I have been meditating on the book of Job since the beginning of Lenten season. This book focuses on the theme of retribution, which states that the good person will receive blessings and the evil person will receive evil. It is about punishment and reward. Job considered himself as an upright and righteous man. Despite his righteousness, God inflicted him with disease and the death of his children. Job accused God of being unjust and not operating the world according to the doctrine of retribution. God supposed to make Job happy ever after because he was a righteous man. Job’s wife and friends believe that Job's sin caused his suffering. God is just in punishing a sinner like Job. Job kept defending himself and spoke to God directly asking for an explanation about his suffering. Finally, God spoke to Job, but without answering his questions. God assures Job that God was in control and God alone knew the reason behind Job’s suffering. God taught Job that: It is better to know God than to know all the answers. Job repented, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (42: 5-6). God rewarded Job because he repented. The relationship between God and Job was restored.

Lent is a season of preparation and repentance. ELCA gospel readings for Sundays during Lent center on repentance. Repentance is a strong theme in the gospel of Luke. John the Baptist called people to repent. Jesus ministry also invited people to live a life of repentance. Jesus emphasizes that repentance is a necessary step to enter the kingdom of God. According to Luke 13, Jesus teaches that the end of time is coming, and his followers need to be prepared through living a life of repentance. In the previous chapter, Jesus exhorts his disciples that through repentance they can be ready for the apocalypse.

“Jesus uses the example of settling a legal case before the case gets to court to encourage the disciples to take actions necessary to be part of the Realm [the kingdom of God]. If they do not, they will pay the apocalyptic price (12:57-59).”[1] In chapter 13, the evangelist Luke narrates that “at that very time there was some present” referred to Jesus the massacre of a group of Galilean pilgrims in Jerusalem (v.1). Scholar Ronald J. Allen explains their question:

Their implied question is: Were those Galileans so much worse sinners than other Galileans that they were beyond the possibility of preparing for the Realm [kingdom of God] in the way Jesus had described in Luke 12:1-56? Jesus gives a straight forward answer: ‘No.’ They were not killed because of their sin. They were brutally murdered by the Romans. But Jesus uses the deaths of the Galileans to make a point. To expand slightly: Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did when the apocalypse occurs.[2]

Those who asked Jesus about the violent death of Galileans believed in the doctrine of retribution: God punishes the sinners and rewards the righteous. Jesus did not discuss the principle of retribution. It was not something necessary for Jesus. Repentance is more important than retribution. Jesus gives them another example of those who died at Siloam. The purpose of these two is examples “is to stress the importance of repentance as a decisive step on the journey to the Realm [the kingdom of God].”[3]

Let me give you a more contemporary example. Imagine that Jesus is teaching on repentance as a way to prepare for the kingdom of God and one of you asks him about those who were killed in shootings at two mosques in New Zealand. And Jesus responds, do you think that because these Muslims suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other New Zealanders? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.

Jesus elaborates his teaching through the parable of the fig tree. Jesus’ parable implies that “ A cultivated yet unproductive tree may continue to live even without bearing fruit, only because it has been granted additional time to do what it is supposed to do. Unless it begins to bear fruit (an image of repentance, according to Luke 3:8), the result will be its just and swift destruction.”[4]

God is patient with sinners, and will give them an opportunity to repent. God forgives those who sincerely repent.

Jesus teaches that life is short and full of suffering. Life is unpredictable, and death might come unexpectedly. Accordingly, we always need to be ready to meet the Lord. Many Christians confess their sins, but very few repent. Repentance does not mean to feel bad over your behavior for a short period of time and then return to your sinful manner. Repentance means shifting your thinking, behavior, and heart toward God. Repentance might be a long process. Sometimes this process is painful, but it will lead to forgiveness and peace. Jesus’ teaching on repentance and judgment make many of us uncomfortable. We prefer to hear about God’s forgiveness and love but not about God’s judgment. But God’s judgment is real. Christ’s grace is not cheap grace. It cost him his life.

In this Lenten season, remind yourself that your life is a gift and fragile. Remind yourself of your vulnerability as a human being living in a broken world. You need Christ’s grace and mercy every single moment in your life. You might suffer or die unexpectedly because bad things happen to the righteous. So, live a life of repentance. I want to share with you a hymn chanted during the Great Lent in Eastern Orthodox. Let us read this hymn together in the spirit of confession.

 

[1] Ronald J. Allen, “Commentary On Luke 13: 1-9,” Working Preacher, accessed March 22, 2019, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3991.

[2] Ibid,.

[3] Ibid,.

[4] Matt Skinner, “Commentary On Luke 13: 1-9,” Working Preacher, accessed March 22, 2019, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=530.

 

 

My parents love animals. They raised ducks, hens, roosters, cats, dogs, goats, and one donkey. It was hard for them to keep the ducks, hens, and roosters safe. They tried their best to keep the coop secure. But foxes found a way to attack the hens at the throat. My parents fed up with the foxes and decided not to continue raising poultry. In Middle Eastern culture, the fox is perceived as cunning, devious, and intelligent. No wonder, foxes made my parents stop raising poultry.

That Fox! Jesus called Herod. Some Pharisees told Jesus he had better hide, Herod was after him. Herod who wants to kill Jesus is called Herod Antipas. He is the same Herod who killed John the Baptist. Herod thought that John the Baptist came back from the dead. ‎ Luke tells us in chapter 9 that "Herod said, “John, I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?” And he tried to see him [Jesus]. In chapter 13, Luke tells us that Herod wants to kill Jesus.

In response to Herod threat, Jesus gives two metaphors of animals—a fox and a hen. Our Lord calls Herod “that fox.” This statement is harsh and implies that he is a cunning and devious person. Jesus was attacking Herod verbally. Jesus determines to continue his ministry despite Herod threat.   He states that he will work “today and tomorrow, and on the third day, I [he] finish my [his] work” (v. 32).  Jesus was referring to his death and resurrection in Jerusalem. Because Jesus’ ministry is part of God's plan, Herod cannot kill him. Jesus also emphasizes the impossibility for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.

We can conclude that the purpose of Jesus calling Herod “that fox” is to tell him that he is like a fox who lacks great status and thus cannot carry out his threat.[1] Jesus enjoys greater status than Herod who represents the imperial power of Rome.

After Jesus called Herod “that fox”, he turned his face to Jerusalem and mourns the city. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! (v.34).” Jesus, like a mother, laments Jerusalem and its inhabitants. He does not mourn himself, but he laments over the tragedy of a lost opportunity in accepting him as the Messiah. Jesus’ lamentation indicates that he is fulfilling his destiny as a prophet. He will be killed in Jerusalem. In killing Jesus, Jerusalem, the holy city of God, turns against God’s mission. 

Jesus continues speaking for God, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (v. 34).”  Jesus relates himself to a mother hen who wants to protect her chicks under her wings, but her chicks reject their mother’s protection. Jesus draws upon the feminine image of a hen to reveal his motherly love. This metaphor implies that Jesus as a mother is willing to give his own life to save his children.

While Jesus refers to Herod as a fox, he refers to himself as a hen, which is about as far from a fox as you can get. Preacher Barbara Brown Taylor has captured the way Jesus felt when he mourned Jerusalem:

If you have ever loved someone you could not protect, then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament. All you can do is open your arms. You cannot make anyone walk into them. Meanwhile, this is the most vulnerable posture in the world—wings spread, breast exposed.[2]

After 2000 years, Jesus prophetic message still speaks to the church today. The church needs to choose between the fox and the hen. The church needs to decide whether to continue Christ mission or to fear the rules of this world. In other words, are we going to follow Christ to the cross? A fox will always threaten the church that accepts to be a hen. The church history proves that the church of Jesus has encountered many foxes. But Jesus assures us that mother hen is not afraid of the fox; to the contrary, she is willing to fight for her children. This is the ultimate love of Jesus Christ. When we refuse to come under his protection, he will never give us up. Jesus Christ accepted his death on the cross even though Jerusalem rejected him. This story is important for us as we are walking on our Lenten journey. Jesus is determined to love you. No matter what you will face in your life, you are under Jesus’ maternal wings.

In 2002, I went down to Egypt to study at Presbyterian seminary in Cairo. I had to escape the war in Palestine to continue my seminary education. My seminary promised to grant me a student visa upon my arrival. But the Egyptian government refused to grant me a visa because of my religious background. The immigration department gave me two weeks to leave Egypt. I asked the Palestinian Embassy to intervene, but the Egyptian government rejected their appeal. However, they made a deal with the Palestinian Embassy to keep my visa application pending until I finished my studies. I was unable to go back to Palestine because of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As a result, I became an illegal immigrant in Egypt. I avoided any contact with the police. Deportation became my nightmare. One of my colleagues stole my money. Neither I was able to prove his sinful behavior to my seminary, nor I reported to the police because I was afraid of deportation. However, God blessed me in miraculous ways in Egypt. Jesus provided me everything I needed. God’s faithfulness followed me wherever I went. I have experienced God’s faithfulness that flows out of God unchanging nature and love for me.

 

In his final speech, Moses reminds the Israelites of God’s faithfulness to God’s promise to redeem them from their slavery in Egypt. To express their gratitude to God who brought them to the Promised Land, Moses commands them to celebrate the first harvest in June “by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you” (16:10 NRSV). “Now, in chapter 26, Moses provides the actual liturgy for that first-fruits celebration ritual.”[1]

 

Moses commands the Israelites to bring the first fruit of the gifted land to the altar. The fruit is not a gift to the temple, but it should be shared among the Levites, the oppressed, the afflicted resident aliens. The alien identity of Israel is the center of their faith. They always need to remember their alien identity in Egypt. Moses needs them to remind themselves of God’s faithfulness and steadfast love when they were oppressed and afflicted resident aliens in Egypt. He commands them to offer a liturgical recitation along with their first fruits. “The recitation is confession of faith similar in form to the Christian creeds, which are also structured as narratives.”[2]

Because the Israelites were oppressed and afflicted resident aliens in Egypt, Moses commanded them to sympathize with the resident aliens and the Levites by sharing the bounty of the land with them. The Levites were landless Israelite tribe. They did not inherit land because God was their portion. They were dedicated priests of God. The Israelites were obligated to take care of the Levites. They also needed to support the resident aliens among them. The Israelites shared a common story with the resident aliens because they were resident aliens in Egypt. An alien in Hebrew is (gēr); Scholar K. J. Tromp summarizes the use of gēr in the Old Testament as the following:

An alien (gēr) being, ‘a man who (alone or with his family) leaves village and tribe because of war, famine, epidemic, or blood guilt and seeks shelter and residence at another place, where his right of landed property, marriage, and taking part in jurisdiction, cult and war has been curtailed.[3]

 

All of us are immigrants to this country. All of us share a common story with the new coming immigrants. All of us resonate one way or another with the story of the immigrants. This Sunday is the first Sunday of Lent. We focus on fasting and meditation. We come to worship services on Sundays and Wednesdays to be fed spiritually and contemplate on the passion of Christ. But the question is, what do you do for your afflicted neighbor when you leave the church? What do you do for the resident alien in your neighborhood after you finish meditating on the word of God? How do you express your faith? Giving up food is not the only answer. The answer is to take care of those who are powerless and disadvantaged. The Levites and the resident aliens are all over our country. How do you share the love of Jesus Christ with them? The book of Deuteronomy reminds the Israelites and us that God acts on behalf of the disadvantaged and blesses them with abundance. But God also invites us who experienced hardship and redeemed by God to act on behalf of the disadvantaged in the same way that God has acted. Jesus is inviting us to bless the afflicted resident aliens and the marginalized with abundance. This is the kind of fasting that God enjoys. Let us become agents of Jesus Christ in the world by redeeming the vulnerable and blessing the marginalized among us.

Once upon a time, an Orthodox Romanian monk was trying to find God. But he could not find God. One day he realized “I must find myself!” He tried to find himself in prayers, in work, in books, but he could not. After a while, he said: “I must find my neighbor!” At that moment he found all three. He found God and himself by looking for his neighbor.

The three disciples Peter and John and James encountered Jesus as a divine person. They found God standing before them. They were able to glimpse his divinity. The transfiguration story concludes the epiphany season by revealing the divinity of Jesus Christ and calling us to listen to him. The three disciples saw Jesus’ glory. In the Old Testament, glory refers to the presence of God. The evangelist Luke employs the Greek term. δόξαν, doxan, “glory.” The Septuagint or the Greek translation of the Old Testament doxan is equivalent to יְהוָה כְּבוד kavod God. The apostle Peter in his second letter gives us a testimony about the divinity of Jesus.

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” ¹⁸ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:17-18)

 

Besides the glory of Jesus, the apostle Peter witnesses Jesus' honor and majesty. These three terms are ascribed to God in the Old Testament and to the kingly majesty of the Messiah. Honor and glory and majesty belong to Christ. His honor refers to his exalted status, and his glory and majesty refer to the splendor of his outward appearance.

Moses and Elijah also appeared in glorious splendor δόξῃ to talk with Jesus about his departure. But Jesus has a higher status than both of them. Luke reports a cloud appeared and covered the apostles. “A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him” (v. 35). In the book of Exodus, cloud refers to the presence of God. A cloud covered the Mt. Sinai when God came down to give Moses the 10 Commandments (Exodus 24). Elijah also encountered God on the same mountain (1 Kings 19:11-13). The evangelist Luke and the apostle Peter attribute to Jesus the same honor, glory, and majesty that belong to God the Father. Scholar Howard McPhee explains the purpose of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.

The transfiguration pointed to the future glory of the incarnate Son in terms of his whole person, both his divinity and his humanity. Just as the Son’s taking the form of a servant veiled his deity, the glorification of his humanity unveils and displays his deity and majestic splendour, for his glorified humanity is designed for that purpose. The transfiguration glory is Jesus’ hope and proclaims hope for perishing sinners, for attached by faith to the exalted Jesus. “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43).[1]

Transfiguration was common events in antiquity. Greek and Roman gods transfigured. Myths about goddess Demeter and Athena and god Zeus’s transfiguration confirm their divinity. Usually, these gods disappeared after their transfiguration. But Jesus Christ’s transfiguration is not a myth as the apostle Peter emphasizes. After his transfiguration, Jesus Christ remained with his disciples and went down the mountain to heal a sick boy.

Jesus Christ, our Lord, is with us and is walking among us. You can find him not at the top of the mountains because he did not remain there. He came down to continue to take care of us. Jesus is glorified in each one of us, and he gives us the hope that we will be glorified just like him. We find and see Jesus every day even though we do not see him in the same way that Peter, John, and James did.

You can recognize the face of Christ in the face of your neighbors. Jesus gives you the opportunity to find and see him face to face when you take care of your neighbor. Jesus calls us to exhibit the grace of God, with which we have been blessed, to all of those around us. When you do so, you will find the glorious splendor of Jesus Christ in your life. You will be able to see your neighbor in the same way Jesus sees them. Take a moment to look at each other's faces. What do you see? I hope you see the face of Jesus Christ shining in your neighbor’s face.