Easter 3

When seminaries teach people preparing for the priesthood, they are charged by the Episcopal Church to teach them about Holy Scripture. Even though the subject is labeled simply Holy Scripture, all seminaries divide the course work between the Old Testament and the New Testament. This makes sense, as different tools are needed to really get into each Testament. Study of the Old Testament involves knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. On top of the many translation issues, there is also the problem that we Christians do not agree amongst ourselves exactly which books make up the Old Testament. Is it 36, 46 or 49 books? The New Testament field involves knowledge of Greek and Latin, and issues of authorship that involve real detective work.

So, while it makes sense to divide up the academic field because of these issues, there is a big downside to this division. It sometimes seems as if we have two separate books that are in competition for primacy. Some have gone so far as to say that Old Testament is so different, that it can’t be talking about the same God. In the first century after Christ a man named Marcion began telling his Christian followers that the Old Testament was of no use to Christians and that those books should be kicked out of the Church. The Church rightly declared this type of theology called Marcionism heresy, a false teaching, and affirmed the need for (and the holiness) of the Old Testament. Unfortunately for us, most heresies have a long shelf life, and Marcionism is still around in a modified form. Modern Marcionism no longer asks for the expulsion of the Old Testament, but encourages something equally baffling to me. Modern Marcionism tells us that while the Old Testament may be needed in the Church, it must be read in isolation. Modern Marcionism says that the Old Testament has nothing to do with the New Testament, and the Old Testament must be studied in isolation, because it is only about ancient Israel. I encountered this theology at seminary. In the first day of my Old Testament class we were told to “get the New Testament out of her heads” and never to mention Jesus when talking about the Old Testament. The problem with this theology is that it directly contradicts the Tradition and Scripture. From the time of Marcion to today, the Church has spoken of the unity of the Old and New Testaments. We do not have two sacred books, we have one collection called Holy Scripture. Today’s Gospel reading directly contradicts this theology as well. When Jesus encounters two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus baffled by His death, Jesus chastises them for not knowing their Scripture. Jesus tells them “"Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” (Luke 23 NRSV) The Scriptures that Jesus is speaking about is the Old Testament, as the New had not yet been written. A few decades later, St. Paul tells us in the New Testament that it is not possible to fully understand the Old Testament unless we read it in the light of Christ. In his second letter to the Corinthians he tells us: “With a hope like this, we can speak with complete fearlessness; not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites should not watch the end of what was transitory. But their minds were closed; indeed, until this very day, the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament: it is not lifted, for only in Christ is it done away with. As it is, to this day, whenever Moses is read, their hearts are covered with a veil, and this veil will not be taken away till they turn to the Lord.” (2 Cor 3:13-16 NJB) St. Paul tells us that we cannot understand the Old Testament fully until we read it in the light of the Risen Christ.

When we put this notion that the Old Testament has nothing do with Jesus out of heads, we begin to see Him everywhere, jumping off every page of the Old Testament. We find that there are types, or pre-figurations, of Christ all through it. People and actions that point to what Christ would do and direct prophecies about His life.

We read about Abraham and Sarah, who although they think it impossible, through the power of God, have children that become the Kings and Priests of Israel. This is just as the Blessed Virgin Mary is able to conceive a child through the power of God alone, who becomes the great and final King and High Priest.

In the book of Genesis we also encounter Melchizedek, a High Priest of God who presents Abraham with Bread and Wine. Jesus presents himself to us through bread and wine each Sunday.

Joseph is forsaken by his brothers and deemed useless. God uses this situation of abandonment and procures the health of Joseph’s brothers through the power he gains in Egypt. Centuries later all the people of the world would reject Jesus and abandon Him, and God took this abandonment and turned it around and obtained our health and salvation.

Moses, with his speaking problems, would seem the like the most unlikely leader in the world, yet he leads the rebellious and quarrelsome Children of Israel to the Promised Land. Jesus arises from a town which the religious leaders say no prophet will ever come from. Yet this prophet from an unlikely town is actually the Son of God who will lead all of His rebellious and quarrelsome children to redemption.

The prophet Jonah is thrown off a boat into the sea and swallowed by a fish, in what the people on the boat assume is his death. Yet after three days, the fish spits out Jonah who is still alive and now able to accomplish his God given task. Jesus is crucified and placed dead into the tomb, and everyone expects that to be the end of Jesus, yet on the third day, He rises. The resurrected Christ accomplishes God the Father’s goal and ransoms man from death.

The prophet Isaiah speaks to Israel in their captivity and tells them of the imminent salvation. They think it only means salvation from captivity, but Isaiah prophecies about Christ. He tells us “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa 7:14 KJV) and “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa 53:3-5 KJV)

The ways in which the Old Testament points to Christ are virtually endless. So what is the point of all this? Seeing the unity of the Holy Scriptures, in the Old and New Testament, points to God’s consistent, ongoing and never failing love for us. Jesus was not a back-up plan after the Law failed to save us. Christ was always to come. The Law and the events of the Old Testament were there as helpers for us. These where the tutor who taught how to live as a people set aside for God. They taught us how to sanctify the daily aspects of our life. These were the means whereby God formed and shaped us. Where He let us grow to the point where in the fullness of time, Christ would come into the world to save it. Seeing the unity in the Holy Scriptures shows us that God is all knowing, and therefore will not fail you or me, or the Church. We may not see clearly where everything is leading to, but God does. He respects our free will and lets us push against Him, yet all the awhile he is shepherding us until the time that He promised comes, and He makes all things new.