Isaiah 44:6-8, 21-23

`6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel,

`and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:

`I am the first and I am the last;

`besides me there is no god.

`7 Who is like me? Let them proclaim it,

`let them declare and set it forth before me.

`Who has announced from of old the things to come?

`Let them tell us what is yet to be.

`8 Do not fear, or be afraid;

`have I not told you from of old and declared it?

`You are my witnesses!

`Is there any god besides me?

`There is no other rock; I know not one. (Isaiah 44:6-8, NRSV)

Israel Is Not Forgotten

`21 Remember these things, O Jacob,

`and Israel, for you are my servant;

`I formed you, you are my servant;

`O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

`22 I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud,

`and your sins like mist;

`return to me, for I have redeemed you.

`23 Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it;

`shout, O depths of the earth;

`break forth into singing, O mountains,

`O forest, and every tree in it!

`For the LORD has redeemed Jacob,

`and will be glorified in Israel. (Isaiah 44:21-23, NRSV)

On January 15, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), comments were repeated with revision and supplement from January 17, 2005 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One); the comments are repeated here with some editing:

The reading from Isaiah has two parts, a celebration of God’s uniqueness (Isa. 44:6-8)and an affirmation of Israel’s forgiveness and redemption (vv. 21-23. Sandwiched between these stanzas is a powerful prose satire on idolatry (vv. 9-20), a counterpoint to the uniqueness of the LORD God. But that portion is the reading for tomorrow. The LORD speaks through the prophet: “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, / and his Redeemer (lx2Go, gō’ēl), the LORD of hosts: / I am the first (NOwxr9, ri’šôn) and I am the last (NOrH3x1 , ’ach^arôn); / besides me there is no god.” (Isa. 44:6; cf. Rev. 1:8; 22:13). The term “redeemer” (lx2Go, gō’ēl) is used of Boaz’ role as the “kinsman redeemer” in the book of Ruth (Ruth 4:9-10). It is applied to the “avenger of bloodshed” (1 Kgs. 16:12), but also more generally, it means to “make a claim for a person or thing,” thus to “reclaim him/it”; also to “lay claim to,” that is, “redeem, ransom” as when God redeems or ransoms Israel (Exod. 6:6) (William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1971, 10^th corrected impression 1988, s.v. lx1G!, gā’al). Moses is told, “Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem (yT9l4x1g!v4, w^eg^o’altî) you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment’” (Exod. 6:6). The whole stanza here (Isa. 44:6-8) serves to validate the earlier promises (43:25-44:5), but also to emphasize “God’s uniqueness” (Victor R. Gold and William L. Holladay, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on Isa. 44:6-8), in anticipation of the contrast with the futility of idolatry (vv. 9-20). “Who is like me?” asks the LORD. “Let them proclaim it, / let them declare and set it forth before me. / Who has announced from of old the things to come? / Let them tell us what is yet to be” (v. 7). The LORD applies the test of a true prophet stated in Deuteronomy in his challenge to foreign deities: “If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it” (Deut. 18:21-22). Gold and Holladay suggest that Isaiah 44:7 is “perhaps a reference to God’s promises to the patriarchs (Gen. 12:1-3). Leading into the following satire on idolatry, the LORD emphatically affirms his own uniqueness, and names the Israelites as “my witnesses” (yd!f2, ‘ēdāy). The very continued existence of Israel as a nation over the previous millennium is evidence of God’s providence and care, but the reference is to specific acts of deliverance. “Do not fear, or be afraid; / have I not told you from of old and declared it? / `You are my witnesses! / `Is there any god besides me? / There is no other rock (rUc, tsûr); I know not one” (Isa. 44:8). According to J. J. M. Roberts, the term “rock” (rUc, tsûr) is “an epithet for God as Israel’s protector (17:10; 26:4; 30:29; Deut. 32:4, 18)” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Isa. 44:8). “The Lord alone has demonstrated his control of history,” says Roberts, “by the prophetic word; there is no other god to challenge the Lord (see 41:21-24)” (on 44:6-8).

Following the satire on idolatry (vv. 9-20), the LORD’s promises resume. “Remember these things, O Jacob, / and Israel, for you are my servant; / I formed you, you are my servant; / O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me” (v. 21). The LORD has dealt with the problem of Israel’s transgressions. He says, “I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, / and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you” (v. 22). “God has swept away Israel’s sins as completely as the morning mists vanish before the sun,” says Roberts (on v. 22). For a holy God to speak in such sweeping terms about the removal of transgressions and sin, we understand that the problem of the sinful human heart must have been dealt with. But in this context, the emphasis is on God’s uniqueness, power, and ability to transform his people. According to John N. Oswalt,

These two verses [44:21-22] give us God’s appeal to his people on the basis of what he has just said. They have not made their God; rather he has ‘made’ them. Therefore, he is no prisoner of creation, and they need not be either. If they will ‘remember’ all that he has been, is, and will be, they need not fear that he will ‘forget’ them. Nor do they need to fear that their sins have become irremovable aspects of their fate. God is not bound by fate; if he determines to forgive their ‘offenses’ and to redeem them from their captivity, he will find a way to do those things. There is nothing that can stop him (cf. 43:13). (Isaiah, The NIV Application Commentary, 2003, p. 504, on Isa. 44:21-22).

Benjamin D. Sommer puts it similarly: “God formed Israel; in contrast pagans formed their gods. Therefore Israel should serve, and trust, its God. Further it follows that God will forgive Israel” (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, p. 874, on Isa. 44:21-22).

The last verse of today’s reading (v. 23) forms a new stanza, connecting to another that will spell out the manner of the LORD’s deliverance of Israel from Babylonian captivity–through Cyrus, the Persian (44:28; 45:1). But that is Wednesday’s reading (44:24-45:7). At this point, says Roberts, “all of nature is called upon to praise God for his redemption of Israel (cf. 42:10-12; Jer. 51:48)” (op. cit., on v. 23): “Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; / shout, O depths of the earth; / break forth into singing, O mountains, / O forest, and every tree in it! / For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, / and will be glorified in Israel” (v. 23).

Ephesians 4:1-16

Unity in the Body of Christ

4:1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it is said,

`"When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;

`he gave gifts to his people."

9 (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:1-16, NRSV)

On May 7, 2008 (Wednesday in the week of the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year Two), comments were repeated from January 15, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), when comments were combined with revision and adaptation from January 17, 2005 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), which were repeated on January 2, 2006 (Monday in the week of the first Sunday after Christmas, references listed for January 2, Year Two), and also repeated on May 31, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year Two), with material from May 22, 2005 (Trinity Sunday, Year One), which was repeated on January 15, 2006 (the Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two). The combined comments are repeated here:

This reading from Ephesians begins the second half of the book, in which Paul emphasizes practical advice for Christian living. But this advice is grounded in the doctrines expounded in the first three chapters: God’s blessed plan for our salvation through Christ, in whom “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Eph. 1:7), planned “for the fullness of time” (v. 19), a plan by which God has put all things under Christ’s feet and “has made him the head over all things for the church” (v. 22). This salvation brings us from death “through the trespasses and sins in which [we] once lived” (2:1-2), to being “made alive together with Christ” (v. 5), made so “by grace . . . through faith” (v. 8), so that, “the dividing wall” between Jews and Gentiles has been broken down (2:14) in “one body” (v. 16), the “household of God” (v. 19), a “holy temple in the Lord (v. 21).

In the transition from the “doctrinal half” of Ephesians to the ethical instructions of chapters 4-6, Paul begs us “to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Eph. 4:1-2). But, as this is intended “to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (v. 3), in “one body and one Spirit” (v. 4), with “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [and] one God” (vv. 5-6), he continues with a discussion of “gifts” from Christ (vv. 7-16) that invites comparison with his discussion of the “gifts of the Spirit” (1 Cor., chap. 12). Paul defines the church as “one body,” united by “one Spirit” and “one hope” (4:4), with “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (vv. 5-6). Jennifer K. Berenson Maclean has called these “seven bases of unity” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Eph. 4:6-7).

The list here, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (v. 11), reads like a list of church officers (clergy), but it is worth noting the stated purpose. Elton Trueblood has pointed out that the list of church “offices” in verse 11, “some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,” comes to a focus in verse 12: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (vv. 12-13). Trueblood refers to pastors as “player-coaches.” Both concepts envision the work of ministry as the work of all Christian believers, not just of the “clergy,” however defined. In any case, fulfilling the admonitions of verses 14 -16 should be the goal of us all: not to be swayed by false doctrine, but speaking the truth in love, and growing up in Christ in every way. So the work of “the saints” here, facilitated by the list of “leaders,” is the work of the body of Christ, and compares well with the expectations Paul outlined for the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians. But the perspective is broader here, perhaps universal, whereas it was focused on the Christian community of Corinth there. If Paul’s continuation in Ephesians (Eph. 4:14-16) is about the work of ministry, it is epitomized in verse 15, “speaking the truth in love.”

Mark 3:7-19a

A Multitude at the Seaside (Mt 12.15-21)

7 Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; 8 hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. 9 He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; 10 for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. 11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, "You are the Son of God!" 12 But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

Jesus Appoints the Twelve (Mt 10.1-4; Lk 6.12-16)

13 He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, 15 and to have authority to cast out demons. 16 So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Mark 3:7-19a, NRSV)

On February 18, 2008 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two), comments were repeated from July 20, 2007 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 13, Year One), when comments were repeated from January 15, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), when they were combined with revision and adaptation from January 17, 2005, (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), from July 15, 2005 (Friday of the week of the Sunday closest to July 13), from January 15, 2006 (the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), from March 13, 2006 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two), and, with reference to the naming of the Twelve, comments from October 6, 2006 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 28, Year Two), when the Gospel reading was Luke 6:12-26). The combined comments are repeated here:

The reading from Mark has two sections, on Jesus Healing Multitudes by the Sea (Mk. 3:7-12; cf. Mt. 4:23-25; 12:15-16; Lk. 6:17-19) and on Jesus Choosing the Twelve (Mark 3:13-19a; cf. Mt. 10:1-4; Lk. 6:12-16). These two sections are presented in two tables, together with the parallel passages, in separate files, Healing Multitudes and Choosing the Twelve.

The scene which pictures Jesus healing multitudes by the sea has crucial, but different, roles in each of the Synoptic Gospels. Earlier in Mark, Jesus toured Galilee, “proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons” (Mk. 1:39). But after the confrontation over the man with the withered hand and the conspiracy of the Pharisees with the Herodians to destroy him (Mk. 3:1-6), Jesus stays for a while in open country, “the sea” (3:7), on “the mountain (v. 13), and when going “home” (v. 19; cf. 19-34) doesn’t work so well, he returns to the sea (4:1) for teaching in parables (4:2-34). The contrast stands out in bold relief between the Pharisees and Herodians who “conspired . . . to destroy him [Jesus]” (Mk. 3:6), and “a great multitude” who “followed him.” Jesus’ fame is growing, and “a great multitude from Galilee followed him” (v. 7). As his fame spread, they came “in great numbers” from further away, “from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan and the region around Tyre and Sidon” (v. 8). It seems as if they came from “all over,” especially for healing (v. 10). The unclean spirits, in spite of their recognizing him as “the Son of God” (v. 11, cf. 1:24), were surely on the side of the conspirators, not the multitude. Was the opposition the reason for Jesus’ next move, the appointing of the Twelve (Mk. 3:13-19)? Their mission was “to proclaim the message, and . . . to cast out demons” (vv. 14-15). But their number, twelve, the number of Israel’s tribes, perhaps represented a restoration of Israel. To borrow a little late twentieth century jargon, Jesus’ appointing of the Twelve was a proactive, not reactive, move. His kingdom of God program would not be stopped by opposition from men or from demons. Students of the life of Christ have called this period the “year of popularity.” It seems that a major attraction was his fame as a healer and exorcist (vv. 10-11).

In Matthew, a brief version of this scene of Jesus healing the multitudes is placed at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry (Mt. 4:23-25) following his calling of four fishermen (vv. 18-22), and setting the stage for the Sermon on the Mount with a ready-made audience of “great crowds [who] followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (v. 25). It’s not that Matthew was unaware of the episodes of healing and encounters with opposition that are clustered at the beginning of Mark. Compare, for example, the Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-Law (Mt. 8:14-15; Mk. 1:29-31; Lk. 4:38-39), Healing the Sick at Evening (Mt. 8:16-17; Mk. 1:32-34; Lk. 4:40-41), the Cleansing of the Leper (Mt. 8:1-4; Mk. 1:40-45; Lk. 5:12-16), the Healing of the Paralytic (Mt. 9:1-8; Mk. 2:1-12; Lk. 5:17-26), and so forth. It’s just that Matthew postponed the use of much of this material until after the Sermon on the Mount, which, for him, inaugurates Jesus’ public ministry as the Teacher of Israel (Richard A. Burridge, Four Gospels, One Jesus? A Symbolic Reading, 2^nd ed., chap. 2, “The Teacher of Israel–Matthew’s Jesus; cf. his discussion of the “four living creatures,” and their symbolism within the Christian tradition, pp. 25-28).

It’s also worth noting that, for Luke, the healing of the multitudes sets the scene for the Sermon on the Plain (or “level place,” still on the mountain, though he “came down and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples,” Lk. 6:17, cf. vv. 20-49), which is the structural parallel to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (chaps. 5-7). But this sermon does not inaugurate Jesus’ public ministry for Luke; rather, Luke begins with Jesus’ sermon at Nazareth (Lk. 4:16-30), with its emphasis on the role of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, / because he has anointed me / to bring good news to the poor” (Lk. 4:18, quoting Isa. 61:1). And we are reminded that Luke begin’s his account of the ministry of the Apostles with the giving of the Holy Spirit to them on the day of Pentecost (Acts, chap. 2).

Matthew later returns to this scene of healing the multitudes (Mt. 12:15-16) in a kind of summary after a block of healing and encounter episodes (chaps. 8-11) which includes his sending out the Twelve to “proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Mt. 10:7-8). With another of his fulfillment quotations (Mt. 12:17-21, citing Isa. 42:1-4; cf. the table in the separate file Healing Multitudes, noted above), Matthew underscores the healing aspect of Jesus’ ministry. The decision of the Pharisees “to destroy him” has just been reported (Mt. 12:14; cf. Mk. 3:6; Lk. 6:11). Opposition and conflict intensify as Matthew’s story continues from here.

Mark and Luke are together in moving from the Healing of the Multitudes to the Choosing of the Twelve (Mk. 3:13-19a; Lk. 6:12:16), but Matthew presents this earlier (in his order, later in Mark’s) as a part of the Commissioning of the Twelve (Mt. 10:1-16; cf. Mk. 6:7; 3:13-19a; 6:8-11; Lk. 91; 6:12-16; 9:2-5; 10:3; cf. Aland, Synopsis, sec. 99, pp. 90-92). Within the lists of the names of the Twelve, apart from differences in order, the significant difference here is that Luke has “Simon, who was called the Zealot” for “Simon the Cananaean in the other two Gospels, and “Judas son of James” for “Thaddaeus” in the other two Gospels. The name “Levi” does not appear in these lists, but a person named Levi, who is called (Mk. 2:14) in a manner similar to the calling of Simon, Andrew, James and John (Mk. 1:16-20), “is identified as ‘Matthew’ in Mt. 9:9,” and is called “a customs officer at Capernaum, a border village, working under an officer of Herod Antipas” (Richard A. Horsley, NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Mk. 2:14). According to Marion Lloyd Soards, “Zealots were a distinct faction of revolutionaries in the Jewish war with Rome of 66-70 CE, but whether this designation indicates that this Simon was zealous in a political fashion is debatable since it is unlikely that a Zealot party existed during Jesus’ life” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Lk. 6:15). It is clear, however, that persons with views similar to the Zealots were present much earlier in Israel. So, today’s reading closes with a list of the Twelve, “whom he also named apostles” (v. 13), though we know that Judas Iscariot didn’t earn that title, but others did, for example, Paul of Tarsus, Andronicus and Junia (Rom. 16:7), and Barnabas (Acts 14:1, 4).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net