Scripture Notes: The Prodigal, Part 1 (Luke 15)

The parable of the prodigal son, as we often think of it, is one of Jesus’ most famous stories. It is a familiar tale, perhaps too familiar, for we tend to glide over the top of it rather than plumbing its depths and drawing out the rich meanings waiting for us.

Jesus begins by telling us, “There was a man who had two sons” (Luke 15:11). This is a family, a group of people bound by blood ties, by spiritual ties, who are supposed to work together for their own good and the good of those around them. But this family has a problem.

The younger son apparently wants to explore the big, wide world. Perhaps he is tired of being under his father’s thumb (for in that culture, the father is head of the family, and sons obey him no matter how old they are), and he wants his independence. In any case, he does something that is almost unthinkable: he demands his share of his family’s property. Essentially, he is telling his father that he wishes the old man were dead, but since he is not, he wants what is coming to him, right now.

This is probably the most offensive thing a son could say and do. It reveals a deep selfishness, a lack of compassion for his father and brother, a complete disregard for the life and unity of his family. The younger son is thinking only of himself and his desires.  

We might expect the father to say something like, “Tough luck, kid. I don’t have to give you anything.” But he does not. Instead, he gives his younger son exactly what he asks for. He lets him have his inheritance early. Why? Because sometimes selfish, stupid people have to learn the hard way. The father here represents God, and God never forces us to choose Him. And when we choose something other than Him, He often lets us have it. He lets us experience the consequences of our bad choices because that is often the only way we learn exactly how bad they are. 

Interestingly, there are two Greek words used to describe the property requested by the younger son. The first is ousia, here translated as property or wealth or goods. It derives from a word that means substance or being or existence. The son is asking for material stuff, but deeper down, it seems that he wants to be in charge of his own existence. He wants to be on his own. The other word is bios. We learn that the father divided the bios between them. Bios actually means life, but here we can take it as the resources of living, the stuff needed for life. Yet there is something deeper; when the younger son leaves, he takes a piece of his father’s very life with him. The father sends it along because he knows that his son will one day need that life. 

Scripture Notes: My Child (1 Timothy)

As Paul continues the introductory verses of his first letter to Timothy, he identifies his initial audience: “To Timothy, my true child in the faith” (1 Tim 1:2). Paul is the one who brought Timothy to the Christian faith. He taught Timothy about Jesus. He trained him in the Scriptures and in the sacraments. Maybe he stood beside Timothy as he was baptized. Perhaps he even ordained him priest and bishop. Timothy was indeed Paul’s son in a very real, deeply spiritual way, and their love must have been strong.

In fact, Paul’s love for Timothy stands behind his next words: “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Tim 1:2). What a beautiful prayer and blessing this is! Paul wishes God to pour out His grace onto his spiritual son, His gift of love and help and support and protection, His gift of life. Paul wishes Timothy to experience God’s mercy, His forgiveness, His saving help. Paul wishes Timothy the great comfort of peace, of having everything in the right order, God’s order. 

Paul knows that he cannot give these great gifts to his spiritual son, so he asks God to grant them, realizing that they come from the Father and the Son (and although Paul does not say it here, from the Holy Spirit as well). Paul understands that God’s love for Timothy is even greater than his own, and he longs for that divine love to flow over and into Timothy, his true child in the faith.

Scripture Notes: Theological Treasure (1 Timothy)

St. Paul packs a trove of theological treasure into the first verse of his first letter to Timothy. We often tend to jump right over these words of greeting, thinking perhaps that they are just an introduction. Indeed they are: an introduction ripe for reflection.

Paul begins by calling himself an apostle of Christ Jesus. An apostle is someone who is sent, someone commissioned for a particular task. Paul has not sent himself; God has sent him (and he knows it very well due to his experience on the road to Damascus; see Acts 9). Paul makes this clear when he tells Timothy (and us) that his apostleship is by the command (or authority) of “God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Tim 1:1). Paul is no longer his own; his mission is not his own; he works under the command and authority of Another.

God our Savior. A savior is one who rescues, delivers, preserves, protects. In this modern world, many people do not recognize their need for a savior. They think they are perfectly fine, even doing well. But none of us are. We need to be rescued, delivered, preserved, protected, saved. From what? From sin and death and the devil and, all too often, our own fallen selves. God saves us from all of these.

How? Through Christ Jesus our hope. Jesus died for us, to deliver us from sin and death, to restore us to true life and communion with God. This we believe. In this we hope. And hope in a Christian sense is not some vague idea that someday everything will be okay. Rather, it is a confidence that Jesus makes things right for us, right now and forever. We have to cooperate with Him, respond to His love with our own love, repent and confess our sins, and do our best to embrace His will. All of this arises out of our hope, our faith, our love, and especially out of His grace, for everything good that we have comes from Him.

Scripture Notes: Contend for the Faith (Jude 3-4)

St. Jude is very clear about why he writes his letter. First, he is “eager,” he says, to write of “our common salvation” (Jude 3). He is driven along by a certain desire to speak the truth, Christian to Christian, to remind his audience about their shared salvation, a salvation brought about by faith and hope and love and especially by the grace of God through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit. But the faith, Jude warns, must not be taken for granted. Rather, he appeals to his readers “to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). 

In other words, this faith, and perhaps salvation itself, is at risk. Christians must not sit back and relax, thinking that they have no more to do. No, according to Jude, they must strive for their faith, exert an intense effort for it (as the Greek verb translated here as “contend” suggests). Indeed, they have a fight on their hands, a struggle in which they must invest great exertion and perhaps even great suffering. 

Why is this struggle so imminent? Jude proceeds to explain that “ungodly persons” have secretly gained admission into the Church (Jude 4). They may seem innocent. They may appear as good Christians. But they are not because “they pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). What exactly does this mean? We are not entirely certain. Perhaps some people were advocating a form of “once saved always saved” and telling Jude’s readers that no matter what they did, God would save them anyway. This is merely presumption, however, and turning one’s back on one’s moral responsibility. It is a form of laziness that rejects the gift of true human freedom that God designed to work in cooperation with Him.

Also, these sneaky folks are somehow denying Jesus. Perhaps they are practicing an early form of heresy that rejected Jesus’ divinity or humanity. Maybe they are saying a firm no to Jesus’ moral teachings and in doing so rejecting Jesus as their Master and Lord, refusing to give themselves over to Him. Both options may be in play. In any case, the Christians Jude is writing to must be very careful. They must contend for their faith against these pervasive influences, making sure that they hold tightly to the truths they have learned and not swerve an inch, even in the face of temptations and trials. 

We, too, are among the Christians Jude writes to. We, too, must contend for our faith just as much as Jude’s original audience. We, too, face temptations and are hounded by lies told by people who seem to be in our community but are really trying to lead us astray. So we must be on our guard and hold fast, learning our faith well and being just as eager to defend and share the truth as Jude is and to lead others into our common salvation in Jesus Christ.

Scripture Notes: Kept for Christ (Jude 1)

The Letter of Jude is short and often overlooked, but it offers a great deal of theological depth and beauty, even in its opening line. Jude begins by identifying himself as a doulos of Christ, a servant or, better, a slave. This one little word tells us that Jude has given himself completely to Jesus; he belongs to Him, not to himself. Jude also identifies himself as the brother of James. While scholars debate Jude’s and James’ identity, they are likely the kinsmen of Jesus, those who refused to believe Him at first (and even thought He was crazy) but over time realized the truth about Who Jesus is and immersed themselves in the life and leadership of the Church. 

Jude writes to those who are called. This should make us think about Who is doing the calling. Jesus calls us. He has chosen us first. We must respond to Him. Jude also identifies his audience as those who are beloved in God the Father. The word for beloved is the perfect passive participle of the verb agapaō, which refers to divine love and to our share in divine love. The perfect tense is the red flag tense in Greek. It stands out and demands our attention, for it refers to something that happened in the past but has critical ramifications for the present. So God has loved us, and His love affects us here and now in a major way. His divine love surrounds us; we are in Him, sharing in that love and in His very life. 

Jude adds one more designation. His audience is kept for Jesus Christ. The participle in this case is also in the perfect tense and comes from the verb tēreō, which can mean everything from guard and watch over to preserve and hold. Jesus guards us, protects, preserves us, holds us close to Him. We are kept for Him, preserved and protected for eternal life in, with, and through Him. We are safe in Him.

Just look at the depth of this first verse of the Letter of Jude. It only contains Greek seventeen words, but there is enough here for us to pray and reflect on for a long, long time.

Scripture Notes: The Angel Sits (Matthew 28)

As the women approach Jesus’ tomb early on Easter morning, they meet with a surprise. They mean to mourn, perhaps to see if they can get into the tomb to further care for Jesus’ body, just to be there beside Him. But instead the ground shakes under them, and an angel descends and rolls back the huge stone that would have required several men to move in front of the tomb’s entrance. The angel pushes it aside as though it were merely a pebble, and then he sits on it.

We often overlook that little detail, but just like everything else in Scripture, it is important; it has meaning. The angel seats himself on the stone because it is a symbol of death, of separation. It has been an obstacle in the way of a connection between Jesus and His disciples. It has been blocking the way. Yet what once seemed insurmountable, permanent, impossible, is now out of the way. The angel sits on the stone like it is nothing at all, and to him, as well as to Jesus, it is nothing at all. Jesus is no longer in the tomb. Jesus is no longer dead. And since the angel moves the stone away, Jesus must have exited the tomb by going right through it. No wonder the guards are lying senseless on the ground!

By sitting on the stone, the angel indicates that a divine victory has taken place. The obstacle has been surmounted. Death has been conquered. The stone is rolled away, no longer to stand between Jesus and the whole world. Jesus is risen! Alleluia!

Scripture Notes: Hail (John 19)

One of the most horribly ironic lines in Sacred Scripture is spoken by the soldiers mocking Jesus as they crown Him with thorns. They proclaim, “Hail, King of the Jews!” as they strike Him. The word translated here as “Hail” is chaire in Greek. It is a common greeting, and “hail” is the usual translation, but deeper down, the word actually means “Rejoice!” So the soldiers are literally telling Jesus to rejoice as they crown Him with thorns and strike Him and mock Him. Yet little do they know, there is indeed cause to rejoice, not at the suffering of Jesus but at what He is accomplishing through that suffering, what He is showing us through that suffering: our salvation and His infinite love.

The soldiers address Jesus as King of the Jews, but they have no idea that they are actually speaking to the King of the whole universe, to the Creator and Ruler of the whole universe. The irony is thick and heavy. Jesus could literally annihilate them right then and there if He so chooses. He has full divine power over life and death and everything else. But He does not act or even speak. This King remains silent. He takes the abuse, and He loves the abusers. This King willingly chooses to hand Himself over, to give Himself fully, to suffer in the extreme, and all so that we might live in His kingdom. Now there is a reason to rejoice!