but is missing from the earliest manuscripts, which may indicate that it was removed very early on and reinserted at a later date.

Evangelion: The Crowds

Gaëtan de Séguin: "J+Foule du mois de Juin" (2019)

The people that came out to hear Jesus announce the kingdom of God soon grew into crowds who came to Jesus for him to heal their sick. Though Jesus had compassion for them and relieved their suffering, this was not why he had come. He came down from heaven to lead them back to God. Jesus thus proposed a sign to contrast the difference between the physical and spiritual deprivation of the people:

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Mt 14:14–16)

Some time after this, Jesus crossed [from Judea] to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. (Jn 6:1–7)

The people now understood that Jesus was the Messiah, but they failed to grasp the nature of this office, which they still understood in worldly terms, which provided Jesus the opportunity to distinguish the nature of his kingship from the false expectations of those who came out to him:

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. (Jn 6:14–15)

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (Jn 6:25–35)

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” […] On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:56–58, 60–69)

The result of clearly establishing the nature of the kingdom of God was that most people turned away from Jesus, regardless of the signs testifying that he was sent from God. Only those called by God remained with him, and even one of them did not really believe. Having winnowed the chaff in Israel, Jesus extended the harvest beyond the borders of Israel. The many non-Jews who came out to him to be healed praised the God of Israel when they saw the signs that Jesus performed:

Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. (Mk 7.31)

Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.” His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” (Mt 17:29–33)

The feeding of these four thousand was a sign that the kingdom of God, whatever its nature, would come to non-Jews through the God of Israel. For Israel, however, the nature of the kingdom of God remained a condition of its acceptance:

The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.” Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.” Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Mk 8.11–21)

Evangelion: Peter and Matthew

Olga Bakhtina: "Jesus and Peter Fishing" (2017)

Not even John the Baptist knew the relationship between Jesus and the Messiah until God revealed this to him after he baptized Jesus. In the case of Jesus, baptism marked an inversion of his public and private identities, ‘Son of God’ superseding ‘son of Joseph and Mary’:

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.” (Jn 1:29–34)

This testimony of John moved two of his disciples to follow the one whose way John was preparing. Their testimony in turn brought others to Jesus:

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. (Jn 1:35–42)

The earliest disciples of Jesus (including John, Andrew, Simon Peter, Phillip and Nathaniel) followed Jesus to Cana (for a wedding) and then to Jerusalem (for Passover) after which they remained with him for a time in Judea before returning to Capernaum by way of Samaria. Jesus briefly returned to Nazareth, after which he appeared one day on the banks of the Sea of Galilee:

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. (Mk 1:16–20)

Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John did not abandon their nets to follow a stranger. They had come to know Jesus initially through the testimony of John the Baptist and subsequently by lingering with him in Judea. They now followed Jesus as he preached to crowds in the Galilean countryside:

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Mt 5:1–12)

This vivid account is recorded by a former tax collector named Levi Matthew whom Jesus did not call until sometime later:

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. (Mt 9.9)

Levi Matthew records this sermon rather than the nearly identical sermon preached the morning Jesus ordained him an apostle, which suggests that Levi Matthew was present on the earlier occasion—one which he considered even more memorable.

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil a spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. (Lk 6:12–26)

The transformation of Simon Peter was more gradual but ultimately more astonishing. He had received reliable testimony concerning Jesus, whom he heard and followed and observed perform wondrous healings, but a fearful understanding suddenly gripped Simon Peter only when Jesus demonstrated divine authority even over ordinary work.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. (Lk 5:1–11)

What happened to this miraculous catch of fish? We don’t know, but it would ordinarily have required payment of a tax to Levi Matthew, whose booth was by the shore. That Jesus later called Levi Matthew must have perplexed Simon Peter, but the legacies of the two men are now closely intertwined because it is the former tax collector who has left us the most vivid record of the faith of the former fisherman. Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus walked on the water, but Levi Matthew tells us that Peter did too:

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Mt 14:25–33)

Evangelion: The Pharisees

Henry Ossawa Tanner: "Study for Nicodemus Visiting Jesus" (1899)

After a generation of quiet expectation, John the Baptist appeared on the banks of Jordan to announce the kingdom of heaven, and people came out to him, even Sadducees and Pharisees:

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with d the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Mt 3.1–12)

The Pharisees were dominant school of theology among the people. Unlike the Saducees, they believed in angels, prophecy, and the afterlife. However, they conceived of faith in terms of outward acts of personal piety consisting primarily of ritual purity—even tithing constituted a form of ritual purity because it entailed avoiding defilement due to the inappropriate possession of something sacred. With the communal memory of the Exile indelibly etched into their consciousness, they determined to practice and promote strict adherence to the letter of the Law, including extensions and clarifications of the Law sanctioned by scripture as binding. Jesus himself acknowledges the scriptural basis of rabbinical authority while at the same time criticizing the superficiality of the Pharisees:

If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults—take them to the place the LORD your God will choose. Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict. You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do. Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left. Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel. All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again. (Dt 17:8–13)

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them ‘Rabbi.’ (Mt 23.1–7)

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” (Mk 7:1–8)

This superficiality of the Pharisees had its roots in an emphasis on observable conformance to the Law rather than on inner transformation, a circumcision of the heart. The Pharisees should have understood that baptism for the remission of sins represented a circumcision of the heart given that their own rulings established a close connection between circumcision and baptism, which they considered a form of death and rebirth that (in the case of adult converts) nullified all pre-existing debts and relationships. However, even Nicodemus had trouble understanding how such a thing could apply to Jews:

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Dt 30:1–20)

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.” “How can anyone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? (Jn 3:1–10)

Saul of Tarsus, himself a former Pharisee, later explained the connection in terms of death and resurrection (a form of rebirth), an association that Simon Peter considered so obvious as to require no further elaboration:

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your sinful nature was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Col 9–12)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. In that state he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1Pt 3.18–22)

Evangelion: The Gospel of Jesus

Karin Foreman New Beginnings (2015)

Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record a deceptively simple and direct question posed to Jesus that goes to the very heart of the gospel: Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? This question, which any of us might have asked, clearly presupposes that Jesus is a good person who stands to inherit eternal life by nature of his goodness, a goodness that we might also attain. Given the apparent reasonableness of the question, the abrupt response of Jesus jars most readers: ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not give false testimony; do not defraud; honor your mother and father.’ This oblique exchange between the young ruler and Christ exposes deep rifts between conventional religion and the work of Christ regarding the root of our alienation from God, the means of our reconciliation with God, and the nature of Christ. Whereas popular religion understands good and evil in terms of relative proportions, scripture defines good as that which is entirely of God and evil as that which is not entirely of God—the standard of goodness is absolute godliness. Though Jesus is indeed good, he rejects any facile attribution of goodness that either degrades its definition or ignores its implications. His challenge—‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.’—is the public equivalent of the question earlier posed to his disciples: ‘Who do you say that I am?” The gospel turns on the answer to this question.

Unlike the prophets, Jesus reconciles humanity to God not by word and example but by fulfilling the Law of God in his very person and then subsuming us in himself. Though godly, Jesus assumes our ungodliness and consequently suffers death in the wake of his estrangement from God. Popular religion presents Jesus paying a penalty he does not owe, thereby establishing a kind of credit against which we individually draw. However, such credit would be sufficient for only one person and even then only if a substitution were allowed. On the other hand, if the sins of everyone belonging to Christ technically accrue to Christ, just as the professional misbehavior of an employee is charged to the employer, then Christ literally expiates our sins as his own. No one is reconciled to God apart from Christ because only this work of Christ satisfies both the justice and mercy of God. Every other formula for reconciliation demands a lower standard of justice, either by relaxing definitions of righteousness or by ignoring breeches or both. Christ’s statement that he came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it is analogous to saying that he came not to dismiss a debt to God but to pay it in full. Either way the debt ceases to exist, but dismissal implies the original unjustness of the debt, and therefore God, whereas payment affirms the debt’s original justness. Because this expiation holds only if Christ remains an active Lord, his resurrection is a necessary condition of our salvation, as is his continued participation in our lives both corporately and individually. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This gospel encompasses the entire sweep of scripture from the moment God looks upon the things he has created and declares them good. They remain good so long as they remained within their appropriate spheres—hence the ritual uncleanness of swimming creatures that lack fins and scales, flying creatures that lack wings and feathers, and land animals that are not strict herbivores. Adam (Man) and his helper, Eve (Woman), likewise remain good so long as they tend the Garden of Eden and refrain from eating of the Tree of Knowledge. Presumably, his task was to extend the boundaries of the garden or at least guard against encroachment by the surrounding wilderness into which he was eventually banished. Adam falters in this task long enough for the serpent to tempt Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, a temptation to which Adam also succumbs. At the expense of their former intimacy in God, Adam and Eve share a false intimacy rooted in their joint complicity in sin and their shared experience of estrangement both from God and from the work for which they were created. Human history traces many failed efforts to regain true intimacy with God and one another, as well as to create a garden in the wilderness. Scripture traces the contrasting work of God to establish his righteousness in this world. Noah, Abraham, and Jesus represent successive stages of the fulfillment of this plan of redemption.

Though Noah and his household (including the animals under his care) are remnants of the original creation, they represent a new beginning in which the geographical distinction between garden and wilderness is literally washed away in a flood that returns the earth to a primordial state. By faith, Noah and his household enter the ark and pass through the waters of death into new life—hence Peter’s comparison of the ark to our baptism and (by further extension) the resurrection of the dead. Noah is commanded to subdue the world that emerges from the flood, and his descendents are the nations that settle every region of the world. Even as humanity extends its rule over the whole world, however, it cannot govern itself. No individual and no undertaking—no matter how prodigious—is sufficient to counter the chaos engendered by the darkness of the human heart.

The worldwide regeneration of the human heart begins with Abraham, whom God chooses to father a people through whom to reveal a knowledge of himself requiring generations to unfold. With Abraham, the genealogy of godliness transitions from a succession of individual relationships, limited by life span, to an ongoing communal relationship that grows over many generations from a single household into twelve tribes and their dependents. Though each generation is only partially faithful to God, a sizable community is established whose thoughts and actions are governed by two fundamental expectations: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might’ and ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Membership in this community, which functions as a garden in the wilderness, is formalized through a rite of male circumcision signifying acceptance of God’s sovereignty over a particular household. Circumcision, like baptism, is the outward sign of an inner submission to God entailing complete obedience; though in practice complete obedience eludes even the most devout.

The young ruler’s response to Jesus—‘Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy.’—thus strikes most readers as presumptuous, but Mark records that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus clearly recognized in the young ruler an earnest if misguided heart and he subsequently answered the original question in terms the young ruler readily understood: ‘One thing you lack. Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ This startling command to forsake all for Christ is equivalent to God’s command to Abraham that he sacrifice the very son through whom were promised descendents as numerous as the stars of heaven. The issue is not surrendering that which is most precious but rather surrendering everything: ‘The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’ This hopeful obedience is the essence of faith in God, which differs from simple belief in its expression as obedience and from religious observance in its dependence on the promises of God.

Mosaic Law, which conceives of the land and all it sustains as belonging to God, thus promises that Israel will dwell in a land of milk and honey so long as God is their Lord. The various head taxes, tithes, and Sabbath restrictions represent a rent payment that formally acknowledges that God is Lord and that he rules through his servants, the king and the priests.[1] Christ proclaims his status as sovereign by affirming a general requirement to pay taxes while presenting himself and his apostles as exempt from both the temple tax and Sabbath restrictions. The apostles are exempt from these regulations because, as members of his household, everything they possess belongs to Christ—hence the radical generosity of early believers as recorded in Acts. Christ nevertheless celebrates the various annual festivals as well as formal purification rites of which baptism is a corollary because these celebrate the redemptive history of which he is the culmination.[2]

This then is mystery of the gospel: Jesus has fulfilled the righteousness of God for the sake of those who belong to him. Moreover, those who belong to Christ are a new creation, representing a return to the garden and a work long since interrupted. There is no restoration to God apart from Christ because there is no other means of fulfilling the righteousness of God, and there is no restoration to God unless Christ is raised from the dead because we can only belong to a living Lord. Thus: ‘If you confess with your mouth “Jesus as Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ The only alternative is death.

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[1] The role of judge (and later the roles of prophet and king) imposed an executive function over and above the administrative function of the priesthood, an arrangement manifest in the establishment of the temple within the confines of the judge’s house or king’s palace precinct and the pooling of regal and priestly moneys. Structurally, this parallels the practice of surrounding kingdoms whose rulers were regarded as divine offspring.

[2] The Jewish rite of baptism derives from purification rites associated with skin diseases and circumcision. In the case of Christ, as with us, it marks the setting aside of a previous life.