Isaiah 50:4-9

Isaiah 50:4-9 speaks of a prophet in exile, whose story gets taken up and lifted by God in the full Book of Isaiah to point to its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The prophet had spoken words that God would defeat Judah's captors in Babylon through Cyrus the Persian. The prophet gathered a small group of disciples around him to announce this coming victory, who sought to influence the rest of the Judeans to not cooperate with the Babylonian defense -- God had given him the tongue of a teacher. It seems that the rest of the Judeans who lived in the "city of Judah" in Babylon (southern Iraq, ironically) did not believe the prophets words, and found his words of God's restoration of Judah back to the land as threatening the assimilation that they had achieved in Babylon. Babylon was their captors, but they were captors with whom they had come to terms. His own people seemed to have abused him because they did not want to risk the good news that God was going to deliver them. In fear of the future, they turned to violence against the prophet. You could look at the text and describe how his own people tried to silence him from his message that God was going to defeat the Babylonians and restore Judah to Jerusalem.

Here in this passage the prophet reflects that such intimidation will not stop the good news nor God's agenda from taken place. Abuse by his own people will not silence his teachings for it is anchored in God. He will not let fear of the future and punishment by the Babylonians stop him from participating in God's redemption of God's own people. Instead it deepens his resolve to continue in the path of the good news that God had given him about God's restoration of God's kingdom, Judah.

If this is the story of the exilic prophet, how do you as a group see this text fulfilled and extended and made perfect in Jesus? If Jesus is the suffering teacher, what are the responses to him by his own people in the text? What is the difference between those who resist the message of good news and those who accept his teachings?

Mark 8:27-38

This is a well known passage. Yet it is important to recognize that Jesus' questioning of the disciples does not really end with him asking them, "Who do people say that I am?" but continues in his teaching about the necessity of the Son of Man to undergo great suffering. Jesus exercises his messiahship through suffering violence and undergoing God's ultimate vindication in raising him from the dead. Notice again that there are two possible responses to Jesus' teaching: one that accepts his suffering and subsequent resurrection and a second that rejects the good news of the resurrection because suffering preceeds it. The rejection of the suffering and resurrection of Jesus is a word of Satan. Jesus then teaches on discipleship -- discipleship involves undergoing suffering for the right reasons, out of faithfulness to Jesus. The key here is the image of a cross. We have to understand that the cross was a tool used by the Romans to punish those who did not have position in the empire for disloyalty in a way to terrorize all into conformity. To take up a cross is to accept the consequences of disloyalty to the politics of the world around out of loyalty to Jesus. Why is this necessary for Jesus' followers? Does following Jesus involve taking up control and influence in the world's politics around us to help those merely in temporal gain? Why would Jesus at this point that is deeply embedded in not conforming to this world's politics raise the issue of eternal life -- "not losing your soul"? Why is Jesus the real issue here? Why does fear of the future inhibit one following Jesus?

James 2:1-5, 8-10, 14-18

James speaks of a type of social discrimination of those entering into a gathering of God's people. From what we can tell, the meeting that James describes was a synagogue where Jews and Jesus Messianic Jews gathered as a minority. The wealthy and those who had higher social status who came into the gathering would provide protection and resources for those within the gathering to help the long term stability of the congregation; the poor would place more burden on those who were part of the gathering. At stake is the long term resourced stability of the gathering as a minority in a pagan world. Seen in this way the "favoritism" becomes tied to the Isaiah and the Gospel passages.

Yet James strongly rebukes such "favoritism". A better translation of James 2:1, is "do you with your acts of favoritism really have the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ?" This is a rhetorical question -- no, of course you don't. James then goes into the sayings tradition of Jesus, particularly as found in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6 and the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. The Beatitudes stand behind James teachings.

It is this "preferential option for the poor" that provides the "royal law" -- or, in this Jewish context, the "messianic law of Jesus' teaching" its background in the person of Jesus. It is violation of this law that matters because the primary goal is for one to live faithfully to the messiah, to Jesus. Jesus again is the issue! It is refusal to fear the future in the temporal world in light of God's redemption in the Messiah, Jesus, that matters. Therefore, faith (or, better, "loyalty" involves works because it is expressed through the same behaviors as Jesus -- what we have come to call the "works of mercy". James calls for personal involvement in faith and works, rather than their splitting. Yet throughout the letter, it is clear that one works in this world with eternity in mind; one does not dismiss eternity for merely faith and actions in this world. This "eternal perspective" is what provides a means of not favoring the wealthy over the poor in the gathering of the people because of fear of not having sufficient resources to protect and distribute all that is needed in this world for the sake of the poor. In this way, it is interesting that it could be the poor who could be tempted to dishonor other poor in an attempt to help the status of all by trying to reinforce social ties with those wealthier and of higher status.

It might be interesting then for your discussion to talk about fear of sustaining life in the present as individuals and a congregation with little resources amidst the great trials of living as a minority, our great hopes to impact the world, and our awareness of the tremendous needs of the world around us, and the rightful call to make a difference in these needs. How does such fear and pain affect us? What is the crucial virtues necessary to sustain life in such a circumstance? How do we faithfully call others into join this life in Christ? What temptation do these Scriptures suggest could come our way in our hope to be effective? What does it mean to be God's people in light of the teachings of Jesus and the fact that in Jesus Christ, God has already brought the kingdom to earth, has already reconciled the world to God's own Self, and that God will bring all things to culmination in Christ. What is the key to avoid the anxiety that Rev. Chung mentioned last Sunday in his sermon?

Have a wonderful evening!!!