Devotion for Monday After the Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany, Year C (ELCA Daily Lectionary)

Above:  Zedekiah

Image in the Public Domain

Four Kings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

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The Collect:

Living God, in Christ you make all things new.

Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,

and in the renewal of our lives make known your glory,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 24

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The Assigned Readings:

2 Kings 24:18-25:21

Psalm 120

1 Corinthians 15:20-34

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Too long have I had to live

among the enemies of peace.

I am on the side of peace,

but when I speak of it, they are for war.

–Psalm 120:6-7, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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Two of the three readings today include much doom.  Psalm 120 is overwhelmingly gloomy, as is the pericope from 2 Kings.  The reign of King Zedekiah (born Mattaniah) as the vassal King of Judah (reigned 597-586 B.C.E.) marked the bitter end of that kingdom.  Mattaniah (literally “gift of YHWH”) did not even get to keep his name, for his political master was Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned 605-562 B.C.E.) of the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire.  So Mattaniah became Zedekiah (literally “YHWH is righteousness”).  The regnal name indicated the semblance of respect for Jewish traditions while simultaneously reminding the monarch that he was a vassal.

St. Paul the Apostle understood the death and resurrection of Jesus to have been literal events.  The Apostle also used them as spiritual metaphors, such as dying to sin and rising to new life in Christ.  Jesus will reign, we read, but only until he has conquered all enemies, the last of which is death, which he is in the process of conquering.  At the end Jesus will become subject to God the Father (YHWH).

Trinitarian theology developed over centuries, and St. Paul wrote near the beginning of that process.  His epistles do not stand up well to strict scrutiny according to the conclusions of the Council of Nicaea (325).  Neither do writings of other Ante-Nicene Church Fathers.  I refuse to judge them according to an ex post facto standard.

As for St. Paul’s christology, I refer to William F. Orr and James Arthur Walther, authors of The Anchor Bible volume on 1 Corinthians (1976):

Paul has not developed a trinitarian doctrine, but his christology is nonetheless a remarkable achievement.  overwhelming as is the work of salvation in the resurrection, it must be seen within the context of the purpose of the creator God.  Paul meticulously maintains his Jewish monotheistic tradition:  therefore the son himself is finally subjected, a statement that must be read, not from the perspective of a subordinationalist christology, but from Paul’s position, which is determined to set forth God as the all in all.

–Page 334

There were four kings.  Zedekiah was subject to Nebuchadnezzar II.  Sorting out the question of the subjection of Jesus to YHWH entails cutting through filters such as subsequent Trinitarian theology.  St. Paul was correct in asserting the supremacy of God, for, in the original scheme of things, YHWH was supposed to be the only King of Israel anyway.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 14, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ALL CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL ISAAC JOSEPH SCHERESCHEWSKY, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF SHANGHAI

THE FEAST OF THOMAS HANSEN KINGO, DANISH LUTHERAN BISHOP, HYMN WRITER, AND “POET OF EASTERTIDE”

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/four-kings/

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