Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, A January 26, 2020
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Zebulun and Naphtali. What’s a Zebulun? Who is Naphtali? Just some more funny biblical words… surely I don’t need to pay too much attention to them, right? Well, I won’t say it’s a matter of life and death, but notice that those names are said three times in the readings today. Once in the first reading and twice in the Gospel. Just like your mother, when the Bible repeats something, it means it is important.
Before I tell you what these names mean, it’s important that you understand why they are important. Ultimately, it’s about coming to know and love Jesus Christ. Last September, Pope Francis declared that the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time – Today – would henceforth be the Sunday of the Word of God. We Catholics have always loved scripture – we read it at every Mass – but this weekend is a time to shine a particular light on the value of God’s word, much like we take specific moments to shine light on various saints or key moments in Christ’s life.
So, what is the Word of God that we’re celebrating? When you say the word of God, most people immediately think of Scripture. Ultimately, though, the Word of God is Jesus Christ himself. Scripture is only the word of God because it allows us to encounter Jesus. The other way we can reach Christ is through tradition. But neither scripture nor tradition is the “source” of the truth. The source is the Word of God, Jesus Christ, whom we encounter in these two things.
This whole idea is based on what we call “sacramentality.” You’ll recognize that word. A sacrament is a visible – or audible – sign of an invisible reality. A baptism looks like a bath, but is actually the washing away of sins. Scripture, though it’s not one of the seven Sacraments, with a capital S, still has a sacramental quality. Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, but Jesus is also present, in a different way, whenever we read scripture – the word that points us to the Word. Jesus is the word made flesh. Scripture is the word made audible. Reading or hearing scripture is an encounter with Christ.
Last week, I told you that reading scripture, even when you don’t understand it, is a way to connect to Christ. That is true. Nonetheless, we should try to understand it and apply it to our lives. The point is that our effort in reading is not wasted even if we fail to understand. When it comes to the spiritual life, effort is almost more important than success. Even if you never understand whole sections of the bible, your time reading them is not wasted if done with love and faith.
Fortunately, there are many, many resources to help you understand scripture. Right here in this parish there are two opportunities every week to study the bible, Tuesday night and Thursday morning. These studies don’t just read scripture, but use the guidance of the Church to help interpret it. In the second reading, Paul emphasizes that we must avoid division and misinterpreting scripture has often led to that terrible division, like with the protestant reformation.
Nonetheless, the word of God can be a source of unity for us. If we continue to go to the scriptures with humility and with prayer, the Lord will draw us closer. We can learn to love scripture more deeply from our protestant brethren. They can learn to better understand the whole picture of scripture from the Church’s careful method of interpretation. Loving the word of God is not just about your own relationship with Christ. It’s also about allowing others to encounter Christ through you, to come to know the full truth entrusted to us by Jesus.
Speaking of the truth, what about Zebulun and Naphtali? They are repeated in scripture and we read scripture to know Christ, so what do these weird names tell us about Christ? To answer that, we have to know scripture as a whole, we have to see beginning, middle, and end. The beginning is simple enough. Zebulun and Naphtali were two of the twelve sons of Jacob, patriarchs of two of the twelve tribes of Israel. Remember that God promised to bless the world through Israel. The kingdom of Israel is not just some minor kingdom in history. It is a central part of God’s plan to get you to heaven. He saved these people, taught them, and guided them so that one day Jesus could come to die and rise again so that you can know, love, and join him in heaven.
The middle of the story is that the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali were in the northern part of the kingdom of Israel. There was a split, an ugly division between the northern and southern parts of the kingdom. Eventually, the northern part gets invaded by Assyria and they are taken into exile. Guess which two tribes were the first to go? Zebulun and Naphtali. They are considered lost tribes. This brings us to Isaiah – our first reading – who talks about the darkness, about the fact that these people have basically lost God’s promises, have been cut out of the plan to be saved… or so they thought. Isaiah promises restoration and light. But how? The bloodlines of these people are completely lost… all mixed up with countless pagans. It’s even harder than trying to track down every family tree of every Cajun throughout Louisiana, the exile from Nova Scotia, and travel from France in the first place. It’s impossible to sort out who belongs to these tribes. Impossible for us at least.
Then comes Jesus. Matthew tells us that he deliberately goes to live in the northern part of ancient Israel… where Zebulun and Naphtali used to live. It’s there that he begins to gather his 12 Apostles… like the 12 tribes. Some of his Apostles are descended from the mixed races of pagans and lost tribes. Great, but that’s not the whole tribe… in order to get the whole tribe, you basically have to go get the whole world… and that’s exactly the point.
Jesus is using the history of Zebulun and Naphtali to reveal two very important things, to show rather than just tell us. First, that God never gives upon his promises, even when we do. He goes out of his way to include the lost tribes, the first ones to cut themselves off from him. Secondly, God intends to save the whole world, not just the Jews.
There’s really a good bit more, but the point is this. The history of God’s people, narrated in scripture, becomes a key way for us to understand God more deeply. To know a person, you have to spend time with them, to know their story. God uses the story of Israel, the story of Zebulun and Naphtali to reveal himself to us. Like an inside joke or a shared past experience, this story, like all of scripture, is a chance to strengthen our relationship. God has written the greatest love letter of all time. I think it’s high time we got around to really reading it, to knowing it backwards and forwards… not because we want to pass a test, but because we want to know and love the one who wrote it.