LENT 5
Worship
Scripture Notes
For use with Common, Lutheran and Roman Catholic Lectionaries
Probably the most important common factor in these five texts is the concept of restoration to life included in each of them. Of course, each text depicts restoration to life in a somewhat different situation, and our situation is different in many respects from each of these situations. Therefore, we have within these five texts rich resources to form the basis of our proclamation next Sunday that God restores life also among us in our time.
Since these texts are used here during the season of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, we can use nature also as an illustrative aid in our presentation. We see in addition that, with their theme of restoration to life, these texts bring a "little Easter" message into this Fifth Sunday in Lent. They provide a foretaste of the Easter message.
Common:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Lutheran: Ezekiel 37:1-3 (4-10) 11-14
Roman Catholic: Ezekiel 37:12-14
This proclamation of restoration of life to the people and nation of Israel must have been highly significant to the Israelite exiles in Babylon. Many of us, within our much different political situations, find it difficult to perceive how this message must have been appreciated by the Israelites in Babylonian captivity. Those of us who are ourselves - or who identify closely with - remnants of scattered, forsaken Native American tribes and Black people torn from proud African national cultures by slave traders and slave owners can relate most closely to this message, as the Black spiritual "Dem Bones" indicates. Jewish people throughout twenty centuries of nationlessness could relate most of all to this text, and Jewish people today can see in the nation of Israel evidence that God through intense struggle has given them new life and hope in their ancestral home. Their faith and their hope are celebrated in this text, and we as Christian proclaimers of the gospel can witness to their faith in the midst of our congregations also. Therefore, this Exekiel text should have a prominent place in our proclamation next Sunday. It sets the tone for the other readings through its vivid description of the reversal of death and decay as scattered dry bones are brought together and given new life by the power of God.
Common:
Psalm 116:1-9
Lutheran: Psalm 116:1-8
This individual hymn of thanksgiving expresses on an individual basis the same thought that is expressed corporately in Ezekiel 37. It continues to express the thankful response of innumerable Jewish and Christian people who have been very ill, have been restored to life and health, and have attributed their recovery to the action of God.
Roman Catholic: Psalm 130
From the depths of despair, the psalmist cries to the Lord, asking for forgiveness and waiting for the morning. Both for the individual and for the nation, restoration is something that only God can bring. Only God, in God's steadfast love, can bring restoration to life. Only God can bring redemption. This is the Lenten message also for us.
Common:
Romans 8:6-11
Lutheran: Romans 8:11-19
Roman Catholic: Romans 8:8-11
Paul does not distinguish clearly in Romans 8:11 whether he is referring to God making alive the mortal bodies of his readers after their physical death or during their present existence. The context, however, suggests that Paul was referring primarily to the present existence of his readers. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ provide life now, not merely in the future after physical death. We are called to demonstrate that life in our situation, just as Paul was called and demonstrated it in his.
Common:
John 11:(1-16) 17-45
Lutheran: John 11:1-53
Roman Catholic: John 11:1-45
Next to the dramatic vision of the restoration to life of the people of Israel in the Ezekiel 37 account, this John 11 story is the most spectacular restoration to life story in our biblical texts. Through it the Johannine tradition carries the proclamation that God raised Jesus from the dead a step farther. It asserts that God has given to Jesus power to restore to life even people who have been in the tomb longer than Jesus himself was, and whose bodies have already undergone considerable decay. Lazarus is said to have been in the tomb not three days as Jesus was, but four (John 11:17, 39), and unlike the accounts of Jesus' resurrection we are shown in this story the dead man actually walking out of the tomb. Decaying, foul-smelling flesh has become sound, healthy, beautifully restored flesh. Truly this is a "little Easter" text in Lent.
Unlike the Common and Roman Catholic selections, which end on the positive note of many of the Jews who were friends of Mary believing in Jesus (11:45), the Lutheran pericope continues through 11:53 with its suggestion that leaders from among Jesus' own people plotted his death. Both this addition and the alternate Lutheran reading (John 11:47-53) are regrettable, because not only do they depart somewhat from the theme of the other texts of restoration to life; they also result in readings that are more anti-Jewish than are the Common and Roman Catholic texts. This tendency of the Lutheran selections to be more anti-Jewish than the Common and Roman Catholic texts must be noted and opposed each time it is encountered. To permit this tendency to continue is unconscionable.
If the alternate Lutheran selection (John 11:47-53) is used, we should focus attention on the core theological message of the text in 11:51c-52, rather than on the anti-Jewish material in which that message is placed. In 11:51c-52 we can see what may be a way in which followers of Jesus in the Johannine tradition earlier than the time of the later redactions of the Johannine material perceived the significance of Jesus' death. In 11:51c-52 Jesus' death is perceived as having been for the people of the nation Israel in Palestine, and not for them only, but also for the children of God who have been and are scattered in the Diaspora, that they may be gathered together and restored to life into one community. Possibly the Johannine community saw itself as that community at some stage of its existence. Finally, it is possible that Caiaphas in 11:49-52 is representative of the thought of the small percentage of Jesus' own people who cooperated with the oppressive Roman occupation forces. They may have reasoned that it would be expedient that Jesus be crucified as a "King of the Jews" by the Roman occupation forces so that Jesus' followers would disperse before, in their zeal, they would trigger a futile, disastrous revolution in which literally "the whole nation" would perish.
Since these texts are used here during the season of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, we can use nature also as an illustrative aid in our presentation. We see in addition that, with their theme of restoration to life, these texts bring a "little Easter" message into this Fifth Sunday in Lent. They provide a foretaste of the Easter message.
Common:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Lutheran: Ezekiel 37:1-3 (4-10) 11-14
Roman Catholic: Ezekiel 37:12-14
This proclamation of restoration of life to the people and nation of Israel must have been highly significant to the Israelite exiles in Babylon. Many of us, within our much different political situations, find it difficult to perceive how this message must have been appreciated by the Israelites in Babylonian captivity. Those of us who are ourselves - or who identify closely with - remnants of scattered, forsaken Native American tribes and Black people torn from proud African national cultures by slave traders and slave owners can relate most closely to this message, as the Black spiritual "Dem Bones" indicates. Jewish people throughout twenty centuries of nationlessness could relate most of all to this text, and Jewish people today can see in the nation of Israel evidence that God through intense struggle has given them new life and hope in their ancestral home. Their faith and their hope are celebrated in this text, and we as Christian proclaimers of the gospel can witness to their faith in the midst of our congregations also. Therefore, this Exekiel text should have a prominent place in our proclamation next Sunday. It sets the tone for the other readings through its vivid description of the reversal of death and decay as scattered dry bones are brought together and given new life by the power of God.
Common:
Psalm 116:1-9
Lutheran: Psalm 116:1-8
This individual hymn of thanksgiving expresses on an individual basis the same thought that is expressed corporately in Ezekiel 37. It continues to express the thankful response of innumerable Jewish and Christian people who have been very ill, have been restored to life and health, and have attributed their recovery to the action of God.
Roman Catholic: Psalm 130
From the depths of despair, the psalmist cries to the Lord, asking for forgiveness and waiting for the morning. Both for the individual and for the nation, restoration is something that only God can bring. Only God, in God's steadfast love, can bring restoration to life. Only God can bring redemption. This is the Lenten message also for us.
Common:
Romans 8:6-11
Lutheran: Romans 8:11-19
Roman Catholic: Romans 8:8-11
Paul does not distinguish clearly in Romans 8:11 whether he is referring to God making alive the mortal bodies of his readers after their physical death or during their present existence. The context, however, suggests that Paul was referring primarily to the present existence of his readers. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ provide life now, not merely in the future after physical death. We are called to demonstrate that life in our situation, just as Paul was called and demonstrated it in his.
Common:
John 11:(1-16) 17-45
Lutheran: John 11:1-53
Roman Catholic: John 11:1-45
Next to the dramatic vision of the restoration to life of the people of Israel in the Ezekiel 37 account, this John 11 story is the most spectacular restoration to life story in our biblical texts. Through it the Johannine tradition carries the proclamation that God raised Jesus from the dead a step farther. It asserts that God has given to Jesus power to restore to life even people who have been in the tomb longer than Jesus himself was, and whose bodies have already undergone considerable decay. Lazarus is said to have been in the tomb not three days as Jesus was, but four (John 11:17, 39), and unlike the accounts of Jesus' resurrection we are shown in this story the dead man actually walking out of the tomb. Decaying, foul-smelling flesh has become sound, healthy, beautifully restored flesh. Truly this is a "little Easter" text in Lent.
Unlike the Common and Roman Catholic selections, which end on the positive note of many of the Jews who were friends of Mary believing in Jesus (11:45), the Lutheran pericope continues through 11:53 with its suggestion that leaders from among Jesus' own people plotted his death. Both this addition and the alternate Lutheran reading (John 11:47-53) are regrettable, because not only do they depart somewhat from the theme of the other texts of restoration to life; they also result in readings that are more anti-Jewish than are the Common and Roman Catholic texts. This tendency of the Lutheran selections to be more anti-Jewish than the Common and Roman Catholic texts must be noted and opposed each time it is encountered. To permit this tendency to continue is unconscionable.
If the alternate Lutheran selection (John 11:47-53) is used, we should focus attention on the core theological message of the text in 11:51c-52, rather than on the anti-Jewish material in which that message is placed. In 11:51c-52 we can see what may be a way in which followers of Jesus in the Johannine tradition earlier than the time of the later redactions of the Johannine material perceived the significance of Jesus' death. In 11:51c-52 Jesus' death is perceived as having been for the people of the nation Israel in Palestine, and not for them only, but also for the children of God who have been and are scattered in the Diaspora, that they may be gathered together and restored to life into one community. Possibly the Johannine community saw itself as that community at some stage of its existence. Finally, it is possible that Caiaphas in 11:49-52 is representative of the thought of the small percentage of Jesus' own people who cooperated with the oppressive Roman occupation forces. They may have reasoned that it would be expedient that Jesus be crucified as a "King of the Jews" by the Roman occupation forces so that Jesus' followers would disperse before, in their zeal, they would trigger a futile, disastrous revolution in which literally "the whole nation" would perish.
