euphemos

The last words of our Lord before his death, in approximate order, are

1. “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34
2. “This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43
3. “Woman, behold thy son.” John 19:26-27
4. “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Mark 15:34 Matthew 27:46
5. “I thirst.” John 19:28
6. “It is finished.” John 19:30
7. “Into thine hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” Luke 23:46

Growing up in the South, and with a very conservative/literalist background, I was always troubled by his fourth pronouncement:

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

How could it be that Jesus would be forsaken, as so many well-respected brothers in Christ have proposed? He was the sacrifice, and a sacrifice only has value if it is accepted by God. How could God the Father turns his back on his only begotten son while he bore the burden of all the sin of the world, and yet so love the world (full of sinners) that he sent that son? What does this say about Jesus, and the unity of the Trinity? So many uncomfortable questions… For the most part, I relegated this to the category of “stuff I don’t understand”, and put it on a back burner to evaluate at another time. Thankfully, the Lord presented the opportunity to consider the problem by offering the solution.

We use our family road trips as an opportunity to listen to The Chronicles of Narnia radio theater or similar CDs. We got acquainted with Dr. Brant Pitre during the 2008 Footsteps in Faith conference, and picked up his Jesus of Nazareth: A Biblical Christology for our spring 2008 travels. We (yes, even the kids) thoroughly enjoyed this recording of his masters-level Christology course. During the course of the CDs, Dr. Pitre mentioned the ‘last words’ that had troubled me, and that I’d not revisited for several years, and drew our attention to the relationship between his words and Psalm 22.

Knock, Knock… You did it, didn’t you? “Who’s there…” came to mind, right? When we refer to “the Our Father” or “the Lord’s prayer” today, most of us recognize that we’re referring to the prayer Jesus gave as an example to his disciples when they asked that he teach them how to pray. You don’t have to be Catholic to recognize that “Hail Mary” refers to the prayer we use when we meditate upon Christ with his mother using the words of Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist). “The Lord is my shepherd” instantly brings Psalm 23 to mind for Jews, Christians, Muslims, and every flavor of secularist. This is not a new phenomenon, and similarly, when Jesus called out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”, those to whom he was speaking (that is, not the Roman guards) would have recognized that he was referring to Psalm 22.

The 22nd Psalm is an intense expression of an innocent’s suffering. Unlike many of David’s psalms of lament, there is no expression of remorse for sin. This is, as the heading suggests, the prayer of an innocent person, who despite the horror of his circumstances, trusts in the Lord, and has confidence in his ultimate victory. Take a look at the psalm, and consider them in the context of Jesus’s last moments. Isn’t it so much more in keeping with his character that his last words would be comforting and encouraging to his mother and beloved disciples gathered there at the cross with him, than an expression of absolute despair?

A linguistic note
Often, the discussion of language and associated literary criticism complicate the argument. Psalm 22 is no different, and you’ll find arguments with varying degrees of integrity that attempt to attack specific portions of the translation of Psalm 22. In this case, while perhaps interesting and relevant in some context, the linguistic issues are less critical to the spirit of the relationship. The Hebrew, (which corresponds to the Greek translation), matches the text in Psalm 22. The Aramaic matches the spirit. Even if you present a consistent argument that Psalm 22 is not Messianic, David himself is a prefiguration of the Christ. There’s just no way to look at these words and not recognize that Jesus, despite appearances, was triumphant, not forsaken.

Hebrew: Sabachthani
Lama הםל (Mark 14:34), or lema in some texts, is the stock Hebrew Old Testament word for “why?”, and is used over 170 times in the Hebrew Bible. The identical word, lama, also means “why?” in modern Hebrew. Sabachthani, ינתקבש is directly from the Mishnaic Hebrew קבש, sabach, meaning “forsake, abandon”. The modern Hebrew for “forsake” – “zab” or “sab” – may suggest an abbreviated form of sabach. See comments by Brint Minge and Douglas Hamp on the Hebrew. Note also that the early church fathers believed and taught that Matthew wrote his gospel first, and in Hebrew, avoiding any difficulties with regional accents, while Mark wrote in Greek what Peter taught, and would have presented Jesus’s words as pronounced by Gallilean Peter.

Aramaic: nashatani vs. Shabakthani
shabaktani – spared or destined
nashatani – forsaken or deserted
If you subscribe to Jesus having spoken Aramaic, and/or the scriptures being originally Aramaic, Jesus would say “”My God, my God, for this I was spared.” Search the web for more information on those who propose Aramaic as the language Jesus spoke.

…While discussing the rosary, and how it is the story of Jesus from Mary’s perspective, with joy and sorrow interwoven, and how the point of the rosary is to meditate upon and talk about Jesus with his mother…

Boo: “So the Rosary is like Mary’s baby book?”

MommyDaddy: “<thoughtful pause> yeah, just like that.”

Scrapbook queen April should be proud.

While praying morning prayers this weekend, a verse from Psalm 8 struck me. Psalm 8:2 says “Out of the mouths of children and infants you have brought praise, to confound your enemies, to destroy your vengeful foes.”

I had an interesting dream in November of 2006. I found myself in an old house. It was well lit and comfortable, but not sumptuous. The hardwood floors were enhanced with slightly worn, but still beautiful rug runners, and the detailed, but not ornate woodwork was smoothed and darkened by years of loving touch. It was dark outside. Indeed, it was perhaps empty outside. As I stood in the hallway, demons began to assault the house, coming in the doors and windows, sometimes singly, sometimes in a mob.

Fortunately, I had my handy-dandy demon-slaying arsenal with me, consisting of such items as:

• A shotgun with silver buckshot
• A high-powered water gun loaded with holy water
• An assortment of crosses
• Stakes (wooden stakes, not meat steaks)
• A bible
• Candles, bells, and other movie-exorcism tools
• Grenades
• A single-use rocket launcher
• A Desert Eagle .50 Caliber semi-automatic handgun
• A crossbow
• A giant glowing sword

Don’t ask how I managed to have all these things at my disposal, it was a dream after all.

As the demons entered, I began blasting away with my various weapons. As I hacked away at the attacking enemies, I began to feel frightened when I realized that my weapons had little or no effect. Perhaps you recall that ever-so-lovely movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, in which Robert Patrick plays a liquid-metal robot? It was somewhat like that… I’d blast a giant hole in a demon, and it would take a step back, “heal” itself, and resume the assault.

Throwing away my physical weapons, I congratulated myself for thinking to engage the enemy with spiritual weapons. I quoted the words Jesus and the Apostles used when they cast out demons, prayed powerful prayers of command and defense, and generally did all of the things you’d expect someone to do in a dream with a comic-book movie flavor. These memorized anti-demon prayers and scriptures were hardly more effective than my rocket launcher.

I began to fear in earnest. The house was under assault, the enemies were in the door, my armor was in tatters, and my weapons were of no effect. Not knowing why, I fell to my knees, and prayed from the heart “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

Immediately, the demons fled into the nether, the door slammed shut behind them, and all was again light and warmth and peace. I awoke with a fresh understanding:

Of all the weapons we possess, praise is perhaps the most powerful.

This spirit of praise and implicit trust in God gives power to all our efforts. It is not coincidence that James wraps his instruction to resist the devil as he does, where he writes:

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:7)

As the church (the “house” of God) finds herself under assault, it is critical that I keep my focus on the Lord, his goodness, and his greatness, rather than the enemy, and upon praising God and submitting myself to him, placing myself under his authority rather than attempting to “use” his power.

In the interest of full disclosure, there is some confusion about the translation of Psalm 8, particularly with verses 2 and 3. Biblios, via their parallel translation reference for this verse demonstrates some of the problems translating this from the Hebrew. There’s much less disagreement, however, that Jesus quotes this verse, and I’m going with his interpretation, which seems to come from the Greek version of the psalm.

Matthew 21 (From the USCCB and Compare translations)
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, “It is written: ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of thieves.” The blind and the lame approached him in the temple area, and he cured them. When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wondrous things he was doing, and the children crying out in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; and have you never read the text, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nurslings you have brought forth praise’?”

Different interpretations of God’s will do not necessitate that one is “right” and the other “wrong.” In many cases, when a dispute arises among two groups or individuals sincerely seeking God’s will, the dispute exists because we’re asking the wrong question. We know that God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts, but often we attempt to conform his mind and thoughts to ours, instead of the other way around.

The example that immediately comes to mind is that of Paul and Barnabas, in their dispute over whether John Mark should join their expedition to visit the brethren in the cities where they’d preached. Read more