Odd of God

Overcoming three oddities in the Old Testament

11/18/2019

Luke 18:35-43 As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." He shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me!" Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He replied, "Lord, please let me see." Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you." He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.

The Old Testament is riddled with oddities. The Old Testament is odd. That oddity underscores the old adage: “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” In spite of their oddities, however, God chose the Jewish people as his Chosen People. That divine election should give hope to all the rest of us who are pretty odd, too. And yet we cannot just ignore the Old Testament and relegate ourselves to reading only the New Testament. Why? St. Augustine taught in the 5th century that the New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. They mutually shed light on the other; they are mutually illuminating. May I shed a little light on our reading of the Old Testament so that it might in turn shed better light on our reading of the New Testament? Basically, I would like to change the bulb of the Old Testament and replace it with a new LED light that’s brighter and more environmentally friendly.

If you break open the bible to the Old Testament three oddities will become immediately obvious. First the books of the Old Testament are organized in different ways. Some versions list 1 and 2 Maccabees as the last Old Testament books while other version will list Malachi as the last book of the Old Testament. The 46 books of the Old Testament do not have a standard format for their order. The second oddity is the numbering of the Psalms. Everyone agrees there are 150 Psalms, but starting with Psalm 10, the Psalm start using two different enumerations or numbering systems. Have you ever noticed that? Today we repeated Psalm 119, but sometimes it is listed as Psalm 118. No wonder Catholics cannot quote the bible – we don’t know what number the psalm is! And third, have you read the book of Esther lately? Not only does some of its chapters have numbers, but some are indicated by letters. So, Esther includes chapters A, B, C, D, E and F. Check it out next time you have your bible in hand.

All these odd differences can be traced back to the “competing canons” I preached about last week. There was a Hebrew canon (official list) of the Old Testament and a Greek canon (official list) of the Old Testament. Both were written by Jewish rabbis and scholars before the coming of Christ. Why did they do that? I don’t know! Let me say it again: how odd of God to choose the Jews, especially since they themselves could not choose which canon of scripture to follow. And yet God did choose them, and so must we, in the sense that we must study the Old Testament and try to overcome its oddities. And let me repeat: there was unquestioned consensus in the Church for 1,500 years – before Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation – that the Greek version was the official list for the Old Testament.

When we investigate the Old Testament, and do not ignore it, we can appreciate the New Testament so much more. Indeed, we will read it in a whole new light, with LED light! Today’s gospel is a perfect example. Jesus heals a blind man as he approaches Jericho. If you study the Old Testament, you recall Jericho was where Joshua – which is a variant of the name of Jesus – brought down the walls of Jericho and brought the light of God into the darkness of pagan Canaan. So too, Jesus, the new Joshua, bring light into the life of a man who is in the darkness of blindness by healing him. Jesus brought down the walls of his blindness. And we might also say that studying the New Testament in the light of the Old Testament brings down the walls of our own darkness and ignorance and blindness so we begin the see who Jesus is better. He is the new Joshua. We see with eyes of faith illuminated by both the Old and the New Testaments.

In a sense, the Old and New Testaments are the corrective lenses of faith. Just like we have two eyes that enable us to discern depth perception - we cannot see depth with one eye - so too the lenses of the two Testaments help us to see with eyes of faith and discern the depths of the mysteries of God. St. Paul makes precisely this point in Ephesians 3:18: “That we may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” That light is so bright, some of you have your eyes closed.

Praised be Jesus Christ!