8.13.20 - Did Jesus insult the Canaanite woman? Elijah's nervous breakdown and Jesus walks on water

Coming Monday: Does Jesus call the Canaanites dogs? What could he possibly mean? Also - continuing the Spiritual Laws of Nature/Attributes of God.

Narrative from Monday night...

Elijah has Breakdown and Jesus Walks on Water

OT Bible Study: Reminder, after the Exodus, the “historical” books of the Bible are:

• Joshua - the conquering of Canaan. Joshua was good. (est. 1300-1260 BC)

• Judges (11) (1260-1140BC) very rough period, ending with the great Judge/Prophet, Samuel in 1050 BC

• 1 Samuel is about the reign of King Saul (1050-1010 BC)

• 2 Samuel is about the reign of King David (1010-970 BC)

• 1 Kings covers the reign of Solomon (970-930 BC); the kingdom splits into North and South, followed by bad kings in the North and South. The last 5 chapters covers Elijah (870-850 BC)

• 2 Kings begins with the prophet Elisha (850-790 BC); goes on to cover the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC; and ends with the fall of the Southern Kingdom (Judah) in 597 BC.

• 1 & 2 Chronicles - retelling of the history from 1 Samuel through 2 Kings, adding many details.

• Ezra & Nehemiah - the rebuilding of Judaism after the Babylonian Exile (roughly 530-430 BC)

The Prophet Elijah

Elijah was one if the great prophets sent to the Northern Kingdom from around 870 to 850 BC, about 60 years after the kingdoms split into two. He then turned his prophet’s mantle over to his top disciple, Elisha, and was taken by a chariot of fire to heaven. Because he didn’t die a regular death, it was prophesied he would return to herald the coming of the Messiah. In fact, we see Jesus talking with Elijah and Moses in the Transfiguration, after which Jesus said the spirit of Elijah was in John the Baptist. Many people think all the prophets were big miracle workers, but that’s not true. Miracles were not that common except in a few cases; and Elijah and Elisha were two of those exceptions. You will not see a “book of Elijah” (or Elisha). Elijah is covered in the last five chapters of 1 Kings. At the time of our reading, the Northern Kingdom was ruled by King Ahab and his evil, pagan queen, Jezebel.

OT Mass Readings - As often is the case, the Mass reading only gives us a snippet of a much longer narrative, and it is up to the priest to remind the congregation of the full context of the story. This is why I recommend reviewing the readings ahead of time — except also read a little before and after the designated verses. That way you will spend less time figuring out what the priest is talking about and more on the intended message. If you are not sure of what the readings are, go to usccb.org and click readings.

Context of today’s OT reading (1Kings 19):

Today’s reading begins, “At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave…” Mt. Horeb is another name for Mt. Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. What is Elijah doing at Mt. Sinai? It is an event that follows a great show-down in Jerusalem between Elijah and 450 prophets of the pagan god Baal (the Canaanite equivalent of Zeus) at Mt. Carmel, a show-down that Elijah won convincingly by calling down fire from heaven. However, this dramatic, miraculous victory did not produce the results that Elijah wanted. Instead, Elijah’s victory over Baal merely provoked the wicked Queen Jezebel to attempt to assassinate him. So just days after his euphoric triumph on Mt. Carmel, Elijah found himself fleeing for his life, escaping from the territory of Israel into southern Judah and then out into the Sinai (Arabian) desert to Mt. Horeb (Sinai) itself.

The victory at Carmel was as dramatic as anything Elijah could have hoped for, yet it did not bring about the change he was expecting. Elijah can't believe it. He is fed up and ready to give up. He is physically, emotionally, and spiritually drained. He wants to die. When he gets into the desert, he finds a solitary broom tree, climbs under it, and prays for death. Suddenly, an angel comes twice to feed him so he can journey 40 days and 40 nights to Mt. Horeb.

1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a

At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter. Then the Lord said to him, “Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will be passing by.”A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord—but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire—but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.

So, Elijah journeys to Mt. Horeb to speak to God. Elijah is aware he is a prophet in the tradition of Moses, the first of Israel’s great prophets, so he returns to the holy mountain where God spoke to Moses in the hopes of gaining clarity from God about what to do next.

God commands Elijah to stand on the slope of Horeb and wait for the passing of his presence. Then come the great phenomena associated with God’s appearance to Moses so many years before: wind, earthquake, and fire (see Exod 19:16-18). But this time, God’s presence is not in these dramatic signs. God’s presence comes later, in a “quiet whispering sound,” or as the old King James rendered it, “a still, small voice.” There is no drama, but God is there. Elijah goes out of the cave to speak to God. The remainder of the story is omitted from the Reading, but after Elijah complains to God, God renews Elijah’s vocation and commissions him to go anoint the next generation of leadership (vv. 15-17). He also assures Elijah that there will remain a remnant (“seven thousand”) in Israel who will maintain their faith in God. The Gospel of Matthew 14:22-33

After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.When it was evening he was there alone.Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea.When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.“It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”He said, “Come.”Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”

Imagine the Word of God/Logos coming to Earth to live life as a human. There was some debate among theologians if Jesus was a mixture of God and man, or were they somehow separate within Jesus. The Church concluded Jesus was both fully God and fully man. One reason was that a mixture of God and man would not quite be experiencing the fullness of humanity. It would be kind of like cheating. The mixture of God-human would clearly be much greater than being just human.

A second reason is the type of God we have - who our God is. Pagan gods had a way of ruling over humans or crushing them if they got in the way. When a god was in the life of humans, humans were immediately marginalized or endangered. In other words, humans either had to be “less” or else they would be “lessened.” If a pagan god were to become a human, you would expect the inner human part to move over and make way for the god - in a sense, be overtaken or overwhelmed by the more powerful god. However, with God, humanity is retained in its fullness. God moves in but leaves room for both. In the process of moving in, what does God/Logos do? He lessens Himself; he empties himself of his pure Godhood to reside alongside man.

In this way, God can experience man’s weaknesses, strengths, sufferings, excitement, laughs, and tears. And He can allow man to retain his whole being without lessening him. The only explanation for God to go through all this trouble for humans is love. Love that we can hardly comprehend; but, we’re working on it :).

Then again, isn’t this kind of what happens to humans? Our bringing Jesus/HS into us? We still retain our identity and free will but can begin to experience God’s advice and influence inside us, but next to us? In fact, not only are we not lessened, we are enhanced, increased. At whatever pace that works.

What does this have to do with today’s reading?

Think of the events that just happened, one after the other. He heals hundreds of people, then feeds 5000 people with five loaves and two fish (which total 7, btw); then he walks on the Sea of Galilee and quiets the storm. He is showing who he is.

Jesus hasn’t come out and said who he is. God/Logos has been taking his time. Perhaps part of that is to fully experience as much humanity as possible before it comes to an end. Perhaps part of it is God’s perfect timing of everything in salvation history, from granting humans a spirit to Abraham, to Moses, David, Elijah, John the Baptist, Herod, Pontius Pilate, to the resurrection and opening the gates to the Trinity/HS.

It also seems calculated so that his followers reach this conclusion of who he is by themselves. Not only for the apostles, but isn’t that the way it is with everyone? What works better for you? To be told something you don’t quite believe or understand? Or discover or learn it on your own?

But who is Jesus, really? What did Logos do at the beginning of the universe? As John 1 says, the universe was created through him. At the very least, that makes him Lord over this physical universe. What is he doing when he heals people who are dying and deformed? He is Lord over all creation. What about changing 5 loaves and 2 fish into food for 5000 with “12” baskets left over? Of course, Logos can do that. What about walking on the water and quieting the storm? Clearly, something more than just the human Jesus of Nazareth is at work here.

When Jesus helps Peter into the boat and the winds stop, what do the Apostles do? They fall down prostrate and praise him as truly the Son of God. They have concluded this on their own.

Of course, there are also a practical reasons: had Jesus started announcing who he was right out of the gate, would he have been able to communicate his messages on love, the Beatitudes, and the Kingdom — or would these have become sideshows? Would he not have been put to death sooner?

But the greatest showing of Jesus wasn’t any of these, but that he had the power to stop his trial, torture, and crucifixion, and didn’t. As he said at the Last Supper, it was for the forgiveness of our sins. He was canceling out the perfect justice that would eventually meet us at the end of our lives.

That is the big message in the reading, but by no means is it the only message. Jesus goes off praying while the Apostles were traveling in the boat — were they truly alone or do you think they were still in the mind of Jesus? When the boat was being tossed in dangerous wind and waves and Jesus was walking towards them, they didn’t know he was there, but did that change his awareness of them? Now add to their storm fears the sudden terror of thinking a ghost was approaching them —they were surely feeling despair; but, were they any less in Jesus’ awareness? Even when Peter hears that the Lord call to them, is it enough? If it is you, Lord, let me come to you! – sounds like a trust issue. Jesus shows that Peter has a bit of faith and lets him walk on the water, but then Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and looks at the storm. The storm represents our worldly/material lives. Of course he begins to sink. Regardless, Jesus catches him, right? Eventually, everyone in the boat gets that Jesus has control over creation. Now they know.

So, in this one event/story, we have multiple circumstances to which we can compare our own lives. But the fact doesn’t change: we are never alone; never outside the awareness God.

To progress spiritually means to progress in this relationship with the Lord: that God has got your back no matter what happens.

There’s an old saying, “Stop telling God how big your storm is. Tell the storm how big your God is.”

Finally, there’s another meaning to the story. The Church. Matthew had his own concerns for the Church when he wrote this Gospel in the early 60s - persecution everywhere. In Paul’s letter to the Romans today, he also is complaining about all the rejection and persecution. Alas, we have our own Church storms to compare. That said, Jesus will never let the boat sink. He also said as much, quite explicitly.

Send me questions if you have them. Otherwise, see you Monday !

Ron