Giertz on Easter 7A - The High Priestly Prayer

Jesus’ Prayer: The Glorification (v. 1-5)

What follows is traditionally called Jesus’ “high priestly prayer”. In dogmatics this is called “Jesus’ high priestly office”, which includes sacrificing himself for us and praying for us. Here Jesus offers a prayer for his own, at the same time he sanctifies himself as a sacrifice for them; hence the name of this prayer.

Jesus prayed out loud, as one usually did at this time. John must have heard him pray often, so he gives us an image of how his Master prayed. It is a conversation with God where the Son brings forth his desires, thoughts, needs, and memories before his Father. Sometimes they are turned into direct prayers, sometimes they are only put forth as they are. They are examined in light of God’s will, and he sees the Father’s intentions.

This is a prayer in the presence of death; “the hour” has come. The suffering is coming, but it is still only a glimpse in the background. It is part of the glorification. To “glorify” and “exalt” usually means to praise someone. For Jesus it meant to be raised on the cross and to give his life for others, so that he could reveal God’s love and create a kingdom full of praise and joy. The Son has been given “authority over all the living”. It is his task to give a life that can never die. And this is eternal life: to believe in the only true God and his Son. This is not something that awaits us after we die, it begins already now. The mission of Jesus here on earth was to make this possible, and it required him to “make himself nothing, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). Now he may regain his glory - but only by walking the hardest part of the road left of his mission; however, he does not mention this.

It is strange that Jesus says “Jesus Christ whom you have sent”. Many exegetes thinks that this an explaining note in the margin or part of early Christian liturgy which has been moved into the text.

Jesus’ Prayer: The People Whom You Gave Me Out Of The World (v. 6-8)

“He came to his own, and his own did not receive him”, it is said in the prologue. This is the situation in which Jesus is now praying. He appears to have failed. God’s own people have rejected him, but he knows that this is the way it has to go. When the light came into the world, one could see who belonged to God and who wanted to know the truth. They came to Jesus, or more accurately: God gave them to Jesus. God has drawn them to him (6:37, 44). They received the word and held onto it. This does not only mean that they understood it with their reason and held it to be true, but also that they received it into themselves and it became one with them. To “keep the word” is to receive it with one’s whole being, as something indispensable, creating and life-giving. Then one may “completely” - or “truly” - understand what is says about the most fundamental thing: not some moral lesson, but that Jesus is God’s Son and the only way to God.


Jesus’ Prayer: The Preservation (v. 9-13)

Now Jesus is praying for them. He no longer prays for the world which has rejected him and is already convicted in rejecting the Son. Of course, this does not say anything about those who still may be won. It is for them Jesus is dying, for them he sends out his apostles, and for them he is praying (v. 20). But now it concerns the disciples who will be left alone. As long as he was with them, he kept them “in your name, which you have given me”. That means on God’s behalf, according to his will, and in the power of the mission to do God’s work in the world. God’s name is not only a term or a label, but is holy, stands for God himself, and brings his power and love. Jesus had been given that name. He was able to say I AM about himself, with a meaning that no other human being could add to those words.

Jesus does not ask for something specific about what the Father may do to keep the disciples. He only puts forth the fact: they are yours and the belong to us. That is the most powerful thing a Christian can appeal to in his prayers to be kept: “Keep what belongs to you”, as it is said in a well-known hymn. But one is not automatically preserved. No one can keep oneself safe. Scripture itself tells us that Judas was lost. On the other hand, we are supposed to trust in this: that we belong to our Lord. Therefore, Jesus lets the disciples know that they belong to God. That assurance rests on a promise of God, which will fill their hearts with joy.

Giertz on Transfiguration - A

Credit where credit is due: Kristina has been translating these by herself for weeks and weeks.

We Have Seen His Glory (v. 1-8)

Usually this is called the transfiguration of Christ. Only three of the twelve were allowed to be there, those who were closest to Jesus. That which happened here was a confirmation of what they just had confessed. Jesus was God’s Son. In the carpenter from Nazareth “all the fullness of God was dwelling”, as Paul put it three decades later. They experienced that which the Gospel of John is witnessing about. Christ is “the true light which...was coming into the world”, and “we have seen his glory”. But they first saw the glory in the shape of humility. Then they were allowed to see a glimpse of it unveiled and glorified.

Tradition has long pointed to Tabor as the Mount of Transfiguration. This is probably not correct - Tabor is in the southernmost part of Galilee, it is not a very high mountain and the summit seem to have been built upon in the ancient world. The real Mount of Transfiguration is most likely Hermon, where Cesarea Philippi lies. It is the highest mountain of Syria, 700 meters higher than Kebnekajse (translator’s note: highest mountain in Sweden). Jesus brought the disciples up to solitude, to a height that they never before had imagined. And there they had the strange and wonderful vision.

Matthew uses the sun and light to try to describe something that really is not possible to describe. He tells about the terror of the three, when a bright cloud overshadowed them and they heard a voice talking to them. It is the terror before God himself, that fear which all God’s servants have felt when they suddenly stand before the Holy One. But here is something new, something that the prophets did not have. The disciples have Jesus, who touches them and tells them not to fear. They look up. The vision is gone, everything is back to normal. But they have Jesus, and they know in whom they believe.


Has The Prophecy Been Fulfilled? (v. 9-13)

On the way down the disciples are ordered to not tell anyone what they have seen. They are not allowed to say anything before the resurrection. It is maybe easier for us to understand this, than it was for them. Between the transfiguration and the resurrection is the cross. On the cross it became clear how the Messiah was to “enter into his glory” (as Jesus himself said on the road to Emmaus). His way did not go through earthly accession to power and a political empire, as so many of his countrymen thought. When Jesus had died on the cross, there was no longer a danger that belief in him would lead to rebellion and bloodshed.

At this time, the three disciples were occupied with other things. They had learned that Elijah was to come before Messiah, and that he would prepare a people for him and restore faith and a right relationship with God. Now Messiah had come. But Elijah?

Jesus answered them, that Elijah really had come. But the unrepentant people and its blind leaders had not understood anything and not prepared themselves. And they did whatever they wanted with Elijah. In the same way, they would also do with the Son of Man. This is what may happen, when God fulfills his promises: people do not receive the fulfillment.

Giertz on Epiphany VIII-A

God or Mammon (v. 24)

Mammon is a Jewish word that means money, wealth, capital. Jesus uses it as a name for God’s enemy, the idol which usually gets control over people when God is not allowed to rule. It is not possible to serve both God and Mammon. Jesus refers to every day experience. A slave could be owned by two masters, but everybody knew that this was a hopeless situation. The slave had to do everything his master told him to, and in the end it proved to be impossible to fulfill the demands of two masters. Thus, the slave tried to get away from one by devoting himself to the other. There may, of course, have been exceptions to the rule. Jesus is only saying that, as impossible as it usually was for a slave to have two masters, as impossible it is for a man to serve two masters that are so completely different as God and Mammon. One has to choose.


To Trust In God (v. 25-34)

To have God as one’s Father means that one may leave all unnecessary concerns to him. To “be anxious about life” does not mean to care and take responsibility for that which we are to do according to God’s order. It is to be anxious in a way that shows that one does not count on God and trust in him. That is to be anxious for one’s body and ‘life’. Jesus here uses the word ‘soul’, as the Jews did, because for them ‘soul’ is not a name for an immaterial part in us, but a name for us as living human beings with bodies and souls. Therefore, the soul needs food and drink. In Swedish one may use the word ‘life’, or possibly ‘person’ to express the same meaning. Thus, what Jesus is saying is that we are living human beings, persons, to whom God has given life and existence. This is a fundamental fact and something that gives us intrinsic value, so much that there is no need for us to be anxious about food and clothes. God has given us life and he will provide for his children. Jesus asks us to look at the birds and the lilies. God provides also for them. It is not romanticism and naivety, when Jesus says this. He talks about how the birds falls to the ground, how they are bunched together and sold for peanuts on the market, how the greenery of the fields will wither and end up in the oven (the small clay baking oven, which was heated with whatever trash one was able to find). Jesus here points to God’s sovereign power as Creator. He upholds his creation, and we can trust that we are worth more than the birds and the lilies. He has a special purpose for us and he does not forget his children.

Thus, here the issue is trust in God. Trust belongs to the new righteousness. It is not about a prohibition to work or own something. There were wealthy people among the disciples. The apostles stressed, in the name of Jesus, our duty to work (2 Thess 3:6ff). But the issue is about putting all trust in God, not in the sense that one relies on his help to succeed in collecting earthly treasures, but that he becomes the highest and first, the one we serve and keep to, with all that we have and know. He has the right to give and to take, and whatever he does, one can be completely safe and secure. God knows what his children need. It is a privilege, a joy and a happiness to not have think about money and build one’s future on that. Yes, there are worries. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. But we do not have to think about trouble in advance and gather it in piles during restless days and sleepless nights. We take each new day from God’s hand, also its troubles.

Giertz on Epiphany VII-A

Self-Assertion and Retaliation (v. 38-42)
“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” reads the classic basic rule for the justice which demands compensation and retaliation. It is called jus talionis and was a common practice in ancient times, even in the law of Moses (Lev 24:20). Jesus now turns against this, and against all kinds of retaliation. There is another order in God’s kingdom. There one does not retaliate. Children of the kingdom rather waive their rights. They know that they are members of the Kingdom only because God has remitted all what they are guilty of, even though he should demand it. Therefore, they shall also waive their rights. If one is beaten, one does not retaliate, but turns the other cheek. If someone wants to sue, then he should be given more than he demands. (Jesus here mentions the two standard clothing of the time, an ankle-length tunic which they wore closest to the body, and a cloak on top of that, if the etiquette or the weather demanded that. Both these articles of clothing have been preserved to our days in the vestments of the church.) The next example is talking about being obliged to go one mile. The one who oblige is some kind of government official, maybe from the occupying power, who forces a civilian to carry his baggage or show him the way.

Once again, we see that this way of living cannot be made the norm for the civil society. There, right must be right, and the greatest task of the society is to keep up these rights. This is also what the New Testament says. As a servant of the legal system, a Christian may be obliged to keep up the rights. When Jesus was beaten by one of the servants before the court, he did not turn the other cheek, but asked a question that really was a rebuke (John 18:23). Paul was also able to refer to his legal rights against obvious injustice from the hands of the judge. But that order which prevail - and must prevail - in this world, is not valid in God’s kingdom. The kingdom of Christ is not of this world. There one has received forgiveness and forgives. There one is able to answer an injustice with kindness or with a favor. There one rather suffers injustice than demand to receive what was one’s “right”.


To Be Like One’s Father In Heaven (v.43-48)
Finally there is yet another point (the sixth one), where Jesus sets the new order of the kingdom of heaven against the order that prevails in this world. He quotes the commandment: “You shall love your neighbor” with the addition “and hate your enemy”. That addition is not in the Old Testament, but it shows a common attitude among the Jews. Members of one’s own people were counted as neighbors. The enemies of the people did not belong here. After all, they were enemies of God. They wanted to destroy faith in God. One could say concerning them: “I hate them with complete hatred” (Ps 139:22). Against this, Jesus again sets the new order of God’s kingdom: to love enemies and pray of those who persecute. Even in this world, there is much natural goodness and kindness, but it is obviously directed toward those whom one sympathizes with. This is relatively good, but it is not Christianity. That which characterizes God’s children should be that the are like their Father in heaven: just as good, as generous, equally lavish in their love even against the evil and unrighteous.

So this part of the sermon on the Mount concludes with the summary: You must therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. No one of us can fulfill this requirement. And yet it is reasonable. God’s children shall be like their Father. They shall act like he. If this was a requirement that had to be fulfilled before we could become God’s children, everyone would be on the outside. But this is not the meaning of the sermon on the Mount. It is therefore it begins with the beatitudes. They are directed to those who really want to be God’s children, but who know that they are not worthy. They now hear, that the kingdom of heaven are for them. So it is, because God’s Messiah make the impossible possible. But those who gets to enter in to the Kingdom, completely undeserving, they want, from their hearts, to live as it befits the children of the Kingdom. Thus, something new begins in their lives. It is not perfect, but it is there. It is this new righteousness which Jesus here talks about. It is greater than that of the Pharisees and the Scribes. It is not a requirement for being a child of God, but a consequence of it.

Thus, the sermon on the Mount is misunderstood, if it is taken to be rules for an earthly society. People cannot be forced by earthly laws to live like one lives in God’s kingdom. The society cannot treat those who violate rights, as it is said in the sermon on the Mount. In the same way, we cannot reject the legal system of the civil society (with its laws concerning divorce, oaths, police, prisons, defense and so on) because it is not the same order as in God’s kingdom. As long as this world stands, there must be earthly societies. They are built on rights and punishments. But in the middle of this old order, there is also something new: the order that prevails in God’s kingdom and which is embodied in those who, for the sake of Jesus, are able to love their enemies and waive their rights.

Giertz on Epiphany VI

Murder, Wrath and Enmity (v. 21-26)
“You shall not murder” was one of the ten commandments in God’s law. The Jews applied it to the external deed, and in the law of Moses there were regulations for how a murderer was to be judged. Jesus now says that sin is as much in the heart as it is in the deed. Even to be angry at one’s brother is a sin, which also falls under judgment. There were offences which were prosecuted in the local court, and there were grosser felonies which were brought to the Council in Jerusalem. The meaning of Jesus’ words are that the one who is angry and insults another person is guilty of something which is just as culpable. Even wrath should be prosecuted by the courts. The one who says “you fool” (in Hebrew ‘Raka’), a insult which did not seem to be one of the worse ones and is similar to “you ass”, he is worthy of being brought to the Council. These are of course not instructions for civil legislation. It is Jesus’ way of showing how serious these sins are. The third example shows that we are guilty before God and that we are liable to his judgment. If someone calls his brother “fool” (which for the Jews also meant that he was ungodly), he is liable to the hell of fire.

Therefore, it is so important to be reconciled, if one knows that one is an enemy to someone. One cannot bring an offering to God if one does not want to do all that is possible to be reconciled to one’s brother. When Jesus said this, the temple was still in place and it was natural for his hearers to bring their offerings there. But the words still concern us today, our offerings of prayer and ourselves. Not even these offerings can be brought forward, if one is not willing be reconciled. Irreconcilability bars the way to God, here in this life and on the day of judgment. We are still “on the way” and we should be reconciled immediately. When the day of accountability comes, it is too late. To then have a opponent, whom one did not want to forgive, that means that one has a prosecutor, by whom one will be handed over to the Judge, and so one will end up in prison. Then it is too late. No one can pay his or her dept to the last penny.

Adultery (v. 27-30)
In this next part Jesus “fulfills” the law and shows its deepest meaning. Once again the Son of God is speaking. Only He has authority to say “but I say to you” and go beyond what God already has said in His Word. And once again we see that Jesus does not abolish the law, but on the contrary, sharpens it. It does not only concern the external deed, but also the inner desires of the heart. And this is serious. It is better to sacrifice what seems to be a part of oneself than to be completely lost. There is namely something in us, which does not come from God. One cannot affirm that. Life is not about ‘self-realization’ and ‘living out one’s desires’. It is about realizing God’s meaning with the life that is given to us. And that meaning is clearly put forward in God’s law.

“Gehenna” (hell of fire) was originally the name of the valley outside of the southern wall of Jerusalem. During the apostate before Jerusalem’s destruction, altars for Moloch had been built there and children were sacrificed, burnt in fire. Therefore, the place was detested and the name became to denote the place where the unfaithful will end up after the judgment. It is obvious from several places in the Gospels that Jesus thinks that there is such a place.

Divorce (v. 31-32)
In the law of Moses (Deut 24:1) a man was allowed to divorce his wife by giving her a certificate of divorce. Jesus now tells his disciples that they cannot act like that. If they do, they commit adultery. A marriage can be dissolved “on the ground of sexual immorality”. If one of the spouses breaks the marriage and does not want to repent, the other is no longer bound, but may divorce and remarry. In this way, our evangelical church has always applied this word.

What Jesus here says is, like so many other things in the Sermon on the Mount, not meant to be a civil legislation, which everyone is to live by. It is God’s demands, and the disciples know that. It is not really law, but a consequence of the gospel. It is a new way of living, which is possible when one knows that one is just as worthy of being judged like any other evildoer, but who has been forgiven everything and is allowed into the kingdom of Christ out of pure mercy. Then husband and wife is able to forgive each other and realize the meaning of the marriage. They know that they are joined and made one by God Himself and that it is their mission in life to help and serve each other.

Oaths and Assertions (v. 33-37)
The lively and talkative people of the Orient have a need for spicing their speech with strong assertions. Oaths played an important role for the Jews, even in their every day speech. One took God as a witness, bound oneself with an oath to keep one’s promises, renounced the help of God if one was not serious, and so on. In our language there are remains of this in some curses, which original meaning is that one surrender oneself to the evil powers if one does not tell the truth. In Israel one swore to God instead. It was against this that the Pharisees and all the pious Israelites reacted. One was not to take the name of God in vain. As a way out of this, they chose instead to swear to something else, which also was holy. Thus, they formally fulfilled the commandment. Once again, Jesus demands more. It is about a radical obedience and reverence for God, which leads to the fact that one lives wholly according to his will. Then one does not use surrogate oaths, which do not directly mention God, but still draw the holy into a common context. Jesus shows that the fact that one invokes something indeed has something to do with God. If it did not belong to God, it would not be worthy of invoking. It is not even possible to invoke one’s own head because it does not belong to us. We are completely dependent on God, and he demands that we are completely truthful, so that no oaths are even necessary. It is enough with a truthful yes or no. Nothing else is necessary. It is only evil - or “from the Evil One”, as the words also can be translated.

As earlier, this cannot be transformed into a civil law either. The disciple understands that it is God’s demands and tries to follow it. He knows that one cannot use God to emphasize one’s own statements. But in an evil world, there might a need for formal assertions, where a man, out of love for God and devotion for truth, takes him as a witness and affirms the truth before his face. Such oaths Paul used, and Jesus’ words “truly, truly I say to you” are such formal assertions.

Giertz on Epiphany V

Salt and Light (v 13-16)

You are the salt of the earth. This, also, is a description of the children of the Kingdom. Where Jesus is received, there the people will be a salt. Without salt, the food will be stale and eventually rotten; the salt will keep it from decaying. The disciples have the same function in this world. There is an exhortation in this fact. If the salt loses its taste, it is thrown out on the street, the obvious garbage dump in the Middle East. Jesus here probably means that this is an absurd assumption. The salt cannot stop being salt. It should be just as absurd for a Christian to lose his spiritual saltiness. This is not about obvious apostasy, but a process which makes the disciple so much like the world, that no one notices anymore that he is not like everybody else. Then he is useless and will be thrown away on the day of accountability.

The image of the light of the world says pretty much the same thing. Again, it is a fact: the disciples are the light of the world. One cannot hide a city set on a hill. From the hills at Capernaum one could see it before one’s eyes. On the other side of the lake, between 20 and 30 kilometers away, the Greek cities Hippos and Gadara were set, with their temples and colonnades, right on the horizon. At sunrise they stood out as silhouettes, toward the evening they shone like gold in the evening light. This is the way God has made his church in the world. The disciple cannot hide himself and his faith. That would be like lighting the oil lamp then putting the wooden box (the bushel which was used for measuring flour) over it. Then it dies out. Instead, one puts it in the candle holder, in the tall lamp stand, where one could put the oil lamp or hang it up by a chain. Then it “gives light to all in the house”. Jesus assumes that there is only one room in the house, as was common among his poor countrymen.

The light, which Jesus is talking about, is not human talent or goodness. It is a reflection of God’s goodness. Jesus himself is the light of the world (John 8:12). The ones who belong to him will be “light in the Lord” (Eph 5:8). This is the light which cannot be hidden. Then it will die out. But where it shines, there people will see that good works are done. And even more: they see where they come from and praise God because of them.


Jesus and the Law (v. 17-20)

The expression “the Law and the Prophets” referred to the whole Old Testament in colloquial speech. Jesus now says that no one should think that he came to abolish something that is written in the Scripture. It retains its validity, even the smallest of letters. (Jesus mentions ‘iota’, which is the smallest of the Greek letters, and also mentions the ‘lines’ which was characteristic for them).

This may seem like a contradiction. After all, it is clear that Jesus did “abolish” the sabbath commandment and taught people the same. He did not follow all the regulations regarding clean and unclean. And here in the sermon on the Mount, he immediately gives an exposition of the law, which changes what Moses had taught and makes it more strict. The explanation to this is in Jesus’ own words: He did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. To “fulfill” here means to complete and to express that which is the real meaning and purpose of the law. All of the Old Testament was a model and a prediction, which pointed forward. Everything, even the law, had a deeper meaning, which would be clear when Messiah came. When Messiah completes everything, he also gives the right interpretation of the content of the law. At the same time, he gives another foundation for salvation than the law. It is through faith in Messiah that one becomes a child of God. But the law’s demands will remain. Jesus does not open the way to God by reducing the demands, so that they may be met with a little bit of good intention. On the contrary, he sharpens them. The new thing, which came with him, is not a modernized law, adapted to our ability. It is a new way to God, through faith in Christ. Therefore, Jesus can say that it is not enough with the most strict righteousness, which was known at that time: the one of the scribes and the pharisees. In all its severity it was still a bungled piece of work. It transformed God’s requirements to a collection of paragraphs, which certainly were difficult, but still possible to fulfill. But God’s requirements are larger than that. This is what Jesus is showing a string of examples.

Giertz on Christmas I

God’s Lament Over His People (v. 34-36)

The text continues with a “therefore”, but the way it appears here in Matthew it is not clear what the context is. Luke’s version is more detailed: “Therefore, God’s wisdom says”. Apparently this is a well-known quote, whose origin we know nothing about. It is about what God will do with his people, and it says what many prophets already had said. God constantly sends new messengers to his people and the people kill them. The words are applicable also to Jesus and those whom he sends. It will continue like this until the end. Then the accounts will be settled and the blood of the martyrs will come on “this generation”. This could mean this generation or this people. And every sin against the witnesses of God, all the way from Abel to Zechariah, that is from the first to the last martyr in the Old Testament, will be accounted for. Zacharias is the Greek form for Zechariah, the last of the twelve minor prophets, who was Berekiah’s son (Barachias). However, there was another prophet named Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, who was killed in the outer court of the temple, as it is told in 2 Chronicles (24:20f), which at that time was the last book in the Jewish bible. Luke only talks about “Zacharias” and one of the oldest manuscripts does not here mention “Berekiah’s son” either. Apparently there has been some uncertainty concerning whom Jesus was talking about. Yet, the meaning is clear - in all its seriousness.

You Would Not (v. 37-39)

Why does any human being have to be damned? Why is not everyone saved? Even Jesus has been asked this question. Here he gives us the answer. God wanted everyone to be saved. He sent his Son to save man from the disaster that was threatening - as the hen gathers the brood under her wings when the hawk is approaching. But they would not.

“Your house is left to you desolate” most likely means that God will leave his temple. He will take his hand off that place which he had chosen. It might also mean: your home will be desolate and stand as ruins. Then no more prophets and messengers will be sent to Israel. God’s people will not see their Messiah before he comes in the clouds of heaven. They had greeted him when he rode into Jerusalem with the old words from the Psalm: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” If they rejected him now, they would not get a new opportunity to say this before his last coming.