Tobit 3 – There follows a lovely
ode on his unworthiness and desire for God’s forgiveness – here is some of it:
You are just, O Lord,
And
just are all your works,
All
your ways are grace and truth,
And
you are the Judge of the world.
Therefore,
Lord,
Remember
me, look on me,
Do
not punish me for my sins
Or
for my heedless faults
Or
for those of my fathers
.
. . we have neither kept you commandments
nor
walked in truth before you;
so
now, do with me as you will;
be
pleased to take my life from me;
I
desire to be delivered from earth
And
to become earth again.
For
death is better for me than life (3:2-6).
Toward
the end, he seems to fall back into a sadness over being insulted – I am not
sure if this has to do with the reproaches he suffers from the wider community
for being such a staunch defender of the dignity of his people or because his
wife insulted him by accusing him of lacking charity in relation to her.
Next the story of
Sarah,
daughter of Raguel, the man in Media [now Iran] with whom Tobit once left a
stash of silver when he was conducting business for Shalmaneser V. She is
presented as a kind of parallel to Tobit. Sarah is reproached by one of her
father’s maids because she’s been been harsh with them and because she has a
demon in her – Asmodeus, who has made her infertile and dangerous to marry.
She’s been married seven times, and all the husbands have died before
consummating the marriage. Her maid denigrates her, and she is tempted to hang
herself, but she doesn’t (for her father’s sake). She complains here in a tone
very similar to Tobit’s. She prays to God that He might take her rather than
leave her to hear these reproaches.
God
hears the prayers of them both and sends his man, the angel Raphael, “to heal
both of them: Tobit, by removing the white films from his eyes, so that he
might see God’s light with his eyes; and Sarah, . . .by giving her in marriage
to [Tobit’s son] Tobias . . . and by setting her free from the wicked demon
Asmodeus.” (3:16)
Tobit 4 – Tobit then remembers
the silver he left with Gabael and decides he should talk to his son Tobias about
it. He calls Tobias and tells him how he should deal with things in the event
of his (Tobit’s) death. He tells him to take care of his mother and to bury her
next to him when she dies.
He
tells him to “be faithful to the Lord all your days. Never entertain the will
to sin or to transgress his laws. Do good works all the days of your life, . .
. for if you act in truthfulness, you will be successful in all your actions”
(4:5-6). “Never turn you face from any poor man and God will never turn his
from you. Measure your alms by what you have; if you have much, give more; if
you have little, give less, but do not be mean in giving alms” (4:7-8).
Avoid
“all loose conduct” (4:12), and when you marry, do not marry outside the tribe
(4:12).
“Do
not keep back until next day the wages of those who work for you; pay them at
once” (4:14). “Be careful, my child; in all you do, well-disciplined in all
your behavior. Do to no one what you would not want done to you” (4:15). And
then, at the end, he also tells him about the ten talents of silver he left in
trust with Gabael in Media.
Luke 19 – In Jericho, a man
named Zacchaeus, a tax collector, tries to see Jesus. He is short and has to climb a tree to see him. When Jesus sees him, he tells him to
come down, for he “must stay at [his] house today” (19:5). Again, Jesus is criticized again for hanging around with sinners. Zacchaeus, however, is a man ready to
change. He promises he will give
half of his possessions to the poor and pay back anyone he may have
defrauded. Jesus praises him, “Today
salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham” (19:9).
This is
another Lucan doublet—the first one is the story of his disciple Levi at
5:29. It is hard
to tell if Luke planned to include these doublets (for emphasis) or just did
because he was selecting stories from several sources and put in stories that
had the same point even if there were small differences in them in his
sources.
They are
nearing Jerusalem, and his disciples think the “kingdom of God” is going to
“appear” when they get there. So Jesus tells them
another parable – the parable of the gold coins or talents: A nobleman nobody likes goes to a
distant country “to get royal power for himself and then return” (19:12). He gives each of his ten servants some money
and tells them “See what you can earn with this while I am gone” (19:13). The people this man has authority over
cannot stand him, and they send a message to the effect that they really do not
want him to be made a king (19:14). The man does get the title of king,
however, and when he comes back he asks each of the servants what they did with
the money he gave them while he was gone. As they tell him, he rewards them
with “cities” to rule if they had a good return on their investment. But the one who feared him and did
nothing but stash the money away is punished. The nobleman/king takes the money from him and gives it to
the one who made the most. Then to punish all those who hated him and did not
want him to rule over them, he orders them brought in and “slaughter[ed] . .
.in my presence” (19:27).
Here is
another place where the Lucan “edge” gets a little hard to take. He more than any other gospel
writer has these places; and he also depicts God – by analogy - in his parable
in a puzzling way—here as a hated ruler;
in the parable of the widow (18:1-8) as the unresponsive, lazy judge; in his teachings about the “day of the
Lord” as the thief breaking into the
house at night (12:39). Is he using
such analogies because he thinks these mean people are the only kind of people
we worry about enough to ponder deeply? He does want us to THINK THINGS THROUGH
more than we usually do. I know he is trying to tell us that we need to work as
hard on our spiritual “resources” with as much passion and commitment as
worldly people – people who love power and money above all – work on
multiplying their resources, but I do find the parable style a little
off-putting – I confess I do. I think it is important to remember that this
moment in Jesus’ life is a time of GREAT ANXIETY AND CRISIS.
They arrive at the
Mount of Olives. Jesus sends two of his disciples to get
a colt for him to ride. As he
enters the city, people spread their cloaks, and his disciples praise God with
a loud voice “for all the deeds of power that they has seen, saying, ‘Blessed
is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in
the highest heaven!’” (19:38) The Pharisees object,
but Jesus says, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out”
(19:40).
Jesus
weeps over the fate of the city and delivers a prophecy: “If you .
. .had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your
eyes. Indeed, the days will come
upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you,
and hem you in on every side. They
will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will
not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the
time of your visitation from God” (19:41-44). This has to be a reference to the assault of the Romans and
their destruction of the Temple. The tone of it also puts into relief the harsh
tone and import of much of Luke’s gospel—and the tears Jesus sheds reflect the
underlying sorrow in which the anger is rooted.
The
psychology of the moment—the man Jesus coming into the city with royal power
and looking for his faithful people to bring him evidence of righteousness
(fruit worthy to be praised) is reflected in the series of passages in both
Mark and Luke. In Mark you have the
entry (11:8) followed by Jesus encounter with the fig tree and his displeasure
with the commercialization of the Temple. Surrounding Jesus’ moment of
hoped-for reception are passages that reflect the doubts and acts of
unfaithfulness - the vineyard owner sending his son instead of servants,
leaders questioning his authority, etc. In Luke you have the returning lord
that the citizens are conspiring to reject, the failure of men to make a return
on the blessings this same ruler has given them and a direct reference to the
opportunity for salvation rejected by the people of Jerusalem. This is the climax moment of Luke.
Jesus drives out the
merchants from the Temple, and begins several days of teaching there. But the leaders of the community are
out to kill him.
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