ROMANS: New life in Christ

 After discussing the justification of Jews and Gentiles, solving the challenge through the statement of unity – image of one tree. All can find a blessing in faith. Now, St. Paul leads to the depiction of the new life under grace [chapters 12-14] – juxtaposition to life under sin (see Introduction).

Text: Romans 12

Structure:

a. 12:1-2, what is good, pleasing, and perfect.

  b. 12:3-5, don’t think more highly than one ought to think

    c. 12:6-8, examples of righteousness behavior 

      d. 12:9-10a, love one another

    c’. 12:10b-15, contribute to the need, hospitality

  b’. 12:16-18, don’t be wise in your own estimation

a’. 12:19-21, conquer evil with good.

Comments:

a. vv. 1-2, St. Paul begins with a liturgical statement – we bring our bodies into a living sacrifice. The purpose of that sacrifice is to determine the will of God, which is:

Good – fitting or useful

Acceptable or pleasing, pleasant

Perfect or complete, reaching the goal. 

There are two ways to understand “living sacrifice” (v. 1): figural/liturgical – we bring ourselves to God, go down (in confession) and up (in absolution), then are transformed, equipped to present ourselves to meet with Him in Holy Eucharist.

At the same time, St. Paul experienced many life-threats, literally – see Acts 23:12-15.

Also, we need to notice a parallel with an idea of St. Peter (1 Peter 2:4-5). He adds to the idea of the Temple and us as living stones.   

b. vv. 3-5, The paragraph begins with a sobering statement that we need to understand our limits, which leads to acceptance of gifts/functions. Unity in Christ supersedes the ambitions of each person.    

c. vv. 6-8, Now we come to the list of gifts (given by grace):

1. prophecy – proportion to our faith (prophecy is not an ability of predicting the future, is a ministry of proclamation of the Word).

2. service – in our service (diakonia). It is not worship service (like v. 2), ministry of the church to the needy (see Acts 6, selection of deacons).  

3. teaching – in his teaching,  

4. exhortation – in exhortation, to beseech call for comfort, intreat    

5. contributions – in generosity, sincerity (without self-seeking)

6. leading – with zeal, eagerness, diligence   

7. acts of mercy – with cheerfulness

d. vv. 9-10a, Central/pivotal point of the block – love one another.

c’. vv. 10b-15, This love has very obvious “indicators” (it is not just an inner feeling, but actions):

n	Description	n	Description
1	Outdo in showing honor	7	Be constant in prayer
2	Do not be slothful in zeal	8	Contribute to the needs of the saints
3	Be fervent in the spirit	9	Seek to show hospitality
4	Serve the LORD	10	Bless those who persecute you
5	Rejoice in hope	11	Rejoice with those who rejoice
6	Be patient in tribulation	12	weep with those who weep

 

b’, vv. 16-18, Live in harmony with one another and try to be in peace with everyone else, if possible.

a’. vv. 19-21, Last address – beloved – never avenge yourselves. [So, as Jesus said: do not Marvel, Avengers are not good]. St. Paul bases his statement on Deuteronomy 32:35 and Proverbs 25:21-22. In the fight between good -reference to good aspect of God’s will – and evil should be done properly, with good only. 

Advent Readings: Luke 18

Luke 18

Out this chapter I prefer to say a couple words about the very last section. In verses 35 to 43 we find a story of a blind beggar being healed by Jesus. The story has many layers. One relates to the very famous Christian hymn, Amazing Grace. The first stanza ends with the words: “was blind but now I see!” (LSB 744:1). It relates to the story of conversion of the author – John Newton – but in connection with the text in front of us.

For sure, using the eyesight is a great gift and a privilege God provided for us in His creative powers. Psychologists believe that we acquire up to 80% of the information via eyes. Therefore, we should not be surprised that the beggar is so eager to get it (or get it back, Luke doesn’t specify that he was blind from birth, so it is possible he used to see before). He hears about Jesus, and it changes everything. He wants to reach out to the Messianic king and be healed (note that he calls Jesus – Son of David, true Solomon). ESV says that he “cried out” (Lk. 18:38). The Greek verb means something even stronger: shout for help or shout in tumultuous way (Strong’s, G994). He badly looks for Jesus’ attention. When others tried to stop the beggar, he cried even more. More that shouting for help…

Then Jesus came near. The phrase “came near” has very deep liturgical roots. In Leviticus 1:1-2 we are introduced to theology of the sacrifices. The sacrifices in English mean that a worshiper should give up something for a favor of the divine. In Hebrew though, the word Korban means “to draw or to come near.” Yet here the roles are reversed – it is not the worshiper who comes near (he doesn’t really know where to go to), it is Jesus who comes near. What a great sign of mercy! He is the One who approaches the needy one. The plot thickens…

The plot thickens even more when the beggar dares to answer to Jesus’ enquiry: “Lord, let ME recover MY sight” (Lk. 18:41). Listen carefully what he really says: he wants to be the one who will find the way out… But he is blind! Yet, Jesus allows him to be the responsible one. Don’t take me wrong, I’m not saying that the nameless beggar healed himself with assistance of Jesus. No-no, as usual we should confess nothing but SDG – Soli Deo Gloria, Glory belongs to God alone. At the same time, Jesus responds to his request with very encouraging words: “recover your sight, your faith has made you well” (Lk. 18:42). Recover stands in imperative. It is a command, you, don’t stand doing nothing, go ahead and recover your sight!

He recovered his sight, followed Jesus, and all the people gave praise to God. If it would be a movie there would be a sign “happy end” or “he lived happily ever after” here. But I want to continue for a little while. As I said in the beginning, the gift of sight is a great privilege. By no means I want to underestimate the difficulties of a blind person, but Judean society of the Second Temple was a very generous one, the people had a well-developed system of “social services.” But from now on the beggar cannot rely on the generosity of others. He had to be responsible for his own life: his actions, words, and conduct… That’s why I see that Jesus not simply heals him, but “boosts” his sense of responsibility. From the very beginning the beggar phrases everything in a way that he is “in charge” so to speak. And the Son of David lets him have it. And leads him on to the ultimate responsibility – following the Lord, singing praises to God, sharing the Good News with those who didn’t hear the story yet!