The Golden Ass

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
- Genesis 12: 1-3, God's call to Abraham

“By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Genesis 22: 16-18, God's blessing of Abraham

Eastern Orthodox Icon of Abraham

Back in mid-September, I went to NYC for a prayer school with Brian Zahnd. Soon thereafter, a bunch of cool stuff started happening. One of them was that I started to see a bunch of connections in and between scriptures and scriptural stories that I hadn't seen or noticed before. It was as though my imagination was enlarged by the presence of God in prayer. So, on the morning of October 13, 2018, a little less than a month after starting to pray basically every morning in the way I was taught, the weekly gospel reading was Mark 10: 17-31...

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money[a] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is[b] to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another,[c] “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
- Mark 10: 17-31

First, note that Jesus "set off on a journey." "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head." Jesus is re-enacting the calling of Abraham. He has left behind the relative security of his family and homeland. Also, however, note that Jesus "went on a journey" in such a way that Abraham never could, because Abraham had neither the same Father nor the same home as Jesus.

Starting off on his sojourn, Jesus meets a "rich young ruler" who had in his grasp everything left behind by Abraham when God called him in Genesis 12. Remember that Jesus had already left behind far more. The original audience - who, however, couldn't yet have even begun to imagine who Jesus was claiming to be - would have nevertheless been able to easily make an association between the rich young ruler and Abraham as soon as Jesus asked him to join him on his journey.

The ruler is grasped by the urge to conserve what power and possessions he perceives himself to already have and is thus unable to obey the calling that Abraham heard and for which Jesus was destined from the foundation of the world. This despite the young man's apparent zeal for God, as demonstrated in his lifelong obedience to the commands of Torah. So, despite his refusal and inability, Jesus meets the rich young ruler where he is "in his journey" and - "Jesus, looking at him, loved him." It seems almost as though Jesus, in addition to recognizing the young man's love for the Lord in his obedience of the commandments, was also partially remembering the part of the story when Abraham already had a secure homeland and kinfolk. The time before the journey. To that end, then, it is perfectly appropriate that the "rich young ruler" is sent off back home after being unwilling to embark on the sojourns of Abraham and Jesus.

Peter, in noting his own and the other disciples' pilgrimage with Jesus, then seems to articulate with words how this band of brothers and sisters is itself re-enacting the journey of Abraham to a homeland from exile at the hand of foreign powers (said powers being Rome, mainly). “Look, we have left everything and followed you.”

It's interesting to me that Jesus then affirms that such a pilgrimage is a good idea. My first inclination would be to not indulge Peter's self-absorbtion. Unless, of course, it wasn't himself with which Peter was absorbed.

Instead, Jesus is affirming the whole history of Israel that Jesus and his disciples were living out. So, with that in mind, Jesus also then points to the ultimate vindication of Peter's own pilgrimage through a re-membering of Abraham's blessing in Genesis 22. "I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven...and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice." (remember the homeland left behind by Jesus, which Abraham had never seen)

So, Jesus' reply to Peter is both remembering God's faithfulness to Abraham and a prophecy of Peter's future role in the church:

“Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life."

In the body of Israel, Abraham has indeed "received a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands..." In and because of Jesus, Peter and the rest of the disciples themselves constitute the very fulfillment of God's faithfulness to Abraham. That Jesus is fulfilling the blessing of God upon Abraham also means - when Jesus says "many who are first will be last, and the last will be first" - he is saying that many of the Jews "will be last", whereas many of "the nations" "will be first."

That casts into a new light the Jews themselves handing Jesus over to Pilate for "persecution." Pilate was their figurehead for one of those very "nations" who Jesus said would be "first." Jesus saved that stinger for the end of this story, precisely because he knew it would upset his kinfolk. The Jewish leaders sending Jesus to Pilate for crucifixion is quite the game of tit for tat. So, with Jesus response to Peter's outburst about "leaving behind everything" in re-memberance (reenactment) of the story of Israel - which is summarized in that of Abraham - Jesus is noting that the same "inheritance" awaits Peter and the church as that of Abraham. With the addition, however, of "persecutions."

The persecutions are added, because of the work of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit, the church went onto embody a new and unified humanity. To "BE [to embody and enact] a blessing to the nations." Some people, finding such love to be strange and foreign - a bit like the land for which Abraham was unknowingly destined - obviously had a problem with such blessing in the form of radical(ly new) unity. Jesus is the better Abraham precisely because of them. In the persecutions of Jesus and his people are the greater fulfillment of the life of Abraham and God's promises to him.