The Grapes of Wrath

Monday, February 12, 2007 -- Week of 6 Epiphany; Year One

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 948)
Psalms 89:1-18 (morning) // 89:19-52 (evening)
Isaiah 63:1-6
1 Timothy 1:1-17
Mark 11:1-11

When people are oppressed and powerless their thoughts so easily turn to violence. When injustice abounds, frustration grows dangerously.

For several weeks we read from the inspiring and lyrical poetry of Second Isaiah, speaking hopefully from the Babylonian exile about the deliverance that is to come. He visions a restored Israel and a new Jerusalem at peace and harmony with all the world, its Temple a place of universal hospitality and prayer for all people.

Last week we began reading from what is called Third Isaiah, words that come from a later time when many exiles had returned to Israel, but the restoration has not fulfilled their expectations. Instead of peace, harmony, and hospitality there has been opposition and hostility between the returning Israelites and the peoples of the land. The rebuilding has met resistance and conflict. The people are frustrated. They long for an end to the conflict and violence. They feel oppressed and powerless.

Those emotions spill over into a vision of vengeance. With frightening pictures the prophet imagines God returning from the enemy's home with robes stained red from the blood of the dead. Since humans were powerless to impose justice and peace, God acted with decisive violence. As grapes are trodden in a wine press until the juice runs free, so God has trodden on Israel's enemies. "I trampled down peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."

This vision of God's violent defeat of injustice from Isaiah 63 has been part of the collection of messianic prophecies and has motivated the hopes of Christians and Jews for centuries. School children brightly sing, "My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored."

It is particularly significant that our lectionary happens to have this bloody vision of divine victory coinciding with our reading of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem riding on a colt as onlookers spread their cloaks and palm branches on the road shouting, "Hosanna! ... Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!" Jesus has chosen to enter Jerusalem as the Messiah was expected from the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your kingdom come to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

This crowd shouting "Hosanna!" was also expecting that Jesus would trample down the Romans in divine anger, crush them in wrath, and pour out their lifeblood on the earth. The traditional, conventional, and orthodox expectation of the Messiah was of one who would fulfill the triumphant military ambitions as David's heir. The Messiah would trample Israel's enemies in the tradition of prophecies like Isaiah 63.

One of the reasons that people turned against Jesus was that he failed their expectations. He did not trample out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. The only blood that was shed was his own. He was a peaceful Messiah, and that is not what people wanted or expected.

Sadly, Jesus's non-violent example did not put the blood-lust to rest. Many Christians continue to look forward to the blood spilling and violence of all of the old prophecies. It is their scenario for the second coming of Jesus.

It is as if the Jesus that God sent to us as Messiah is simply not good enough -- or should we say violent enough -- for them. How hard it is to root out the violence that is so deep in the human heart. How Jesus's heart must break when he sees the eager hope for genocide spoken in his name. Do they not know; the Jesus who will return it the same Jesus we have already known. He has refused the genocidal path and opened to us a new way.

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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