A Startling Parallel

 I am constantly amazed at the ways the Old Testament --- 2000 years of history, poetry, prophecy, and teaching--- is reflected and fulfilled in the appearance of Jesus Christ on earth and in the words of the New Testament.  I recall hearing a bishop once say, "The Bible is deep enough to satisfy scholars and simple enough to be understood by a child."  We never come to the end of our amazement and discovery of new insights, no matter how much we read and understand.

So a few days ago, I read in the Gospel of Luke about the sinful woman who approached Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee.  Much to Simon's disgust, she anointed Jesus' feet with her tears and poured ointment on them.  Seeing Simon's discomfort with this embarrassing display, Jesus asks who will love him more -- the one who has a small debt forgiven, or the one whose debt was large.  In another place, Jesus comments that the Pharisees will see tax collectors and prostitutes entering the kingdom of heaven before they will.  

Today, I am reading David's remarkable Psalm 18:  

I love you, Lord, my strength;
O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my savior;
my God, my rock where I take refuge;
my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold.
I cry out, "O praised be the Lord!"
and see, I am saved from my foes.

The waves of death rose about me; The torrents of destruction assailed me; the snares of Sheol surrounded me; the traps of death confronted me.

 In my anguish I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. In the heavenly temple my voice was heard; my crying reached God's ears. 

Only someone like David, who had been trapped in the desert, hiding out in caves, pursued by those seeking his death, could have been so exuberant in praise and thanksgiving to the God who saved him, who gave him comfort and security in the midst of terror.   James H. Cone, the author of The Cross and the Lynching Tree, wrote this:  Without concrete signs of divine presence in the lives of the poor, the gospel becomes simply an opiate; rather than liberating the powerless from humiliation and suffering, the gospel becomes a drug that helps them adjust to this world by by looking for pie in the sky. 

When Jesus announced "The kingdom of God has come among you," He was wrapping up the entire Old Testament in His Presence.  He went to Nazareth immediately following his baptism and temptation in the desert and announced in the synagogue, "Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your presence" (Luke 4:21).  And the scripture he read was that of Isaiah the prophet:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

If the presence of God in our lives is just a concept, a social construct, or a philosophy, we will be respectable in our worship, but not embarrassingly so to those around us.  If, however, the kingdom of God has arrived when the "torrents of death" surrounded us, as Psalm 18 says, when we were trapped in anguish and fear, our "religion" will be more like that of the sinful woman who cared nothing about Simon's respectability, but who could not stop thanking and praising Jesus for what He had done for her.