The only thing that made the children of Israel special was the calling they received from God. They were not great builders; they were not great warriors. They did not have great philosophers or mathematicians. They were not renowned for their art. They were not wealthy; they were not, at the time of their calling, even free.
God is not a respecter of persons; He is a respecter of Nobody. Moses was a Somebody in Egypt, but after he had been herding sheep for forty years in the Sinai desert, he was Nobody, and it was then he received his call. David was Nobody when Samuel was sent to anoint a new king -- David was left out in the fields, tending the sheep, while his brothers, who had the potential to be Somebodies, were brought before Samuel.
Only a Nobody is fit to represent the True God. If a rich man were chosen, people would think he was chosen for his riches; if a learned man were chosen, it would be thought he was chosen for his learning; if a strong man were chosen, it would be thought he was chosen for his strength. "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty."
We see the same thing in the Gospels. OK, in the non-canonical "Gospel of James" there was a sort of competition among all the widowers of ... Jerusalem? Judea? Galilee, too? to find a suitable husband for Mary, and a miracle revealed God's choice to be Joseph. But that book is non-canonical, and neither St. Joseph nor the Virgin Mary were given any special accommodation for the birth of Jesus, nor did they seem to be VIPs in Nazareth. As far as the world was concerned, Jesus was a Nobody: "He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."
Incidentally, this is probably how Pontius Pilate saw Jesus -- though he was troubled by his wife's dream -- and, based on the few surviving extrabiblical references to Pilate, it is 100% how he saw the Jews. When he had the inscription written to be placed over the head of Jesus, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews", to him it likely meant, "Nobody from Nowheresville, King of the Nobodies", and it was meant as an insult to all those impudent Nobodies that the imperial Caesar had sent him to govern. Like Caiaphas, he did not truly understand the meaning of what he said; "for had [he] known it, [he] would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
What about today?
Today the Jews are Somebodies. Many of the greatest artists, scientists, and politicians are Jews. Jewish culture has embraced learning more than most other ethnic cultures, and that has made them wealthy and powerful -- and envied. Everyone from China to Chile pays attention to threats exchanged between the modern state of Israel and Iran, in part because the Israelis are pretty well known to be members of the nuclear club.
Being a Somebody has never really been compatible with Israel's unique calling, though. David conducted a census to see if he was really a Somebody, and that turned out badly. Solomon was indisputably a Somebody, which contributed to his fall into idolatry and the splitting of the Kingdom. Hezekiah showed off being a Somebody by exhibiting to the Babylonians "all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures," which impressed the Babylonians so much that they returned to take it not long after Hezekiah's death.
Today's state of Israel is a Somebody, just like Greece or Japan or the UK. Just like Greece or Japan or the UK, though -- Netanyahu does not lead the Kingdom of David. Even if the Temple in Jerusalem is one day rebuilt, it will only take the Jews farther from their sacred origin as divinely chosen Nobodies. There is no going back to the Temple of Solomon, and for a Christian, no reason to miss it, either.
There are still Nobodies in the world, and God still makes use of them, but the key fact of this stage of salvation history is not that God respects Nobody, but that God desires the salvation of Everybody. That will be my next topic.
Today the Jews are Somebodies. Many of the greatest artists, scientists, and politicians are Jews. Jewish culture has embraced learning more than most other ethnic cultures, and that has made them wealthy and powerful -- and envied. Everyone from China to Chile pays attention to threats exchanged between the modern state of Israel and Iran, in part because the Israelis are pretty well known to be members of the nuclear club.
Being a Somebody has never really been compatible with Israel's unique calling, though. David conducted a census to see if he was really a Somebody, and that turned out badly. Solomon was indisputably a Somebody, which contributed to his fall into idolatry and the splitting of the Kingdom. Hezekiah showed off being a Somebody by exhibiting to the Babylonians "all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures," which impressed the Babylonians so much that they returned to take it not long after Hezekiah's death.
Today's state of Israel is a Somebody, just like Greece or Japan or the UK. Just like Greece or Japan or the UK, though -- Netanyahu does not lead the Kingdom of David. Even if the Temple in Jerusalem is one day rebuilt, it will only take the Jews farther from their sacred origin as divinely chosen Nobodies. There is no going back to the Temple of Solomon, and for a Christian, no reason to miss it, either.
There are still Nobodies in the world, and God still makes use of them, but the key fact of this stage of salvation history is not that God respects Nobody, but that God desires the salvation of Everybody. That will be my next topic.
No comments:
Post a Comment