Friday, April 14
John 20.1-10 and 1 Corinthians 15.20-34: From the beginning, the proclamation of the Gospel has always involved a claim that the full weight of universal human wisdom declares to be impossible: the resurrection of a man who had been dead in his grave for a couple of days—as distinct from the mere resuscitation of someone who was presumed to be dead.
This claim, without which there is no Gospel, is the primary component of the “folly” mentioned by the Apostle Paul as inevitably characteristic of the Christian message. That is to say, those who proclaim the Gospel must face the fact that everybody knows it cannot be true!
For this reason, those who believe the Gospel inevitably find themselves separated from what the rest of the human race considers normal and sane. They willingly place themselves outside of every premise and expectation common to the race of men.
From the minute they accept the Gospel thesis, they implicitly declare that they no longer care a fig about what the rest of the world thinks; they are prepared to be regarded as fools on the earth. Believers go for broke. They have burned their bridges with respect to this world. All their eggs are in the Easter basket.
This detachment from the expectations of the world is the source of an immense practical freedom for the Christian people. Believers are aware that the world—if it is wrong with respect to its most fundamental premise and most tenacious preconception—may be wrong with respect to just about anything.
Consequently, they may now start from scratch with respect to human opinion on any matter whatever. If they cannot concede to human wisdom at least that point—the physical finality of death—there is never again a compelling reason to concede any point to human wisdom. They have nothing to fear from the world!
The first preachers of the Gospel were well aware of this fact, being quite familiar with the world’s ingrained prejudice about death. They faced the problem squarely, armed only with the convictions of conscience.
They were especially careful not to let the Resurrection of Christ be interpreted as referring to some sort of “spiritual” experience. Had they spoken of the risen Christ as a kind of incorporeal vision or phantom, someone who spiritually “lived on” after death, their message would surely have met acceptance from many of their contemporaries. The world would—at least—have tried to make an accommodation.
Christians did not succumb to that temptation, however. They insisted that Jesus rose in his very body, the body numerically identical to the one in which he died on the cross.
Saturday, April 15
Exodus 7: Moses will be the wonderworker, and Aaron the speaker. (As a matter of irony, however, we will find Moses doing almost all the talking, while Aaron extends the wonderworking rod.) Deed and word go together in the Bible, as in any fine drama. Speaking and doing are the two components of God’s revelation. Indeed, these two things sum up the whole activity of Jesus and the Apostles (cf. Mark 6:30; 1 Thessalonians 1:5).
What is described in verses 8-13 is not one of the plagues, but it is the beginning of a prolonged test of wills and skills. Pharaoh is not much impressed with Moses, since his own people demonstrate comparable skills. After his initial retaliation, however, Pharaoh will never again be in a position to retaliate. Moses and Aaron will keep him on the defensive, with his hands full of trouble. The most he can hope for from any encounter is to break even, and gradually this too will be taken from him.
The first plague is most serious, because the Nile has always been the foundation of the entire Egyptian agricultural and mercantile economy. Pharaoh’s response is very humorous. After all, the last thing Pharaoh needs right now is another display of water-to-blood skills in Egypt!
This plague was also celebrated in a more ancient hymn of God’s People, which describes how Israel’s Holy One “worked His signs in Egypt, / And His wonders in the field of Zoan; / He turned their rivers into blood, / And their streams, that they could not drink” (Ps 78[77]:44).
Many modern Western readers of this story, who take for granted a distinction between politics and theology (cf. Mark 12:17), do well to consider that neither Moses nor Pharaoh was familiar with that distinction. Ignorant of the true God—indeed, boasting of that ignorance (Ex 5:1-4)—Pharaoh thought of himself in divine terms.
In his own person, Pharaoh was believed to be the living spokesman for the whole Egyptian pantheon. In Holy Scripture, the Egyptian king represents the perennial disposition of political authority to make ultimate and transcendent claims for itself.
When the political order goes beyond its legitimate warrant—when it presumes, in other words, to take in hand the things of God, as well as the things of Caesar—it becomes idolatrous. It claims for itself a total authority; it becomes totalitarian, even challenging the structure of God’s Creation.
The struggle described here in Exodus, consequently, is not simply a political conflict between Egyptians and Israelites, much less a mere personality-conflict between Moses and Pharaoh. It is not a conflict to be worked out through arbitration, nor can it be smoothed over by recourse to an anger-management seminar. It is a fight-to-the death between the gods of Egypt and the true Lord revealed in the Burning Bush.
Immediately, the suddenly-thirsty Egyptians begin digging new wells. Pharaoh, meanwhile, reluctant to admit defeat and eager to make a point, calls on his own sorcerers to turn this water, too, into blood! Hardness of heart, it seems, leads to dullness of thought.
Saint Thomas Sunday, April 16
Exodus 8: There are several obvious connections among the various plagues. Here, for instance, in the second plague there is a great multitude of frogs because their natural habitat, the water, has become contaminated. Indeed, it was normal for frogs to appear throughout Egypt each year as the waters of the Nile receded. The second plague may be thought of a “nuisance plague,” perhaps putting one in mind of Elijah’s mocking of the prophets of Baal prior to doing them the real damage (1 Kings 18:20-40).
The third and fourth plagues are clearly related to the death of all the frogs, which are the natural predators of insects.The third plague is identified as an invasion of the kinnim (plural of ken). Because this noun appears in the Hebrew Bible only in the context of the third plague (cf. Psalms 105 [104)].31) and one other time in Isaiah (51.6) and, in addition, has no obvious cognates in other languages of the Middle East, its exact meaning is in doubt.
What, then, are these pests? More recent translators think them to be “gnats.” Although this is possible, it seems preferable to regard them as mosquitoes. A plague of gnats might be a massive inconvenience, whereas a plague of mosquitoes could be an utter disaster. I suggest we are dealing here with mosquitoes.
Two considerations suggest themselves:
First, mosquito bites are painful and difficult to avoid. The mosquito, when she bites, injects an anticoagulant to prevent the blood from clotting. This anticoagulant causes an allergic reaction that includes the typical round, red bump, known as the mosquito bite. If one is attacked by a whole swarm of mosquitoes, the effect can be agonizing.
Second, mosquitoes carry various infectious diseases. Among the infections borne by Egyptian mosquitoes, perhaps the most notable is the West Nile Virus, which can cause neurological disease and death.
The sudden appearance of great swarms of mosquitoes in Egypt could also be related to the previous plague of frogs. According to Exodus 8.13, the prayer of Moses caused all the frogs in Egypt to die. Frogs are, in fact, natural predators of mosquitoes. In addition, tadpoles compete with mosquito larvae for food. The recent disappearance of frogs from Egypt, then, goes some way toward explaining this plague of mosquitoes.
There not one word is said about the removal of this plague. From a simply reading of the text, it appears that the mosquitoes stay around for the rest of Israel’s remaining days in Egypt.
The fourth plague introduces a new and conspicuous element: it displays a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites. These “flies” (‘arov, literally “mix” or “swarm) are said to do something rather unusual in the world of insects: they respect the border between Egypt and the land of Goshen. It is as though a swarm of insects, flying through Wisconsin should suddenly stop and refuse to cross over into Illinois.
From this point on, the God who sends the plagues is explicitly said to send them only on the Egyptians. Gradually, plague by plague, the Lord is separating His own People from the lot of the idolatrous Egyptians.
God, who separated light from darkness on the first day of Creation and who will, in the ninth plague, plunge all Egypt into complete darkness, begins at this point to distinguish between the children of light and the children of darkness. In the plagues about to transpire, it is not the case that God “makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good.”
This process will continue until the last plague, when the avenging angel, seeing the blood of the covenant on the doorposts of the Israelites, “passes over” their homes on his way to slaying all the Egyptian first-born sons.
Monday, April 17
Exodus 9: The matter of the livestock had been introduced in connection with the previous plague, as well as the Lord’s protection of the Israelites from all the plagues. This latter is particularly important. God is already beginning to separate Israel from Egypt, and this separate treatment will continue till its culmination on the night of Pascha.
As the Hebrew word ’aba‘bu‘oth (verses 8-12) appears nowhere else in the Bible, the exact nature of these sores is obscure. The Greek word in the Septuagint text, helkos, means any sort of wound, abscess, or ulcer. We observe that at last the magicians retire, no longer able even to put in an appearance in Pharaoh’s court.
Exodus 9:16 is quoted as part of St. Paul’s famous treatment of the dialectic of salvation history; cf. Romans 9:17. It is one of the greatest misfortunes of theological history that some later commentators, abstracting this passage from its context and inserting it into philosophical speculations about divine predestination and foreknowledge, reached certain conclusions unwarranted by the Scriptures—at odds with the traditional teaching of the Church, and unknown to the earlier, classical commentators on Romans (such as St. John Chrysostom). It is important to insist that the argument in Romans 9 is not about individual salvation; it is about the historical relations of Israel to the Church. There is nothing in this passage to infer that Pharaoh (or Esau) was predestined to be damned.
Since verse 6 said that all the cattle of the Egyptians had perished anyway, some question may arise with regard to the cattle mentioned in verse 19. Obviously, the inspired biblical writer is not interested in problems like this, a fact perhaps suggesting that we shouldn’t be, either.
While some of the other plagues, such as insect infestations, visit Egypt occasionally even in normal times, a hailstorm in northeast Africa is a truly rare thing (verse 23). Accompanied by a frightening display of lightning and thunder, this one proves too much for Pharaoh, and for the first time he admits his sin. Alas, his repentance does not outlast the plague that inspired it.
Verses 31-32 are our only indication with respect to the time of the plagues, suggesting the month of January, before the appearance of the winter wheat.
Tuesday, April 18
1 Peter 1:13-25: This section is an invitation to hope (verses 13,21). Christian hope is sustained by a twofold consideration. First, it is inspired by the final goal of the life in Christ (verses 13-17), and second, by the initial grace of the life in Christ (verses 18-21).
With respect to the first, hope is directed to the final “revelation of Jesus Christ,” his “being made visible” (apokalypsis—verses 7,13; 4:13). Relying “completely” (teleios) on this hope, believers refuse to conform to the deeds of their past, aware of their responsibility to be holy, even as God is holy (verses 14-16; Leviticus 19:2; 18:1-5,30; Clement of Rome, To the Corinthians 29.1—30.1).
In the New Testament the expression “be not conformed” (me syschematizesthe, in which we observe the English word “schema”) is found only here (verse 14) and in Romans 12:2—“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (We observe in passing that both of these works are associated with the church at Rome.) No less than the Chosen People of old, Christians are called to be a holy people in the midst of an unholy world. The latter is characterized by “ignorance” and “passions” (verse 14). We may compare this passage with 1 Thessalonians 4:5—“not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.”
Christians are reminded that God’s judgment discerns the difference between His “holy ones” (“saints”) and the world (verse 17). In view of this divine discernment, Christians are to be ever mindful of the coming judgment (Romans 14:10-11; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 4:4; 2 Corinthians 5:10-11). Christian hope is not without this appropriate “fear” (en phobo—verse 17; cf. 2:18; 3:2,16; Acts 9:31).
Exodus 10: To an agricultural economy, few things are more frightening than a visitation of locusts, which can reduce all plant life, over many square miles, to absolute ground level in a matter of hours (cf. the first chapter of Joel).
In three respects this is the most effective of the plagues to date: (1) Pharaoh’s servants, who had begun in support of him, and had come to see themselves bested (8:15), and had then retired from the combat (9:11), now come out to make a common plea with Moses against Pharaoh; (2) Pharaoh, for the first time, offers to release the Israelite men even before the plague starts; (3) Pharaoh himself asks for forgiveness. Even though the king’s heart is still hardened, the inspired author takes note of the progress.
In Egypt the sun god, Re, held a special prominence, so this plague of darkness is freighted with special theological significance; the Lord is in earnest doing battle with the gods of Egypt. The three days of darkness here should be seen as a type of the three hours of darkness that covered the earth on that afternoon when the new Moses did battle with the most ancient of the pharaohs of our slavery, himself the Prince of Darkness (Mark 15:33). There on Calvary, as here, the plague of darkness immediately precedes the death of the Firstborn Son.
Wednesday, April 19
John 3.1-13: When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, the Lord’s first words presented him with a challenge: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a person is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The Greek adverb translated here as “anew” is anothen, which is deliberately ambivalent. Literally it means “from above,” but this expression may be taken in two ways:
Anothen can mean “from on high,” or “from the top.” If the latter sense is understood, the meaning is “anew” or “again.” (One thinks of our English idiom, “let’s take it from the top.”) That is to say, there are two aspects to this birth: It is new, and it is from on high. Very early John’s gospel had spoken of this rebirth (1:12-13).
Exodus 11: Commenting on this “borrowing” from the Egyptians by Israel, the Fathers of the Church display two preoccupations: (1) Lest anyone think that this action on Israel’s part was to be copied as a moral example, some of the Fathers took care to point out that the Israelites were, in fact, slaves and, as such, entitled to just remuneration for their coerced labor; (2) The silver and gold that the Israelites took from the Egyptians was understood allegorically, as representing the philosophical and cultural riches of Egypt. Thus, they used this example to justify the Christian use of classical pagan philosophy, law, and cultural ideals.
This allegorical interpretation is not farfetched; indeed, it is rooted in historical fact. Israel did, indeed, take from Egypt a massive inheritance of philosophy, law, literature, and other cultural wealth. Their own Semitic culture had become enormously enriched by their extensive sojourn in northeast Africa, surrounded by one of the oldest and richest civilizations the world has ever seen. Alas, however, so many of these trinkets, of which the text speaks, would eventually be used in the construction of the golden calf, a fact indicating the dangers inherent in any “borrowing” from the world.
In some sense, Moses and Aaron will now be “out of the picture.” This final and decisive plague will involve no activity on their part. This work will be accomplished without human mediation of any kind; the Lord will use only the angelic ministry. The chapter ends by saying that Moses and Aaron had done all they could do to prevent what was about to befall Egypt.
Doubtless this is what accounts for the anger of Moses as he leaves Pharaoh’s presence for the last time. Sign after sign had been ignored by an inveterately stubborn man seemingly intent on his country’s destruction, and the inspired biblical author stands amazed at such hardness of heart. (Compare St. John’s bewildered comments on the later hardness of heart that could not be softened by the many “signs” done by Jesus; cf. John 12:37-41.)
Thursday, April 20
Exodus 12: There are four features especially to be noted about this important text that interrupts the narrative sequence in order to place the whole into a more theological and liturgical context:
First, the paschal lamb is an example of “substitutionary” sacrifice; like the ram that had replaced Isaac on Mount Moriah in Genesis 22:13, the paschal lamb’s life is given in place of the lives of Israel’s first-born sons.
Second, there is nothing in the text to suggest that this sacrifice is “expiatory.” That is, unlike certain other biblical sacrifices, such as those associated with Yom Kippur, the sacrifice of the paschal lamb is not made in reparation for sins. Moreover, the Old Testament provides not a single example of an animal being sacrificed in place of a human being whose sin was serious enough to merit death.
Third, the blood of this paschal lamb is sprinkled at certain points of the houses of those who are “redeemed.” This sprinkling is explicitly said to be a “sign” of covenant protection, parallel to the rainbow in the covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:12-17 and circumcision in the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17:19-27.
Fourth, because this paschal lamb was a type or symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7), it was fitting that the meal celebrating the new covenant in His blood should be inaugurated in the setting of the paschal seder (cf. Luke 22:15-20).
The “this day” of verse 14 is the fifteenth day of the month Nisan, but it includes the night of Pascha. Pascha itself was to be the first liturgical day of an entire “week of sabbaths,” that is, seven days of rest and festival continuing the celebration, during which Israel could eat unleavened bread as on Pascha itself. More regulations relative to this weeklong feast are to be found in 13:3-10. In the New Testament the two terms, Pascha and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, are used almost interchangeably.
After the lengthy and detailed instructions that prepare for it, the tenth plague is narrated very succinctly, to great dramatic effect. The Exodus itself follows at once. In the writings of the New Testament, the event especially served as a prefiguration and type of redemption, including all of the events narrated of that great week, both His death for our sins and His rising again for our justification.
So important was the liturgical observance of Pascha to the life of the early Christians that one of the major and most heated controversies of the second century Church concerned the proper dating of the feast. In spite of a venerable tradition held in Ephesus and the other churches of Asia Minor, it was finally determined that Pascha would always be celebrated on a Sunday, a rule that has been maintained by all Christians since the fourth century.
In verses 43-50 we find more regulations relative to the preparation of the Seder of Pascha. As was noted above, there was no disagreement among the early Christians with respect to the deeper meaning of the paschal lamb. Indeed, verse 46 here, about not breaking the bones of the paschal lamb while preparing it, was seen by St. John as a prophecy of the body of Jesus on the cross, in that the soldiers did not break His legs (cf. John 19:36).
Friday, April 21
John 3.22-36: The position of this section of John mat have been determined by the earlier reference to Baptism in 3:5. The evangelist now returns to John the Baptist for the last time.
The reference to Jesus baptizing does not mean that He did so with His own hands. From 4:2 we will learn that Jesus’ apostles normally performed this rite. It is not easy to determine the exact nature of this baptism, and it is difficult to affirm that it was the Christian sacrament of Baptism of which John the Baptist had spoken earlier (1:33), because the Holy Spirit will not be conferred on the Church until much later in this Gospel. However, there is no need to be apodictic on the nature of the baptism here in John 3; we may leave the question as unclear as the evangelist leaves it.
1 Peter 3:13-22: To be baptized into Christ is to be associated with His sufferings. As Christ was victorious over death by His Resurrection, so will be those who belong to Him. Baptism, because it unites believers with the Resurrection of Christ, is a pledge and promise of their own victory over death.
In verses 18-22 Peter speaks of Christ’s descent into hell, which took on so pronounced an emphasis in Christian faith and worship that it became an article in the Nicene Creed. Peter says that Christ “went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Exodus 13: By the regulations contained in these sections, Israel would be reminded of the Exodus every time a first-born son came into the world. Each such son would have to be “redeemed” by the sacrifice of a lamb. Elsewhere we learn that, for poorer families that could not afford the price of a lamb, the redemption could be made by sacrificing two pigeons or turtledoves (cf. Leviticus 12:8). We are familiar with one very notable family that took advantage of that humane and gentle provision (cf. Luke 2:22-24). This particular “Firstborn” would, by His sacrificial death, be the redemption of all humanity.
In verse 17 the inspired author gives us a picture of what line of reasoning is taking place in the mind of God. It is intimated here that God has a plan yet to unfold. This marvelous detail in verse 19 ties our story back to Genesis 24f. and forward to Joshua 24:32 (cf. the comment in Hebrews 11:22).