The Twelve: St. Andrew

St. Andrew

Meaning of the name: Let me begin with a quote from Origen of Alexandria – Church father of III century AD: a name is a designation that sums up and describes the particular character of the one named (ACCS NT, II:41).

Andrew means manly, brave. He had to be brave to switch allegiance from John the Baptizer to the One John was pointing to. He had to be brave to invite his brother. Also, his name is Greek, unlike Simon. This is an indicator that Jesus' mission has a worldwide direction from the very beginning.

Life Story: He was born in Bethsaida, Galilee (John 1:44). When Jesus called him, he lived in the same house with Simon' (Peter) family [note that Simon mentioned first] (Mark 1:29). According to the Gospel of John, he actually was called the first. Then he invited Simon, and then the rest of the disciples joined the band (John 1:37-42).

Gospel of Mark: Two stories of healing

Two stories of Healing

Text: Mark 4:35 – 5:43

Outline:

A. 4:35-41, Calming down a storm

B. 5:1-20, Healing a man with a demon

C. 5:21-43, Healing of two “girls”

Comments:

I told you I am a fan of Creation. Here we go again. Just look at the outline. Nature, then Man, then Woman (actually two of them – God loves His daughters). Now, let us go to the text.

THOUGHTS on SIN

 THOUGHTS on SIN

Romans 6 – INTRO

Middendorf comes up with a helpful table in his Romans commentary (Romans 1-8, CPH, 2013, p.441), an improved version is here:

Word	Earlier	5:12-21	6:1-23	7:1-25	8:1-13	8:14-39	latter	Total
Sin	4	6	16	15	5	0	2	48
Death	2	5	7	5	2	1	0	22
Law	35	3	2	23	5	0	6	73
Flesh/ mortal Body	4/2	0/0	1/2	3/2	13/3	0/1	5/3	26/13 =39

 

According to table the main theme for chapter 6 is sin which results in death. The final verse of the chapter summarizes it, connecting both terms together: for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (6:23).

48=12*4 – square shape of 12 (tribes of Israel, apostles, etc.)

22 – number of letters in Hebrew alphabet – a complete basis for the Word. In connection with death might mean a complete sentence or judgement (cp. the structure of the Book of Lamentations).

So, what is sin? St. John says: sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4b). This reinforces what St. Paul wrote in the previous chapter – 5:13.

Both Hebrew and Greek words mean missing the mark. It might relate to the Garden story – how Adam and his wife missed the mark using the wrong tree for their spiritual growth (Gen. 2:25-3-7).

We can’t fix this – the eternal life that we get in Christ Jesus is a free gift (MS Word underlines this phase [free gift] as redundant). Question at hand – how God “brings us back to the trek” to the ways of the righteous? That’s our next lesson. 

STORY of TWO WOMEN

STORY of TWO WOMEN

Mark 5:21-43

This is an example of so-called sandwich story – within the story about the resurrection of the Jair’s daughter, there is a narrative of a bleeding woman.

a. 5:21-24a, Jair invites Jesus to cure and save his daughter

  b. 5:24b-34, woman touches Jesus and is healed

a’. 5:35-43, Jesus takes/touches a girl by the hand, and she is healed/raised from the dead

A couple of notes on the text.

v. 24 has two verbs in relation to the crowd’s behavior toward Jesus – followed Him and thronged. Some of the translations prefer a better verb – pressing in on Him (NASB). St. Augustine comments: Few are they who by faith touch Him; multitudes are they who throng Him. (ACCS, NT-II, p. 75).

v. 26. Mark notices that she wasted all her financial resources on the doctors. Luke, probably being a doctor (Col. 4:14), avoids the mentioning of this fact (Lk. 8:43).

v.27-28. Interesting that none of the Church Fathers (referring to ACCS selection) made a connection between her desire to touch His garment and the prophecy of Zechariah 8:23. The Zech. Passage itself is based on Num 15:37-40. The outer garments of a faithful Jew were symbolic representation of the YHWH’s covenant with the people. As a result, the people wearing this covering were to witness His presence in their lives and thus lead the Gentiles to the God who is present among the people. That’s why the woman did not need to touch Jesus, but her goal was to touch the garment.

v. 36. Jairus’ name comes from the Hebrew Jair (or Yair, cp. Num. 32:339-41, 1 Chron. 2:21-23), meaning: He (Yah) enlightens (gives vision/sight). People perceiving his daughter dead, and Jesus “overhearing” them (some manuscripts say “ignored”) tells Jairus to “believe”. This narrative simple illustrates what later St. Paul will put so gallantly: Faith comes from hearing, hearing of the Word of God (Rom.10:17) and we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).     

Parallels/contrasts between the woman and daughter:

	Woman	Daughter
1	No name	No name
2	Daughter (v. 34)	Daughter (v. 23,35); little girl (v. 41)
3	12 years of sickness	12 years old
4	Bleeding (spiritually “dead”)	dying
5	She touches Him	He takes/touches her by her hand
6	Jesus heals her using “talith”	Jesus calls her “Talitha”
7	Great crowds	Limited (7) number of people

 

  Picture: The Raising of Jairus' Daughter (twelfth-century mosaic) (datail) Byzantine school (from Peter Stanford, A Life of Christ, (London: Quercus [2009], p. 92).  

My sermon from 2021 on the text (go to 34:20)        

  

Book of Acts: Matthias replaces Judas

Matthias replaces Judas

The Passage: Acts 1:12-26

Structure:

A. 1:12-13, List of the apostles

 B. 1:14-15, the disciples pray

  C. 1:16-17, The OT citation  

   D. 1:18-19, Death of Judas   

  C’. 1:20-22, The OT citation

 B’. 1:23-25, the disciples pray

A’. 1:26, Matthias is added to the list  

Historical and geographical context:

The Eleven (they, cp. Mk. 16:14 and Acts 1:13) came back from Mount Olivet to Jerusalem. The trip was not more than a Sabbath day’s trip – about 1000 [normal] daily steps. Why would they mention that if it was not a sabbath day? They come back to the same place they used to stay during and after the Cross and Resurrection.

They come to the Upper Room – a place where Jesus instituted the His Supper, the higher ground that becomes the source of life for the world. (NB: the Altar in the church – usually – is placed on a higher ground).

The replacement of Judas happened within the 10 days (maybe the first one, but most likely not, 1:15) after the Ascension, prior to Pentecost.    

Theology:

Selection of the ministers – number, timing, personal characteristics.

Number – Peter proposes that the drop-out apostle should be re-placed: “one of these men MUST become with us a witness to his resurrection” (1:22). How many people saw/heard/experienced the resurrection? According to St. Paul – abut 500 (1 Cor. 15:6). This means that the verb “to witness” does not mean the fact of eye witnessing, but the ministry of the Word and Sacrament. The ministry is a witness of His resurrection. For as St. Paul puts is: “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). The same applies to the Sacraments – Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar.       

Timing – There is an opinion that apostles “jumped the gun”. They should’ve waited for the conversion of Saul. God speaks of him as a “chosen instrument” (Acts 9:15). On the other hand, we do not have any significant acts – sermons, acts of mercy, or miracles – done by Matthias.
That’s where the historical and liturgical heritage helps to answer this question. LSB 517:13 is dedicated to St. Matthias. 

Characteristics. The list of “requirements” is substantially different than what St. Paul would design later for the ministry in diaspora (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Tit. 1:5-6, 7-9). Here: being with us all the time – from the baptism by John to the Ascension. Two criteria: we (1) know him through time (2). Then they prayed for the guidance of the LORD. Prayer and casting lots (cp. Purim, Ex. 28:30; 1 Sam. 14:41-42; Pr. 16:33) was the method of identification.   

Other themes:

Authorship of particular psalms confirmed. It is not an issue here, but later – in Acts 4 we’ll see an important authorship statement. 

120 – the number of disciples (as a whole) was fitting for the following task – sharing the Good News (the Gospel) with the representatives of 15 national and geographical groups.