Blood, Wine and Messiah

Monday, February 16, 2009 -- Week of 6 Epiphany, Year One

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

We have an interesting contrast today between Isaiah 63 and Mark 11. In Isaiah we have a frightening image of God acting alone with violence to impose peace and justice upon the nations because they have been unwilling to do so themselves. God's robes are splattered, presumably with blood, like someone who had been trampling a wine press. No human has been involved in this act of vengeance. It is God alone who acts in wrath, saying, "I trampled down people in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth." Since no humans had acted to create justice and peace, the prophet shows God acting to do so in troubling and violent images.

We switch to Mark and we see the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Jesus plans the entrance carefully, instructing his disciples to retrieve "a colt that has never been ridden." His act is intended to recall the messianic prophesy of Zechariah (9:9): "Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, you king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." In ancient tradition, a donkey is the traditional transportation for gods and kings.

The people understand the imagery. They throw cloaks and leafy branches along the road to make a royal path. They cry, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" Jesus goes into the temple, looks around, and returns to Bethany with the twelve. He has acted out a claim to the messianic kingship of David.

Great expectations come with that claim. The next verse in Zechariah's prophecy says that this humble, victorious king "will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth." (9:10) For most people in Jerusalem that day, that hope could only be accomplished with the forceful expulsion of the Romans and their Legions. They expect the king to be a warrior as Zechariah describes. "For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will arouse your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword. Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord God will sound the trumpet and march forth..., and they shall devour and tread down the slingers; they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar." (13-15)

Yet Jesus does not become a military warrior, and the only blood that is shed will be his own. It is his body that soaks up the violence and his lifeblood poured out on the earth. Later the vision of John's Revelation will return to Isaiah's imagery of the wine press and the kingly messiah Jesus, and describe a universal triumph in eucharistic imagery. There is no earthly battle in Revelation, but rather a divine victory, where the blood that flows like wine from the wine press is the blood of Christ poured out in the eucharistic feast to bring God's longed for peace and justice to God's people.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
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


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas