Members of the Thessalonian church are wondering about Paul’s motivation. When the going got tough, he left town and sought asylum in safer places. He is still keeping his distance, despite the needs of the hard-pressed church he founded. Is Paul any better than the wandering philosophers who go in search of an audience and a quick profit? Is his message anything more than cleverness with words?
Paul reminds the Thessalonian Christians of what they know of him and his co-workers: their courage in the face of opposition, their God-centred preaching, their see-through sincerity and heartfelt care. This is nothing less than the concrete expression of devotion to God and love for the family of faith (notice the intimate family language in vv.1,7-8). It is as if he has seen the commandments reshaped by Jesus’ sacrificial generosity, only to commend this example to his converts in ways that speak more powerfully than words. The readiness to share not only a message but also ‘our own selves’ provides Paul’s most robust answer to his critics.
Gospel Matthew 22.34-46
After the Sadducees, it is the Pharisees’ turn to test Jesus’ authority. This is not necessarily from sinister motives – Jewish teachers are fond of debate and questioning – though by this stage in the narrative, we can be forgiven for being suspicious. Jesus is faced with a much-discussed issue: which of the law’s over 600 commands is the most important? His answer brings together the opening words of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6.5) and Leviticus 19.18 (which is included in today’s Old Testament reading). Jesus agrees with those rabbis who say that love for God and neighbour forms the foundation of Jewish law. But now, in the Temple precincts, it is significant that there is no mention of worship or sacrifice, a major interest in the law of Moses. Jesus comes to Jerusalem having endorsed the teaching of the prophets that mercy is much more important than offering sacrifices (Matthew 9.13; 12.7). His priorities lie with the fundamentals – the nature of God, the centrality of relationships and community-building values – rather than the particularities of beliefs and practices, with their potential to set one group against another.
Jesus takes the discussions in a new direction. David was a warrior who paved the way for the building of the Temple. A messiah who is ‘son of David’ would continue to use weapons of war and would give pride of place to a temple whose separate areas for Jews and Gentiles, women and men, and lack of hospitality towards disabled people and children (see Matthew 21.14-16) endorse a divided world. Jesus uses the opening words of Psalm 110 to suggest a new possibility. By calling the messiah ‘lord’, David brings the analogy of ‘like father, like son’ to an end. What kind of messiah can God’s people expect, then? What will the world that he brings – the world of ‘the resurrection of the dead’ – look like? What difference will a messiah who is not David’s son make to a world that is divided by privilege, learning, beliefs, race, gender, health? Jesus’ messianic questions silence an audience bent on testing him. But the issues he raises remain to this day.
Kingdom questions
Living every day as first and last Week 2
Jesus often answers questions with further questions. Some versions of Christianity give the impression that they are more interested in answers than questions. That makes them particularly prone to answering the questions that no one is asking, or missing what others are really saying. There is surely a place for both questions and answers, as this week’s readings show. What matters is that we learn how to listen.
Q What questions would you put to Jesus or Paul?
Q What questions do the readings raise about the priorities of your church?