BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Monday, Dec. 13, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 41, 52 [PCUSA: 122:1-9]
Evening Psalm(s): PM Psalm 44 [PCUSA: 40:1-17]
Old Testament: Isa. 8:16-9:1
Epistle: 2 Pet. 1:1-11
Gospel: Luke 22:39-53
Presbyterian Readings with Biblical Text for the Current Day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
Because the signs (Isa. 8:18) which Isaiah has presented to Ahaz (7:3, 14; 8:1) have been rejected, he gives instruction to a circle of followers: “Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples” (8:16). He is prepared to “wait for the LORD” (v. 17). Because his counsel has been rejected, Isaiah expects the people to seek spiritual counsel from “the ghosts and the familiar spirits” (v. 19) with disastrous results: They “will have no dawn” (v. 20), “pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry,” and “will curse their king” (v. 21), but “will see only distress and darkness” (v. 22). However, the final verse (9:1) provides a transition to a promise of better times. “In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.” The promise begins:
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness–
on them light has shined. (Isa. 9:2)
“The people who sat in darkness” are “those who suffered most from the Assyrian invasions” (Elwyn E. Tilden and Bruce M. Metzger, NOAB). A comparison of maps for the tribal distribution of land in Israel and for the time of Jesus will show that his Galilee includes land of Zebulun, Naphtali and Issachar. Matthew makes the connection and sees the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee “in Capernaum by the sea” (Mt. 4:13) as fulfillment (v. 14) of Isaiah 9:1-2), which he quotes (Mt. 4:15-16). The brighter picture continues in Tuesday’s Old Testament reading.
After the usual salutation and greeting, Peter reviews the “faith” his readers have received (2 Pet. 1:1). He starts with a blessing, “May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (v. 2). We have received “everything needed for life and godliness , through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (v. 3). His promises enable us to “escape from the corruption that is in the world” and to “become participants of the divine nature” (v. 4). We are instructed to “support your faith with goodness” (v. 5) and a list of virtues, including knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection and love (vv. 5-7). We are “to confirm your call and election” (v. 10). “For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you” (v. 11).
Luke’s account of Jesus’ prayer before his arrest (Lk. 22:40-46) is shorter than those of Matthew (26:36-46) and Mark (14:32-42), and has distinctive features. All identify the general area as “the Mount of Olives” (Mt. 26:30; Mk. 14:26; Lk. 22:39), but Luke does not mention “a place called Gethsemane” (Mt. 26:36; cf. Mk. 14:32). He omits some of the details of Jesus’ agony (Mk. 14:33-34; Mt. 26:37-38), but see below, and he omits Jesus’ remonstrance with the disciples whose “flesh is weak” (Mk. 14:28; Mt. 26:41). In the Revised Standard version Luke 22:43-44 was taken out of the text and put in a footnote because these verses were missing from several ancient manuscripts. “Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” In the New Revised Standard Version, these words have been put back in the text between double square brackets–to indicate the uncertainty caused by the differences in the manuscripts. Some suggest that the words were omitted from some manuscripts, “perhaps omitted by Marcion for docetic reasons, and by Alexandrians as doctrinally difficult” (G. W. H. Lampe, Peake’s Commentary). Others lean the other way: “Although it is probable that these verses were not part of the original Gospel of Luke (since important early manuscripts lack them), they were know to Christian writers of the second century and reflect tradition from the first century concerning the suffering of Jesus” (Elwyn E. Tilden and Bruce M. Metzger, NOAB). Whether these words come from Luke himself or a very early scribe, they remind us that the agony of Jesus’ passion begins immediately with the arrest (vv. 47-54). Even so, Jesus heals the ear which one of his supporters cut off from the high priest’s slave (vv. 50-51). As for what this all means, I believe the writer to the Hebrews got it right: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help; in time of need” (Heb. 4:15-16).
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.