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Catholicism Week 1Amazed and Afraid – Part 1

I want to read you the introduction to this class we are beginning today from Bishop Barron’s workbook for his series, Catholicism.

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Now let’s discuss the video we just watched. Bishop Barron pointed out emphatically that Jesus Christ was like no one else on this earth…ever. 100% human and 100% divine…fully human and fully divine, my brain and I am betting yours too, does not have a slot for that kind of person. He claimed to be the door through which all of mankind could be restored to the family of God. We are talking about mystery beyond measure, limitless joy, and of all things, amazing humor. Mystery I get, joy…sure, but humor? What humor could this be about? Then he quotes G.K. Chesterton, “that sacred jest” upon which “the whole of Christianity doth rest.” Bishop points to Dante’s divine comedy, Divina Commedia, as a example of “that sacred jest” that Chesterton is talking about. The sacred jest, that is laughable when you think about it, is that God would become one of us, and even lower Himself to the status of a slave. But the joke…is on us, because that is exactly what happened, with the babe that was born in Bethlehem.

Right off the bat Bishop wants to un-domesticate Jesus, he believes a domesticated Jesus amounts to dangerous character assignation that he blames on our modern culture. Jesus challenged people, and if we really see and understand what He said about Himself, you and I will be challenged too. Listen to this verse, Mark 10:32 (RSV2CE) 32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the Twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him. This is a very telling and interesting verse, but we have seen this kind of reaction before, not only from the disciples, but many other people in both the New and Old Testament. In the Old Testament, it was always when someone was confronted by an angel, or the presence of God

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Himself. The fire and smoke on Mt. Sinai, the very presence of God on the mountain frightened everyone standing at the base of that mountain that day, or think about Moses confronting the burning bush on the side of the mountain.

Here are some New Testament examples.

Mark 9:1–6 (RSV2CE) 1 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” 2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John,

and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, 3 and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to

Jesus. 5 And Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid.

Mark 9:30–32 (RSV2CE) 30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.

We have only looked at a couple of examples, but there many, many more. They demonstrate a pattern…can you tell me what that pattern is? The pattern is what happens when God reveals Himself in our dimension, our time and space and history. The fear and amazement we see in all those events pertaining to Jesus, have nothing to do about Him being a great teacher, or a clever rabbi as modern

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culture would declare…they have everything to do with Him claiming to be the Son of God.

The Bible is chuck full of events when the presence of God, or Jesus claiming to be the Son of God, instantly creates amazement and fear. That is not hard for any of us to imagine as being true, just think for a minute if Jesus showed up right in front of you at this very moment…what would do? Bishop Barron, who has studied world religions extensively, probably much more than anyone in this classroom today…flatly states that Jesus was unlike any other famous religious figure in the history of the world. He was not like Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, or any other well-known founder of religion. Listen to the words of Jesus in this verse, John 14:6 (RSV2CE) 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” Instead some founders of a worldwide religion would declare they had found “a way”, or reveal some important truth, or claim that they were a messenger from God. That is a huge difference compared to what Jesus said about Himself. Jesus is not just a nice guy, He forces you to make a choice. Is He for real, or is he crazy? There is no in-between. It was this kind of talk that got Him crucified.

The Catholic Church is really good at making sure those things that define us as Catholics and are required to be believed and adhered to are made very clear. This is paragraph 10 from the Congregation on the Doctrine of the Faith published in the year 2000 by the Catholic Church. The doctrine of faith must be firmly believed which proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, and he alone, is the Son and the Word of the Father. The Word, which “was in the beginning with God” (Jn 1:2) is the same as he who “became flesh” (Jn 1:14). In Jesus, “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16), “the whole fullness of divinity dwells in bodily form” (Col 2:9). He is the “only begotten Son of the Father, who is in the bosom of the Father” (Jn 1:18), his “beloved Son, in whom we have redemption... In him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him, God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself, on earth and in the heavens, making peace by the blood of his Cross” (Col 1:13-14; 19-20) DECLARATION "DOMINUS IESUS"ON THE UNICITY AND SALVIFIC UNIVERSALITY OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE CHURCH, par. 10

We have been talking about Jesus forcing everyone to make a choice, and this scripture passage says it all, Matthew 16:13–15 (RSV2CE) 13 Now when Jesus came

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into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Bishop pointed this out in the video, it is so interesting where this discussion with His disciples took place. It was in “the district of Caesarea Philippi”, for a very good reason. This was a mostly pagan area 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and there stood a monument honoring a number of pagan gods, including Baal, and Pan. It was a popular place of pagan worship, and at the very top of the cliff overlooking all of it was statue honoring Caesar. Coincidence…on this spot…think again. Jesus is making the choice his disciples, and everyone else, including the pagans, had to make crystal clear. Who do you say that I am?

St. Peter got it right, Matthew 16:16 (RSV2CE) 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Later on, St. Paul would come to the same conclusion, 1 Corinthians 8:5–6 (RSV2CE) 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. We Catholics would be wise to examine our own lives and make sure we have no other gods before the Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Christ in the Greek means the anointed one, and that has all kinds of implications about Jesus’ mission on this earth, including His priestly ministry. Ironically, Jesus was not a Levite from the tribe of Levi set apart by God to be the priests of Israel. He was a simple carpenter, a laymen coming from Galilee, not from the Holy City of Jerusalem in the region of Judea. But…He was descended from David the King, through His stepfather Joseph, and most importantly the blood in His veins originated from God Himself through His mother Mary.

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There were four main accomplishments that Messiah was prophesied to complete during His ministry on the earth, which Jesus did accomplish without question. But he would accomplish them in the strangest way. The first was Messiah would gather the children of Israel from all the places on earth where they had been scattered. If you remember from our Genesis to Jesus class, God gave them both covenant blessings and curses that would be the consequences of either abiding by the blood covenant He made with them, or breaking that covenant sealed in blood. Of course, we know what happened, they broke the Mosaic covenant, along with all the others, and were scattered far and wide. Messiah was coming to gather them together once again, and every first century Jew knew that.

Deuteronomy 30:1–3 (RSV2CE) 1 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you this day, with all your heart and with all your soul; 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes, and have compassion upon you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.

When the Jews of Jesus’ time heard Him preach that the Kingdom of God was at hand, they were looking for Messiah to come and crush the Romans and gather all the Israelites under the powerful rule of descended the Son of David, promised to them in the books of the Prophets of old. They thought Jesus was that “Son of David”, which He was. But they did not realize that Jesus was talking about a brand-new Kingdom of God, a kingdom that was not of this world. They did not understand that that kingdom would be made up of a brand-new Israel, bowing down not only to the descended Son of David, but also the Son of God. They could not and would not accept that Messiah was coming to die for them on a humiliating Roman cross. The same children of the old Israel who cheered Him crying out hosannas of praise and threw palm branches in front of Him on the road into the Holy City, would later join that same crowd that shouted to Pontius Pilate to “crucify him”. Messiah did gather His people, the New Israel, and thank God He did, because you and I are children of that New Israel, the new Kingdom of God…called the Church. How did Jesus do this, Bishop points out he practiced what he called “open table fellowship”, inviting sinners to have dinner with him, much to the chagrin of the scribes and Pharisees. They included prostitutes, tax

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collectors, the sick, outcasts and the forgotten. This was Yahweh gathering in his people into God’s new Kingdom. He healed many, publicly reversing what the common people believed to be a curse, sickness was looked upon as a curse from God, preventing many of them from worshipping in the Temple. Jesus reversed that curse, restoring them to worship and communion. On and on, Jesus turned this world on its head, He changed everything, speaking to the woman at the well, touching dead bodies, only to raise them from the dead, healing on the Sabbath. The Kingdom of God was very much “at hand”.

The second accomplishment of the Messiah was the cleansing of the Temple. Near the very end of His ministry Jesus entered the Temple courtyard, armed with a sort of whip with many cords, driving out the money changers, turning over all their tables as their coins flew in every direction. When he finished with that He declared, this temple will be destroyed and in three days I will build it again. The Temple was everything to Israel, it would be comparable to our White House, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Supreme Court, and the Capital Building all in one massive complex. But by now, the Ark of the Covenant was gone, and Jesus called that Temple a “den of thieves.” Ezekiel prophesied that the Spirit of God would abandon the Temple as a result of Israel lusting after false gods, generation after generation. So what temple was Jesus talking about, not the Temple that had stood for a thousand years on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem…He was talking about His own body. The New Temple that His Father would resurrect from the dead in three days, after it had been destroyed on a Roman cross…in the New Jerusalem, in the New Kingdom of God. His own body would be the new place of worship, where divinity and humanity would commune together. Remember when the Roman soldier thrust a spear into the side of Jesus, and blood and water poured from His body…that was a fulfillment of another prophecy of Ezekiel, when the Spirit of God would return to His Temple.

Ezekiel 47:1–10 (RSV2CE) 1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the right side of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate, that faces toward the east; and the water was coming out on the right side. 3 Going on eastward with a line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. 4 Again he measured a

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thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the loins. 5 Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back along the bank of the river. 7 As I went back, I saw upon the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the stagnant waters of the sea, the water will become fresh. 9 And wherever the river goes every living creature which swarms will live, and there will be very many fish; for this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. 10 Fishermen will stand beside the sea; from En-gedi to En-eglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea.

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