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The intent of Pilgrim Processing is to provide commentary on the Daily Lectionary from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The format for the comment is Old Testament Lesson first, Gospel, and Epistle with a portion of one of the Psalms for the day as a prayer at the end.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

18 January 2015


“I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”  I am not arguing for replacement theology.  When I read Romans 11 I see that we are not a replacement for the nation, the covenant with the nation is everlasting, I see that we are grafted into the nation but that isn’t the same as modern political Israel.  If, however, we replace Israel in that sentence from Isaiah with the word “church” we come face to face with the reality of our own situation.  In this passage, the Lord announces He is doing a new thing, restoring His people, shepherding them by providing water in the desert and wilderness.  The overriding question we could ask here is “Why?”  He says that it is not because they have sacrificed or become righteous people.  They have not fallen deeply in love with Him.  They have “burdened me with your sins…wearied me with your iniquities.”  He is forgiving them not for their repentance and righteousness, but for His own sake, because of His covenant love for the nation He created.  We take that love for granted, don’t reciprocate any better than they did.

The woman’s testimony to Jesus was simple, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”  What had Jesus told her that she did?  He had told her own sordid past, she had had five husbands and she was now living with a man who wasn’t her husband.  Samaritans had only the books of Moses but they made it clear that she was a notorious (in the sense of the word meaning  “well known”) sinner.  Jesus, as a Jewish man, not a Samaritan, couldn’t have been expected to know such things.  He was an outsider to the city.  They may have known all about her past but how could this stranger know?  It’s funny, isn’t it, that she simply describes Jesus as “a man” when she knows multiple things about Him.  He is Jewish but she doesn’t mention that, they wouldn’t come to give Him a hearing if she had told that.  He has claimed to be the prophet like Moses they are looking for but she doesn’t relay the claim, only her own tentative opinion. He has promised her things as well but those don’t come into play in her testimony.  I wonder what their initial reaction was on meeting this group of Jewish men.  There was such enmity between the two, the Samaritans believed themselves to be the true Israel, that was overcome in Jesus in just a couple of days.  They were truly the lost sheep of Israel and when, in Acts, the church flees Jerusalem, a deacon, Philip, goes to these people and gives them the rest of the story and reaps a great harvest.

The writer finds an enigmatic character from Genesis to whom to tie Jesus.  The king of Salem, both priest and king, Melchizedek, is a man about whom we know nothing except that Abraham recognized him as priest and to him gave tithes.  Why would Abraham tithe to any king?  The text in Genesis 14 tells us that Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High serving in Salem which later became Jerusalem.  The scene is after the five kings, including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, fought the four kings and as they fled, the five kings captured Lot.  Abraham took men born in his house to retrieve Lot and as they rested from the successful mission, Melchizedek came out with bread and wine and blessed Abraham in the name of God Most High and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.  If Abraham recognized him in this way, he was seen as superior and a genuine priest.  Jesus, neither from a Levitical or priestly line, was also a priest in this order, like this odd figure from Genesis, a priesthood from God Himself.  The other priests came from Abraham’s line so the argument is that for Jews, they must emulate their father, Abraham, and pay tribute to this older priesthood that is then superior to their own.  God has always had a witness and a priest.


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