Glorious! Christ Is Risen, Risen Indeed!

Founded in 1890, the  École biblique is the French School of Archaeology
located a quarter of a mile away from the walls of old Jersualem, Israel
Photo credit: google images

Blessings on this glorious Easter Sunday! Soon, I will be leaving for Israel to begin post-doctoral studies at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem for the entire month of April. If I don't get totally enamored by the sites of old Jerusalem, I will try to post on my adventures in the holy city (daily, weekly, randomly?... no promises here) on the blog. The École biblique happens to located right across the street from the Garden Tomb, one of two possible sites for where Jesus was buried. 

The Garden Tomb, the alternative location for the burial of Jesus
beyond the traditional site at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons © 2008

Roughly within a two-mile, well-within-walking-distance radius are the Temple Mount, the tower of David, the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and a dozen of other historic and archaeological sites. I'm planning on using the mornings to explore the old Jerusalem and leave the afternoons, evenings, and late nights to intensive study, research and writing. I'll have to be disciplined to keep on my writing schedule and not get lost in the sites and beauty of Jerusalem and beyond.
    Interesting enough, the campus of the École biblique has its own rich history. It is located within St. Stephen's monastery of the Dominican order, which was rededicated in 1900 over the remains of the much older Byzantine church built by Empress Eudocia in the 5th century A.D. to house the relics of St. Stephen. 

Statue of St. Stephen (1st Christian martyr of Acts 6:8-8:2) in the atrium
of the Dominican monastery and home to the École biblique
Photo credit: google images

I will be living on campus, have 24-hour library access, and employ to the best of my ability the resources of this first-class research facility. I'm also very much looking forward to the meal times for conversation with other scholars and the Dominican residents. I'm sure I'll learn much from them!
   On this Easter Sunday, I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 6:14: "By his power, God raised the Lord and will also raise us." May the power of God which raised his Son two-thousand years ago, and with His resurrection, crushed sin's grip on our world and death's reign, strengthen your witness to, service for, and life in Christ this day until the Lord himself calls us to our own resurrection. Amen!

He Is Risen! Blessings this Easter Sunday

It has been some time since I posted on the blog, but it has not been from lack of desire. My schedule has gotten a bit out-of-control these past few weeks. I might not be able to return to blogging regularly until after my trip to Congo in May. Until then, I do wish many who have visited this blog the Lord's blessings this Easter weekend! I shall return to blogging regularly. I simply need to get other tasks out of my queue before I can do this any time soon.

The Garden Tomb, the alternative location for the burial of Jesus
beyond the traditional site at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons © 2008

Hope you are having a glorious Easter and see you again in May! MJL

Paul's Theological Trump Card Concerning Idol Food: An Easter Sunday Message

Hope you are having a glorious Easter Sunday! Blessings! Consider it good timing, or Providence, but my wrap-up post on idol food fits well with the theme of Good Friday and Easter. I want to end this series of posts on what I consider Paul's understanding of true freedom: not doing what I want, but forsaking my rights in order to serve my brother or sister in Christ. In fact, this ethic of freedom trumps Paul's previous instructions on the permissibility and non-permissibility of idol food consumption.
    In what is probably the most provocative statement made by Paul in 1 Cor 8-10, he exclaims: 

• "Therefore, if food stumbles (σκανδαλίζει) my brother [and sister], may I never ever eat meat for all eternity!! (οὐ μὴ φάγω κρέα εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα) in order that I do not cause my brother [or sister] to stumble" (8:13). 

Not only does Paul employ the strongest negative formula to describe "never ever eating" (the double negative οὐ μὴ + the subjunctive φάγω) but he also adds the striking phrase "for all eternity" (εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα). 
    He later explains the basis for this radical ethic through three interlocking texts (lexically, the chain links which interlock the texts are highlighted in blue and green): 

• For while I am free with respect to all (ἐλεύθερος ... ἐκ πάντων), I have made myself a slave to all (πᾶσιν ἐμαυτὸν ἐδούλωσα), so that I might win more people (1 Cor 9:19)
• Just as I try to please all people with all [that I do] (πάντα πᾶσιν ἀρέσκω), not seeking my own benefit but that of many (τῶν πολλῶν), so that they may be saved (σωθῶσιν). 11:1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Cor 10:33-11:1)
• And whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all (πάντων δοῦλος). 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom (λύτρον) for many (ἀντὶ πολλῶν)" (Mark 10:43)

In this radical move, both rhetorically and theologically, Paul turns to the ransom saying of Jesus (Mark 10:44-45) and presents the following thesis: Though he is free to eat idol food at the temple banquet halls or at homes, he will not do so on the basis of love. He surrenders his freedom to eat what he wants so that he is free and blameless to love those who, given their past association and participation in idol worship, might be tempted to return to pagan idolatry if they see other Christian believers eating at a temple (8:10-13). 
   If we can imagine a modern-day group of Christians who decide to give up drinking—not because they feel it is inherently dissolute, but because someone in their small group has a past addiction to alcohol and with it is tied to a system of fallen values that can ruin his or her life upon returning to it—we can then begin to understand why Paul would rather never eat meat again than cause another to stumble (σκανδαλίζει; 8:13).
   So if you have been journeying with Christ throughout this passion week, imagine being at the foot of the cross and seeing the Son of God give himself fully as a ransom for our sins. If Christ gave himself to us fully, how can we not give ourselves fully to Him! But our response to the cross and resurrection does not stop there.
   The risen Lord comes to us and says: just as I have given myself to you fully on the cross, I want you to give yourself fully to your brother and sister! Become a servant of all (πάντων δοῦλος)!" True freedom is not doing what I want to do, or following my own desires, but giving up my rights, even the joys of eating inexpensive high quality food at a cheap price at the market, for the sake of the other. I give up the good pleasures of creation from a good Creator so that I can sacrifice for, and serve, those in need. This is the kind of life for which Christ died and rose to grace us with. God forbid that we sell the gospel short by not living our lives as servants of all! Blessed Easter everyone!    

See ch. 7 "The Reality of Freedom in Christ"

If you want to read more on idol food and being a servant of all, I refer the reader to my essay on Christian freedom (co-written with Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom) in ch. 7 of the above book: Living Faith (2010). For a more technical treatment, but worth every minute you spend reading it, please see the article by Seyoon Kim, “Imitatio Christi (1 Corinthians 11:1): How Paul Imitates Jesus Christ in Dealing with Idol Food (1 Corinthians 8–10).” Bulletin for Biblical Research 13 (2003) 193–226. In the article, Dr. Kim does the textual work of connecting the ransom saying of Jesus with Paul's idol food exhortations, convincingly arguing that the former is the basis for the latter.