Second Sunday Of Lent
The near-sacrifice by Abraham of his only son Isaac, Genesis 22, is the first reading for this Sunday. For many years Abraham and Sarah had been hoping for a son. So desperate had they become that Sarah turned over to Abraham her own slave girl Hagar to generate a child. This child was named Ishmael. Finally, the Lord had mercy on Abraham and Sarah in their old age. She conceived at age 90. Abraham was one hundred years old when their son Isaac was born.
God comes up with an unheard of test of obedience for Abraham. “Take your son Isaac, your only son, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust, (a sacrifice in which the victim was totally consumed by fire), on a height which I will point out to you.” No objection from Abraham! If this seems unreal, it certainly is, if we understand this story as biographical rather than religious instruction.
The chopped up version of the story as given in our Lectionary misses too much of the theology of it. It misses important indications of Abraham’s eagerness to obey. For example, Abraham “rising early in the morning, saddling his ass, (an ancient version of a pickup truck), cutting the wood for the fire. Important for the theology of the Passion Narratives in our gospels are the omitted words, “Abraham took the wood for the sacrifice, and laid it on Isaac his son.” Also the omitted question of Isaac, “Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” And Abraham’s reply, “God will provide!” But back to the Lectionary: As Abraham is about to strike the life out of his beloved son, a heaven-sent text? reaches him just in time. The gist of the message, “Don’t hurt the boy. Just wanted to see how far you would go to obey me, that you would not spare your only Son just because I commanded you.” God supplies a ram caught in a nearby brier patch.
The original instructive purpose of the story before it was incorporated into Genesis surely would have been a statement against child sacrifice. This horrendous sacrificial practice was not uncommon in the ancient Near East, sometimes even perpetrated by Israelite kings and other officials. The location for this type of sacrifice: the Valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem. A corrupt form of the name of this valley is Gehenna, which occurs in our gospels as a symbol of hellfire.
But what purpose does this story serve in conjunction with today’s gospel? The term, “the son whom you love” is echoed in the voice from the sky at Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son!” This draws together Genesis 22 and today’ gospel, the transfiguration of Jesus. The Responsorial Psalm (116) picks up from the first reading the theme of obedience, servanthood, sacrifice and walking before the Lord as Abraham did.
The second reading, Romans 8, is attracted to the Abraham/Isaac story through the words of St. Paul speaking of God the Father and his Son, “He did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all.” But how does this second reading connect with the gospel of the transfiguration? When the voice at the Transfiguration refers to Jesus as “my Beloved Son,” it echoes the sacrificial character of the Genesis 22 story, where God says to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son…, and offer him as a holocaust….” And at the end of the story, “…seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.” Luke’s version of the Transfiguration, improving on Mark, makes a clearer connection between Genesis 22 and the transfiguration. Luke writes that Moses and Elijah were speaking with Jesus “about his exodus which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.” The exodus is Jesus’ imminent sacrifice on the cross.
This year we have Mark’s version, the oldest of the three versions of the story. Jesus chooses as witnesses of his glory the three who were his most intimate disciples, Peter and the Zebedee brothers, James and John. Why these three, sometimes called the Big Three? According to Luke’s Acts of Apostles, Peter and John were the most prominent of Jesus disciples in Jerusalem after Pentecost. John’s brother James was the first of the Twelve to shed his blood as a martyr. The transfiguration is a preview and a promise of Jesus’ resurrection. It was fitting that the three disciples who would become the primary public witnesses (Proclaimers) of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead would also be the first to see him in his future glory. Besides that, when Jesus withdraws from his disciples in Gethsemane, he again takes along for a closer experience Peter, James, and John. Their vision of Jesus’ glory was to help them endure the sight of his sufferings through which he attained that glory. Did it help them in the Garden of Gethsemane? Not yet. They slept. Then they abandoned him.
The presence of Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration: Moses was thought to be the author of the Torah (the first five book of the Bible). Elijah was a major prophet. The Torah and the Prophets are the two main divisions of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Jesus was en route to Jerusalem. The story of the transfiguration is preceded and followed by a prediction of his suffering, death, and resurrection. The presence of Moses and Elijah proclaims that what is about to happen to Jesus is in full accord with the Torah and the Prophets. The command of the Voice,
“Listen to him!” recalls that Jesus predicted, and will repeatedly insist, that he will suffer and die and rise. The response of the disciples to the three Passion predictions was embarrassing. First, Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. Secondly, James and John try for the “first places” in his kingdom. Thirdly, the disciples, most of them grown men, argue about who is #1 among them. But the Voice says, “Listen to what he is telling you.” The path to the glory of his resurrection is only through his suffering and death.
