Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
HOLY THURSDAY CHRISM MASS (Cycles ABC)
Readings:
Isaiah 61:3ab, 6a, 8b-9
Psalm 89:20, 24, 26
Revelation 1:5-8
Luke 4:16-21
Abbreviations: NAB (New American Bible), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
Holy Thursday is the final day of Lent. It is the fortieth day of the forty days (as the ancients counted with no zero place-value), and the season of Lent will end at sundown. On the morning of Holy Thursday, the priests of every diocese and the people gather together with their bishop for the Chrism Mass (in some dioceses, this Mass takes place earlier during Holy Week or earlier during Lent). During this Eucharistic celebration, the bishop will speak to his priests about their priestly ministry, and all the priests will renew their commitment to their vows.
In addition to water, oil is also a visible symbol of the mysteries of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus. At the Chrism Mass, the bishop will bless the Oil of the Sick and the Oil of Catechumens and consecrate the sacred Chrism. The Chrism, also called the "Oil of Salvation," is a consecrated mixture of olive oil and balsam used in the public administration of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. Priests also use Chrism oil in blessing tower bells, baptismal water, the consecration of churches, altars, chalices, and patens (a saucer-like dish upon which rests the bread to be consecrated and later to become the Sacred Host). The blessing of the Oil for the Sick for the Sacrament of Anointing (Jn 9:6-7; Jam 5:14-15) takes place before the end of the Eucharistic Prayer. However, the blessing of the Oil of Catechumens and the consecration of the Chrism take place after Holy Communion.
The priests will carry these oils back to their parishes for use in their sacred ministries during the year. The Chrism will be necessary for the Sacrament of Baptism that will take place at the Easter Vigil. With the holy Chrism, the "Oil of Salvation," Catholic Christians become consecrated as God's anointed in the priesthood of believers. The visible anointing by the sacred Chrism signifies the spiritual anointing by the power of the Holy Spirit in which we become a kingdom of priests and heirs of Christ the King. By the mystery of this consecration, we are set apart by God for our mission as Christ's emissaries to the world in the same way the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus His mission.
The Theme of the Readings: A Kingdom of Priests
In the First Reading, God promises the prophet Isaiah that there
will be another covenant. He will restore the priesthood of believers lost to
the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai in the sin of the Golden Calf through a
future eternal covenant. In his first letter to the Church, St. Peter alludes
to the Isaiah passage when he writes that New Covenant believers are the
fulfillment of this prophecy because they are the "living stones" of a holy,
spiritual priesthood.
The Responsorial Psalm is a lament over God's promise to King David for an eternal covenant and a continual line of Davidic kings that seemed to have gone unfulfilled in Israel's history. In our passage, the psalmist reminds God of His promise to the Davidic descendants that He will be a divine Father to the Davidic heir, and he will be a son to God. The Fathers of the Church applied these verses to God the Son, Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant and came to establish David's throne forever in Jesus' Kingdom of the Church as He rules from the throne of God's heavenly Temple as the King of kings and Lord of lords
The Second Reading is from Jesus' greeting to seven Christian communities in Asia Minor in the Book of Revelation. Jesus identifies Himself by three Messianic titles, all of which are from Psalms 89:26-38 (part of our Psalm Reading). Each title calls to mind the promise of the three-fold mission of the Redeemer-Messiah as God's anointed prophet, priest, and king. Not only have we been redeemed from slavery to sin by the power of Jesus' perfect sacrifice, but He has also constituted us as a kingdom of priests. The end of the Old Covenant is the beginning of the New, and Christians are now ruling with Christ, spreading His Gospel ("good news" of salvation) across the world over which He has dominion and power.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus visits His hometown of Nazareth and attends the Sabbath day (Saturday) service at the local Synagogue. Its president invited Jesus to read and expound on the Scripture reading to the congregation. The Scripture Jesus recited was from the Septuagint Greek translation from the scroll of Isaiah 61:1-2 concerning an anointed one sent by God to proclaim salvation. Jesus read the passage and then told the congregation that He fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. He announced to His neighbors that He was the promised "Anointed One" that Isaiah wrote about with authority to proclaim an extraordinary divine liberation not only for the Jews but also to Gentiles.
The people of Nazareth's initial admiration and acceptance of Jesus and then their subsequent rejection of His message and the attempt to kill Him foreshadowed the whole future of Jesus' ministry. At first, the Jews will gladly receive His healings and His teachings. However, then the opposition will grow until Jesus faces rejection by many of His people, including the religious authorities, who will succeed in having Him condemned to death. The result of the Jew's rejection of Jesus as their promised Redeemer-Messiah is that Jesus' disciples will carry His message of salvation to the Gentile nations. Together with the remnant of Jews who accepted Jesus as their Messiah, the Gentiles will be receptive to His message. Together, they will become a New Covenant priesthood of believers who will embrace Jesus' promise of forgiveness of sins, the hope of eternal salvation, and form Jesus' Kingdom of the Universal, New Covenant Church.
The First Reading Isaiah 61:1-3ab, 6a, 8b-9 ~ The Priesthood
of Believers of the New Covenant Church
1The Spirit of the
Lord GOD [Yahweh] is upon me, because the LORD [Yahweh] has anointed me; he has
sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, 2 to announce a year of favor from the LORD
[Yahweh] and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn; 3a-b to place on those who mourn in Zion a
diadem instead of ashes, to give them oil of gladness in place of mourning, a
glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit. [...] 6a You yourselves shall be named priests of the
LORD [Yahweh], ministers of our God you shall be called. [...] 8b I will give them their recompense faithfully,
a lasting covenant I will make with them. 9
Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations, and their
offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them as a race
the LORD [Yahweh] has blessed.
From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (8th century BC), this passage is part of the prophecies of Israel's promised spiritual restoration. In the first three verses, the prophet says God commissioned him to proclaim a time, expressed symbolically as a "year," of divine favor. At a time of divine liberation, God promises that there will be another covenant with His people that will be eternal, and the communal priesthood of believers lost to the nation of Israel at Sinai will be restored in the covenant that is to come (Is 61:6a-9). See the same promises of a new and eternal covenant God made to the 6th-century BC prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31; 32:40, and 50:5).
When God first called the children of Israel to a corporate covenant with Him at Mount Sinai, He told them: Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (Ex 19:5-6; emphasis added). Unfortunately, in the sin of the Golden Calf (Ex 32:1-28), the Israelites broke their covenant because they were not obedient to God's commands and prohibitions. They broke the first of the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:4-5) in creating an idol for worship. The result of their sin was they lost their priestly inheritance as a covenant people. The ministerial priesthood would only continue through Aaron's descendants, and no longer would every firstborn son in every family serve God as His lesser ministers. Instead, the Levites who rallied to Moses in the rebellion of the Golden Calf displaced the dispossessed firstborn son in service to the chief priests as their lesser ministers (Ex 32:28-29; Num 3:11-12; 18:6).
At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2 as He read from the scroll of Isaiah at the Synagogue in Nazareth (Lk 4:16-19, Gospel Reading). Jesus then proclaimed to the congregation that He fulfilled the prophecy (Lk 4:20-21): He is the promised "anointed one" (verse 1), and He is the Messiah from the lineage of David that the prophets like Isaiah promised God would send to redeem His people (Is 9:1-6; Ez 34:23-24). And "today," Jesus told the people of the Nazareth (Lk 4:21), His sermon inaugurated the time of fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy (a statement He repeated after His Resurrection in Lk 24:25-27, 44).
St. Peter alluded to this passage in his first letter to the Church, writing that New Covenant believers fulfilled this prophecy. Christians are the "living stones" that built a holy, spiritual priesthood. Peter wrote: and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ ... you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Pt 2:5, 9). Then, in 1 Peter 2:10, still alluding to the Isaiah passage, St. Peter identified Christians as a "chosen race" that God blessed as a newly created people: Once you were "no people" but now you are God's people, you "had not received mercy" but now you have received mercy (with allusions to Is 61:9, Hos 1:9, and 2:25). The prerogatives of ancient Israel are now more fully and fittingly applied to Christians who are "a chosen race" (Is 61:9) by divine election (Eph 1:4-6). We are "a royal priesthood" (Ex 19:6) destined to serve and worship God in Christ and thus continue the priestly functions of His life, Passion, and Resurrection, to create "a holy nation" (Ex 19:6; 1 Pt 2:9; Rev 1:6 in the Second Reading). The New Covenant Church is a "holy nation" reserved as a people God calls His own (Mal 3:17) in virtue of their anointing into Christian Baptism, which incorporates them into the merits won by Christ in His death and Resurrection.
Responsorial Psalm 89:20b, 24, 26b/27 ~ David is God's
Anointed
The response is: "Forever I will sing the goodness of the
Lord."
20b I have found
David, my servant; with my holy oil, I have anointed him, that my hand may be
always with him, and that my arm may make him strong.
Response
24 My faithfulness
and my kindness [hesed]* shall be with him, and through my name shall his horn [quern]
be exalted.
Response
26 He shall cry to
me, 'You are my father, my God, the Rock, my Savior.'
Response
* The Hebrew word hesed means "faithful and merciful
love" in the context of a covenant relationship, and quern = horn is a
symbol of power (IBHE, vol. III, page 1473, Strong's Concise Hebrew
Dictionary, pages 46 and 128).
Psalm 89 is a lament over God's promise to King David for an eternal covenant and an unending line of Davidic kings that appeared to have gone unfulfilled in Israel's history. Verse 20a (not in our readings) begins with the psalmist reminding God: Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful ones you said: "I have set a leader over the warriors; I have raised up a hero from the army. 21 I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil, I have anointed him...." The psalmist recalls when God told the prophet Samuel to anoint the shepherd boy David as God's Messiah (anointed one) in 1 Samuel 16:1, 11-13. Later, when David became king of Israel, the covenant people anointed him as Israel's king a second time (2 Sam 5:1-5). God then rewarded David's faithfulness by establishing an eternal royal covenant with him and his descendants (2 Sam 7:8-16; 23:5; Ps 2). God promised that His relationship with David's son and successor would be so close that he would call God "Father," and God would call him "Son" (2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:6-8). The climax of God's promise to David was: Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever (2 Sam 7:16).
When the Babylonians conquered the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Davidic kings continued to rule Judah until the kingdom revolted against their Babylonian overlords. The result was the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the people's exile into Babylon. The Babylonians murdered the last Davidic king's sons and took him away into exile (2 Kng 25:6-7). After the Persians conquered Babylon and allowed the citizens of Judah the freedom to return to their homeland in the sixth century BC, it seemed that God had forgotten His promise of an eternal dynasty of Davidic kings. When the people returned from the Babylonian exile, there was no Davidic king to sit on David's throne and lead the faithful remnant of the restored covenant people.
24 My faithfulness
and my kindness [hesed] shall be with him, and through my name shall his horn
be exalted. 26 He shall cry to me,
'You are my father, my God, the Rock my Savior.'
When applying this psalm to Jesus, the Fathers of the Church
and Christian tradition focus particularly on verses 24-26. "His horn" is a
reference to the spiritual strength with which God blesses His Messiah, who
restores God's love and mercy to His people in a covenant family relationship.
St. Athanasius wrote: "We read here how he who was made incarnate through the
power of the divine economy calls God himself his Father: 'I go up to my Father
and your Father, my God and your God' [Jn 20:17]. He is the one of whom the
prophet speaks: he calls the child that is born 'Mighty God, Everlasting
Father' [Is 9:6] (Expositiones in Psalmos, 88).
In Psalm 89:26-29, God reminded His people that He had not forgotten His covenant promise to the House of David. Jesus Christ is the linear descendant of King David through Mary of Nazareth (Mt 1:1-17; Lk 1:32) and the divine heir anointed by God to be the Redeemer-Messiah and Savior of God's covenant people. He calls God "Father" (Mt 26:39; Lk 23:34; Jn 11:41; etc.), and God calls Him "Son" (Mt 3:17; 17:5; etc.). He is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant and will establish David's throne forever in His kingdom of the Church as He rules from the throne of God's heavenly Temple as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Dan 7:14; Rev 17:14; 22:16)!
The Second Reading Revelation 1:5-8 ~ Christ has made us
a Kingdom of Priests
5 Jesus Christ is
the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and ruler of the kings of the
earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 who has made us into a kingdom, priests for
his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming amid the clouds, and
every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. All the peoples of the
earth will lament him. Yes, Amen.
These verses are part of Jesus' greeting addressed through St. John (the inspired writer of the Book of Revelation) to seven Christian communities in Asia Minor. The seven historical churches of Revelation no longer exist, but they were located in the modern country of Turkey. St. Irenaeus (martyred c. 202 AD) recorded that the Apostle John wrote his Gospel when he was Bishop of Ephesus but wrote the Book of Revelation when he was in captivity on the island of Patmos just off the coast near Ephesus (Against Heresies, 3.1.1; Rev 1:9). The seven churches were probably communities that were part of St. John's diocese. The Romans governed this area known as the Proconsular of Asia, and the city of Ephesus was the provincial capital.
5 Jesus Christ is
the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and ruler of the kings of the
earth.
Revelation 1:4-5 identifies God the Son by three Messianic
titles that are from Psalms 89:26-38 (part of our Psalm Reading), and each
title calls to mind the promise of the
three-fold mission of the Messiah as God's prophet, priest, and king (CCC 436,
1547):
"The Faithful Witness": The word "martyr" comes from the Greek word for "witness." Today we think of the word "martyr" as associated with someone who chooses to suffer or even die rather than renouncing their faith or Christian principles. However, as used in the first century AD, the word martyr meant one who worked to enforce the law and assisted in its execution, including supporting the death penalty. The significance of this title applied to Jesus Christ is that He both witnesses against those who live in opposition to God's commands, and He also prosecutes/judges them in His role as God's Supreme Prophet (prophesied in Dt 18:15-19). As God's Supreme Prophet, Jesus Christ is God's prosecuting attorney, especially as He fulfilled that role in Matthew Chapter 24 when He called down judgment on the unrepentant people of Judea and how He met his death at the hands of false witnesses. Many of those who followed Christ by giving their "witness" to Him as the promised Redeemer-Messiah in their deaths fulfilled our modern interpretation of the word.
In God's promise to King David in 2 Samuel 7:16-17; 23:5 and repeated in Sirach 45:25/31, Jesus fulfills this title in God's covenant promise that David's throne will endure forever. Jesus is a direct linear descendant of the great King David (Mt 1:1, 6-16), who takes His throne in the heavenly kingdom as King of king and Lord of lords (Rev 17:14; 19:16). He is, in fact, the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies God the Father made about the Messiah (also see 2 Sam 7:1a; Ps 89; Is 55:3-4; Zec 12:8).
"The firstborn of the dead": St. Paul called Jesus "the firstborn of the dead" as well as the "first-fruits of the dead" (1 Cor 15:18-20; Col 1:18). In His Resurrection, Jesus defeated sin and death, and He has obtained supremacy, having "first place" in everything. St. Peter expressed this concept in his homily on the feast of Pentecost in Acts 2:32-36 when he said that in Jesus' Resurrection, God fulfilled His promise in Psalm 89:28-30 ~ I myself will make him firstborn. Most High over the kings of the earth. 29 Forever, I will maintain my love for him; my covenant with him stands firm. 30 I will establish his dynasty forever, his throne as the days of the heavens.
"The ruler of the kings of the earth": The third title applied to Jesus is from Psalms 89:28 (quoted above). Christ is not only the Savior; He is also the universal King. Christ is the King of kings sitting at the Father's right hand with dominion over all the earth (Rev 17:14; 19:16). As Lord of the entire world, all earthly kings are subject to Him (Ps 110:1-7). This kingship will be manifested uniquely in His Second Advent when He comes to judge the earth: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him (Mt 25:31-32a).
6 who has
made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to him be glory and
power forever and ever! Amen.
Revelation 1:6 is a doxology of praise to Jesus the
Redeemer-Messiah. Not only have we been redeemed from slavery to sin by the
power of His perfect sacrifice, but He has also constituted us as a kingdom of
priests. The end of the Old Covenant is the beginning of the New Covenant (Jer 31:31; Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25), and Christians are now ruling with Christ (Eph 1:20-22; 2:6; Col 1:13), spreading His Gospel ("good news") across the world
over which only He has dominion and power (1 Tim 6:16; Rev 19:16).
Jesus has fulfilled what no Old Testament blood sacrifice could accomplish (Heb 9:1-4; 14-22). In his first letter to the Church, St. Peter assured Christians that we are a "Kingdom of Priests" through the ministry of our High Priest Christ Jesus. He wrote: Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pt 2:4-5). We become members in the priesthood of the faithful because of the merit Christ won for us as His heirs. We inherited this role in the Sacrament of Baptism when we were reborn into the family of God and no longer live as a child weighed down with sin in the family of Adam. Later, when we complete our Baptism in the Sacrament of Confirmation, we take our place as active members of Christ's royal priesthood of believers and become apostles who carry His message of salvation to the world (Mt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).
The Catechism affirms this role: "Christ, high priest and unique mediator, had made of the Church a kingdom, priests for His God and Father." The whole community of believers is, as such, priestly. The faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood through their participation, each according to his own vocation, in Christ's mission as priest, prophet, and king. Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, the faithful are "consecrated to be a holy priesthood" (CCC 436, also see 1546 and CCC 1547 on the divisions between the royal priesthood of believers and the ministerial priesthood).
7 Behold, he is
coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced
him. All the peoples of the earth will lament him. Yes, Amen.
This verse announces what many Biblical scholars consider to
be the Book of Revelation's main theme: the coming of Christ in judgment upon
the Israel of the Old Covenant people to establish the universal (catholic)
Church as the Kingdom of the New Israel (CCC 877). "Coming on the clouds" is a
quote from Daniel 7:13. This argument is supported by the Old Testament
imagery St. John uses that is one of the most familiar Biblical images for
judgment, the Glory-Cloud (see
Gen 15:17;
Ex 13:21-22; 14:19-20, 24; 19:9, 16-19;
Ps 18:8-14; 104:3;
Is 19:1;
Ez 32:7-8;
Dan 7:13-14;
Nah 1:2-8;
Mt 24:30;
Mk 14:62; and
Acts 2:19).
The Glory-Cloud is God's heavenly chariot by which He makes His glorious presence known on earth. It is also a revelation of His Throne from which He brings judgment upon the wicked and justice and deliverance to the righteous (Dan 7:13-14). The scholars who hold this view believe verse 7 refers to the wrathful judgment against apostate Israel that Jesus prophesied in Matthew Chapters 23 and 24. It was a judgment Jesus said would occur within the generation of the disciples that would last only a short duration so there would be those saved from the destruction (Mt 23:36; 24:22, 34).
In Matthew 26:63-66, Jesus identified Himself with the divine Messiah in Daniel 7:13 and the Davidic king in Psalms 110:1 when pressed by the High Priest to reveal His true identity: But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, "I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God." But Jesus said to him in reply, "You have said so. But I tell you: From now on, you will see 'the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power' and 'coming on the clouds of Heaven'" (Mt 26:63-66 quoting Ps 110:1 and Dan 7:13). The High Priest immediately realized Jesus was applying the title of "Messiah" to Himself in the context of these two prophetic passages and was claiming both His divinity and authority to judge Israel. The High Priest tore his clothes and condemned Jesus to death.
Revelation 1:7 continues: and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him. All the peoples of the earth will lament him.
Yes, Amen.
This verse is a reference to Zechariah 12:10-11. It is the
second time St. John used this Scripture reference. He also quoted this
passage in the Gospel of John 19:37. Compare the passages in Zechariah and John 19:35-37 (emphasis added):
The Romans crucified Jesus, and a Roman soldier pierced His side with a spear to see if He was dead (Jn 19:34). However, everyone who has ever sinned has figuratively "pierced" the Messiah by contributing to His death. And those who acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior from His generation forward in time look to the one whom they have pierced and mourn their role in His suffering and death.
These verses also signify that one day those who crucified the Messiah will see Him coming in judgment. In other words, they will experience and understand that His Coming "on the clouds" prophesied in Daniel 7:13-14 will mean God's judgment against the Land of the Old Covenant Church for its failure to embrace the new and eternal Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34, 32:40, and 50:5. The Old Covenant was the preparation for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the tutor and the guide, but the old Law was incapable of offering eternal salvation because it did not have the grace of the Holy Spirit to fulfill it (CCC 1962-64).
The Zechariah passage occurs in the context of the Northern Kingdom of Judah's mourning in repentance for the people's sins. However, the Judea of John's day had gone beyond the point of no return. They were facing the judgment of "the Last Days," also called "the Day of the Lord," that Peter announced in Acts 2:17-20 at his Pentecost homily. But notice that Zechariah's prophesy also promises redemption. The promise was to be fulfilled by the judgment of ex-communication or "cutting off" of the Old Israel so the world could receive salvation through Jesus Christ. The mission of the New Israel of Jesus' Kingdom of the Church was to carry the message of salvation to the world (CCC 877). It is what Jesus told the Jewish priests in Matthew 21:43 when He said, Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.
It was the responsibility of the Jewish Apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ to bring their lost brethren of the old Sinai Covenant into the New Israel of the Universal Church (see Romans chapters 9-11). It was the way those of the Old Covenant could "turn again to the Lord and be saved." On Pentecost Sunday, Peter told the Jews they had crucified the Messiah: Hearing this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "What are we to do, brothers?" Peter answered them, "You must repent ... and every one of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:37-41).
Jesus the Christ comes not merely for judgment but judgment unto salvation:
In Revelation 1:8, Jesus tells John: "I am the Alpha and
the Omega," says the Lord God, "the one who is and who was and who is to come,
the Almighty!"
The "I AM" in this verse is related to Exodus 3:13-15. I AM
is understood to be God's holy covenant name: YHWH = Yahweh. In his Gospel,
St. John records Jesus' use of the words I AM ("Ego Ami" in Greek) seven
different ways: I AM the bread of life, I AM the light of the world,
before Abraham was I AM, etc. (see the Chart of "The Seven I AM's in St.
John's Gospel."
Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet. Jesus Christ is the beginning and the ending of all things. The prophet Isaiah expresses this concept in the Old Testament in Isaiah 44:6 ~ Thus says Yahweh, Israel's king, Yahweh Sabaoth, his redeemer: I am the first and the last; there is no God except me (NJB). Jesus will use the title, "the Alpha and the Omega," three times in Revelation 1:8, 17, and 21:6. Then, at the end of the book in Revelation 22:13, the title appears a fourth time: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
"the one who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty!"
Jesus is the one who lives, the one who was on earth before
His Ascension, and the one who will come again in His glory in His Second
Advent as humanity's divine judge. The title "the Almighty" at the end of
Revelation 1:8 is the most common translation of the Greek word Pantokrator,
which means "the One who has all power and rules over everything." It is the
New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament titles for God, "El Shaddai" and
also "Yahweh Sabaoth" (Yahweh of the Hosts), meaning the one who has
sovereignty over all the cosmos and everything on the earth. Jesus came as a humble
Savior in His First Advent, but He will come as God Almighty in His Second Coming.
Our duty as Christ's apostles is to carry His witness to the nations and stand
ready for His glorious return.
The Gospel of Luke 4:16-21 ~ Jesus Announces that He Fulfills
Old Testament Prophecy
16 He came to
Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the Synagogue
on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read 17
and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll
and found the passage where it was written: 18
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring
glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 and to proclaim a year acceptable to the
Lord." 20 Rolling up the scroll,
he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the Synagogue
looked intently at him. 21 He said
to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." 22 And all spoke highly of him and were amazed
at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this
the son of Joseph?" 23 He said to
them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and
say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in
Capernaum.'" 24 And he said, "Amen,
I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 25 Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in
Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years,
and a severe famine spread over the entire land. 26 It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but
only Naaman the Syrian." 28 When
the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. 29 They rose up, drove him out of the town, and
led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built to hurl him
down headlong. 30 But he passed
through the midst of them and went away.
In Luke 4:14-30, Jesus gave a homily in which He referred to three Old Testament passages:
Jesus came to His hometown of Nazareth and attended the Sabbath day (Saturday) service at the local Synagogue. Verse 16 notes that it was "his custom" to keep the Sabbath command. He was obedient to the Law concerning the obligation of Sabbath worship (Ex 20:8-11; 31:12-17; 34:21; 35:1-3; Dt 6:12-15). Worship expressed in sacrifice took place in the Jerusalem Temple. However, for communities located too far away from the twice-daily Temple liturgical services, the people worshiped through prayer and praise in the local Synagogue. They read the Sacred Scriptures and reflected upon them. The Synagogue president could ask any male of the covenant to read and expound on a Scripture passage to the congregation. On this occasion, he asked Jesus to stand and read the Scripture. The passage Jesus read was from the Septuagint Greek translation of the scroll of Isaiah 61:1-2. He read: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings [good news = gospel] to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord" (Lk 4:18-19; underlining added for emphasis).
20 Rolling up the
scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in
the Synagogue looked intently at him. 21 He
said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
After the Scripture reading, the reader typically took his
seat and then taught on the passage. Jesus took His place and announced to the
congregation that He fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy because He is the promised "Anointed
One" about whom Isaiah wrote.
Mashiyach/Mashiach means "Anointed One" in Hebrew and Khristόs (Χριστός) in Greek and refers to one anointed with God's Spirit and commissioned as His agent, as King David was "the anointed of God" (2 Sam 23:1-17; Ps 18:51; 132:10, 17). In claiming the prophecy, Jesus declared to the people of Nazareth that He is the chosen servant "anointed" with God's Spirit to bring justice to the earth and with authority to proclaim an extraordinary divine liberation for the people of God as described in the prophecy.
The people would have also recalled a similar passage from Isaiah 42:1-7, Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations ... I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness (Is 42:1, 6-7). In this passage, God promised to put His Spirit upon His anointed representative to make Him "a covenant of the people, " "a light to the nations," and the liberator of the captives "who live in darkness."
But what was the prophet Isaiah referring to in the passage Jesus quoted that mentions proclaiming liberty in "a year acceptable to the LORD" (Is 61:1-2)? In the seven annual God-ordained sacred feasts of the Old Covenant Church (Lev 23), the covenant people relived the Exodus experience year after year and generation after generation. However, in every seventh year, called a "Sabbath Year," and every fiftieth year (after the seventh Sabbath year), called a "Jubilee Year," the Israelites were to demonstrate the same mercy and compassion God showed them in the Exodus liberation by extending mercy and compassion to each other. The Jubilee year was to be a "year of liberation" (see Lev 25:10). The people understood Isaiah's prophecies to mean that, with the coming of the Messiah, He would generate a divine Jubilee of grace and restoration, dispensing justice to the poor and suffering (i.e., Is 42:1-9; 49:5-13; 50:14-16; 61:1-11).
THE LIBERATION OF THE EXODUS EXPRESSED IN
THE JUBILEE YEAR OF GRACE
The
Jubilee year's proclamation: Seven weeks of years shall you count—seven
times seven years—so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.
[...]. This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in
the land for all its inhabitants.
Leviticus 25:8, 10 (NJB; underlining added for emphasis)
| Jubilee Liberation | Exodus Liberation |
| The ancestral lands forfeited because of debts could be redeemed and all debts forgiven (Lev 25:13-17). | God redeemed the "firstborn" of Israel on the night of the tenth plague (Ex 12:1-34) just as He redeemed all of Israel to take possession of the Promised Land. |
| The liberation of all Israelites who were slaves (Lev 25:35-55). | God freed Israel from slavery in Egypt (Ex 12:37-51). |
| The land reverted to the tribal family entrusted with it (Lev 25:10, 23-34). | God gave Israel stewardship of the Promised Land (Josh 3-4). |
In claiming that He fulfilled the Isaiah passage, Jesus was proclaiming a "liberation" that would bring about a "new Exodus." The people were expecting that the Messiah would liberate them from their oppressors (in the 1st century AD, the Romans), but that was not the kind of "exodus" that Jesus was promising. The meaning of His "new exodus" becomes clear in Luke 9:28-31 in the event of the Transfiguration: About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying, his face changed in appearance, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem (emphasis added). According to Luke 9:31, Jesus' liberation was not from the Romans or to free Jewish slaves. His "liberation" was from slavery to sin and death, and His "exodus" was going to be from death in His Resurrection.
THE "NEW EXODUS" LIBERATION FULFILLED IN JESUS CHRIST
| Liberation | Fulfilled in Christ |
| Jesus would take upon Himself the debt of the curse-judgments incurred for failing to keep the Law of the Sinai Covenant (Lev 26:14-46; Dt 28:15-68). | Galatians 3:13 ~ Christ ransomed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree..." |
| He will free us from slavery to sin and death. | Romans 6:6 ~ We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. |
| Through His death, burial, and Resurrection, we receive the promise of eternal life in the Promised Land of the Kingdom of Heaven. | Luke 23:42-43 ~ Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you. Today you will be with me in Paradise." |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2013 | |
22 And all
spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his
mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?" 23 He said to them, "Surely you will quote me
this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native
place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"
At first, the congregation was pleased with His words.
However, Jesus knew the doubt in their hearts and that they were waiting for
Him to give proof of His claims by performing miracles.
They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"
Their comment should not be interpreted as a
negative response to Jesus' announcement, as the three little sayings or proverbs
Jesus quoted next proves. Jesus said, "Surely you will quote me this proverb,
'Physician, cure yourself,'" quoting them a little secular proverb that was
a well-known maxim in antiquity (Green, page 217; Fitzmyer, page 535). The saying
was usually employed in an argument to insist that one must not do favors for
others that one refuses to do for one's own people or that one must not benefit
another by refusing the same benefits to one's family or community. In other
words, the people of Nazareth have heard of the miracles Jesus worked for the
people of Capernaum and are expecting the same benefit for their community. This
meaning is supported by what He says next, as He tells them, "and say, 'Do
here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum'" (Lk 4:23).
24 And he said, "Amen,
I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place."
"Amen" is a Hebrew word used in a proclamation or
corroborating statement in both the Old and New Testaments; it is often doubled
for emphases and is the only Hebrew word that appears in Luke's Gospel. Jesus
quotes another little proverb to them: no prophet is accepted in his own
native place. He is informing them that He is a prophet in the same class
as the great prophets of God. And, as a prophet, He is predicting the historical
precedent that their people rejected all God's prophets throughout salvation
history. Jesus' point is that the people of Nazareth's previously formed
perception of Him clouds their understanding. They see Him as only a member of
their community that they have known since He was a child, and that will
inhibit their faith in Him as the Messiah and the vision of who He is and what
He has come to accomplish.
25 "Indeed, I
tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky
was closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine spread over the
entire land. 26 It was to none of
these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
27 Again, there were many lepers in
Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed,
but only Naaman the Syrian."
Then Jesus cites the works of two of God's prophets rejected
by their people. In Elijah's day, the people turned away from God, rejecting
His prophets and adopting the worship of the pagan god, Baal (1 Kng 16:29-33).
God punished the Israelites for their sins by withholding the rains, and famine
spread over the land (1 Kng 17:1). God did not send the prophet Elijah to help
the Israelites who had rejected him. God sent Elijah to the Phoenician city of
Sidon, located on the Mediterranean coast about 20 miles north of Tyre (near
modern Beirut), to help a poor Gentile widow.
In the second example, Jesus cites the story of Elijah's successor, the prophet Elisha and his encounter with the Gentile army commander named Naaman (2 Kng 5:1-27). When the king of Aram sent a letter requesting that an Israelite prophet heal his general of leprosy, the king of Israel did not think to send for Elisha to cure the man. However, Elisha offered to heal the man as evidence that "there is a [true] prophet in Israel" (2 Kng 5:8). Out of desperation and not belief, the King of Israel sent Naaman to Elisha. When Elisha healed Naaman of his leprosy, the Gentile general acknowledged "there is no God in all the earth except in Israel" (2 Kng 5:15). What the two stories have in common is that in the past, when the people rejected God's prophets, He sent His prophets to Gentiles who were more receptive to His gifts of grace.
29 They rose up, drove
him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town
had been built, to hurl him down headlong. 30
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
The people of Nazareth did not miss Jesus' message. They
understood that He was saying when the covenant people rejected God's works
through His prophets, He sent His prophets to do His works among the Gentiles.
The suggestion that the Israelites' rejection of Him could also lead to the
offer of God's grace to the Gentiles enraged the people of Nazareth. They
might also have tried to kill Him because they judged Him to be a false prophet
for refusing to provide the sign of a miracle for them to prove He was from God
and for making such a claim. However, when the townspeople attempted to kill
Jesus, He miraculously passed through the crowd and went away. It was
ironic that the people of Nazareth wanted Jesus to perform a miracle for them,
but His disappearing from them was the only miracle they would ever witness
from Him in their town.
The people of Nazareth's initial admiration and acceptance of Jesus and then the subsequent rejection of His message and the attempt to kill Him foreshadows the whole future of Jesus' ministry. At first, the Jews will gladly receive His healings and His teachings, but then the opposition will grow until many will reject Him and succeed in having Him condemned to death. As a result of the Jew's rejection of Jesus as their promised Messianic prophet, priest, and king (CCC 436, 1547), Jesus' message of salvation will go to the Gentile nations who will be more receptive to His message and will embrace His promise of forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal salvation.
The inheritance of a royal priesthood and the divine liberation Jesus brought to humanity through His sacrificial death, His burial, and His glorious Resurrection are the same gifts He brings "today" to each of us (1 Cor 6:2b). We receive His blessings as we continually repent our sins and turn back to serving God in our divinely anointed missions as priestly people who spread the Gospel of salvation on our journeys to eternal salvation.
Catechism References (* indicated Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Isaiah 61:3ab, 6a, 8b-9 (CCC 714*);
61:6 (1539*)
Revelation 1:6 (CCC 1546, 2855*); 1:8 (CCC 2854)
Luke 4:16-21 (CCC 436*, 1547); 4:18-19 (CCC 695*, 714); 4:18 (CCC 544, 2443*); 4:19 (CCC 1168*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2015; revised 2021 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.