Easter Day

Easter Day

INTRODUCTION TO EASTER SEASON LECTIONARY NOTES



These notes have been prepared for, and refined by, the Working Group on Christian-Jewish Relations which in 2014 comprised the Rev Dr. Lorraine Parkinson (Convenor), the Rev. Janice Mc Whinney (Secretary), the Rev. Neil Wilkinson (Treasurer), the Rev. Dr. John Bodycomb, Mr. Ed Carter, Dr. Julie Hall, and the Rev. Graham McAnalley.
Frequently, the way we interpret the lessons from Scriptures read in churches during Holy Week has a great bearing on the way that Christians regard Jews and Judaism. These notes are offered to assist congregations in interpreting these lessons without falling prey to destructive anti-Judaic (and even anti-semitic) attitudes.
The notes on the Holy Week lessons for Years A, B, and C in the Revised Common Lectionary have been prepared by the Working Group on Christian-Jewish Relations of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania of the Uniting Church in Australia. They are offered for use in congregations on Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Day. The notes can be used in a number of ways, such as:

• a printed note in an order of service or a pew sheet;
• a comment made by the reader before the lesson; or 
• a comment by the minister or other worship leader during the Preaching of the Word.

Biblical context
At the time when Mark’s gospel was written (around 70 AD/CE), the Romans had recently destroyed Jerusalem, including the Temple. Many Jews who had lived in Judaea and Galilee were forced into exile. The “parting of the ways” between the emerging Jesus movement and Judaism was beginning. While many followers of the Jesus Way were Jews who continued to practise Judaism, a growing number of Gentiles were also becoming followers of the Way without first becoming Jews. This was a few years after the great fire of Rome (67 AD/CE) and the Emperor Nero’s local persecution of Roman Jesus followers.
By the time Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels were written (around 85 AD/CE), the “parting of the ways” between Jews and Christians was more advanced. 

• Matthew’s gospel was written for a community of Jewish Jesus-followers who were decidedly uncomfortable with having to make a choice between these two ways. Matthew’s gospel featured a rich and free use of references to the Hebrew Scriptures to convey a sense of continuity between the Jewish and Jesus Way communities, as well as the author’s conviction that, in Jesus of Nazareth, humanity has encountered the one living God who was revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures.

•On the other hand, Luke wrote his gospel for a community of Gentile followers who were seeking to practise their faith in a Graeco-Roman world. By this time, the majority of Jesus-followers were Gentiles.
Sporadic local persecutions led to an urgent desire among followers of the Jesus Way to state their belief that they could be loyal citizens of the Roman Empire, even given the death of Jesus by crucifixion. Though this was a characteristically Roman means of execution and torture reserved for those regarded as enemies of the Roman state, for obvious political reasons Jesus followers wanted to minimize the Roman involvement. As a consequence they unjustly emphasized the Jewish involvement in Jesus’ death. This was particularly evident in the gospels of Luke and John.
By the time John’s gospel was written (around 95 AD/CE), the “parting of the ways” was further advanced. The Way was increasingly a Gentile faith. John’s gospel used the phrase “the Jews” to refer to those among the Jews who opposed Jesus. This was particularly evident in the passion narrative. This process of minimizing the Roman involvement and consequently maximizing the Jewish involvement in Jesus’ death went even further in John than it did in Luke. But, in addition to the use of the phrase “the Jews” to indicate opposition to the Way, John also frequently used the phrase “the world” (meaning the Gentile world) to refer to those opposed to the Way.

MATERIAL FOR EASTER DAY
First Lesson for Years A, B, and C: Acts 10: 34 - 43 
This sermon of Peter’s declares to a Gentile household that Jesus was killed and that God raised him on the third day. This is the God who shows no partiality. The story is pivotal in the church’s story because Peter is about to baptise one who was not a Jew, a move that the Apostles had not anticipated until now. Luke (author of Acts) had flagged this impartiality of God in Jesus’ sermon in Nazareth (ch 4) where the congregation became a lynch mob as they remembered the favour of God bestowed on a widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian. The unknown author of the two-volume text of Luke and Acts stressed the dawning realization by Peter, Paul and other Jesus-followers that God has no favourites. God is revealed as flexible enough to pour out his Spirit on Gentiles as well as Jews.

Alternative First Lesson for Year A: Jeremiah 31: 1-6
Here is a word of joy for Christians celebrating resurrection. After destruction, new life is expressed in the promise of building and planting and singing. In this hope God’s continued graciousness is known. The Church hears this as heirs of God’s faithfulness to Israel but the Church needs to hear Jeremiah’s words as spoken to Israel. God’s faithfulness is to them and to us, their heirs. If this is not so then God’s faithfulness is called in question.

Alternative First Lesson for Year B: Isaiah 25: 6- 9
In this passage, Isaiah celebrates God’s triumphant feast for all peoples. Oppression, sadness, and even death itself have been conquered by God because of God’s great love for humanity. As Christians, we can view this triumph in Christian terms in the light of the resurrection of Jesus. The fact that Jews – and other people of faith – can also hear this passage in the light of their own faith traditions is no reason for us to be alarmed. There is room for us all at God’s banquet “of rich food … [and] well-aged wines”. God’s victory party is big enough for us all to enjoy.

Alternative First Lesson for Year C: Isaiah 65: 17 – 25
Something of this text is echoed in Revelation in the vision of the new Jerusalem. This text was for the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem and were finding the going really tough. So the writer repeats verses from chapter 11, words for people still in exile. Here is a hint of the beginnings of apocalyptic language that we find much later in the Book of Revelation, a genre the church was to use for coping with its tough times under Roman persecution. This literary form is yet another heritage from Hebrew Scriptures.

Psalm for Years A, B, and C: Psalm 118: 1 - 2, 14 – 24
Easter Day certainly is God’s great gift – an occasion for the church’s rejoicing. The Reading from Psalm 118 is a traditional Easter acclamation. In its ancient use the psalm probably had a place in temple worship in Jerusalem as a processional in which thanksgiving was offered for the Lord’s goodness to the Davidic kings. This link of Jesus with David’s line is fitting – a reminder of his Jewishness.

Second Lesson for Year A: Colossians 3: 1 – 4
The author invites his readers to turn their minds upwards towards the realm of Christ. In the verses beyond this small passage is a comprehensive list of thoughts and actions that are not found in the realm of Christ. The author then pleads with readers to “clothe themselves in love” which binds everything and everyone together, especially those with differences. Is it possible that in our contemporary cross-cultural and multi-faith world such turning of our minds upward to Christ could release more loving outcomes so desperately needed?

Second Lesson for Year B: 1st Corinthians 15: 1 – 11
Paul is the earliest biblical author to celebrate the Resurrection and his resurrection experience. He is thoroughly and commendably Jewish in that he presents the resurrection experiences in a down to earth way. God brings transformation and new life to real people in real human historical situations. There are no angels, or claps of thunder, but he insists his resurrection experience is no different to the experience of other followers of Jesus, though given his earlier history as a persecutor, he was taken by surprise. Luke in the Acts, with his later colourful description of the blinding light on the Damascus road, unfortunately for many people removes this authentic resurrection experience into the realm of the weird and supernatural.

Second Lesson for Year C: 1st Corinthians 15: 19 – 26
We do not turn to the pre-scientific Hebrew myths or stories of Genesis in search of scientific or historical understanding. We go to them for self-understanding and insight into God’s way and our human predicament. Paul, a devout Jew, in this passage uses the story of Adam, (as a symbol for humanity), and his disobedience to God to illustrate how destructively we human beings choose to exist. We have become alienated from our birthright potential, our true humanity, our neighbours, the creation and our Creator in a ‘living death’. For Paul, all is not lost for in Christ we glimpse a new humanity, a new way of living by God’s grace, a fulfilling resurrected way of life that triumphs over a ‘living death’ and renews us with hope.

Gospel Stories about the resurrection experience of some of the disciples.
Death intervenes in life with a finality that means that intimate relationships will never be the same again. In grief we struggle over time to absorb the enormity of what has happened, especially where the death has been traumatic or unexpected. Our minds process and re-process the shared memories, the conversations, the common understandings and differences, the hopes, the fears. Our minds may even play tricks with us when the doorbell rings or the phone stirs us, or when we appear to momentarily think we see a familiar face in a crowd. But love will remain, and new insight may come to enliven us.

The disciples were like us, and though their cultural context was vastly different, and gospel editors reflected later thinking, they have left us resurrection stories that still fire our imagination and open up to us God-driven visions of hope and lives transformed after the pattern of Jesus of Nazareth. Disciples then and now have drawn inspiration and courage to go forward as if Jesus was still with them.

About four decades after the first Easter the Roman army ruthlessly put down a Jewish Messianic revolt which left Jerusalem devastated and its temple in ruins. The earliest gospel resurrection account of Mark probably appeared after that event, with Matthew and Luke next, and finally John by the turn of the century when, sadly, relations between Jews and Jesus-followers had broken down to the point of hostility.

Various Jewish Messianic messengers inhabited the world of Jesus proclaiming God’s imminent dramatic intervention in history which would exalt the righteous and punish the wicked and wind-up the present age. Not surprisingly, after the Roman onslaught, conservative Jews dropped Messianic rhetoric, and some even claimed that the Roman fury was God’s judgment for Jewish tolerance of the Jesus sect. However, Jesus-followers increasingly proclaimed that their leader really was God’s expected Messiah/Anointed One/Christ. Thus by the end of the first century Jesus had become Christ and was referred to as not merely ‘a’ son of God but ‘the’ Son of God. The various gospel resurrection stories reflected messianic beliefs of the time that the Christ would rise from the dead and ascend to God’s presence before quickly returning in triumph for the ending of the age.

For Years A, B, and C: John 20: 1 - 18 
Alternative Gospel Lesson for Year A: Matthew 28: 1 - 10
Alternative Gospel Lesson for Year B: Mark 16: 1 - 8
Alternative Gospel Lesson for Year C: Luke 24: 1 - 12

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