To the Empire’s Boundaries….And Beyond!

Buzz Lightyear

By http://www.moviestillsdb.com/movies/toy-story-3-i435761/20c11d67, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44184427

2nd Sunday Of Lent – Year C

Fr. Peter Robinson

Luke 9:28-36

Do you remember the famed Buzz Lightyear and his battle cry in Toy Story? “To infinity and beyond” It’s funny, because there is no “beyond” beyond infinity, right? Now, I don’t often give titles to my homilies, but this one could be called: “To the Empire’s boundaries … and beyond”. Let me show you what I mean.

In our Gospel reading today, St. Luke stresses that Jesus went up the mountain to pray. Here is something interesting ⇢ Luke frequently stresses Jesus’ constant need for prayer. Jesus was a man whose life was permeated with prayer. In fact, when you think about it, many of Luke’s parables are about prayer

For instance, consider these examples …

Think of the poor widow, who keeps pleading with the unjust judge until she receives her request

Or the Pharisee and the tax-collector – because the Pharisee is filled with pride, God does not hear his prayer. And yet, the Pharisee is the religious conservative in this story — his theology is spot on. Whereas the tax-collector? — he is broken by the financial wrongs he has done to others, and God hears his prayer!

Prayer is important to St. Luke.

So, we find Jesus going up a mountain to pray. Then something absolutely extraordinary happens. While Jesus was praying his face changes in appearance, and his clothing becomes dazzling white. Then, Luke describes that Jesus converses with Moses and Elijah (two of the greatest OT figures). Moses represents the Old Testament law, and Elijah represents the prophets. They talk about Jesus’ coming journey up to Jerusalem. That journey will culminate in Holy Week, in which Jesus will offer himself as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

You see, a week earlier Jesus had said to his disciples: Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God (v. 27). Now, a few privileged disciples get a precious glimpse of the eternal glory in which Jesus now dwells However, the three disciples also hear the voice of God insisting that they must listen to Jesus’ message

And what does Jesus teach them? He teaches them that suffering is the way to glory. He calls on them to give up their own lives in order to gain their lives. In other words, they are to take up their own crosses, and to follow him

Not only did the disciples struggle to hear this message, it is possible that (like us) they did not want to hear this message. That suffering and the cross … come before the glory. What I find amazing is how literally Jesus’ disciples came to believe this teaching (except for Judas, of course) … and how they put this message into practice.

Now, St. Peter and St. Paul gave their lives for Christ in Rome, in the very heart of the Roman Empire. Yet in the coming decades, the other Apostles would travel with the gospel to the edges of the Roman Empire … and even beyond. On those borders, as best we know, all of Jesus’ Apostles died a martyr’s death (except for St. John). They died on the edges of the Roman Empire — or beyond.

North, south, east and west … Jesus’ Apostles travelled with God’s message to their known world. To tell that world God’s message that Peter, James, and John had seen and heard on the Mount of Transfiguration. What was that message? This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!

………..

* See John Nolland, Luke 9:21–18:34 (vol. 35B; Word Biblical Commentary; Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1993), 502

Genesis 15:5-12,17-18

Now, we have a graphic description of the kind of sacrifice that Jesus will make on the cross, from a story about Abraham in Genesis (15).

Our lectionary has deliberately paired these two stories together. Roughly 2000 years before the time of Christ, God made a pact with Abraham, of lasting protection for Abraham and his descendants. This pact (or covenant) was in the form of an ancient sacred sacrifice … a kind of rite known from other ancient Near Eastern sources, by the way (not just from the Bible)

The offerings of Abraham are cut in half, and (THIS IS IMPORTANT) it is God who makes the pact, by passing between the halves of the sacrifices. God uses this sacred symbol to declare his faithfulness to his covenant. God, Abraham — and his descendants — are now in a relationship that has serious and long-lasting consequences.

<[>You see, in the ancient Near Eastern world, such covenants were frequently made between two equals, or between overlord and vassal. But there is no historical record of such a covenant being made between a deity and a human being. Yet the awesome presence of God here passes between the halves of the offerings.

Notice that Abraham cannot impose conditions on God; God is the greater party. Nor can Abraham do anything to earn or justify this promise; the initiative is God’s. Abraham can only trust in God. For Abraham himself remains a nomad, with no settled territory to call his own

Notice, then, the similarity between Abraham’s sacrifice and the words you have spoken so often at the midpoint of the Mass. Just before the priest says the Prayer over the Offerings, he calls out: Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father . And your response reflects the attitude of Abraham’s heart 4000 years ago: May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.

This sacrifice of the Mass, this New Covenant (for us, the New Israel), if received in faith, like Abraham …