I find it so interesting that when Jesus rejects this man's desire to join up, He tells him to "Go and tell what God has done for you." This mission statement cannot include, "He died for my sins and raised again on the third day." I am often sad that while this climax is vital to our faith, we negate so much the entirety of Jesus' ministry and whole-ness making work by boiling it down to only these climactic actions - instead of seeing it as a continuation of the work that "The Most High God" has always been doing since Adam and Eve and the promise of redemption.
Our intrepid (RCL) lectioneers grouped together other readings with the same "What God has done for you/us" theme, including the lovely, sublime Psalm 22:31 -
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
On 22nd we hear the impressive remainder of Psalm 22 - in which all manner of thing is well, having been taken in by the clickbait of "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani." In quoting the beginning of Psalm 22 is Jesus REALLY alerting us to the entirety of the Psalm, and its hopeful, redemptive conclusion which opens up the future? Why do we stop at the despairing verse, rather than think, 'Hey, this doesn't gel?' and reading on to the end?
I have always thought that the name "legion" was a direct reference to imperial occupation, but your description of it here with the backdrop of "legionaries" is SO helpful. Thank you! And I am also struck by those who point out that many of the symptoms of those described in Gospel accounts as being possessed by demons are very much akin to what happens to those who are occupied by colonizers, including severe social isolation. Jesus telling the man to go home and back to his community is in that sense part of his healing and restoration, a "remedy" for "colonized syndrome." Thank you, Andrew!
I find it so interesting that when Jesus rejects this man's desire to join up, He tells him to "Go and tell what God has done for you." This mission statement cannot include, "He died for my sins and raised again on the third day." I am often sad that while this climax is vital to our faith, we negate so much the entirety of Jesus' ministry and whole-ness making work by boiling it down to only these climactic actions - instead of seeing it as a continuation of the work that "The Most High God" has always been doing since Adam and Eve and the promise of redemption.
Our intrepid (RCL) lectioneers grouped together other readings with the same "What God has done for you/us" theme, including the lovely, sublime Psalm 22:31 -
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
On 22nd we hear the impressive remainder of Psalm 22 - in which all manner of thing is well, having been taken in by the clickbait of "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani." In quoting the beginning of Psalm 22 is Jesus REALLY alerting us to the entirety of the Psalm, and its hopeful, redemptive conclusion which opens up the future? Why do we stop at the despairing verse, rather than think, 'Hey, this doesn't gel?' and reading on to the end?
Yes!!
I have always thought that the name "legion" was a direct reference to imperial occupation, but your description of it here with the backdrop of "legionaries" is SO helpful. Thank you! And I am also struck by those who point out that many of the symptoms of those described in Gospel accounts as being possessed by demons are very much akin to what happens to those who are occupied by colonizers, including severe social isolation. Jesus telling the man to go home and back to his community is in that sense part of his healing and restoration, a "remedy" for "colonized syndrome." Thank you, Andrew!