Lent 2: 16 March 2025
Readings: Gn. 15.1-12,17-18; Phil. 3.17-4.1; Lk. 13.31-35
Theme: Jerusalem, Jerusalem
This second Sunday of Lent invites us to be on our way with Jesus. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and there he will undergo the sufferings which will unite all the lost children of Israel under his wings. It is a moment of transition that is indicated by one of the only friendly actions of the Pharisees to Jesus. They warn him that Herod Antipas wants to kill him, so he should depart. This exhortation to Jesus from the Pharisees elicits from Jesus a declaration of who he is. He is the messiah, and this is indicated to Herod by the deeds that he declares he is doing: casting out demons and performing cures. Furthermore, he adverts to his resurrection when he says that ‘on the third day I finish my work’. This is an allusion to his forthcoming resurrection on the third day and it indicates that the work of reconciling all the lost children of Israel will be accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
But what is it about Jerusalem that is so special? Why Jerusalem? Jerusalem is the capital of Judea, the Southern Kingdom of Israel, and it acts as a symbol for the united Israel and all its peoples, Northern and Southern Provinces. It is thus fitting that in the centre, Jesus should undergo all that will happen there to him as a means of bringing the periphery, the lost children of Israel, and the centre back together again. Jesus, himself, comes from the margins. He comes from Nazareth and so his return to Jerusalem will bring with him all those on the periphery of the Kingdom of Israel.
The connection between this Gospel theme of return to Jerusalem and our first reading from the Book of Genesis is not immediately evident. Yet, when we look a little deeper it is there. We find it in the notion of the covenant made between the Lord and Abram (who will later be called Abraham). This covenant that is made between the Lord and Abraham is one of fruitfulness in a land of plenty. It is the giving of descendants to Abraham who will occupy the promised land. Notice how this covenant is effected through the sleep of Abram. That notion of sleep is one we met a few weeks ago and it acts as the sign of the action of God. In this case with Abram, it is a sign of the deep union that will take place between the Lord and Abram which occurs in the ‘terrifying darkness’. This darkness will become a motif of union with God in the Christian mystical tradition and the early Father of the Church, Gregory of Nyssa, will use this to explore how it was that Moses, a descendent of Abram, came to be such an intimate friend of God.
However, in the passage from Genesis that we have this week, it is used to symbolize how the covenant is enacted through the ritual of sacrificing the animals in that rather gruesome scene that we have in verses 9-18. The point of this ritual is to make clear what will happen to Abram if he does not fulfill his part of the bargain. It acts as a warning that just as the animals will be slaughtered, so too will Abram be slaughtered if he is not faithful to the covenant made by Lord with him.
But what is the point of the covenant? Why is God making this with Abram? The purpose of the covenant is to reconcile all peoples with God, and this will be enacted through the giving of many descendants to Abram and the ‘land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.’ In other words, the purpose of the covenant is so that a people can be formed who live according to God’s ways in a land that will be given by God. It is, so to speak, a charter or a constitution that will enable a people to be formed so that they can live in union with God, just like Abram and later Moses.
However, in order for this to happen, it will be necessary for a great deal of purification to occur because the selfish ways and the unclean habits prevent this union from occurring. This is why in the season of Lent, we are called to fasting and abstinence and the symbol of the receiving of ashes on our foreheads is a biblical sign of this which refers back to the ancient practices of penitence that the Israelites underwent. Yet, more that this personal purification there is a much more important cleansing that will happen. This is what our Gospel is pointing towards in the allusion to the events which will take place in Jerusalem. The death and resurrection of Jesus will be the inauguration of the new covenant between the Lord and his people. The shedding of the blood of Jesus is a new form of the sacrificial ritual so brutally portrayed in the Book of Genesis with the animal sacrifices. Now, in Jerusalem, God himself will step into the breach. Jesus will undergo the ritual immolation which inaugurates the new covenant and that will allow us to enter into union with him. The sleep of Abram is our falling asleep as we die in our mortal flesh so that the union with God can take place through participating in the union with Jesus that is offered through his death and resurrection. As the Letter to the Philippians states, ‘He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself’. Such glorification can only occur when we pass through, with Jesus, his death and resurrection. Lent is the time when we open ourselves to this preparation. It is the time to allow the purification in us to occur so that when Holy Week and Easter arrive, we may share in the glory of the Lord.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.