WITH 5,000 AND ONE

 

In Graduate School I had the rare privilege of attending meetings of the Jesus Seminar. During one meeting in New Orleans, I asked the group, "Why did Jesus need to go to Jerusalem?" His Galilee-based, grassroots movement was doing great. Going to Jerusalem was suicide. Even his disciples knew this; they did not want to him to go to Jerusalem, especially Peter. It did not make sense. But Jesus went anyway.

John Dominic Crossan volunteered John 7, where Jesus' brothers tell him, "No one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world!" NT Wright told me, "You should write a paper on it."

We all know how Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem ends. But I don't think for a moment that Jesus went because of what his brothers said.

Gabriela Silang did not need to take over leadership after Diego was assassinated in 1763. Jose Rizal did not need to come back to the Philippines in 1892. Andres Bonifacio did not need to go to the Magdalo camp in Cavite in 1896. Ernesto Che Guevara did not need to go to Bolivia in 1967. The scores of medical professionals, journalists, UN workers, and volunteers who went to Gaza to help the Palestinian People did not need to go there. We also know how these stories ended.

Historians tell us that when Jesus entered Jerusalem he did so with over 5000, made up of mostly farmers and fisherfolk...and a donkey's colt. Most of us forget the colt Jesus rode on as he entered the city. (We are so used to people-centric, actually male-centric, readings of the Bible.)**

Pontius Pilate also entered the city from the opposite direction with a Roman Legion. (That is 6,000 armed soldiers, including 300 cavalry!).

Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. Jesus did not need to cleanse the Temple with a whip. But he did anyway. Mark reports that every single day the authorities tried to arrest him, but they were afraid of the masses who protected him. So, they arrested him at night, with a Roman Cohort. (That is one battalion!)

Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. But he did so anyway. He had a mission from God. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing!

How about us? Do we have the faith and the heart to accomplish the mission God is calling us to do?


*Art, "Entry into the City" by John August Swanson (available from the vanderbilt divinity library digital art collection).
**We also forget the Good Samaritan's donkey.

THE SHORT INTRODUCTION TO "THE SHORTEST SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE SERIES"

 

There are people who pretend to read the Bible.
They will proudly say they read their Bibles and pray every day--but in reality, they've only memorized Genesis 1:1, Psalm 23, and John 3:16.

There are people who study the Bible who actually don't read it because they are required to read voluminous books about the Bible. They have encyclopedic knowledge about the history of Biblical translations, the structure of the Roman Empire during Jesus' time, and the mythology of various angels and beasts mentioned in Revelation--but they've never opened the Bible itself.

There are people who want to read the Bible but are told to read introductions to the Bible that are longer than the Bible. By the time they finish reading those intros, they often feel like not reading the Bible anymore--or never reading again for the rest of their lives, even.

For people who want to start reading the Bible but who want to have a helpful introduction, here's your answer. Prof. Revelation Velunta has written The Shortest Short Introduction to the Bible Collection. Each volume is so short, you can start reading the Bible after a few minutes.

https://a.co/d/dnMpenT

Ian Yeshua Aoanan Velunta

READING THE PARABLES OF JESUS INSIDE A JEEPNEY: NOW AN AUDIOBOOK!

READING THE PARABLES OF JESUS
INSIDE A JEEPNEY
Now available as an Audible Audiobook!
With Whispersync. Switch between listening and reading whenever you want!

https://a.co/d/42jBiad

IN MEMORY OF HER

Mark and Matthew also have versions of Sunday's Gospel from John. In Matthew's and Mark's narratives, the woman who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume is unnamed. Jesus tells his disciples to remember what she did in memory of her. John's Gospel does exactly that: the woman who anoints Jesus is named. She is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

A reading of the canonical gospels focused on his followers would show that--more often than not--they cannot understand what Jesus does and what he says. Over and over Jesus has to explain his words and his actions.

Over and over Jesus tells them about his suffering and his resurrection--and they misunderstand and disbelieve him. All four gospels end with women coming to the tomb to anoint a dead body! No one among Jesus’s twelve male disciples believed that he will rise again.

But one woman in the whole narrative does believe: the unnamed woman in Mark and Matthew; Mary of Bethany in John. She anoints Jesus for burial because there would be no body to anoint later. There would only be an empty tomb—as the named women disciples led by Magdalene discover when they came Easter morning with their anointing oils.

Friends don't forget this, ever: only one person believed that Jesus will be raised up: a woman.

And she was right!

Art, "Jesus speaks about forgiveness", JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon (available online at the vanderbilt divinity library art galleries).
 

REVELATION ON REVELATION

 

THE SHORTEST SHORT INTRODUCTION TO REVELATION
Now on Amazon.
Kindle and Print on Demand. 
https://a.co/d/iy4TcNm

THE LOST BOYS

Luke 15 has three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of these parables. The sheep, the coin, the son all represent the sinner who is lost then found and saved by God.

My friends, let us try to read the parables as parables about shepherds and sheep, women and coins, and fathers and sons. The shepherd is not God. Nor the woman. Nor the father.

The shepherd is responsible for sheep under her care. The woman is responsible for her coins. The father is responsible for his sons.

If sheep, coins, and sons go astray, we ask those responsible: why?

For so long our interpretations have shielded and protected those responsible for sheep, coins, and sons. It is time we ask the shepherd, the woman, and the father: why did you lose them?

For so long we have shielded and protected David and Eli from what happened with their "lost" sons. We still do so with today's Davids and Elis.

*Art, "The Prodigal Son," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon, 1970 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library revised common lectionary art galleries).

https://a.co/d/7BlGW4z
 

THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE

 

For three years the owner of the Fig tree has waited. For three years he was patient. For three years he longed for one thing, fruit from his tree. Three years pass and there were none. So, he orders his gardener to chop it down. Waste of good soil. His gardener pleads, "Give it another year. I will dig around it and put manure." Give it another year.

We call them people with "green thumbs." People who love plants. People who sing and talk to them like they were people. People like the gardener who pleads, "Give it another year." People who celebrate the inter-connectedness of all life. People who believe in second chances for everyone and everything. People who know the magic properties of manure.

Then there are people who treat everyone and everything as property, as commodity, as disposable, as opportunities for extraction and exploration. And every single day they acquire square kilometers of prime agricultural land, ancestral domain, and public lands for profit.

There's a term for this insatiable greed: development aggression.

And everything and everyone in the way--everything that does not produce profit--is chopped down; is told, "May no one ever eat fruit from you ever!" Not just Fig trees.

*Art, "Children eating Figs" (M365 copilot generated image). https://a.co/d/6IdSfim