Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Since Jewish missionaries are trying to undermine the message of Christ and are encouraging the Galatian churches to essentially return to pre-Christian Judaism, Paul makes an appeal using Jewish history. His appeal: we are now free in Christ, not slaves to the law. Who wants to be a slave anymore? Come enjoy that freedom fully by living in that new way.

Paul is covering some pretty important theological ground here. If Abraham was the root of the promise, isn’t the promise only to the children he bore, and his children’s children? Not the case, luckily. The promise comes to fruition in Christ, who is the seed of Abraham and the fullness of that promise. Because of that reality (and Paul certainly did his work studying this topic), we are all Abraham’s heirs if we are in Christ.

Building a new church really takes some work, especially when you're mixing a ancient faith tradition with a group of brand-new believers. This was the case with the Jews and Gentiles, and Paul was critical to this process. Peter had already received a vision from God that the Gentiles should be included (Acts 10), but the full working out of that new kind of church took time to understand. Paul became the apostle sent specifically to the non-Jewish believers, so that the Church could be more intentional in its building work.

As we open the book of Galatians, Paul is talking about his Jewishness and the irony of his becoming a follower of Christ. Both of these things are going to become relevant as we read through this book. The Galatian churches were probably a mix of Jewish Christians (who had been the first focus of early missionaries, being the people of the promise) and Gentiles who were trying to worship with them. This created a bit of a problem, because the Christian faith was started by a Jew (Jesus!) but needed to include practices that didn't exclude those outside Judaism.

The story of the walk to Emmaus is filled with a playful Jesus, pretending to know nothing about himself and then feigning walking on before being invited in. This is our Savior: he came to earth not just to do the important work of redemption, but also to show us a new way to be human. Sometimes, that requires a little fun.

Jesus's resurrection, though he has not even been seen yet, is being told of by the women who had gone to do the work of the funeral dressing. That nobody believes them, even after Jesus foretold it, is somewhat comical. Jesus always went to those of lower station first, and he made no exception in this case. The women were far from Jewish nobility, and were not even the leadership of Jesus's own organization. In the way of Jesus's Kingdom, of course, they are of high importance for that very reason.

The road to the cross is not a straight one. Jesus does not merely go and die. Instead, an outsider carries his cross. He warns his followers that the destruction in their future is the real topic of mourning and lamentation. A conflict between those being killed with him erupts. Then, the grand finale is a dark day and admiration by one of those who carried out the crucifixion. If Jesus had done nothing else in his life, this march to the cross would have been noteworthy. Of course, Jesus's life was noteworthy for countless reasons. This final moment of his ministry was the final vision of what God's strength looks like in weakness.

It is sad that a crowd and a cadre of religious leaders prefers the life of a murderer and a radical to that of the Prince of Peace. Of course, this whole scene is not happening because Jesus is helpless; there are prophecies being fulfilled and God's purposes finding their full volume in what is playing out. Still, there is Barabbas. He could not be more different from Jesus, but it is an accurate depiction of the route that we sometimes take when the way of peace is too difficult or we cannot understand it.

The Kingdom that Jesus brought did not end with him, it was dependent on those who carried it on after his ministry in the power of the Spirit. Such a person was Barnabas: generous himself and such an encourager that it literally became his name, he would be present for Paul's missionary journeys and even branch out to go on his own.

If Jesus told his disciples to get swords, why does he now tell them not to use them? This is sort of guesswork on the part of your reader, but I like to think that he told them to bring the swords so he could rebuke the use of them. What if Peter and the others thought they could have saved Jesus if they had only been armed? Would they have come back and tried to break him out of prison? Not so in this story. Jesus had the swords brought, and used the occasion to remind the disciples that he did not come to start a military movement, but a Kingdom of another kind.