LAST WORDS: JOHN

The Gospel of John celebrates the discipleship of the unnamed. The Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well, who runs to her people to share her experience with Jesus, is unnamed. The child who offers the five barley loaves and two fish so that Jesus can feed over five thousand people is also unnamed. The beloved disciple who plays a role bigger than Simon Peter in the story is also unnamed. But most important of all, the only disciple who we find at the beginning and at the end of Jesus’s life is also unnamed: Jesus’s mother.

As the number of confirmed deaths in Gaza pass 50,000, the world that stands with Palestine has begun putting together a list of heroes. From world leaders whose hearts are in the right place, to doctors, nurses, volunteers, and journalists who have offered their lives so that others may live. John’s Gospel reminds us that for every named hero that we should celebrate, there are ten or more unnamed ones we must never forget. In Gaza. In Myanmar. In the Philippines...

We find two unnamed people—Jesus’s mother and the beloved disciple—at the foot of the cross. Jesus says to them, “Woman behold your son; behold your mother.” Jesus asks that his two faithful disciples take care of each other.

Love is the key theme of the Gospel of John. God chose to become human because of love. The world is supposed to be blessed by our love for each other. Jesus in John leaves his followers only one commandment—for us to love one another as Jesus loved us. Mothers behold your sons; sons behold your mothers; parents behold your children; children behold your parents. We are all members of the household of God and our primary task is to live in love for each other: each one willing to offer one’s life for the other.

The word is Agape. It is love that is not based on emotion. It is love that is not based on relation. It is love based on decision. Right now, there are mothers who have lost sons and daughters. Let us choose to be their sons and daughters. Right now, there are children who have lost their parents. Let us choose to be their parents.

Then Jesus says, “I thirst.” Again, in the Johannine story, particularly in his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus is the Living Water. Thus, many people find it puzzling that the one who says he is Living Water is suddenly thirsty. And he is given vinegar by his executioners. Like Matthew’s, Mark’s, and Luke’s quotations, John’s “I thirst” represents a quote from the Old Testament--Psalm 69.

Faith draws strength from the past. Like Daniel’s three friends who faced death yet believed in a God who will deliver them as God has delivered in the past, Jesus affirms the same unwavering faith in a deliverer God. And God did deliver Daniel’s three friends. And God delivered David (who wrote the Psalm). And Jesus believed God will deliver him, as well.

Then Jesus says, “It is finished.” The End. Jesus is dead. Remember the only commandment Jesus left his followers in the Gospel of John—greater love has no one than this, that one offers one’s life for another? Jesus does exactly that. His life was an offering. And we are challenged to do the same. At the beach Jesus asks Simon Peter three times if he loves Jesus… We are asked the same thing.

Can we choose to love as Jesus loved? Jesus was not alone when he faced the cross. And his last words on the cross affirmed his faith in God, in people, in the transforming power of love and life, and empowered him to face death.

Psalm 22 which Jesus quotes in Matthew and Mark, Psalm 69 which he quotes in John, and Psalm 31 which he quotes in Luke celebrate a God who delivers, a God who liberates, a God who will always take the side of the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed, a God of widows, orphans, and strangers, a God who will not forsake us. And God did not forsake Jesus.

My friends, are we ready to choose to love as Jesus did? In life, in death, and in what awaits us beyond death, do we believe in the God who will never forsake us?

(Fifth of Five)

*Image of mother and son adopting each other, Microsoft 365 copilot generated.

 

LAST WORDS: LUKE

 

God is always on the side of the poor in Luke. Jesus’s birth is announced to poor shepherds. Jesus's first sermon is a proclamation of good news to the poor. And this God--who loves the poor so much--is most often described as a loving parent. From Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist; to Mary, the mother of Jesus; to Father Abraham who takes poor Lazarus into his bosom… the Gospel of Luke reminds us of God’s unconditional love as father.

Why? During Jesus’s time, fathers were the heads of the basic unit of the hierarchical Roman society, the family. They had the power of life and death over everyone in the family. And the Emperor, on top of the pyramid of power, was the “Father of all fathers.” In Jesus’s upside-down kingdom that celebrated the discipleship of equals, there was only one father: God.

At the cross, two of Jesus’s last three words in Luke are addressed to his father. Jesus says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” If God is our parent and we are all God’s children, then God's children include "enemies": the centurion and the soldiers who crucified Jesus. Forgiveness is one of the greatest expressions of loving enemies.

Jesus in Luke challenges his followers to love their enemies and to do good to those who hate them. He did both all his life until his death. Luke offers us three “enemies who love:” the Roman centurion who built a synagogue for his Jewish friends; the Samaritan who cared for a wounded Jew; and Zacchaeus, the tax collector, who gave all his riches to those whose only hope was God.

Jesus says to one of the rebels crucified with him, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Yes, it is rebel, not thief or robber the way most English translations render the Greek "lestes". (And these rebels were mostly dispossessed farmers and runaway slaves.) The Romans invented crucifixion for enemies of the state.

When God saves, God saves communities and peoples. To celebrate the incarnation is to celebrate that God has left heaven to be with us. No one lives and dies alone. God is always with us. Near death, Jesus reminds his fellow victim that he is not alone. No one dies alone!

Then Jesus says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Luke follows Mark and Matthew’s lead here. Jesus also quotes a Psalm. In this case Psalm 31. It is also like Psalm 22, a Psalm of deliverance. Jesus believed in a God who will never forsake. And God does not forsake Jesus. Many of us pray Jesus's prayer before we sleep at night. We commit everything to God, yet we stay up all night thinking of so many things only God has control over. Let us follow Jesus. Even in death, he knew that he was safe in God’s hands.

When Nanay died at the ICU of the Philippine Heart Center no one among her family was there. Not Tatay. Not my brother nor my sister. Not me.

But she was not alone.

Friends, no one, ever, dies alone.

TO BE CONTINUED.

(Fourth of Five)

*Image generated by Microsoft Copilot

LAST WORDS: MARK

In Mark, Jesus cries, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabacthani” and breathes his last. Unlike the other gospels, the risen Jesus does not appear in the Markan ending. The gospel ends in 16:8, where we find women silent and afraid. What we have in the story is a young man who tells the women that Jesus is not there, he is risen and is going ahead of them to Galilee. And he will be waiting for them there. And they are afraid.

Jesus is not inside a locked tomb. He is not in Jerusalem. He is not in heaven. He is not where we want him to be. He is back in Galilee where his ministry began. And he is waiting for us there. And we are afraid. Why?

Because we know that this path will eventually lead to the cross. We know that following Jesus will lead to persecution, suffering and, yes, death. Unlike Matthew, Luke, and John where we find beautiful stories of the resurrection like Jesus appearing to Magdalene, to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, by the beach and eating breakfast with his followers, we find in Mark a young man who confirms a promise: Jesus is risen just as he told you.

We do not see Jesus. We are told he is risen. We are challenged to believe!

And it is only in going back to Galilee, in places we do not want to go, in ministering among the poorest and the most oppressed, among widows, orphans, and strangers, that we will eventually find him.

The last words of Jesus in Mark are dying words.

But the last spoken words in Mark come from a young man: “He is not here. He is risen!” The gospel does not end with Jesus’s triumphant words as a risen Lord but with a young man’s affirmation of Jesus’s earlier promise about God’s resurrection power.

To believe in the resurrection is to believe that hope is stronger than despair, that faith is greater than fear, that goodness triumphs over evil, that love is more powerful than indifference, and that life will always, always conquer death.

“He is not here. He is risen!” Do we believe the young man’s words?

Is our faith stronger than our fears?

TO BE CONTINUED.

*Photo: cool Christian wallpapers blogspot.
 

LAST WORDS: MATTHEW

 

If one reads Mark and Matthew from beginning to end, one will discover that both narratives privilege Galilee as locus of God’s activity. Most of Jesus’s ministry happens in Galilee. In the Matthean and Markan narratives Jerusalem is bad news. Jesus is betrayed in Jerusalem. Jesus is arrested, abused, tortured, and executed in the Holy City. Jesus dies in Jerusalem.

One can even argue that God abandons Matthew's Jesus in Jerusalem, thus at the point of death he cries, “Eli, Eli lama sabacthani?” or “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

As the deaths in the Israeli genocide perpetrated on Palestinians pass 50,000, I am sure that many are crying, “Our God, our God, why have you forsaken us?!”

Many of us who grew up in church and in Sunday school remember the countless number of Bible verses we memorized. Many of us hated the ritual. I know I did when I was growing up. We thought those verses were useless until something happened in our lives and then the verses suddenly took on a life all their own. The Jesus of Matthew was rooted in the Hebrew Scripture. At the lowest point in his life, near death, betrayed and disavowed by his closest friends, Jesus was not blaming God. He was quoting Scripture.

Psalm 22 to be exact.

Many among us have witnessed people pass from this life to the life beyond and quite a few were quoting scripture. Or singing hymns. Remember that Matthew does not end with Jesus dying on the cross. The gospel ends with God raising Jesus from the dead. Psalm 22 begins with despair but ends with triumph and an affirmation of faith in a God who saves; a God who is always there; a God who liberates. Especially the least among the least. Go and read it. Jesus’ last words in Matthew celebrate the promise of Immanuel.

In life, in death, in life beyond death, we are not alone. We are never, ever, alone. God is with us! Jesus did not die alone. Nor did the thousands who have died under the rubble in Gaza, in Myanmar, in places where profit is more important than people and planet. They did not die alone, God was there.

No one dies alone. Immanuel!

TO BE CONTINUED

*Photo:
News ID: 1549059
Source: IRNA

LAST WORDS

It is Holy Week and as I write these words over 3,500 of our sisters and brothers have perished from the March 28th earthquake in Myanmar. Thousands more have been injured. Thousands more are unaccounted for. I cannot imagine the pain of those who have lost loved ones and those whose loved ones are still missing in the aftermath of this disaster. I also cannot imagine the pain of those who have lost loved ones in Gaza. Since the departed fell victim to the evils of genocide, thousands of bodies have yet to be recovered from under the rubble.
This means no wakes, no necrological services, and no goodbyes for the bereaved.
Last words are important to many of us. Especially these days. I am sure that the last text message from a dear doctor or nurse who died in Gaza will be cherished forever. That final phone call from a grandparent in Mandalay. That last Facebook message from a beloved colleague. That last minute video call from a spouse. Last words. Now, all precious. Priceless.
My late mother’s last words to me, when we were in the very cold Emergency Room of the Philippine Heart Center, were: “Anak, mainit, paypayan mo ako (Child, It’s hot, fan me).” My late father’s final text message to me was: “Thank you.” Precious. Priceless.
“Tama na po, may exam pa ako bukas.”
(Please, enough, I have exams tomorrow.)
These were Kian Delos Santos’s last words, before he was murdered, one of the victims of Duterte's War on Drugs which was actually a War on the Poor. Kian's final spoken words, heard by witnesses, helped convict his murderers.
And, of course, the most famous last words ever memorialized would be Jesus’s as found in the gospels. Tradition calls these the “Seven Last Words.” Mark has one. So does Matthew. Luke has three. So does John. If you add those up, they total eight. Since Mark’s and Matthew’s versions are almost the same, tradition calls both “The Fourth Word.”
Most of us have heard homily after homily every Good Friday year after year on these utterances. Precious and priceless. But let us never forget: these last words from the cross are actually last words of someone who fell victim to an extra-judicial killing. Arrested at night. Murdered by state authorities.
Like Kian.
TO BE CONTINUED.

*Photo from Rappler

 

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