Foothills Congregational
Church
The Rev. W. Matthew Broadbent
United Church of Christ
Third
Sunday in Lent
461 Orange Ave., Los
Altos CA
February 24, 2008
LUKE/MARY:
WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
Luke 7:36-50; 8:1-3; Gospel of Mary (excepts)
The
purpose of this series of sermons is to break apart the homogenous portrait of
Jesus that is perpetrated by our cultural prejudices. We tend to view Jesus as a European, white male with beautiful
hair, kindly in nature, mysterious in purpose, righteously resolute, but always
just above the fray, as if he were floating on a spiritual cloud just above
contradiction. We don’t see him
angry. He was (Luke 19:45-48). We don’t see him in love. He was (Gospel of Mary 5:5). We don’t see him making mistakes. He did (Matt. 15:22-28). We see him complete and fully developed from
the beginning (John 1:1ff). He wasn’t. The Jesus we think we know is not the Jesus
that is presented in the various gospels, canonical and non-canonical.
Two weeks ago Matthew described Jesus as Messiah to a
Jewish-Christian community. But on the
surface he was a failed Messiah so Matthew’s task was to interpret Jesus as the
agent of culture change through his death and resurrection – the empty vessel
that rang clearly God’s voice. Last
week we heard how John presented a risen, exalted Christ, preexistent who
becomes known in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and forevermore known as
Jesus Christ, one with God. In the
words of Jesus praying for his disciples, and thus for us (John 17:20): “I ask
not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of all those who will believe
in me through their word, that they may all be one, as you,…, are in me and I
am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent
me.”
Today we turn, first, to Luke, the writer of the third
Gospel and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, and we hear the word, Savior
(word root: salve, healing). He is the
Savior of the world and the Savior of souls.
One soul saved was Mary of Magdala who became his disciple and the first
witness of the resurrection, and thus the first apostle. We will also look at the Gospel of Mary and
its hint of an intimate relationship between Mary and Jesus.
What do scholars tell us about Luke? Tradition says that Luke was a companion of
Paul, a physician, and therefore someone learned in Hellenistic literary and
scientific culture. All these are
secondary traditions and most scholars view them as unreliable. Prof. Harold Attridge, of Yale Divinity
School, says that “What we can infer from the evidence of the Book of Acts and
the third gospel is that the author was someone who was steeped in scripture,
in the Septuagint (the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament), and who was
aware of Hellenistic patterns, historiographical and novelistic. And these kinds of patterns have an impact
on his literary products.”
Luke’s audience seems to be much more cultured than
the other gospel communities. Luke’s
Greek is the highest quality in style of anything in the New Testament. “It reads more like a novel in the Greek
tradition,” writes L. Michael White.
“The concerns in Luke’s Gospel are not so much about proclaiming the
Christ as helping the reader understand political and social concerns as would
befit a more cultured audience. In
Luke, Jesus emerges primarily as a teacher, a teacher of ethical wisdom,
someone who’s confident and serene in that ethical teaching, and someone who is
very much interested in promoting the virtues of compassion and forgiveness
among his followers.”
Luke is clearly written for a Gentile audience, and
while it is likely that it was composed in Ephesus or Smyrna, or Antioch (like
Matthew), it is clearly directed at an urban Roman context. One of the major concerns of the Luke-Acts
cycle addresses whether Christians can be good citizens of the Roman
Empire. After all, their founder was
executed as a political criminal, and they were being associated with the
destruction of Jerusalem, and some people would have thought of them as
incendiaries, as revolutionaries. But
Luke wants to show that Jesus himself taught an ethic that was entirely
compatible with good citizenship of the empire. Luke’s Jesus makes a clear distinction between what may be owed
to Caesar and what is ultimately owed to God when he says, “Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it
bear?” And they answered, “the
emperor’s.” “Then give to the emperor
the thing’s that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
(Luke 20:24-25).
Luke’s gospel could be described as an apologetic for
the beginnings of the Christian movement trying to make its place in the Roman
world, and saying, “we’re OK, don’t
worry about us, we are just like the rest of you: we keep the peace, we’re law
abiding citizens, we have high moral values, we’re good Romans, too.”
One of the indications of this Roman inclination is
the treatment of women in the gospel of Luke.
There are more stories of women in this gospel than any other. In fact the author of the Gospel of Luke and
Acts shows a whole series of parallel episodes: one relating to a woman, the
other to a man. For example: Simeon and
Hannah in Luke 2:25-38; the widow of Serapta and Naaman in Luke 4:25-38; the healing
of a man possessed by a demon and the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, Luke
4:31; The woman who lived a sinful life and Simon, Luke 7; a man and woman
sleeping together, Luke 17:34; Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5:1-11; Dionysius and
Damaris, Acts 17:34; and Lydia and the jailer’s conversion, Acts 16:14-34.
Why is this so remarkable? Because women’s status and freedoms were severely limited by
Jewish law and custom, as opposed to the more liberal customs of Rome. In ancient Israel, generally speaking, women
were restricted to roles of little or no authority. They were largely confined to their father’s or their husband’s
home, and were considered inferior to men, and under the authority of men. From the Second Temple period on (5th
Century BCE) women were not allowed to testify in court trials. They could not go out in public, or talk to
strangers. When outside of their homes,
they were doubly veiled. They were
excluded from worship and the teaching of God (a minion was 10 righteous men),
with a status scarcely above slaves, though they did have control of their
homes. Their status has been described
as not unlike that of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.
In the stratified Roman society the status of woman,
by comparison, was quite different.
Slaves abounded and were controlled by their owners (who could be men or
women). Slaves had few rights and women
were often selected out as breeding stock. You could buy your way out of
slavery, however.
On the plebeian level women worked as the equals of
men. They worked as fruit-sellers and
fishmongers, butchers and bath attendants, polishers and porters. After Augustus’ rule a few women even became
teachers and doctors. Some women ran
their own businesses. You may remember
the story of Lydia of Thyatira (Acts 16:14), a dealer in high-end purple
cloth. When they excavated Pompei they
discovered tombstones inscribed to women who were midwives, dress makers,
hairdressers, and mime artists.
In the upper classes the expected role of women was as
wife and mother, and ruler of the household.
Hard work, lack of sleep and rough hands were signs of a dutiful
wife. Even the emperor Augustus
insisted on these tasks for his unwilling daughter, Julia, to make her an
example of Roman tradition and wifely virtue.
In practice it was wealth and status that bought a woman her freedom in
the Roman world. A wealthy widow,
especially, could enjoy a great deal of independence.
At the end of Luke one of the women who goes to the
tomb was named Joanna. She was the wife
of King Herod’s steward. She had been
healed by Jesus and provided for Jesus and his follower’s out of her own wealth
(Luke 8:3). She was, presumably, a
widow with an independent income.
This was one of the marks of the ethics of Jesus. He formed around him a truly egalitarian
movement. To read Luke and Acts one
gets the picture of as many women disciples following Jesus on his journey as
there were men. He taught women as
students, as in the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). He called them “a daughter of Abraham” (Luke
13:16) which placed women on equal status with “sons of Abraham.” Jesus forgave a woman’s sins (Luke 7:35 –
8:50) and refers to women and men as children
of wisdom. He accepted women into
his inner circle, Joanna, who we have already spoken of, as well as Susanna,
and many others (Luke 8:1-3).
But there is one, in particular, who stands out. Mary
Magdalene, she of whom seven demons had gone out. Jesus was her savior (healer), and tradition has it that she was
his closest follower, a true disciple, and the first apostle. A disciple is one who follows a
teacher. An apostle is one who is sent
out to spread the teaching. Mary is the
first to receive the word of the resurrection and first to go out to tell the
disciples what had happened to her.
Within the early church there was a whole movement of
devotion to Mary Magdalene. Some
scholars think she was part of John’s community in Ephesus, and I even read one
article suggesting she might have been the original “author”, or inspiration,
of the Gospel of John. In the last
century several scraps of manuscript have been discovered and translated as the
Gospel According to Mary Magdalene.
This gospel gives us a glimpse into another way of answering the
question: “Who do you say that I am?”
Karen King, summarizes the gospel. “This astonishingly brief narrative presents
a radical interpretation of Jesus’ teachings as a path to inner spiritual
knowledge; it rejects his suffering and death as the path to eternal life; it
exposes the erroneous view that Mary of Magdala was a prostitute for what it
is, a piece of theological fiction; it presents the most straightforward and
convincing argument in any early Church writing for the legitimacy of women’s
leadership; it offers a sharp critique of illegitimate power and a utopian
vision of spiritual perfection; it challenges our rather romantic view about
the harmony and unanimity of the first Christians; and it asks us to rethink
the basis for church authority. All
written in the name of a woman.” Strong
words for what is a four page text.
Let’s hear directly from The Gospel According to Mary
Magdalene.
Chapter 4 – (all matter
and spirit are interwoven with each other)
22) The Savior said, All nature, all formations, all
creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into
their own roots. 23) For the nature of
matter is resolved into the roots of its own nature alone. 24) He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
(There is no sin, save what humans define
as sin)
26) The Savior said: There is no sin, but it is you
who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which
is called sin. 27) That is why the Good
came into your midst, to the essence of every nature in order to restore it to
its root.
29) He who has a mind to understand, let him
understand.
(Here we hear the echo of Eastern mysticism)
30) Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal,
which proceeded from something contrary to nature. Then there arises a
disturbance in its whole body. 31) That
is why I said to you, Be of good courage, and if you are discouraged be
encouraged in the presence of the different forms of nature. 32) He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
33) When the Blessed One had said this, He greeted
them all, saying,
Peace be with you. Receive my peace unto yourselves.
Chapter 5
5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior
loved you more than the rest of woman.
6) Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know,
but we do not, nor have we heard them.
7) Mary answered and said, “What is hidden from you I will proclaim to
you.” 8) And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the
Lord in a vision… (and she proceeds to
talk about the soul, which wraps around us like a garment, ascending through
the powers, like the seven layers of heaven)
Chapter 8:
11) The soul answered and said, I saw you. You did not
see me nor recognize me. I served you as a garment and you did not know
me. (As
there are seven powers there are also seven forms of resistance to overcome.) 19) The first form is darkness, the
second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the
fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh,
the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven powers of wrath. (In
this manner Mary reveals her vision to the disciples. But, inner wisdom is
always met with skepticism and doubt.)
Chapter 9
1) When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it
was to this point that the Savior had spoken with her. 2) But Andrew answered and said to the
brethren, Say what you wish to say about what she has said. I at least do not
believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are strange
ideas. 3) Peter answered and spoke
concerning these same things. 4) He
questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman
and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer
her to us?
5) Then Mary wept and said to Peter, My brother Peter,
what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart,
or that I am lying about the Savior? 6)
Levi answered and said to Peter, Peter you have always been hot tempered. 7) Now I see you contending against the
woman like the adversaries. 8) But if the
Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior
knows her very well. 9) That is why He
loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man,
and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any
other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said. 10) And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim
and to preach.
In the past three weeks we have heard five answers to
the question: Who do you say that I
am? Matthew says: Jesus is Messiah, not
the one we expected but the one God gave us.
John says: Jesus is the Exalted One, the manifested Light known as
Jesus, the preexistent Meaning through which all things come into being. Luke says: Jesus is Teacher and Savior. And Mary says: The Savior is the guide to
the soul, the perfected Human. Now, we
must wait until next week to hear from Mark and Judas.