2 Chronicles 36: 14 – 16, 19 – 23
In our first reading this Sunday, we hear the Cliff Notes version of the Old Testament kerygma: God gives people good things, the people sin and are punished, God saves them again. Our brief text is taken from 2 Chronicles. We only hear from the Books of Chronicles once every three years in this single passage so let’s review the who, what, when, where and two whom of these two books. This book was originally given the Greek title of Paraleipomena, which means “things omitted;” the reason for this title is that it purportedly recorded the matters overlooked in Samuel and Kings. These two books record events in the 570 years between the death of King Saul in 1010BC and the return from the Babylonian Exile in 539BC. But, as you who have the Catholic Study Bible will read in the introduction to 1 Chronicles, “unlike today’s history writing, wherein factual accuracy and impartiality of judgment are the norm, biblical history, with rare exceptions, was less concerned with reporting in precise detail all the facts of a situation than with drawing out the meaning of those facts. Biblical history was thus primarily interpretative, and its purpose was to disclose the action of the living God in human affairs.” You will recall that I have mentioned several times that histories were written in those days to glorify the king or pharaoh or emperor. In the Bible, they were written to glorify God.
This Sunday’s reading is taken from the very last verses of 2 Chronicles and it recounts the time when Cyrus, the king of Persia, released the Israelites to return to Jerusalem. It is a pivotal moment in ancient Israel – they could now rebuild their city and their temple, so God would reside among them once again.
So, let’s look at Sunday’s first reading. But first, to situate it historically, let’s read the first 13 verses of this chapter where we hear about the last kings of Judah who ruled just before its fall.
14 [In those days,] all the princes of Judah, the priests and the prophets added treachery to treachery, practicing all the abominations of the nations and defiling the LORD’s house which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
15 Early and often the LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the LORD’s anger against his people blazed up beyond remedy.
17 Then he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in their own sanctuary, with compassion for neither young men nor young women, neither the old nor the infirm; all of them he delivered into his power.
king of the Chaldeans: this refers to Nebuchadnessar, the king of Babylon, who destroyed Jerusalem in 587BC. You will notice that the author asserts that his success was due to God delivering Israel into is power.
18 All the utensils of the house of God, large and small, the treasures of the LORD’s house, and the treasures of the king and his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
19 They burnt the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, burnt down all its palaces, and destroyed all its precious objects.n
20 Those who escaped the sword he carried captive to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the Persian kingdom came to power.
21 All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah: Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths, during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy years are fulfilled.
22 In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to realize the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD roused the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, to spread this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing:
23 “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. All among you, therefore, who belong to his people, may their God be with them; let them go up.”
The author makes it clear that all of this was God’s doing and, through it all, despite the infidelity of the people, God took care of them.
John 3:14 – 21
This Sunday’s gospel account is taken from early in John’s Gospel and it has Jesus alluding to a very old and odd story from the Exodus to explain himself and his mission. Let’s read Numbers 21:4 -9. When venomous snakes attacked the discontented people in the desert, the God who had forbidden the people to make images and who condemned Aaron’s golden calf as an idol, told Moses to mold a serpent of bronze that people could look on and be healed.
The images are quite different: the calf represented a foreign god and the serpent a demonic figure. But why would God command the people to gaze on the serpent? According to some Jewish mystics, looking at the serpent was like looking upon evil in order to turn away from it. Gazing on the repulsive, frightening serpent was a symbol of admitting sin and seeking God’s help. It’s almost an anticipation of the first six of Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12 steps which take people in recovery from recognizing their powerlessness to asking God to transform them.
To understand the passage we will hear on Sunday, let’s begin from verse 1 of chapter 4:
1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”
5 Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
6 What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.
7 Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’
8 The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can this happen?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
11 Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.
12 If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
14 [Jesus said to Nicodemus:] “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
Moses lifted up: in Nm 21:9 Moses simply “mounted” a serpent upon a pole. John here substitutes a verb implying glorification. Jesus, exalted to glory at his cross and resurrection, represents healing for all.
Son of Man be lifted up: this is the first of three times Jesus spoke of being lifted up in John’s Gospel (3:14, 8:28, 12:32). These three statements are John’s counterparts to the Synoptics’ three passion predictions, but in John’s Gospel they all speak of glorification rather than humiliation and suffering. Jesus uses the image of Moses raising up the serpent as a foreshadowing of how he will be raised up, how his cross will be a sign of victory and the offer of eternal life.
15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
Eternal life: used here for the first time in John, this term stresses quality of life rather than duration.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
Gave: as a gift in the incarnation, and also “over to death” in the crucifixion; cf. Rom 8:32.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Condemn: the Greek root means both judgment and condemnation. Jesus’ purpose is to save, but his coming provokes judgment; some condemn themselves by turning from the light.
18 Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
Verdict: Judgment is not only future but is partially realized here and now.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.
21 But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
The only reason to look at sin, to think about it, or to admit our guilt, is because we know that forgiveness is a possibility. As theologian James Alison explains in Jesus the Forgiving Victim, the concept of sin is “derived from forgiveness, which massively precedes them and enables them to be understood as that which can be forgiven.” If forgiveness were not a possibility, there would be no reason to speak of sin because no change, no transformation could ever take place; things would simply be as they are, miserable or fortunate as fate would have it. God told Moses to fashion a serpent, a symbol of sin and misery, and have the people gaze on it. When they faced it, they could understand that it was not the only possibility open to them. God was greater than the snake. Similarly, the life Jesus offered was stronger than death: there was no reason to fear.
Ephesians 2:4 – 10
Again, this passage is best understood if we begin from the beginning of the chapter:
1 You were dead in your transgressions and sins
2 in which you once lived following the age of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient.
3 All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
9 it is not from works, so no one may boast.
10 For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.
Today’s Scriptures simply proclaim God’s great love. Chronicles recounts that when God’s insider messengers couldn’t get through to the people, God allowed the exile and a foreign potentate to be the instruments of drawing them back into the fold. Paul had to invent vocabulary to try to describe God’s love. Jesus explains that God’s entire plan for the world is to share eternal life. That’s how much God loves the world.