A sermon given by Fr. Tim Sean Youmans at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. Matthew 25.1-13 and Thessalonians 4.13-18
Messiah. In Hebrew, it is Messiach, or anointed leader. Originally, in its generic form, the word referred to prophets, priests and kings, leaders, all of whom were anointed with oil when they began their work. But beginning with the prophet Isaiah, the idea blew-up, and came to mean a Super-Leader, who would come and rescue Israel and bring all the nations together.
You might not have many thoughts, one way or the other, about the idea of Messiah. But I wonder how many of you, in spite of any cynicism you might harbor about politics, get a slight burst of hope when a presidential election cycles around. You click on those news articles that highlight the leading contenders in your party. You peruse the potential candidates and you ask, “Can any of these candidates win? And then more importantly, does the one who might could win share my values? I call this the drug of possibility. And even old cynics can still from time to time, get a buzz.
The idea of Messiah was this lift, this buzz, amplified many times over.
Israel, after 120 years or relative peace (and I stress relative peace) under Saul, David and Solomon, found itself conquered, scattered and occupied. First in the 8th Century when the Assyrians, then the Babylons, then Persia, the briefly, Alexander the Great, then finally one we are more familiar with, the Romans.
We have an almost impossible ability to fathom what it is like for your entire culture to be characterized by occupation. This period in Jewish history IS the Hunger Games. The Babylonians, Romans, whichever, they were the Capital, and the Messiah that was the IDEA of Mockingjay. And the books do a fantastic job of talking about the IDEA of Mockingjay being as important as the actual person of Katniss. She was Messiah.
Messiah, as a developing idea, wasn’t one dimensional. The prophet Isaiah wrote more about this coming leader than any of the other prophets. And most scholars agree that Isaiah is actually a collection of three books. In the early writings of Isaiah, the Messiah is described poetically as political leader who would usher in a peaceful government.
And when that idea was translated through the imaginations of an occupied people, that buzz that I mentioned, it meant a military victory--tangible, practical.
By contrast, the Messiah described in the later parts of Isaiah, what is often called 3rd Isaiah, is someone who will be a willing sacrifice. He takes on the transgressions and iniquities of his people, and led like a lamb to the slaughter.
Two very different Messiahs.
Jewish thinkers across the centuries have made some effort to square Jesus up with these variant expectations. The latter surely fits, but the first seems..well...dose not. When will Jesus build a government that rests upon his shoulders? When will Jesus come and force human beings to do the right thing?
One of the ways the Talmud, or the Jewish oral history worked this out was by suggesting that maybe there wasn’t going to be one Messiah, but rather two. The first was referred to as Messiah ben Yosef. Messiah, son of Jospeh. Interesting, eh? He would be a descendant of the tribe of Ephraim. And he would be the warring, military, conquering Messiah.
The second Messiah would be the reincarnation of King David, Messiah ben David, and he would be a wise and compassionate leader, who would rule with a gentle hand.
What’s fascinating to me, and I hope to you, about this, is that pretty clearly Jesus is the latter, messiah ben David, but does not fit the description of the former, Messiah ben Joseph, the conquering political leader. In fact, in Christian theology, it is reversed. We point to Jesus the Rabbi and Healer who preached forgiveness, and then died sacrificing himself for his people. And now we await the other Jesus, the second coming, the one described in the epistle reading.
The sound of trumpets, rising to meet him in the air.
We say it our Eucharist Prayer; Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. We say it in the creeds. He will come again to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
In Christianity, the first Messiah--compassionate. The second one, a judge. Good cop, bad cop.
Here is the thing. Deep down inside, you know there is a truth to this kind of interplay. Healthy relationships are always a constant weaving of accountability and compassion. It’s the fearful side in this parable that Jesus tells of the ten bridesmaids. Five were ready, five were not. This is one of Christ’s moments where he gives us a glimpse into Christ as judge. Be ready, he says, take your life seriously. Did you hear what what the bridegroom said? I do not know you.
My father is not a bad man. Nor is he a good man. He left us when I was about ten, and we really had no interaction with him after that. As an adult, I took some initiative, and worked at building a relationship with him. What I began to notice in our conversations was his willingness to agree and accept any and everything that I said. It started to become a joke between me and my siblings. I use to say that I could call Dad and tell him I had decided to become a drug smuggler, and he would would have found a way to affirm my life-choice.
I’m convinced that my Dad thought he was loving me unconditionally. It was partly guilt, partly his not wanting to make the relationship complicated, I get that. But what it wasn’t, was love. Love forgives, but it also expects something from us. And when we don’t expect anything from each other, we start down a path toward love that is some anemic version of itself.
I know I’m threading a needle here. Love that is compassionate, but love that bids us to a life well lived. Jesus is both Messiah’s.
The Jewish mystical tradition, Kabbalah, is something I’ve started to take some interest in. One source tells me that Jewish mystics, because they too had not witnessed this conquering Messiah, determined that Messiah ben Joseph, must surely have been a spiritual conquering, not a miliatary one, and that Messiah ben David would in turn be the King who would rule with might and justice. Maybe, without knowing it, that’s what we all are in the larger scheme of things. Jewish mystics.
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