A story of a sacrifice that shouldn’t have happened seems an unlikely candidate for Jesus to use to explain his own death. But the story of Jephthah and his daughter makes us focus intently on the sacrificial victim. In this case the victim is the real winner, at least long-term in Israel’s memory. So I’m proposing this as another of the Scriptures that Jesus opens up for the disciples on the way to Emmaus. Episode 6 in Opening the Scriptures... Read more
Rivalry looms large in human history. We make ourselves rivals with each other and with God. We even take rivalry into our gift giving, comparing one gift with another. My search for Scriptures that Jesus would have “opened up” for the disciples on the way to Emmaus lands on just such a rivalry. But Jesus, who gave himself on the cross, doesn’t interpret gift giving the way Cain does. Episode 5 in Opening the Scriptures on the Way to Emmaus:... Read more
Joachim Schellnhuber is one of the world’s foremost experts on global warming. He helped advise Pope Francis in the writing of the environmental encyclical, Laudato Si. At a recent meeting of the Club of Rome (scientists concerned about the planet), he delivered a startling warning. Quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and robots together may become more powerful than humans in at least this respect: They can easily survive global warming. Jeremy Legget wrote about Schellnhuber in his blog “Future Today,” where... Read more
This series started with a story of human sacrifice that masquerades as a punishment for a crime. In the Bible there are stories of explicitly religious human sacrifice that indicate that the practice may once have been accepted in early Israelite religion. Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son Isaac is one such story. What can it tell us about how Jesus understood his death? Episode 4 in Opening the Scriptures on the Way to Emmaus: Why Messiah had to Suffer. Introduction... Read more
The last post was a trip away from Bible stories for another story by René Girard. Girard’s theory purports to explain the origin, in rivalry, the scapegoat, and sacred violence of practically everything that distinguished humans from animals. Soon we return to the Bible, specifically the story in Genesis of Adam and Eve’s Original Sin. We’ll see imagined rivalry and the first instance of violence in the Bible. Before that, here’s a story that’s not exactly in the Bible. You... Read more
Destroying two statues, of Saddam Hussein and of a Confederate general: morally the same or different? “The study of history has absolutely no use whatsoever.” That’s what a museum guide told me once. (I can’t remember the guide’s name or the museum’s.) It’s a sentiment that, I guess, most people would disagree with. Why else would people argue about Confederate s statues and memorial days like Columbus Day? What brings this thought to mind is a friend’s comment about my... Read more
I’ve been searching through the Old Testament for stories Jesus might have told the disciples on the way to Emmaus. Jesus, without their knowing who he was, explains why the Messiah had to suffer in this story from Luke’s Gospel. My guide in this search is René Girard. His theory about rivalry, the scapegoat, and religious violence helps me select and interpret certain Bible stories. Here I take a look at Girard and a theory about the scapegoat that explains... Read more
In Luke’s Gospel Jesus “opens up” the Scriptures for two disciples on the way to Emmaus after the Resurrection. But which Scripture stories did he interpret? Perhaps the story of Achan was one. The previous post in this series mentioned that such stories might be famous or not, noble or not. This story is less than famous and much less than noble. You won’t hear Achan’s story in church; at least, it isn’t in the lectionary that Catholic and many... Read more
It’s October 12, the day an Italian explorer made landfall in what would become the Americas. It’s also a good day to commend the citizens of Mankato, Minnesota. Mankato’s City Council last June voted to name the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day. “Nearly 50 people broke out in applause,” the Mankato Free Press reported. Mankato, a medium-size city in Southeastern part of the state, joins other Minnesota cities, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, Red Wing,... Read more
Introduction to the series Why did Jesus die? Jesus died to save us from sin and death. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus has his own an answer to this question. He explains it to two disciples as they walk to Emmaus, unaware of the resurrection, which has recently taken place. Unfortunately, he doesn’t explain it to us, Luke’s readers. In a series of posts I will make some guesses about the Scriptures that Jesus might have “opened up” for... Read more
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