Centro de Estudios Bblicos Xaire Commentary on the Gospel reading for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time June

e 30, 2013 cebxaire.wix.com/cebxaire cebxaire@gmail.com Javier Del ngel De los Santos Luke 9:51-62 Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up? But he turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village. As they traveled along they met a man on the road who said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus answered, Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Another to whom he said, Follow me, replied, Let me go and bury my father first. But he answered, Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God. Another said, I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say goodbye to my people at home. Jesus said to him, Once the hand is laid on the plow, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. In today's Gospel reading, we come across three verses (51-53) that have not been correctly translated from Greek to the modern languages. Precise translation is crucial to gaining an in-depth understanding of the message in today's Gospel reading. Understanding the evangelists' language and culture is always necessary. There is an expression found in the Old Testament, turn one's face towards someone , which signifies hostility, contempt and confrontation. For example in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, when we read, Son of man, turn your face toward Jerusalem: preach against its sanctuary, prophesy against the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 21:7; Ezekiel 4:3,7; 6:2, 14:8, 5:7, 21:2, 25:2, 28:21, 29:2, 35:2 and 38:2) The evangelist has lifted this phrase from these Old Testament passages and has implanted it in today's Gospel reading. Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up . . . . Luke borrows this expression from 2 Kings 2:11 which describes Elijah being taken up to heaven. The evangelist is announcing not only Jesus' death but his exaltation. That is what he calls being taken up. In the Gospels according to Mark and Luke, Jesus being taken up signifies his passion, death, resurrection and ascension. The Gospel according to John calls this being glorified. (John 7:39;12, 16:23 and 13:31ss) . . . [H]e resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem . . . The correct translation of the Greek text is: he hardened his face in order to address himself to Jerusalem . This phrase has the same meaning as the expression discussed at the beginning of this commentary, turn one's face towards someone. Consequently, Jesus' attitude towards Jerusalem is hostile. In effect, the evangelist has used the above mentioned text from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Son of man, turn your face toward Jerusalem: preach against its sanctuary, prophesy against the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 21:7) By the same token, Jesus hardens

(turns, directs) his face towards the city where the religious authorities live to symbolize the fact that God does not agree with what they are doing. That city is where Jesus will manifest God's authentic glory. Throughout his work (the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles), Luke refers to Jerusalem in two ways: Ierousalm, which means the holy city, the religious institution; and, Ieroslima, which means the geographic city. In this case, the evangelist has used Ierousalm. Now, let's see to whom Jesus turns his face: Jesus has decided to non-violently confront religious institution at its very core because it has usurped the name of God to the detriment of the human person. . . . and sent messengers ahead of him. (The correct translation: . . . and sent messengers ahead of his face. ) The evangelist uses the word anglous which means messenger; ahead of his face, in other words, from the face that promises a confrontation with the religious institution because it prevents the people from knowing the true, loving face of God. The religious authorities neither know God, nor do they allow others to know him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village . . . We know that the Jews and the Samaritans had not gotten along for at least 700 years (2 Kings 17:24-41; John 4:9b) In Luke's Gospel, as well as in John's, the Samaritans are portrayed in a favorable light, as people who have received Jesus' message. (John 4:39-41) When Jesus, the Son of God, speaks, the ones who fancy themselves as the possessors of the truth about God do not recognize him. On the other hand, those who are rejected by the official institution, the heretics (the Samaritans), almost always receive him, as we will see. . . . to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. (Correct translation: the people would not receive him because his face was turned towards Jerusalem, in other words, against Jerusalem.) It seems like the Messiah who will make his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, proclaimed to be the Son of David, will seize power and then subject all the unfaithful and pagan people, including the Samaritans. Clearly, they do not host or accommodate him. As we have seen, the word face (prsopon) has been used three times in this Gospel passage. The number three indicates that something is complete and definite. With this, the evangelist illustrates Jesus' firm determination to do away with an institution that presents an image of God that does not correspond to the reality of the God of Jesus: a father with a mother's sentiments: always loving and compassionate, who seeks only good and happiness for the human person. Today's first invitation: Put our face in tun with God's face. What kind of face of God do we present to others? What kind of face do we present to others? Is God's face paternal, maternal, fraternal, faithful, loving, compassionate and in solidarity? Or, is God's face vengeful, judgmental, punishing, sad? Is God's face the face of a church that administers an eighth sacrament, the sacrament of customs (that Pope Francis recently spoke of), that condemns, punishes, predicates a supposed salvation based on the number of prayers one recites, the number of times one receives the sacraments and the number of penitential acts one performs, that imposes heavy burdens on the people rather than liberating them and that is incapable of being happy? Seeing this, the disciples James and John . . . The evangelist often points out the fanaticism, ambition and violent zeal of these two. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus nicknamed them Boanerges (Mark 3:17) which means sons of thunder. They said, Lord, do you

want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up? It's not that James and John had that power. We must understand that the evangelist wrote using imagery unique to his day and age and understood by the people of that day and age. This imagery of calling down fire is taken from the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:10-14), a man full of religious zeal for God, the terrible prophet who would kill his enemies, who would make fire rain down from the sky to punish his adversaries. But he turned and rebuked them . . . In the Greek text, the original verb translated into English as rebuked is shouted at, and is the same verb the evangelist uses when Jesus expels demonic spirits. Recall from other commentaries that demonic spirits are often used in the Gospels to represent fanatical and violent religious ideologies that Jesus has come to expel from the people's mentality. Jesus sees James and John possessed by a fanatical, violent, nationalistic and dogmatic religious ideology (e.g. either you're with us or you're against us) that stifles an authentic understanding of God's Plan to give life and joy to the world through love and compassion. A few verses prior to today's Gospel reading, Jesus had corrected James' and John's thought process about this. (Luke 9:50) . . . and they went on to another village. Jesus does not retaliate against the Samaritans, although James and John want to. Historically, we know that some Samaritans eventually understood Jesus' message inasmuch as one of the early Christian community's first missions was precisely to Samaria, where the people had well received the word of God. (Hebrews 8:4-8; 14) Today's second invitation: Opening and confidence. Even today, there are many fanatics and fundamentalists (like Boanerges) in the church. They are people who see themselves as possessors of the truth, and they see the world divided into two groups: those who are with them, and those who are against them. Jesus rejects such thinking and behavior. Jesus did not come to start a feud or war between truths. For Jesus, the only truth is a freely chosen and practiced love that oriented towards the good of all human beings. Jesus says, If anyone wishes to come after me, . . . (Luke 9:23; Mark 8:34) When there is an opening for everyone, and when we are authentic and true witnesses to the Good News, we can have confidence that the good seed we spread will eventually get planted in good soil, grow healthy roots and bear good fruit. That is exactly what happened with the Samaritans. Moving on, the evangelist now presents us with three anonymous persons who receive Jesus' invitation to radically sever themselves from their past, their homes, their families and, above all, their fathers, all of which represent tradition. As Jesus and his disciples made their way down the road, someone said, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus replied, Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests . . . Foxes and birds were considered the most insignificant and useless animals; yet, they had their places of refuge. . . . [B]ut the Son of man . . ., that is Jesus, the man who has achieved the fulness of his humanity because he has accomplished in himself the divine plan, . . . has nowhere to lay his head. This signifies how Jesus' people have excluded and misunderstood him and his message. To another, Jesus himself offers an invitation and says, Follow me . . . But, the invitee's father (who symbolizes the religious tradition that Jesus rejects) has died. In the Jewish tradition, a father is responsible for transmitting religious tradition to his sons. The invitee wants to bury his father, i.e. venerate his religious tradition. Jesus replies, Leave the dead to bury their dead . . . In other words, this man's religious tradition is a world, so to speak, populated by dead people and administered by dead people. . . . [Y]our duty is to go and

spread the news of the kingdom of God. Anyone who receives Jesus needs to be completely open to the Good News of a Kingdom that does not consist of performing external purification rituals or endless prayers, or in religious laws that stifle authentic joy in the human person, but that does consist of forgiving, healing, including and sharing with others. Finally, another one says, I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say goodbye to my people at home. Jesus replies, Once the hand is laid on the plow, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. My people at home is an expression that has the same significance as my father, namely, an obsolete religious tradition. The Good News of the Kingdom has no room for nostalgia for the past. In a certain sense, you have to put everything on the line to follow Jesus and you can't ever look back. Jesus wastes no time in establishing the Kingdom (lay the hand on the plow). Whoever wastes time on obsolete things and traditions of the past (who looks back) is not suitable for this work. The new wine requires new wine skins. (Matthew 9:17) Today's third invitation: Decisiveness and perseverance. The final part of today's Gospel reading reflects very well the attitude that some of us have. Some of us Christians pass the time always looking for God, but we don't ever make the decision to put ourselves into action: . . . [Y]our duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God. We attend countless retreats, group encounters, spiritual exercises, seminars, conferences, workshops, masses and rosaries; but, we never put ourselves into action! Some of us prefer to first fill ourselves with God so that we can then give him away to others. Or, we prefer to first bring everything full circle and first put our lives in order so that we can then follow Jesus. Or, we prefer to first quit being sinners and first feel fully forgiven so that we can then be missionaries. Come what may, we never feel ready or capable. On the other hand, some of us live an intellectual Christianity. We want to know a lot about God through Bible study; but, we don't want to commit ourselves in any practical way by sharing with others what we have learned or by putting the Father's Plan into action, in any practical way, in our own lives. Jesus is not in agreement with any of this. Jesus invites us to decisiveness and perseverance in order to establish what he calls the Kingdom of God: put the hand on the plow and not look back. We have already discussed that the Kingdom of God is a society or culture that Jesus proposes in which, rather than living the three values of having or possessing things, rising in power or prestige and being in control of others, one lives the values of forgiving, healing, including and sharing. Very likely, we will make mistakes as we journey through life, and that is understandable. But, what is really important is that we learn from our mistakes so that when we stumble and fall, we get back up and keep walking: perseverance! As Pope Francis has said, better a church that takes a risk by going out into the world, that stumbles and falls and that even gets dirty, than a church that is sick and ailing from atrophy because it remains closed off, safe, secure and quiet. Jesus calls us to the former, not the latter, in today's Gospel.