During this Pentecost Season, there are two “Tracks” of Scriptures that are offered, and congregations may choose which Track they will follow. The first two readings presented are the readings from Tracks 1 and 2, respectively. The last two readings are the same in both Tracks.
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Reading
1 Job said:
2 “Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling!
4 I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would learn what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me.
7 There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.
8 “If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him;
9 on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.
16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me;
17 If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!”
Commentary
The Book of Job is a unique poetic story in the Hebrew Scriptures. The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out: “Job is part of the Wisdom Literature – along with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. As such, it does not focus on the nation Israel or on its great formative historical memories. Instead, Wisdom Literature is a reflection on universal human concerns – especially the understanding of individual experiences and the maintenance of ordered relationships.”
The NOAB goes on to say: “Job denies the inevitability of rewards for living an upright life and decisively refutes the idea that human suffering is always deserved.”
The authors of Job are collectively referred to as “Poet-Job.” They are anonymous and the story contains multiple linguistic and stylistic forms. Accordingly, scholars conclude that the story is an ancient one that was supplemented by multiple authors between the 7th and the 4th Centuries BCE. The book contains numerous allusions to mythological traditions known throughout the Middle East but does not make specific references to Israelite legal or historical traditions. The characters sometimes refer to themes found in the Psalms and Proverbs.
In the opening two chapters, Job was introduced and his good fortune was enumerated. The Satan (the “adversary” or the “accuser”) – not the post-First Century name of the devil) made (in effect) a wager with God that Job was righteous only because Job had health, children, and riches. The Satan (ha-satan in Hebrew) bet God that Job would curse God if he lost his family, health, and wealth. Satan took everything from Job, but Job did not curse God.
Three of Job’s friends came to “comfort” him and sat with him for seven days in silence (2:11-13). Job then spoke an extended lament and wished he had never been born and prayed for his own death (Chapter 3).
Chapters 4 through 22 are a dialogue between Job and his friends in which his friends relied on the typical Deuteronomic thought that Job’s deprivations must be the result of a sin by him or his forebears. Job denied this reasoning and denied that he had engaged in wrongdoing.
Contrary to the claim in the traditional (King James Version) translation of Jas. 5:11, Job was anything but “patient.” He “endured,” was steadfast and – in some respects, defiant.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary understands todays reading as “entirely devoted to Job’s personal reflections and his search for God…. Job dwells on God’s inaccessibility and remoteness which makes it impossible for Job to ‘get through’ to him.” Job claimed that God was hiding (v.3) and had failed to intervene to prevent injustice. He said that if an “upright person” (v.7) could reason with God, he (Job) would be acquitted.
As the story will progress, Job will ask for someone to judge whether a God who caused a person to suffer is really a just God and worthy to be called “God.” He will ask to confront God face-to-face.
Towards the end of the story, God appeared to Job out of a whirlwind, and overwhelmed him by pointing out all that Job did not know. God also criticized the positions taken by Job’s friends that suffering results from some prior immoral act of the sufferer. In a later-added Epilogue, Job’s riches were restored and he fathered a new family.
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
Reading
6 Seek the LORD and live, or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.
7 Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground!
10 They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
12 For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins — you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate.
13 Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said.
15 Hate evil and love good and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Commentary
After Solomon died in 930 BCE, the Kingdom of Israel split into two parts, the North (called Israel with ten tribes) and the South (called Judea with two tribes). Each of the Kingdoms had its own king.
The reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel (788-747 BCE) was very prosperous but was a time of great inequality between rich and poor in which large landowners gained control of the lands of small farmers. (A three-liter bottle of wine is called a “Jeroboam.”)
Amos was a cattle or sheep herder and also cared for fig trees in Judea (v. 7:14), but he was called by YHWH to go north to prophesy (speak for the LORD) against Israel from about 760 to 750 BCE. Amos was the first of the “classical prophets” whose works have come down to us in the form of a book. He is one of the 12 “minor” prophets whose works are shorter than the three “major” prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). He was the first (chronologically) of the prophets whose words left an indelible stamp on later thought in Israel about God.
Unlike many other prophets who condemned improper worship (cultic concerns), Amos was critical of social activities that involved ethical matters. He used vivid language and called for justice and righteousness, terms that deal with social equality and concern for the disadvantaged.
The writings included announcements that the “Day of the LORD” was imminent and urged that the special covenant with the LORD entailed special ethical responsibilities. Some of his presentations are indictments, some are exhortations, and others are visions.
Today’s reading is described by The New Oxford Annotated Bible as a lament for Israel. In it, Amos warned Israel — the “house of Joseph” (v.6) — and the city of Bethel (where there was a major shrine) of coming destruction if they did not change their ways. Amos warned that the powerful had turned justice into “wormwood” (v.7) – the leaves of which are very bitter. The Jewish Study Bible sees this section as a “dirge” that shows metaphorically that the nation is “dead” and observes that “the infractions [of Israel] are ethical rather than cultic.”
The “house of Joseph” is another name for the northern 10 tribes. Joseph’s two sons (Ephraim and Manasseh) were each counted among the 12 tribes for the original division of the lands. The tribe of Levi (the priests) did not receive land, and Ephraim became the most powerful of the 10 Northern Tribes.
In ancient Israel, legal proceedings were held at the city’s gates, and Amos condemned the corruption of the legal system by the rich and the unjust treatment of the poor at the gate. Amos urged the leaders to “establish justice at the gate” (v.15) so that YHWH would be gracious to Israel, the “remnant of Joseph.”
In saying that the rich would not live in their homes or drink from their vineyards (v.11), the prophet was anticipating the conquest of the North (Israel) by the Assyrians in 722. The NOAB describes verse 11 as a “futility curse in which the connection between the actions and their expected effects are broken.”
Hebrews 4:12-16
Reading
12 The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 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. 16 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.
Commentary
The Letter to the Hebrews was an anonymous sermon addressed to both Jewish and Gentile Jesus Followers which urged them to maintain their Faith in the face of persecution.
Although the Letter to the Hebrews is sometimes attributed to Paul, most scholars agree that it was written some time after Paul’s death in 63 CE, but before 100 CE. The letter introduced a number of important theological themes. The first four chapters explored the word of God spoken through the Son.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that Hebrews has a Platonic philosophical orientation resembling that of Philo of Alexandria and that it contains the New Testament’s most sophisticated Greek.
The NOAB and The JANT agree that the author sought both to ground his arguments in scripture (using the Septuagint) to argue that Jesus is superior to Jewish traditions. The JANT states: “Hebrews offers a distinct and elevated Christology. As the Son of God, Jesus is superior to all other beings, including angels — he is uncreated, immortal, and permanent. He is also superior to all biblical heroes, including Moses and Abraham, as well as institutions like the Levitical priesthood. As both perfect sacrifice and heavenly priest who intercedes for humans, Jesus supersedes the Jewish sacrificial system, rendering it obsolete.”
The JANT continues: “Because Hebrews argues for Jesus’ superiority over all else and the obsolescence of the covenant God made with Moses at Mount Sinai, it expresses what scholars call supersessionist theology. Supersessionism is the idea that Christ’s entry into human history replaces all that has come before, including God’s unique covenant bond with Israel. The same idea is sometimes referred to as rejection/replacement theology.”
In today’s reading, the author interpreted the life, death, and heavenly role of Jesus through the category of the “high priest’ who perfected the ancient sacrificial system of Judaism (which ended when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE).
The letter emphasized that Jesus (as high priest) was able to sympathize with our weaknesses because he (as a human) had been tested as we are. The presentation of Jesus as high priest in the Letter to the Hebrews is unique in the Christian Scriptures and reflected the continuing process in early Christianity of developing images to describe who and what Jesus of Nazareth was (and is).
The JANT offered an extended analysis of today’s reading. Verses 12 and 13 are “a severe, awe-inspiring characterization of the word of God (i.e., Scripture)…. It functions as a warning about the power of scripture to render judgment.”
Regarding the notion that God’s word can divide soul from spirit, The JANT says: “God’s word can separate what his seemingly indivisible. Soul from spirit, Gk ‘psych” and ‘pneuma.’ ‘Soul’ and ‘Spirit’ when used of persons are often synonymous in modern English, but in ancient Greek they refer to two distinct elements or substances that, together with the ‘body’ (‘soma’), make up a human being. ‘Psyche’ is typically understood as to be more intertwined with the body (or flesh) than is ‘pneuma.’ The Hebrew equivalent of ‘pneuma’ is ‘ruah.’ The words have different connotations but overlap in that both can mean ‘breath’ (as well as ‘wind’ and ‘spirit’ as a force outside of individual bodies). The closest equivalent to ‘psyche’ in Hebrew is ‘nephesh’ but the semantic difference between ‘psyche’ and ‘nephesh’ is greater than it is between ‘ruah’ and ‘pneuma.’ ‘Nephesh’ is not a distinctive element within a person; it is a person. As such, it is not separable from a person’s ‘body.’”
As to verse 13, The JANT says: “The word account in Greek is ‘logos’ and is rendered as ‘word’ in verse 12. The double use of ‘logos’ is an implicit argument that scripture demands that one give a personal account before God. Here it is used in the context of judgment before God.”
Regarding passed through the heavens (v.14), The JANT notes: “Special individuals like Enoch (Gen 5.24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2.1-12) experienced heavenly journeys. Ezekiel and Daniel have visions of heavenly journeys (Ezek 1; Dan 7). Heavenly journeys appear frequently in extra-biblical texts of the centuries surrounding the common era.”
Mark 10:17-31
Reading
17 As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God, all things are possible.”
28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age — houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions — and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Commentary
The Gospel According to Mark was the first Gospel that was written and is usually dated to the time around the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest gospel and forms the core for the Gospels According to Matthew and Luke (both of which were written around 85 CE). Over 50% of the material in those two Gospels is based on Mark. Because these three Gospels follow similar chronologies of Jesus’ life and death, they are called “Synoptic Gospels” for the Greek words meaning “Same Look/View.”
Today’s reading presents a number of interpretive and textual issues.
The term “eternal life” (v.17) is treated as the equivalent of “entering the kingdom of God” (v.24).
Jesus’ rejoinder “Why do you call me good?” (v.18) may be part of Mark’s emphasis on the “Messianic Secret” – the notion that Jesus was not fully identifiable as the Messiah until after the Resurrection. By stating that only God is good, Jesus seems to be saying that he is not God. But for the Jesus Follower community to which the Gospel was directed, the hearers would understand the irony in the statement because of their belief that Jesus was divine.
In reciting the commandments, the author had Jesus choose from the second half of the Ten Commandments as found in Exodus 20 and added a new one: “You shall not defraud” (v.19).
In the Greek text of verse 21, the words “the money” are omitted, so the admonition is slightly modified to say, “sell what you own and give to the poor” (v.21).
Some ancient authorities modify verse 24 to say, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!” If this addition is authentic, it juxtaposes “having wealth” (v.23) with “trusting in it.” (v. 24).
The verse about a camel passing through the eye of a needle (v.25) is regarded by some scholars as “peasant humor.” The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out: “Contrary to a commonly cited medieval legend, the is no narrow “Eye of the Needle” gate in Jerusalem. A Talmudic parallel uses a needle’s eye and an elephant to make the same point.”
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that some ancient manuscripts substitute the word kamilon (meaning “rope”) for kamēlon (meaning “camel”) so that the phrase would be that it is difficult for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle.
It is not surprising that the disciples were perplexed (v.24) at the statement that it would be “hard” for those with wealth to enter the kingdom of God (v.23). In the First Century (as now), persons of substantial means (unless they are ill-gotten) are regarded as having been “blessed.”
Jesus’ reply to Peter’s concern (v.28) is confusing. It seems to say that “in this age” those who have sacrificed “for the sake of Jesus and the sake of the gospel” will receive back 100-fold all (except for fathers!) that they sacrificed. This obvious exaggeration appears cancelled out, however, by the persecutions the persons who have sacrificed will receive. The NJBC opines that the phrase “with persecutions” (v.30) appears to be a “Marcan editorial twist, suggesting that discipleship necessarily involves persecutions and suffering.”
In the age to come, those who sacrificed for Jesus’ sake and the sake of the good news (the gospel) will receive eternal life. The commentator in The New Oxford Annotated Bible described the last part of verse 30 as “a throw-away line mocking the rich man’s concern (v.17).”