Blog Post 12, prompt #3

a) My interpretation of the feeding of the 5 thousand in Luke as a celebration or showing of the Eucharist is one of spiritual hunger turned literal. Whether Jesus did actually physically feed 5 thousand on a few loaves of bread is irrelevant, but the fact that 5 thousand came to him for nourishment of the spirit is telling. The power of just one man being able to affect so many is incredible, and the fact that his body, one of millions, was enough to save the human race is the miracle I think he was trying to get them to start to realize.

b) As the Last Supper is often credited as the model for the Eucharistic feast, it is fairly obvious that it has serious Eucharistic overtones. The overt message from jesus saying, this (gesturing with bread) is my body, broken for you, eat it and you shall be filled, pretty blatantly states that Jesus is the eucharistic feast and, that by following him and taking him into you, your soul shall be filled. Since we are called to be like Jesus, the Eucharist is a good reminder that Jesus is with us, in our body and our blood, to help us on our way to his light and journey to be like him.

c) The Road to Emmaus account reaffirms that Jesus is divine and that by his sacrifice, we are saved. I say this because in Luke, I don;t think the disciples connected Jesus with the Scriptures and by him coming back from the dead to explain it to them, they Finally recognize him for who he is and what he has done for them. The celebration of the Eucharist being what makes them recognize him.

Of Gods and Men. Prompt #4

The film treats religion, freedom, and violence as connected entities, but not as mutually dependent or explicitly related.

On the theme of religion, the film shows that the three main religions are connected by one god and therefore the corpus of the religions are related to each other as neighbors in God. Often the reason that religions clash is from misunderstanding of religion or contextual abuse by those seeking to harm others or gain power over others. In and of itself, religion means service to God, love of thy neighbor, and peace to men in life and in death.

Of freedom, the film presents two options, physical freedom and freedom of spirit, self, and fear. The two types of freedom are discussed by the monks when they are deciding whether to leave or stay. Physical freedom is the freedom sought by those wanting to leave initially, in order to preserve their lives and avoid worldly pain. The other type of freedom is the one chosen when they decide to stay. This freedom is given by God and it frees man from fear of death because it means that the man has given his life to God and in God he places his fear. When God takes your fear, you are freed to do good and be a light in the darkness, to live as Christ lived.

As to violence, the film condemns violence as against God’s will to respect all human life.

The monks, at the end, are completely free. freedom is to acknowledge that no matter the situation, you have a choice and in making the choice that is good, but maybe not the easiest, you show your freedom. the monks could have left, refused to heal the terrorists, accepted military protection, but instead they chose to live peacefully and trust in God. They made the choices that were not best for their mortal selves, but for all those around them, giving respect to all God’s creations, good or bad, and acting in a Christ-like way.

Blog Post #9: The Martyrdom of Polycarp

Polycarp views his impending death as a necessary measure to fulfill his faith and prove his faith to others. In section 12, paragraph 3, he says, “it is necessary that I be burned alive”, indicating his willing attitude towards his impending death. The amount of faith polycarp has gives him favor with God to avoid the flames, “For the fire, taking the shape of an arch…surrounded the body” and “the lawless men eventually realized that his body could not be consumed by fire” (15:2-16:1). this display of faith, followed by an act of God really would show Christians that if they have faith in God that they need not fear the martyr’s flame. Although Polycarp is eventually stabbed in the side and his blood pours fourth, Christians may take this still as a Sign from God that those who are faithful will die as Christ. This is further shown, because Polycarp’s body is transformed in the fire, becoming beautified by the flame, and taking on a fragrant odor. This example of martyrdom is a clear sign that God will protect his children in the Christian church if they are faithful, since Polycarp was faithful and he survived the flame, but willing gave his life, as Christ gave his life, and the way in which he dies by the stab to the side draws a strong parallel to Christ’s own death.

Blog post #8 prompt 1

The early leadership of the church seems to have been very spread out and mobile. Since the fastest communication was to walk from town to town, often church leaders would not return to the same places for long stretches of time, and so not all would be recognized as a church leader. This lack of recognition opened the floodgates for frauds.

In an attempt to deal with fraud, the Didache laid out a progression of guidelines to deal with “prophets” and create local leadership. The first part of Didache lays out some rules for recognizing a true leader or prophet of the early christian church. Based on the principles of poverty, charity, and other base teachings of the church, lay people can “test” newcomers to see if they are truly who they say they are. These tests served a double purpose, on one hand to test newcomers claiming to be priests and prophets and the second, to teach lay people the ways of the christian church.

Building on the first section, it says that lay people may elect to the position of bishop and deacon, men who they judge worthy and who uphold the tenants of the church. This way, leadership can grow organically out of local communities without having to bring people in to lead. this organic growth of the church also would help with locals trusting the early church, as their leaders would be local. With the written guidelines, this early leadership would grow in many areas and hopefully in the same way, theoretically yielding a large community in a short time.

This would be a great model for growth, with the only drawbacks being people who are greedy and merely want power grabbing it in a vacuum. Then there are biases that local communities may have that would lead them astray from the central model that early church leaders may have wanted. Overall though, assuming actual leaders (disciples) checked these communities often enough, the church should grow in a uniform and rapid way.

Blog Post #7 prompt 1 (John)

At the empty tomb of Jesus, Mary Magdalene discovers empty burial linens and hastens to the disciples, who follow her to the tomb and also discover it empty. Then two angels and Jesus appear to Mary and tell her of the ascension.

After the scene at the tomb, it is assumed that Jesus ascended into heaven. Throughout the rest of the gospel, Jesus visits the disciples, bestowing upon them the Holy Spirit and giving them instructions to build the Christian Church.

The reader of this section of the Gospel of John would be compelled to believe in Jesus because John says that he has died and through visitation of the apostles, he is proven to be risen. The main message here though is that one should be able to believe in Jesus through faith and not physical evidence.

As Jesus is portrayed here as a messenger from God and deliverer of the Holy Spirit, which is most evident in John 20:21 when Jesus says,”as the Father has sent me”, signifying that he is subordinate to God the Father. Then in John 21:15-18 he tells Peter to “tend his sheep”. These are both consistent with John’s portrayal of Jesus as the subordinate messenger of God the Father and The Good Shepherd.

Blog post #6

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus represents how to be a perfect servant of God, while in John, he fills a role closer a person that is one with God and proclaiming His joy and love. In Mark’s version of the garden scene, more of the story leading up to his arrest is told. To continue on with the view of Jesus as servant, Mark shows how devoted Jesus is to God in the garden at night in his prayers, while all around him his disciples sleep. In the 36th verse, Jesus says, “Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will but what you will.” This passage contains very subservient language, which is the biggest identifier as part of the Gospel of Mark. In the Gospel of John, the first character passage that stuck out to me was after Peter cuts off the servant’s ear. Jesus says, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”, which stuck out to me because even though Jesus is being arrested, he insists that Peter shows love towards everyone. The one blatant similarity I found between the two passages shows up in the two sentences referencing the cup that God gives/takes from Jesus. I believe the cup represents Jesus’ “fate”/lot in life, given to him by God, and in both cases he acknowledges that his life belongs to God.

John’s Theology Blog

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