REV. JOHN STOTT, COMMITTED  EVANGELICAL SCHOLAR, DIES

his blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news

2 Samuel 5:1-12

5Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, ‘Look, we are your bone and flesh. 2For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The Lord said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.’ 3So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. 4David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years. 5At Hebron he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months; and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah for thirty-three years.

6 The king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, ‘You will not come in here, even the blind and the lame will turn you back’—thinking, ‘David cannot come in here.’ 7Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, which is now the city of David. 8David had said on that day, ‘Whoever wishes to strike down the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind, those whom David hates.’ Therefore it is said, ‘The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.’ 9David occupied the stronghold, and named it the city of David. David built the city all around from the Millo inwards. 10And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.

11 King Hiram of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar trees, and carpenters and masons who built David a house. 12David then perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

This passage records the historic unity of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah under David. In view of the use to which such passages have been put by modern Israelis anxious to define “greater Israel”, it’s as well to note that there’s not much corroborative evidence outside the bible for “the kingdom of David”

For those not used to detailed bible study it’s also important to point out that the manuscript of this passage is almost certainly corrupt, especially in verse 8, where it appears a scribe has added words about David hating the blind and the lame and linking that with the ritual rule forbidding injured people access to the Temple.  Most scholars are doubtful if these words stood in the original text. It looks as if a humourless scribe has misunderstood the Jebusites’ joke about the blind and the lame (our kids could beat your adults). This would be a minor matter if it occurred in an ancient manuscript but in a writing considered by some to be the word of God it is of importance since some nutter somewhere might take it as justification for hating disabled people.

It’s also worth noting that the Order of Masons has built an elaborate myth around Hiram of Tyre (v11) which has no justification in the Bible.

 Mark 7:24-37

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 28But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ 29Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ 30So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ 35And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’

In the first of these stories a gentile woman discovers how to open up Jesus’ healing power; in the second, Jesus’ healing power opens up the closed ears and mouth of a man who can neither hear nor speak.

No sleight of hand can make Jesus’ words to the gentile woman acceptable: the term “dogs” would always be a gross insult and expressive of Jewish prejudice. The assumption however of Israel’s primacy in God’s favour is woven into the whole story of Jesus, whose mission is to seek the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” which, according to prophecy, will in turn become a blessing to all nations. The woman has wit. She doesn’t protest; she rolls over and becomes a dog under the table, thus asking Jesus if he likes what his words mean. He decides to learn from the woman that God’s rule extends beyond Israel to all who are in need. The perfection of Jesus’ character is not that he always knows what is right but that he is always open to it.

Deafness, like other disabling conditions was seen by Jesus’ contemporaries as a shutting off from community and from God, brought about by Satan. The refusal to accept such conditions is evidence of Jesus’ rebellion against complicity in any human deprivation. In this instance Mark describes Jesus acting as a traditional healer in his gestures and words. The Aramaic word meaning “open up” is preserved in the story Mark received, maybe because for the storyteller, it had assumed a “sacred power”. In any case the man is opened to the open goodness of God (the reader recollects that at Jseus’ baptism the heavens were torn open), and restored to community. People ask of human illness, “How can God permit this?” Jesus acts on the principle that God does not permit it but demands healing.