Are coincidences mere chance events? Or are they God Interventions?
As, if by chance, while waiting in a line in Canberra at the 7th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, I met a person from Switzerland.
The Swiss person glanced at the name MRS LINDA VOGT on my United Church of Canada name tag, and struck up a conversation with me. In English.
In Vancouver, at the 6th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, I met Nicodemus (not his real name) in much the same way, as if by chance. After all, I am a friendly person. I talk to people as I wait in lines.
I’m convinced these two chance encounters were God Interventions. Before I tell you why, I need to tell you that the 6th Assembly was held in Vancouver, 3 miles from Jericho, on the unceded territorial land of the Musqueum people.
Jericho is not just Jerry’s cove or a good place catch fish or swim. In the Bible, at least 5 Miracles happen in Jericho or on the Jericho Road that restore people’s faith and hope in God’s promise of salvation.
Joshua captures Jericho: Joshua 6:1-21
Elisha purifies the spring of Jericho: 2 Kings: 2:19-22
Zacchaeus meets Jesus at Jericho: Luke 19:1-10
Jesus heals Blind Bartimaeus at Jericho: Mark 10:46-52
The Samaritan rescues a traveller on the Jericho Road: Luke 10:25-37
According to the Bible, the walls of Jericho fall because a female named Rahab, believed to be a prostitute gives overnight hospitality to Joshua and his spies in her home. In the battle for control of the city, Joshua and his soldiers spare Rahab and her family and welcome them into Joshua’s camp.
Similarly, Zacchaeus, believed to be a despised tax collector and enemy of the people of Jericho, gives overnight hospitality to Jesus. Because of this, Jesus restores and honours Zacchaeus and the whole town of Jericho as descendants of Abraham (Luke 19:1-10).
35 years ago, I was unaware of this connection.
35 years ago, the person I met near Jericho in Vancouver was a resistance leader as a boy during the Second World War.
Had I not turned to this man standing behind me in the lunch line, I would never have fully appreciated the philosophical nature of my conversation about “Man” and “Woman.” Nor would I have entertained the idea of driving to my home along the Jericho Road and spending the night with him.
Patriarchal language, place names, names and stories in the Bible are misleading. They blinded Paul and they have blinded many.
You see in the Bible, a person or a man can be either a he or a she, but grammar rules default to the male gendered pronoun. The theologian and man from the Assembly I took home with me made no argument when I made such a claim.
I suspect the Swiss I met at the 7th Assembly was aware of the connection this man from the Assembly and I shared. Perhaps he saw him and I speaking as I reached out and touched his camel hair pashmina draped over his shoulder…and him caressing my face and body with his eyes.
When the chance to speak with me presented itself, the Swiss told me something very important about the name, Mrs. Linda Vogt, recorded on my official 7th Assembly name tag. What he said opened my eyes. Something like fish scales fell from my eyes. I could see how Nicodemus and the Woman Caught in Adultery are linked, to the Story of Zacchaeus.
The Swiss simply said:
“In my country, the name Vogt is a pejorative. To call a person a vogt, one is calling the person a cheat and a dirty, tax collector!”
The Swiss was telling the truth. According to Wikipedia, during the Holy Roman Empire “vogt” was a title given to the noble or advocate, who was a steward or land owner. As such to be a vogt was to be considered a ruler, a member of the ruling class. These advocates or vogts as they were called, did not always charge people fairly for the use of their property. And most likely, as people sold their lands, gave their land to the church, or lost their lands to colonizers, fewer and fewer people owned the land. As rents and taxes increased, people without wealthy relatives became resentful, and began to think of “Vogts” as grubby tax collectors.
The story of Zacchaeus is related to the story of Jericho. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zacchaeus This is no coincidence. Jesus and Joshua both receive hospitality from a person the Bible says is a sinner, an enemy, and a betrayer.
Jesus and Joshua both receive hospitality that is not legitimate.
Yet, Jesus and Joshua do not sully themselves by accepting this hospitality. Nor do they suffer the same pejorative consequences as Rahab or the Vogt aka the rich Tax Collector. Is this fair? Should not both the one receiving the hospitality and the one giving the hospitality be equally sullied or equally honoured?
The story of Zacchaeus is often used to illustrate the saying of Jesus: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8, because the name Zacchaeus means ‘pure’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zacchaeus
In the Bible, having a clean heart is important. The Singer in Psalm 51:10 sings:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right[a] spirit within me.
My first name Linda in Italian means “clean” or “pure” as does the name Zacchaeus. More importantly, my previously married name of Vogt means tax collector or advocate. I don’t think I inherited these names by accident or by chance.
6 years ago, I met and fell in love with DonStewart at a Jazz Vespers event, the very same year Nicodemus and his wife accepted my invitation to be my honoured guests at the eco-justice conference I initiated at my then home church, Bethany-Newton. These events too, came about as “if” by accident or by chance.
DonStewart is a black jazz singer well-versed in the Gospel. He is a father, a divorcee and single. Many people know him as someone who speaks up and out against people who mistreat women and people of colour. He grew up in Amherstburg Ontario. He is a descendant of Eliza Harris, the heroine of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. His mother’s name was Virginia. Virginia was a Christian missionary and Don’s father was a Pentecostal ordained minister. Virginia whose name also means “virgin” as in “pure,” deliberately named Don, Don. In Italian Don means “Lord.” It is no accident that he and I are intimate friends and lovers who are on track for marriage.
On Easter Sunday 2017, Don’s neighbours woke up to convincing rumours claiming Don had died on Friday evening after singing at a local venue. Easter Friday is the day Jesus died. Was this just a coincidence? People’s tongues and imaginations went into overdrive. When film producers Steve Adams and Sean Horlor heard the story, they put together a storyboard with on-location interviews and live performances of DonStewart and his band—and pitched it to Storyhive as a docudrama with the title The Day Don Died.
The Day Don Died || Trailer (Widescreen) from Nootka St. on Vimeo.
On Sunday, the Minister at St Andrew’s Wesley United Church asked an important question. Other Ministers following the Church Lectionary may have asked the same question. The Gospel reading for Sunday September 16, 2018 was Mark 8: 27-38 and in that scripture passage, Jesus asks Simon and the disciples: Who do you say that I am?
On Monday September 17th I sat down at my computer and drafted this blog. The first thing I did was to compare the Mark 8 question with the same question posed in Matthew 16.
Then I thought about the questions the angels and the anointed Rabboni ask the Woman in the Garden: Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for? (John 20). In my experience, when a person is weeping, they are looking for someone to listen to them and to encourage them to tell people who have hurt them why they are sad. They may even want some vindication.
In Hebrew, the word LISTEN is a common Greek name. That word is Simon. So, it is important to note that Jesus asks the question Who do you say that I am? to Simon, to the one named in the Gospels as the epitome of the word Listen.
Reflecting on this some more, I asked myself. Why did Jesus ask Simon this question and why did the anointed Rabboni ask the Woman in the Garden, who she was looking for?
I’m now thinking, Jesus gives new meaning to the word Listen because the one called Listen, listens with his whole body and responds in love and faith. He replies: You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16).
You see, in response to the one who listened with his whole body and responded in love and faith, Jesus says: Forever after you will be called Cephas…Peter…the Rock on which my Church will be built and you will stand at the Gate…with the keys of heaven. But then, Jesus also calls SIMON, Satan and a stumbling block. Why? He who listens is thinking like a human being, like a Cyrenaic (Mark 15:21) and not like a great Patriarch…created in the image and eternal likeness of God the Father.
So then I asked myself: Why is the Woman weeping in the Garden? What is causing her to stumble? Who is she looking for? Why does she think the Rabboni is the Gardener? Has the Rabboni taken HIS body? Is he keeping her, Peter and the disciples from realizing who Jesus of Nazareth is?
In my view, people need to ask: Who is the Gardener? Jesus says I am the Vine and the Father is the Gardener, the husbandman who prunes my branches…John 15: 1-2). The psalmist in Psalm 128: 3 sings…happy is the man who fears the lord and walks in his ways…his wife will be a faithful vine.
The Rabboni responds to the Woman’s quest and her tears by giving her the name Mary, the name the widow Naomi called herself when she returned from Moab. In the Book of Ruth, Naomi a Hebrew name that means sweet and pleasant said: “…do not call me [sweet and pleasant] anymore…call me Mara for the Lord has treated me bitterly” (Ruth 1:20). He has left me without a husband in my old age.
Standing “face to face” in the Garden of the Tombs, the Rabboni tells the one he called Mary to go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Then the narrator of John’s Gospel says, “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her” (John 20: 19-31).
Eventually, the disciples answer the question of who Jesus is in terms of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16:20) saying…“It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon” (Luke 24:34). As more and more disciples realize the truth more fully, a cloud of witnesses grows in faith and number as the Father takes his beloved by the hand and lifts her up (Acts 9: 41) in front of the anointed Rabboni and his beloved in the house of Grace also known as the house of Bethany (Luke 24:53) or heaven.
I love Peter’s speech after the Ascension, on the Day of Pentecost. He certainly knew his scripture. Everyone from all over was proclaiming the Good News in their own language. God had fulfilled the long awaited Messianic Prophecy. To those trying to follow along and LISTEN..the people sounded drunk. Peter however, sets them straight. According to Peter and all those hearing his words that day…Jesus of Nazareth, the very stone the chief builders rejected and crucified, is very much alive and pleased to be celebrating the gift and Patriarchal promise of the Holy Spirt with the anointed Teacher and their disciples (Acts 2; Acts 4:11).
This past Sunday my church celebrated a quiet Pentecost. The Worship Team wanted to celebrate Pentecost next Sunday because the youth and many parishioners were celebrating Canada’s Victoria Day weekend camping. The Team did not think the Spirit would mind or care switching the day to include everyone. Mind you, this coming Sunday will be Pentecost for the Eastern Orthodox Traditions. So, the Spirit of my church will be in keeping with the Spirit of Orthodox Worshipers. Nice.
Mary is the first human being to realize the goal of the incarnation: the deification of humanity. As such she represents the Church of Christ and should be honoured as the Mother of the Church. https://orthodoxwiki.org/Icons_of_the_Theotokos
However, Mary and many women have suffered at the hands of church people and their councils who insist the Son and the Father are Divine while Mary is not.
In the Church that Mary gives birth to, men and women should be equal. They should be ONE. There should be no divisions among them because God who is Holy is with them. The Church should honour and recognize their Mother as Holy because in my view she is Jesus the Vine. (John 15:1; Psalm 128:3) She and her children are her branches, the Church, the Risen Christ.
The early church viewed Mary Magdalene as being one and the same as Mary the Mother of Jesus (Vogt Turner p. 3-4, Mary Magdalene: her image and relationship to Jesus) So why are many people today having trouble seeing Mary Magdalene as Mary the Theotokos and the Mother of the Church?
John’s Gospel says that Mary Magdalene stood outside the Tomb crying. When the Angels asked her why, she told them she was looking for her Lord. When Mary encounters Jesus the Teacher in the Garden of the Tombs. She thinks he might be the Gardener, the Lord she is looking for. He assures her he has not assumed his body. As Jesus the Teacher speaks with her face to face, they begin to see and understand each other more clearly. Jesus the Teacher recognizes her as Mara, someone whose experience and story are an exceedingly bitter one. (John 20:13-18).
For centuries, many people saw Mary as the scarlet woman who revealed her unbridled love for the Teacher to the authorities by kissing his feet and wiping them with her unbound hair. Now many Church authorities insist Mary Magdalene is not the Adulteress of John’s Gospel or the Sinner Woman of Luke’s Gospel. I sometimes feel like a traitor when I point out to the Biblical authorities that there is evidence in the Scripture to suggest Jesus the Teacher was married to Martha and had an affair with the Woman called the Magdalene. Since I successfully defended my thesis, Mary Magdelene: her image and relationship to Jesus, I published The Ecumenical Affair to use my own personal experience to corroborate my thesis and to reveal Jesus the Teacher to the authorities as a married man who spent the night with Jesus the Woman.
Every Easter people in the Cretan Village of Vamos dress a scarecrow as Judas and seat it on a donkey. Then they parade it through the streets, hurl insults at it and then toss it on the bonfire at Midnight on Easter Saturday. They do this to “symbolize the cruel fate of the traitor.” http://www.vamosvillage.gr/vamos-village/local-festivals
So, I was cautious this past Sunday when the Worship Team at my church chose to have me read the lesson from John’s Gospel chapter 20: 19-22 instead of the traditional Acts and John readings. I did not want to appear as a traitorous figure. The passage I read follows after Mary and Jesus the Teacher stand outside the Tomb face to face and he tells her to go and tell his brothers that he must rise in front of the Lord, his Father and hers. When Mary Magdalene announces to the disciples that she has seen the Lord and tells them about what Jesus the Teacher has said to her, many people may not see or hear the subtle distinction of the Trinity here. Patriarchal language and the perception that Jesus is one person who somehow incarnates the Trinity prevents many people from seeing how Jesus comes in three persons to unite their followers.
Dressed in red to symbolize the scarlet love of Mary Magdalene and the flaming tongues of fire representing the Holy Spirit, I took my place on the seat behind the Pulpit and waited for a male choir to sing the anthem: Veni Creator Spiritus. Then I stood up and read.
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After Jesus said this, Jesus showed them his hands and his side, his rib. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When Jesus had said this, Jesus breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
I tried to make it as plain as possible using myself and personal experience as a visual aid, hoping my red hair and red dress would trigger their Biblical memory.
I used myself as a visual aid.
In my heart and mind, the Woman known as Mary Magdalene is the Woman Jesus the Holy Spirit. In John’s Gospel, after clearing her eyes and realizing Simon is the Lord, the Jesus Rock and her promised Bridegroom, She Jesus goes and stands among the disciples and gives them her breath, her personal words of assurance and inspiration that Peace, the Shulamite Bride in Solomon’s Song, has returned to life and regained her sovereignty as the Holy Spirit. As such she is the Lord’s beloved bride and worthy life companion. She too is eternal and a sovereign person in her own right. Over the centuries, she has suffered abuse at the hands of men and women and her own fears and lack of faith. She however stands as a testimony to God’s promise.
The children of Moses can trust the words of the Prophets, the Psalms and Moses. The Last Days may still seem far off for many. But with the very real threat of climate change and war, I think the time is here. Jesus has returned and it is time realize the importance of forgiveness and good stewardship. Peace embodied by She Jesus herself sends the Church into the world to suffer and share the work of loving each other and forgiving each other’s offences as the Father, the Teacher and She have done and are doing—secure in the knowledge that God’s earthly family can trust in the promise that GOD’S EARTHLY FAMILY is the inheritor of Eternal Life. Jesus is the Father, the Teacher and his beloved Martha and the Holy Spirit. Reconciled and united as One, HE/THEY testify to that promise.
Larry, you say “Jesus did not condemn the Woman for her past life of Sin because Jesus knew She was demon possessed, so therefore She was not guilty of sin by reason of demonic possession.” https://www.wake-up.org/bible-characters/mary-magdalene-mystery.html#comment-2819
Larry makes a good argument and I know many people could easily agree. Although, it is also possible Nicodemus is Jesus the “Good Teacher” who met with Jesus the Woman under the cover of darkness and is therefore the Man caught in adultery with her, Jesus the Woman.
The insanity defence or the demon possession defence robs the Woman of her own moral agency. Mark 16:9 says, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.” Scripture does not name these seven followers of Simon, to whom Jesus said…get behind me Satan (Matthew 16:23).
The chief priests and Pharisees ask the temple guards why they had not brought Jesus in. The guards reply. “No one ever spoke the way this [person] does. ” The Pharisees retort. “You mean [this person] has deceived you also? Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in [this person]? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law–there is a curse on them”
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, and who was one of their number, asked. “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing [the accused] to find out what [s/he] is doing? …Then each went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn [Nicodemus] appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.
At the conclusion of the trial, Jesus the Woman speaks to the Man caught with her which implicitly includes Jesus known to the chief priests and Pharisees as Nicodemus, and everyone who is cast out when Nicodemus says, whoever is without sin, cast the first stone. She does not condemn him nor he her. Both Jesus say, “Go and leave your life of sin.” For as Paul declares to the Romans in 3:23, all have sinned …and are justified freely by God’s Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The insanity defence or the demon possession defence robs the Woman of her own moral agency. Mark 16:9 says, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.” Scripture does not name these seven followers of Simon, to whom Jesus said…get behind me Satan (Matthew 16:23).
Knowing the Law and who Jesus is makes it easier to see these seven devils as the teachers of the law and the Pharisees backing Jesus the Good Teacher known to them as Nicodemus, who brought the Woman Caught in Adultery in for questioning. When the teachers and the Pharisees realized they too were sinners and could not cast the first stone, they were cast out, one by one (John 8:9).
Left alone, Jesus (the Teacher and the Woman) were left facing an exceedingly bitter moral dilemma. How could they work together to reconcile and bring peace and unity to their faith communities now that they had been caught in adultery and outed?
The day of the Blood Moon, I was studying the scripture passage of Saul’s conversion. I had no idea at all that there was to be a Blood Moon that day or any other day this year. I was just puzzled about the Light that blinded Saul and the significance of “Straight” street. Straight street was where the disciples took Saul and where filled with the Holy Spirit, fish scales fell from Saul’s eyes as Ananias laid his hands on Saul.
To understand a bit more about the context of my puzzlement, I should explain. In my last semester as a “Bachelor” an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University, I wrote an anthropology paper on Paul defending the premise that society has forgotten Paul was a female asserting herself as a scholar, a learned father of the faith.
Last summer, I received a Doctorate for writing The Ecumenical Affair, a creative non-fiction account of a mountain top experience that sent me to university, inspired me to write the aforementioned undergraduate paper, and filled me with an abiding love for God and God’s Ecumenical Household.
In university, I learned how to write essays and how to write creatively so that a writer could choose to put all her eggs in one basket and tell a story that is packed full of wisdom and insight. Some of her characters may have fictitious names and others may not. I have since learned that creative non-fiction or memoirs can threaten “orthodox” perceptions about “what is truth.”
So, I approached the Conversion account of Saul in Acts chapter 9 as a work of creative non-fiction and looked carefully at the names of the characters. The account concludes with Ananias placing his hands on Saul after Ananias himself hears the Lord speak to him in a vision, as a prophet would. Now, as many people of faith acknowledge, prophets create visions using word pictures full of symbolic language such as the sun turned black and the moon turned blood-red.
Many churchgoers may not realize that the name Saul or Solly can be a last name. In fact, my step father’s name was Solly. However, the name Saul in the Old Testament is believed to be the first name of the first king of Israel, before King David. Christians pronounce the name Saul as SOL. So, it is easy for me to imagine myself, as a learned scholar, as Saul a BRIGHT LIGHT sallying forth, letting her light shine like Sol, the Roman God, like Sol the Germanic Goddess of the sun and like Apollo the Greek Sun God http://romanpagan.blogspot.ca/2015/12/prayer-to-sol-apollo.html
In the Conversion Account, Ms. Saul was very definitely asserting herself. Scripture says her letters were threatening the disciples with murder. Thinking back to that paper I wrote as a bachelor, an undergraduate student, I recalled that I had argued that when Saul ended her marriage with her husband Steven, she killed herself as Steven. She broke the legal bond of marriage that made her one with her husband Steven.
Thinking about the stones thrown at Steven the first deacon[ess] of the Church? I asked myself, “Were they actual stones? Or were they living breathing stones connected to a living breathing wall? In I Peter 2:5, Peter the Apostle writes:
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests.
Thinking more deeply about Saul’s conversion and the blinding light that caused Saul to fall to the ground, I recalled a more recent memory. I remembered how I looked up at the face of the person I now love deeply and intimately. He was standing behind me, but I could not see him because of all the sunshine streaming all around him and me. He is black. Against all the light his face disappeared. It wasn’t until he spoke and laid his hand on my shoulder, did I realize he was there.
Knowing the names of the Roman and Greek Gods of the Sun is culturally important to the integrity of the story. Knowing the Gospel Easter Story is also important. When Jesus stands in front of Pilate the man who asks “What is Truth?,” the narrative and dialogue reveal three people called Jesus: Jesus Barabbas, Jesus the Christ, and Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews, (Matthew 27: 11-16; John 19:19). At the conclusion of the Acts 9 account of Saul’s conversion, Saul proves to people that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:22). Later in Acts 18:18, Apollo also proves Jesus is the Christ.
Another important scripture verse to remember is Acts 4:11 quoted by Simon Bar Jonah also known as Peter.
This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Beware. The Light can blind and confuse people into discounting Simon as merely a fisher of the great catch, one who is not the one people call Jesus of Nazareth equal in every way to Jesus the Christ, who appeared to the Teacher’s beloved Lady and to the tearful Mary in the garden of the tombs whom he also loved (John 11:5)
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
Remember Simon carried the Cross of Jesus (Mark 15:21).
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.
Many teachers insist there were many Simons and these Simons were all different. Call me foolish and irrational, but I simply do not believe that. The Simon carrying the Cross is a Cyrenaic. A Cyrenaic was a philosopher holding the worldly view that the pursuit of happiness is a noble pursuit. Remember Gospel writers also say Jesus renamed Simon, Peter, the Rock of the Church in Matthew 16:17 and then in verse 23 told Peter.
Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.
Thinking Peter to be Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified and who prophets say is an eternal high priest, sinless in God’s eyes, not man’s (Hebrew 4:14), I thought it prudent to look up the NAME ANANIAS because Ananias appears in scripture as the high priest (Acts 23:2).
…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?
This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”
When Saul later known as Paul stood trial in Rome, Paul’s vision became even clearer to me. Paul was using prophetic language and trying to bring people “face to face” with the living God who had created and is creating people in God’s own image and “eternal” likeness as living stones, the very heart and soul of the earth. Paul says,
I saw and heard the Lord speak to me in a vision from heaven. He told me “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
The power of Satan is keeping believers and Paul in chains, because Satan’s power comes from silence, disbelief and spiritual blindness.
Saul called Ananias a white washed wall. (Acts 23:3) Now of course, to call the Lord, the high priest of Heaven a white washed wall sounds like a slap in the face. In some contexts, it is and in others it is a wakeup call.
Remember Jesus calls Simon, Peter and Satan. I think calling the Rock, Satan would be a slap in the face too. Such a negative label stinks and is as insulting as the one Simon the Pharisee and the Prophetic Teacher gave the Woman who anointed Jesus. Both men gave her the label “sinner” (Luke 7: 35-50; Mark 10:17).
So, what am I saying? Was Paul crazy? Was Paul merely retaliating? Or was Paul reminding Peter and those in ear shot that there are three persons proclaiming the Good News of the Resurrection in the name of Jesus who share the role of Christ and all three persons have sinned and fallen short according to the Law of Moses and all three are sanctified, restored and washed clean by their faith in each other and by the forgiveness and faith of their beloved communities.
After Saul’s conversion, Saul sallies forth with restored vision and proves Jesus is the Christ and proves Jesus alive (Acts 9:22). Now…look at other scriptures such as 1 Cor 1:11-13 and Acts 18:28. The Truth is there for people to see with their very own eyes. The Cloud hides Jesus and the Cloud can also make Jesus visible again.
WOW! And the second coming is coming again in these times too. Especially now, when so many people are so sure Jesus is a single divine male who is androgynous.
Have those people forgotten the importance of the Great Commission Matthew 28: 19-20? Jesus commanded the disciples to go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the NAME[S] of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Have people let patriarchal language, monotheism, sexism, racism, political correctness and historical critical thinking cloud their teaching?
I believe Christianity has a gift to share with Humanity, God’s only born child. Other religions can help Christianity and share in the joy of worshipping God by acknowledging the Second Coming is the fulfillment of prophecy. The Second Coming proves Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy and assures those who believe that they too can come back to life again and again.
Will the Second Coming spell a nuclear disaster? It could. Doomsday prophets and people full of Scripture lessons touting Satan as the Snake and the source of all lies are giving Satan the power to deceive and frighten people with the apocalypse, a sudden destruction of a bigger rock that we know and love as the EARTH.
Take heart. Remember the Rock Jesus called Satan is a stumbling block and the chief cornerstone of the Church’s foundation.
Many churches today filled with priests and church goers may have forgotten or simply dismissed the man called Simon the Cyrene as merely a man who Mark says was “forced” or compelled (out of a deep abiding love) to embrace the Cross of Jesus. As previously mentioned, many teachers of the faith, tell their students that there were nine Simons in the New Testament and only one Peter. https://www.peterdehaan.com/the-bible/9-guys-in-the-bible-named-simon/
This is a big clue.
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.
You see, the nine Simons are all one and the same person people have described differently. These nine ways of describing Simon, also known as Peter make the one sure foundation that the Church is built upon.
People need to clue in and help others clue in. What the world needs now is LOVE. People need to know, God created and is creating humanity in God’s own image and eternal likeness male and female. No one person has seen God, for God is love. When we love one another and our neighbour as ourselves we make God visible. When we call people names such as hypocrite, racist, white supremist, slut, lech, homo or homophobe, perhaps we should stop ourselves and ask ourselves. What is going on? What are we doing? Are we loving one another as we see Jesus loving? If so, then perhaps we need to recalculate and rethink what we think we know about who Jesus is.
Jesus came to remind the world that God forgives those who make mistakes and say and do things that are hurtful. Scripture reveals Jesus calling the Pharisees white washed tombs and hypocrites. (Matthew 23:27). Jesus also called the Rock, the very foundation of the Church Satan. What’s going on? Why is Jesus hurling such vicious epithets at people? Where is the love for friends here?
Is Ananias a white washed wall after all? Is Paul merely trying to get his attention, to remind him who he is and his divine calling?
Is this why the Roman Procurator says Saul is insane and why the Gospel of John claims nothing good could come from a town like Nazareth or the region of Galilee? Down through the centuries, worshippers and church doctrine claim Jesus is sinless and yet Scripture passages show Jesus as a hot head telling people off or stonewalling them.
However, the point is Jesus came to show people how to forgive one another and to show how hurtling insults at one another destroys the credibility of the Church and her unified foundation. Today more so than ever before, church goers can clue in to who who Jesus is and the importance of “forgiveness” without spending years in a convent or monastic cell studying Latin and Greek.
Church goers can easily understand literary themes. They can see how Jesus the Rock is not a sinless person full of loving thoughts, twenty-four seven. Nor is Jesus the Good Teacher or the innocent lamb Jesus who entertained the Good Teacher under the cover of darkness.
Patriarchal language is deceptive, even if one knows ancient Greek. So epic movies and other modern forms of media still have the power to deceive. Jesus the Good Teacher visited Jesus the Woman in her home under the cover of Darkness (John 3:1-21; John 7: 50 -52; John 19:39). Yet, Jesus the Woman entertaining the Good Teacher in her home under the cover of darkness is not the innocent lamb or scarlet cloaked demon possessed penitent, tradition makes her out to be. She is aware of the darkness and the intimate setting. The Teacher did not force himself on her. She willingly entertained him under the cover of darkness as if to seduce him into the light. After a lengthy intimate theological chat, she says:
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
The Atonement theory makes Jesus and all humanity spotless and without sin, by divine forgiveness, or in the words of popular evangelism, washed in the blood of the lamb.
Many modern people believe the “blood of the lamb” atonement theory is outdated. However, they may be more about getting the wolf to admit he has wronged the lamb than they are about getting both the wolf and the lamb to live in peace and harmony as God intended.
In my view, when people truly forgive one another and hold no resentment toward the other for past insults or hurts, they free themselves from a prison full of recrimination. They let go of justifications such as I am the innocent lamb, the victim and you are the wolf, the perpetrator, you must pay for what you have done and you must repent. You must stop being an aggressive wolf and you must live out your days in a zoo or wildlife preserve where zoo keepers feed you kibble. This justification merely, gives the one who feels wronged the power to persecute, victimize and oppress the one who has done him or her wrong.
In the new heaven and new earth prophecy, the wolf and the lamb will lay down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox! (Isaiah 65:25) In other words, the lion and the ox will both eat humble pie. Both will have to take responsibility for their own part in the drama caused by their conflicting needs, wants and desires or those of their communities.
According to prophetic wisdom, the Day of the Blood Moon, signals the end of time. People have seen many blood moons and the end of time has never arrived. So why should this time be any different? Things have heated up in the world and people are extremely divided on issues. Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons makes the destruction of the earth more likely now than ever before.
It is very possible his old earth will renew with what some may call a nuclear explosion caused by the rapid release of energy from a nuclear reactor. It is also very likely many Christians and non-Christians will fear this day as the “terrible Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31) and step up their efforts to save the earth through conservation and ascetic efforts that see indulgence and luxury as sins or crimes against nature. Many liberal Christians may agree with them and many may not and many others may try to discredit them, in their zeal to honour more modern worldly thinking.
However, I believe it is more likely people of faith will rally together realizing Conservative and Liberal Christians and nations have much to learn from each other. Rallied together, forgetting old animosities, Liberal and Conservative Christians will welcome the Day of the Lord and live to tell their grandchildren and their neighbours they saw this old earth have a conversion experience like Saul’s when the sun turned black and Artemis, the sister of Apollo, the Greek goddess of the moon became cloaked in scarlet as Saul alive and well after many perilous journeys, carried the name of the Lord before the Gentiles, their kings and the people of Israel (Acts 9:15).
Poor Rudolf the other reindeers laughed and called her names like he and maybe even Dorcas or Dork for short. Then one foggy night Santa, being all tarnished with soot came to say…Rudolf…with your nose so bright…will you guide my sleigh tonight?
The Christmas tales told to children allow some adults to glean bits of divine truth that reveal how the gifts of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love come into the world.
All is quiet not a creature is stirring…no one is speaking up. I wonder why? Why does Santa come down the chimney? Why does he come down from heaven…from the night sky through such a narrow opening? Why does old Saint Nick come under the cover of darkness? Why is “he” wearing a scarlet suit?
Two Scriptures that may shine like a bright red clue for you are:
Many kids have heard, if they’re naughty they’ll get the gift of coal and if they’re nice they’ll get Candy…hard rock candy shaped like a shepherd’s crook. People from Crete may get that one. Did you know that Crete was once called “Candy” by Brits? And did you know Cretans were one of the first Christians to welcome the Holy Spirit and her tongues of fire? (Acts 2: 1-12) http://sundayteacher.com/vcmedia/2414/2414925.pdf
But why coal? Why would Old Nico, Mr. Noddy, give naughty kids a block of coal in their stockings? Why would naughty kids who run around the city stealing to keep warm, need a lump of coal?
Did you know that there was a Father called Simon who carried the Cross of Jesus? Mark 15:21 Many Christians believed he was black because he was called the Cyrene. Cyrene was a city in Northern Africa. In addition, Cyrenaics were sensual hedonists. So, today many simply say there is no proof that Simon was black or a hedonist. And some even ask. What difference would it make anyway?
Well if Simon is the Black Rock that was rejected, what does that make Simon? Sshh…not a creature was stirring not even a wee biddy didymous.
Did you know that Dorcas is the Greek translation of the Aramaic name Tabitha meaning “gazelle”? A Dorcas gazelle is also known as an ariel gazelle, a little deer with horns and a reddish brown, a rufus coloured coat. (The Latin word rufus means red haired one)…mmm Disney’s Ariel the little mermaid has red hair too!
Did you know that Simon (who Jesus called Peter and Satan) raised Dorcas from the dead? You can read about this in Acts 9:36-42; John 1:42 and Matthew 16:23).
As you can see, much can be gleaned from thinking about Old St. Nick letting Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer lead the way, one Foggy Christmas Eve.
Do you remember the TV show “Touched by an Angel”? I watched it this past Sunday. God had called angels Tess and Monica and Adam to help three people trapped in adultery to face the truth in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
“Monica and Tess arrange an accident on a deserted road for Megan and Susana, two women involved with the same man. The angels create an estate where the women and eventually Susana’s husband spend Thanksgiving together. The angels are assisted by Adam, who doesn’t have the heart to kill the turkey for dinner. Monica convinces Megan that she must find someone else and Tess convinces Jack to return to his marriage.”
In the TV Show “Touched by an Angel, guess what the Turkey’s name is, that Adam does not have the heart to kill for dinner? It’s not “Drumstick or Wishbone? It’s Alexander.
TAKE NOTE!! Touched by an Angel is a TV show about ANGELS who cannot die…and who preach the message of the Cross, that is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness for Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23).
ALEXANDER…according to Smith’s Bible Dictionary is a man of mischief who (according to Paul) caused a great shipwreck concerning the faith.
Alexander and Hymenaeus, the God of Marriage, were (and still are) causing trouble for Paul’s evangelical crew and mission. In addition, gnostic teaching was insisting that the resurrection of Jesus was a spiritual one, and not a bodily one. So, Paul handed Alexander and Hymenaeus over to Satan (aka Simon aka Peter (Matthew 16:23) to learn not to blaspheme, because according to Paul no one should be a stumbling block for his/her brother/sister. All should live according to the Law of Love (Romans 14:12-13).
It is important to know who Alexander is and why turkeys are important for Canadians and Americans at Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I was growing up, we were taught the Turkey’s name was Tom…and the empty cavity stuffed with bread had something to do with Jesus and the Pope’s nose was the tail.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and neighbours, may you have a feast day full of Love!
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Alexander
Son of Simon the Cyrenian, who was compelled to bear the cross for our Lord. (Mark 15:21)
One of the kindred of Annas the high priest. (Acts 4:6)
A Jew at Ephesus whom his countrymen put forward during the tumult raised by Demetrius the silversmith, (Acts 19:33) to plead their cause with the mob.
An Ephesian Christian reprobated by St. Paul in (1 Timothy 1:20) as having, together with one Hymenaeus, put from him faith and a good conscience, and so made shipwreck concerning the faith. This may be the same with
Alexander the coppersmith, mentioned by the same apostle, (2 Timothy 4:14) as having done him many mischiefs.
The title of Sunday’s sermon at St Andrew’s Wesley United Church in Vancouver, was The “G” Word. The Rev. Dr. Gary Paterson chose the title as a stewardship title to encourage people to give generously to the Church in the coming year. The main Gospel text he chose was the Zacchaeus Story found in Luke’s Gospel chapter 19: 1-10.
Last Wednesday evening at a theology for non-theologians held at St. Andrew’s Wesley, the Rev. Dr. Richard Topping the Principal of Vancouver School of Theology also used the Zacchaeus Story. He used it to illustrate how Jesus as feminists and inclusive churches do today, advocate for and associate with lepers and socially marginal outcasts.
So I went home last Wednesday night, thinking about Zacchaeus. I was surprised on Sunday morning to find that Dr. Paterson had been reflecting on the Zacchaeus story too, because it was not the lectionary reading for this week.
In Luke’s Gospel, Zacchaeus is a little person who is judged a sinner by those who gossip!
Christians then as today, prejudge this little person according to patriarchal language, sexist attitudes, and the gossip present in the text. They are sure Zacchaeus is an unclean person, a sinner who needs to “turn” and repent. Yet, the name Zacchaeus is a Hebrew name meaning “clean, pure.” This little person encountered Jesus in Jericho* and agreed to house him over night.
People assume this little person is male. However, my experience leads me to believe, this person was female. Even though this rich “little” person may have collected rents and taxes as a property owner, she may not have cheated anyone except herself and her own family. People assume, because she collected taxes and she was rich and was only willing to give half of her wealth to the poor, she was “cheating” and exploiting the poor, unjustly. Peter and the other disciples had sold all their property for the sake of the Kingdom (Luke 18:28-29) and this little person had clearly not.
Two Sundays ago, on Sunday October 1, 2017, the Gospel reading Matthew 20:1-16 was paired with Exodus 16:3-18 to celebrate World Wide Communion Sunday. I was the reader.
In the Exodus passage, the Israelites said to Moses, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, …and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp…there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
This food that came down at the prayerful request of the Lord… looked like “hoar frost” and it saved their lives.
The second reading came from Matthew 20: 1-16. I read the New Revised Standard Version with a few edits to make a point.
For centuries, people have assumed the Sinner Woman of Luke 7 is a whore because Simon and Jesus the “Good Teacher” say she is a sinner who has been forgiven because she “loves much”. In addition, tradition links her with a woman called Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus who worried Martha, the good housewife and homeowner of Luke’s Gospel. When Martha complained to her Lord and asked that he command Mary to “help” her, her Lord then told Martha that Mary had chosen a better part and it would not be taken from her (Luke 10:38-42).
With communion and those passages in mind, I dressed myself in a white dress, tan coloured heals, matching purse and shawl, and a tawny, chrysanthemum pearl necklace trimmed in sliver. Then at the appropriate time in the service, I came forward and read both the Hebrew and Gospel passages.
I read the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard as told by Matthew, the tax collector, with a few minor edits. I changed the male gender throughout the passage to the female gender and included three little extra words. I told Dr. Paterson when we did the sound check, that I had changed the gender in the text. So he was somewhat prepared. However when read aloud, the passage read with the feminine gender may have offended and shocked a few people.
Here’s the complete passage as I read it.
‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for [her] vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, [she] sent them into [her] vineyard. When [she] went out about nine o’clock, [she] saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and [she] said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. When [she] went out again about noon and about three o’clock, [she] did the same. And about five o’clock [she] went out and found others standing around; and [she] said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to [her,] “Because no one has hired us.” [She] said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to [her] manager, “Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But [she] replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I “choose” to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious [jealous] because I am generous [love much]? So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
However, I take offence when people assume the clean little rich person of Luke’s Gospel, had somehow acquired her wealth illegitimately, by over taxing and exploiting them. This little person accepted Jesus’ invitation to dine with him and Jesus is the one who admits that this person is a descendant of Abraham that has been lost and is now found. If she is guilty of any wrong doing, so is he.
People may think my theology is offensive and or off the mark and that I am over identifying with Jesus and this little person in Luke’s Gospel. However those who do, would benefit from reading my Master’s thesis project, Mary Magdalene: Her image and relationship to Jesus and my memoir, The Ecumenical Affair for which I earned a doctor of humane arts degree. http://www.lindavogtturner.ca
My name happens to be Linda. In Italian, Linda means “clean” and the family name I had before my husband and I divorced was Vogt. Coincidently, my late father-in-law’s name was Abraham. When I attended the 6th Assembly of the World Council of Churches held out at the University of British Columbia, not far from Jericho Beach, I encountered a certain Greek male renowned for his peace making. I have since learned this Greek has a very close colleague by the name of Luke.
When I attended the 7th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Australia, a man from Switzerland noticed my name tag. He told me that in his country the name Vogt was a derogatory term people used to call someone they thought was a cheat. Evidently to call someone a vogt was to call someone a dirty tax collector!
If Christians want to dig deeper into the understanding of the Scriptures and who Jesus is, they will find out that the Gospel sycamore tree is a type of fig tree that is easily killed by frost and or hail stones (Psalm 78:47).
Christians may recall from John’s Gospel chapter 19:34, how a military person (a vogt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogt) pierced Jesus’ body as it clung to the Tree, 3 days before it bore fruit and appeared alive in the garden of the tombs.
Today as then, stories enrich our lives and communities. A well told story or memoir embellishes the truth to help people grow in human understanding. The Sycamore Tree, like the Tree upon which Jesus hangs has been used to keep people content with poverty and willing to sacrifice their lives. The death of Jesus of Nazareth and the releasing of Jesus Barabbas (Matthew 27:17) has been described in military terms as if nailing or tying down the confirmed bachelor of Mary’s hometown to a Tree that is like a vine bearing lots of fruit (psalm 128:3) and the releasing of a renowned resistance leader would start a revolution that would end in a horrific apocalypse.
Writers and stain-glass window makers have done a great job of convincing Christians that the Cross and the Crucifixion was a violent and horrific reality. It is almost impossible for modern believers to see the Cross and the Crucifixion story as a love story. It sounds like nonsense. Violent and horrific deaths occur when people go to war or seek to punish, torture, and kill people who the moral voice or majority feel are unworthy. So the belief persists that Jesus accepted death on the Cross as a historical reality in the same way as criminals in ancient Rome were tortured and put to death.
However, in Jewish tradition, when a bachelor gives himself in marriage, he is reborn. To be reborn, he must die to his old life. As a symbol of his readiness for marriage, a bachelor who has taken a Nazarite vow would shave his head. He would look like a skull! (Numbers 6:18). A Nazarite is not even allowed to drink vinegar, or grape juice, let alone real wine, until he has shaved his head and presented 3 peace offerings, a lamb, an ewe, and a ram.
Before Jesus of Nazareth is firmly committed to the Cross, a soldier or a person with a name synonymous with soldier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogt) offers him a hyssop stick that has been soaked in bitter wine. He refuses to drink this bitter wine.
The names of the characters in the Gospels confuse many people and scholars do a diligent job of presenting the characters as if they are many separate characters rather than names and words ascribing characteristics to the principle characters.
It is no wonder devoted Christians all over the world, release Jesus Barabbas from prison and then fail to see him as Jesus the “Good” Teacher also known as Nicodemus who looked at the rich little person and loved her (Mark 10: 17-21) and visited with her the red-headed female Jesus under the cover of darkness (John 3: 1-21; Luke 19: 1-10) and met her again at the Well (John 4) and then face to face in the garden of the tombs (John 10: 11-18) where she realized Jesus the Teacher was not the Gardener and the Father of the Law and Oral Tradition, but the Son (Mark 15:21; John 20: 15-17).
Moreover, it is not surprising that devoted believers without the benefit of speaking several languages then reject Jesus the Nazarene as her Bridegroom, her Stag, the Hart and Cornerstone of the Gospel, the “sweetheart’s” stone, “Jo’s” cephas, who takes her for his wife, the most blessed of all women (Luke 1:42; Matthew 1:20), the Ariel Gazelle, the Bride of Song of Song of Songs and Psalm 45 to fulfill the Hebrew Testament promise (Micah 4:8; Isaiah 62: 3-5); Song of Songs 8:12-14; Acts 4:11; Acts 9: 36-42).
These are the last days and it is time for Christians to realize the little person climbing up and down the Sycamore Tree accepted Jesus’ request to spend the night, to stay, at her house. She did so of her own free will. She even climbed up the Tree to increase her stature, her social standing, so that she could meet him.
Down through the centuries, many people have been sexually abused by people with authority in the Bible and in the Church. The abused may have accepted their advances willingly. But their willingness does not make the authority figure, the Jesus figure, clean and them dirty. Each time Christians insist, the little person of Luke’s Gospel is the dirty one and the visiting Teacher is the clean one, they are keeping salvation from being realized in their house.
*Jericho is the city in which Rahab lived and owned a house. As the story goes, Rahab was a “sinner” woman, a woman who was generous with her hospitality. And so, biblical tradition and righteous people call her a whore, yet James 2:25 claims she was justified by her hospitality.
St. Gabriel the Fool for Christ once said. If you have everything else, but love, you have nothing. St. Gabriel’s thought that “Love dominates all rules and laws” sits a bit heavy of my heart. I think of love being passive and gentle, not dominating. And yet as the psalmist penned in Solomon’s Song…”Love is strong as death; passion fierce as the grave, its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love…”
In my book The Ecumenical Affair, the Woman self identifies as Mary Magdalene and the Woman of Solomon’s Song. In my Master’s thesis, I examine modern revisionist theories claiming there is no explicit evidence to support the idea that Mary Magdalene was the Sinner Woman of Luke 7 who loved much.
St. Gabriel the Fool for Christ of Samtavro in Georgia
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. Epistle of Paul to the Romans: 8, 35
Love dominates all rules and laws. Denounce a man with love. God is an infinite Love, Goodness and Justice. Who loves goodness and justice, he loves God and he is loved by God as his own child.
If you have everything else, but love, you have nothing. If you hate even a single person – you are disgusting before GOD. Love your enemies – it’s clear. But how to love enemies of Christ?Stop hating and then you will be able to love them. How to love the evil man? Hate the evil, but love those who do evil. Who knows maybe one day they will repent their sins…
This past Sunday, the scripture lesson focused on Exodus 3, Moses and the Burning Bush.
As the story goes, Moses encounters a burning bush tending a flock of sheep in the wilderness. Through the encounter, Moses hears God’s voice. God wants Moses to return to Egypt and free the Hebrew people who are slaves of the Egyptians.
In my book The Ecumenical Affair, the Woman is that Burning Bush. She is on fire for women’s liberation. The year is 1983. She is sure Jesus and Mary Magdalene had an illicit affair and that sexism has suppressed this story to support the religious view that sex outside marriage is a carnal sin that Jesus would never have committed. The traditional view presents the Woman Caught in Adultery as someone Jesus refuses to condemn even though he knows she has committed adultery.
In 2011, I successfully defended my Master of Arts Liberal Studies thesis project Mary Magdalene: Her image and relationship to Jesus. I claimed Mary Magdalene was the Woman Caught in Adultery and her co-respondent was Jesus. My thesis held.
My thesis maintains that Jesus the Teacher, the Rabboni of John 20, was married to Martha, the beloved. As scripture says, Jesus the Teacher loved both Martha, the housewife and her sister Mary (John 11:5). Did Mary Magdalene ever marry is another question?
Since writing my thesis, I have brought Jesus the Rock into view. Jesus the Rabboni is clearly married. And this is the Jesus the Woman encounters in the garden of the tombs. Here in the garden, the Woman is weeping (John 20:15). She is not so sure the prophecy has come true. She’s looking for her Lord. Jesus the Rabboni is not the Gardener and he has not taken her Lord’s body…so where should the Woman look for her Lord’s body.
The Weeping Woman is looking for her Lord who is her Rock (Psalm 18:2) and her Gardener, her Husbandman, the Vinedresser (John 10: 30; John 15:1; and Psalm 128: 1-3).
Responding to her tears, Jesus the Rabboni calls her Mary. This is interesting and important because in the book of Ruth, the Widow Naomi returning to her people, says, “do not call me Naomi, call me Mara for the Almighty has treated me exceedingly bitter.”
Is this bitterly treated Woman, the Vine?
In the Exodus story, the voice of God calling from a burning bush in the wilderness sends Moses back to Egypt to liberate the Hebrew slaves from an idolatrous nation that is keeping them in physical and spiritual bondage.
The Icon of the Theotokos “Burning Bush” of the Old Testament. 19th century, Polissya, Ukraine.
When Moses asks the voice who shall he say is sending him? The Voice says, tell the Israelites that “I am has sent me to you.”
In the Gospel of John, Jesus the Rabboni is standing on Holy ground, in a garden adjacent to a burial ground. The Rabboni standing “face to face” to the Woman says, “do not cling to me” as if she were indeed a clinging vine. Then the Rabboni tells her to go to his brethren and say, “I am ascending to my Father and your father, to my God and your God.”
What is the Rabboni saying? Is he going to the Father? Or is she going to the Father. I believe she is going to the Father and she is to tell the Father and the disciples…that she is the I am. She is the I am that is created in God’s image as an eternal person. She is the I am of the flame in the burning bush and the flaming torch that is ascending to take her divine place as the Father and the Son’s equal.
Who is the incarnate Father to whom she ascends? Is he the Rock the builders rejected? I think so. Here’s why.
Who is called the Rock in the Gospels? Think about it. It is Simon! Does Simon take anyone’s hand after the Woman’s encounter with the Risen Rabboni at the tomb? Yes.
In Acts 9: 36-42, Simon takes Dorcas’ hand and lifts her up. Don’t let Simon aka Satan trip you up. Simon Peter has a mother in law who has a fever. This does not mean he is married. It may mean he was married and is either divorced or a widow. Or it may mean, the Woman he is to marry with a new covenant is the Mother of the Law and the Prophets that is now aflame.
As the Rock and Groom of the New Testament, Simon Peter remains unmarried until he lifts up Dorcas as her Lord coming in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the Rock that she is waiting and looking for and the one the builders rejected (Acts 4:11). He is also the Simon that carries the Cross of Jesus…Mark 15:21 the Father of Alexander and the Red Haired One (Rufus), the flame, the torch, the helene.
Don’t let the names and the commas in the different stories confuse you. Take out the commas and read the scriptures again. Commas and verses are a modern editorial thing. The name Dorcas is the Greek translation for the Aramaic name Tabitha which means Gazelle. Dorcas is the Gazelle…that the STAG of Song of Songs revives (SOS 8:14).
In my book “The Ecumenical Affair” the Woman has a conversation with an Orthodox Bishop. They talk about the secrets, the sacraments of the Gospel. The Bishop maintains that keeping these secrets are important because without the sacraments (secrets), new Christians would not be curious enough to participate in seeking their own salvation. The Woman counters, saying she thinks the secrets are keeping the Truth hidden and making it difficult for modern people to believe.
So, dear readers, I appreciate the fact that you have studied the Scriptures and are faithful followers of Jesus. There are books and blogs out there my own included that help Christians see Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus the Rabboni more clearly so that Martha and Mary come into view as their beloved Ladies full of Divine Love and Grace.
Jesus of Nazareth is the Groom, the husbandman, the Gardener of the New Testament. Jesus the Rabboni is not that man. He is the faithful husband of Martha. He did not divorce Martha, his beloved Lady. He loved both Martha and Mary. Mary is the Bride of the New Testament. She wanted something more. She wanted a new way of being a wife…a way that did not make the Woman subservient to the Law and her husband. She turned away from sin and chose the better part. She was able to dry her tears because this better part was not taken away from her.
I look forward to hearing more from you. The World needs mature Christians to rally other Christians together so that Christianity can be a mega helene…a great torch, a Light for all nations and a great body of peacemakers. Peacemakers are gap crossers. They find ways to bridge heaven and earth and make friends with their enemies.
Linda Vogt Turner 
