August 7, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
In last Sunday’s gospel commentary, it was pointed out how John reveals something about the identity of Jesus in three steps. The first step was a revelation that the teaching Jesus brings from the Father is the true bread that comes down from heaven. As last Sunday’s gospel ended, John took the second step in this revelation, when he attributes to Jesus these words, “I myself am the bread of life.” This is not yet the Eucharist. Rather it is Jesus himself as God’s ultimate revelation. In the first step Jesus brought the final Torah or teaching of God. Now John reveals that Jesus himself is the ultimate Torah of God. Both these revelations have a basis in Deuteronomy 8:3, when the authors of that book give new meaning to the manna in these words, “Humankind does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Meaning: the manna was a symbol of God’s Torah. Jesus brought that Torah, that word, and is that word,
John voices correct objection to a teaching that seemed exceedingly strange and unbelievable, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?” (One of two mentions Joseph gets in the Gospel of John.) “Don’t we know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” No direct answer is given. Instead Jesus tells them to stop grumbling, and adds, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him . . ., and is written in the prophets, ‘They shall all be taught by God.’” What is this supposed to mean? That what Jesus had said about himself coming down from heaven, about bringing God’s ultimate Torah, about being God’s ultimate Torah, can only be accepted in faith. Only God can draw a person to Jesus as bread of life which came down from heaven.
John next resorts to his accustomed bashing of opponents. These opponents found their hero in Moses and the Torah that God revealed through Moses, the first five books of our Bible. John engages in oneupmanship, when he writes, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father.” In Exodus 33 there are two contradictory traditions about Moses seeing God. The first tradition notes that God used to speak with Moses face to face, “as a man speaks to a friend.”
In the second tradition, (from a different source), Moses has never seen God but asks for that favor. God tells Moses, “You cannot see my face and live, but here’s what I will do. I will put you over there in a cleft in the rock, and when my glory (I) passes by, I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then when I take my hand away, you can see my back, but my face you shall not see.” The Exodus statement was probably intended as a jab at Moses by priests descended from Aaron. John continues this tradition and elevates Jesus as the only one who has ever seen God.
As John approaches the third and final step in the revelation of Jesus as bread of life, Jesus keeps on insisting, “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died. This, (Jesus’ teaching and Jesus himself as God’s ultimate teaching,) is the bread that comes down from heaven (right now in this gospel) so that one may eat it and not die.” What does this mean? In the Old Testament the Torah (the Law of Moses) was said to give life. In Deuteronomy 30:19, speaking to the Israelites about the Torah, Moses says, “Choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice . . ., for that means life to you.” Moses’ words could be interpreted as meaning an extension of life in this world, seeing one’s descendants to the fourth and fifth generations. Jesus offers eternal life, beginning in this world through faith in him as God’s Torah. But there is more. John moves on to the third revelation, Jesus in the Eucharist, “and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Next week!
Elijah (ninth century B.C.) is fleeing for his life. He and his disciples had just massacred 450 prophets of the god Baal, Queen Jezebel’s favorite god. She sent Elijah a message, “By this time tomorrow you will be where they are.” As he fled, he asked the Lord God to take his life. He fell asleep. An angel woke him up and refreshed him with water and a pancake. The angel ordered him to eat and walk south. The reading closes with this statement, “. . . strengthened by that food, Elijah walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God . . . .” Is there a connection to the gospel as there should be? It would be in that final statement, that Elijah walked in the strength of the food provided by heaven.
The Letter to the Ephesians celebrates the unity of Jew and Gentile in the Church, the Body of Christ. All Paul’s communities (even as parishes today) had problems that injured unity. He names some of the problems: bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, cursing. The, “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” The appeal of these words is as compelling today as when they were written.