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James 2: 1-13 Faith, Favoritism and the Royal Law of Liberty

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Fresco of Lazarus and the Rich Man at the Rila Monastery.

James 2: 1-13

1 My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while showing partiality. 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into the courts? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
  8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Bolded words have notes on translation below.

One thing I do not want to do in these reflections is to distort the simplicity of the ideas James is conveying to his readers. James maintains that claiming the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is incompatible with actions that show favoritism to the rich over the poor. For James the faith of Jesus is a faith that keeps the whole law in a merciful manner. Like Matthew’s gospel, I think the letter of James is often misunderstood as rigid and legalistic. James is attempting to shape his readers into an authentic practice of faith which shows mercy to the neighbor without favoritism. The law is not an unbearable burden for James, but it is the law of liberty, it is the way of wisdom which leads to a whole life.

Faith is an important concept to James, especially in this chapter where it occurs thirteen times. In the previous chapter I quoted Joel Green’s note that faith for James was more akin to confidence, which makes sense in chapter one where faith is contrasted with doubt, but as James focuses intensely on faith in this chapter I find this previous definition of faith incomplete. Although two of the thirteen uses of faith in this chapter are in the first thirteen verses (the remainder are in the second half of the chapter) I want to highlight that for James, in addition to confidence, faith is connected to practice. Faith for James is connected with the Jewish idea of ‘halakha’ which in not merely about knowing but about walking in the way of the law. That is why confidence and belief are inseparable from concrete actions towards one’s neighbor.

If a person with gold rings and a person with dirty clothes comes into their synagogue[1] (NRSVue assembly) they are not to make distinctions between the two. The person with gold rings and fine clothing may not be a part of their community and they like the person in dirty clothes have come in for various reasons. James does not exclude the person whose appearance indicates wealth, he just states that granting favoritism to the wealthy visitor over the poor visitor is incompatible with the faith in Jesus. In James’s world of reversals, the poor are rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom in language that echoes the blessings of Jesus on the poor (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20). Ultimately the prejudices of the society around them are likely so ingrained in this gathering of people who are likely predominantly poor that James’s community needs to be instructed in the way faith causes these practices to be overturned. The rich ones are like those in the prophets who oppressed the poor, aliens, widows, and orphans as Martha L. Moore-Keish explains:

The term translated in the NRSV as “oppress” (katadunasteuo) is particularly significant, because it is the same word used by the prophets in the Greek version of the Old Testament for the oppressive actions of the rich against the poor, aliens, widows, and orphans (see Jer. 7:6; Ezek. 18:12; Amos 8:4). James 2:6 also resonates closely with the language in Proverbs about dishonoring the poor and God’s threat to take the offenders to court (e.g., Prov. 14:31; 17:5 a; 22: 23-24). In all these passages, katadunasteuo is a strong word with violent implications. “It is also significant that in the only other place the word is used in the New Testament, the ‘devil’ is the subject (Acts 10:38).” (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 89)

We do not know what prompts this specific warning against favoritism towards the rich in James’s letter. It is possible that this could be like Jesus’s use of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31) which puts two opposing characters alongside one another as an object lesson for the audience. It is possible that James is working in a synagogue where Sadducees and Pharisees are present and his words may be echoing Jesus’s words of condemnation about the Pharisees seeking places of honor and respect (Matthew 23: 6-7). Regardless of where others in James’s community see this favoritism modeled, James views it as incompatible with the faith in Jesus.

I serve in Frisco, Texas, a very prosperous suburb of Dallas and an area where the vast majority of my congregation would be considered incredibly wealthy by the standards of James original audience. I have also spent my entire ministry in suburban areas (North Little Rock, AR, Edmond, OK, and Papillion, NE).  I am aware of the tension that these words evoke in me as a person who is very intentional about how I dress and present myself. Yet, this section also has made me reflect upon a moment several years ago in my ministry here where an older member in one of my communities, who was also one of the least well off members of my community, remarked to a young woman approaching the congregation for the first time and wearing jeans that were fashionably ripped, “Girl, go put some pants on.” I apologized to the visitor and immediately pulled the member aside and was very emphatic that she could never do that again because it was the opposite of the welcome we wanted anyone to feel. I was irate because I felt like the words, which she later claimed were a joke, indicated to this woman that she was unwelcome in our midst. I would not share this story if the person who said these words was still alive and it doesn’t completely correlate with James’s words but for me it shows how even those among us with the least may look for opportunities to place themselves in a position of judgment over others.

James joins Jesus and several other New Testament authors in finding Leviticus 19:18 as the central concept of the law. As Scot McKnight says,

Several New Testament writings…quote Leviticus 19:18…Paul explicitly makes it the fundamental rule of life (Rom 12:19; 13:9; Gal 5:14), while Peter hedges in that direction (1 Pet 4:8) and John explodes into full focus on love (John 13: 34-35; 1 John 3:11; 4;17). It is not without significance that James is the only person in the New Testament after Jesus who quotes both sides of the Jesus Creed; loving God in 1:12 and 2:5 and loving others as oneself here in 2:8. (McKnight, 2011, p. 208)

Leviticus 19:18 may be the ‘royal law’ in James, but James also connects loving neighbor as requiring compliance with all the commandments. James noting of the commandments on adultery and murder may reflect Jesus’s expansion of these commandments in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 21-30) or an exposition on Leviticus 19 which brackets the love command in verse eighteen with,

“You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:17

It is plausible that James may be referring back to Leviticus 19 throughout this reflection, especially in the previous section Leviticus 19:15 is relevant:

“You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. Leviticus 19:15

Although, Leviticus 19:20 does deal with sexual relations with a slave, James here appeals to the commandment on adultery (along with murder) rather than the specific case highlighted in Leviticus. It is likely that James, like Jesus, expands the view of adultery beyond the limits envisioned in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

The royal law on loving the neighbor as oneself, which includes adherence to the commandments, is also the law of liberty. James’s vision of a community of living and authentic faith is a place where the poor are not discriminated against, and the neighbor is loved and protected. Yet, James like the other New Testament authors view the commandments through the lens of mercy. Again, James echoes ideas Jesus articulates in the Sermon on the Mount:

 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Matthew 5:7

but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:15

James is not attempting to articulate anything novel when it comes to the faith of these followers of Jesus but instead is selecting key practices which are critical to the walk of faith. Faith for James is composed of both certainty and practiced consistent with the values centered on the loving the neighbor as oneself in a merciful and life-giving way.

[1] James knows the word for church (ekklesia) and uses it in 5:14, so calling the assembly ‘your synagogue’ is intentional. As I mention in the introduction, my assumption is that James the brother of Jesus is the author of this letter and we are given a window on early Christianity contemporaneous with Paul’s letters and the boundaries between Christianity and Judaism are probably not as rigid as they will be later.

James 1: 16-27 Religion that Cares for the Vulnerable

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Martyrdom of James the Just By Authors of Menologion of Basil II (circa 985 AC, Constantinople), Byzantine manuscript illuminators

James 1: 16-21

Words highlighted have notes below on translation.

  16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

  19 You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

In contrast to the desire, sin, death conception metaphor in the previous section we now have the first fruits among God’s creatures of those who have received both a birth from above and gifts from above. In contrast to desire which is from this world is generosity and every ‘perfect’ (teleios) gift which comes from the Father above. Verse seventeen is one of the frequently used verses of James, particularly in the Eastern church where it is a part of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and its sentiment that every good gift comes from above is clear. The title Father of lights likely relates to God as the creator of the sun, moon, and stars, but I also wonder if James is intentionally using the binary light and darkness to contrast the desire, sin, death path of darkness to the generosity and perfect gifts path of light. Also continuing the thought of God not being the source of temptation/testing now the Father of lights has no shadow and no variation. James does seem to lean into a more philosophical conception of God as the ultimate good and unchanging than many other parts of the scriptures, but James is also working in the binary language of the wisdom tradition: wicked/righteous, death/life, light/darkness.

God giving birth to us from above follows a similar metaphor to Jesus’s dialogue with Nicodemus in John’s gospel where one must be born from above.[1] Paul also uses the language of ‘first fruits’ to talk about both Jesus[2] and these followers of the way of Jesus.[3] Whether the word of truth is the teachings of Jesus, some direct revelation from God, or the law (Torah) is not clear, but it connects to the implanted word of verse 21 which comes from outside of us and gives birth to this new creation in the midst of the world. James is likely less concerned with the mechanism of how God transforms people from those on the path of desire, sin, and death to generosity and life than the fruits of that transformation. As Bede the Venerable, a well-known eight century English monk, stated:         

God has changed us from being children of darkness into being children of light, not because of any merits of our but by his own will, through the water of regeneration…we have become ‘the first fruits of his creatures,’ which means that we have been exalted over the rest of creation.” (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 57)

To be the first fruits of creation for James means a transformed way of living. James in Acts is often portrayed as a peacemaker finding a way for the church and Jerusalem to accept the mission of Paul and others among the Gentiles. Anger is antithetical to James’s view of God’s righteousness. This pairs with Jesus’s teaching on anger in the Sermon on the Mount[4] where reconciliation is more important than sacrifice or worship. James, like Jesus and the prophets, does look for right practice more than right worship or right confession. The way of James is a way of listening, being slow to speak and slow to anger. Being slow to anger also echoes the characteristics of God given to Moses in Exodus 34, “The LORD, the LORD, A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34: 6).

Throughout the New Testament there are multiple times where newborn believers are called to change their ways, particularly in relation to anger. Two examples would be:

But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices  and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. Colossians 3: 8-10

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation. 1 Peter 2: 1-2

These first fruits are to root out the sordidness and wickedness clearing the ground for the implanted word that brings this new growth and fruit. James uses multiple interlocking metaphors to contrast the way of death with the way of life. Birth and field metaphors come together. Unlike Jesus’s parable of the wheat and the tares[5] where the good and the unrighteous grow together, James envisions a world where the field has been cleared of the bad growth which strangles the harvest so that there can be a full harvest of the first fruits of the seeds God has sown in the lives of the faithful.

James 1: 22-27

  22 But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
  26 If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James and Paul are often portrayed in conflict, where Paul talks about faith and James talks about works. It is plausible that James is aware of Paul’s teachings and is issuing a corrective note to those who have become overfocused on knowledge or wisdom to the exclusion of practice, but James’s language here would not be alien to Paul, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified.” (Romans 2:13) The reformation/counterreformation debates about faith opposed to works were focused on the wrong works, from the perspective of James. For James these works continue the concern of the law, the prophets, and Jesus to care for the vulnerable, to live a life in harmony with God’s will for the world, and to show mercy. Hearing and knowledge for James are not enough, but his teaching here again echoes Jesus.

“Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” Matthew 7: 24-27 parallel Luke 6: 46-49

But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” Luke 11:28

James jumps to an additional metaphor of a person looking at themselves in the mirror and forgetting what they see being like the person who hears and does not act. What the NRSVue, along with most translations, render as ‘themselves’ is the Greek phrase to prospon tes geneseos, literally ‘the face of their origin (beginning).’ James may be wanting to indicate that the person looks at their ‘true self’ and then walks away from their true self into the paths that corrupt that self. But those who look at themselves in the light of God’s perfect (teleios) law of liberty and work (NRSVue act) in harmony with that law are happy/blessed their existence.

James turns to the topic of religion with two statements that look back on the previous argument and ahead to the remainder of the letter. James’s comments on bridling the tongue look back to his words of being quick to listen and slow to speak in verse nineteen and ahead to his lengthier discourse on the tongue in 3: 1-12. James’s pure and undefiled religion which cares for the vulnerable looks ahead to 2:14-17 and back to the reversals of 1:9-11.

Care for the vulnerable, particularly the orphan and the widow, is frequently highlighted in the law and the prophets:

 You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. Exodus 22:22

who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. Deuteronomy 10:18

James, like several of the prophets, argues for an understanding of religion that is less about acts of sacrifice in the context of the temple and centrally focused on the justice lived in society. Religion is not to bribe God with one’s gifts but instead to live in obedience with God’s will as expressed in the law. A mark of the faithfulness of one’s religious work is the way the vulnerable of the surrounding society are cared for in James’s view. A religion of unrestrained speech and ignored widows and orphans is a defiled faith to James.

[1] John 3: 1-10.

[2] 1 Corinthians 15:20.

[3] Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

[4] Matthew 5: 21-26.

[5] Matthew 13: 24-30.

James 1: 9-15 Blessings in a World of Reversals

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Texas Bluebonnets South of Dallas, TX in 2012. Photo by Jeffrey Pang, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26289586

James 1: 9-15

  9 Let the brother or sister of humble means boast in having a high position 10 and the rich in having been humbled, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
  12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13 No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14 But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15 then, when desire has conceived, it engenders sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.

The message of Jesus in the gospels is full of reversals where the lowly are brought high and the mighty are brought low. The song of Mary, the Magnificat, in Luke 1:46-55 is a prime example of this theme:

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. Luke 1: 52-53

Scot McKnight makes an interesting note on the childhood experience of Jesus and James, assuming James the brother of Jesus as the author of the letter:

If there is any truth to the tradition that Joseph died and left Mary a widow, James would have been part of a family in stress, and that might help explain why James sees pure religion as caring for the poor and widows (James 1:26-27). (McKnight, 2011, p. 16)

Jesus would continually use the language of reversal where the first are last and the last are first,[1] and the exalted are humbled and the humbled exalted.[2] This section also resonates strongly with Jesus’s teaching not to worry about food and drink and clothing in the Sermon on the Mount.[3] The rich disappear like the flowers of the field, just as Solomon in all his glory is not clothed like the flowers of the field. For James’s wisdom does not trust in the position and grandeur that comes from wealth, these are only transitory things which are untrustworthy and wither away. Just as Jesus could tell his disciples that one cannot serve God and wealth (Mammon), James tells the recipients of this letter that the rich will be humbled but the humble will be lifted up to a high position. The God who provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field provides for the brother and sister of humble means while the rich are tempted to serve wealth as their master and order their lives according to the kingdom of Mammon.

The word ‘blessed’ in verse twelve continues to indicate that James is following the pattern of Hebrew wisdom literature. The Greek Makarios is the same term used in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and is the Greek term which translates the Hebrew ‘asre (or ‘ashrei) often rendered ‘happy’ in most translations. The word means blessed, happy, or contented and is frequently used in wisdom literature. Here those who endure temptation or testing (Greek periasmos)[4] are happy/blessed. In a similar pattern to the Beatitudes, James lifts up something that normally is not considered blessed (enduring temptation/testing) and then indicates the reward (receiving the crown of life). Yet, James is also concerned that people understand that, in his view, God is not the cause of the temptation but instead the temptation comes from a misdirected desire. On the one hand there are points in the Old Testament where God clearly does test God’s people, and throughout many portions of the Old Testament God is responsible for both the good things that happen and the bad things that happen. As I mention in my reflection on A Split in the Identity of God this perspective evolves and by the time of the New Testament there are forces, like the devil and demons, actively opposed to God’s will for the world. Yet for James the temptation is due to one’s own desire. The word translated by the NRSVue as ‘desire’ (epithumias) in moral discourse has a negative sense of ‘evil desire’ or ‘craving.’ (Green, 2025, p. 40) This is a misplaced desire. Desire can be rightly placed on God, like in Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you.” Here desire has been corrupted and longs for things that are not God. Like the adulterous, loose, dangerous woman in Proverbs 5,6, and 7 who is opposed to lady wisdom and lures the growing child into a dangerous liaison, now a personified desire seduces the unwise and gives birth to a child names sin who births a child named death. In contrast to the temptations/testing of faith which leads to endurance and endurance completes its work so that the person may be complete, the temptation/testing of one’s desire leads to sin which leads to death. One path leads to wisdom, completion, and life while the other leads to foolishness, sin, and death. James, like Paul, personifies sin, death, and desire. Despite the sexual metaphor of desire conceiving sin which conceives death it is telling that in James’s letter sexual activity is not an area where he counsels his audience.

[1] Matthew 20:16.

[2] Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14.

[3] Matthew 6: 25-34.

[4] The NRSVue is consistent in translating periasmos as temptation, while many translations alternate between testing and temptation for the word.

James 1: 1-8 The Wisdom of the Letter of James

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Jan Hus Memorial at Old Town Square in Prague built in 1915. Photo by Jorge Royan. Shared under CC BY-SA 3.0

James 1: 1-8

Words highlighted have notes below on translation.

 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
  To the twelve tribes in the dispersion:
  Greetings.
  2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance complete its work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.
  5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7, 8 For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

James, the author of the letter, has traditionally been understood as James the Just or James the brother of our Lord who was one of the influential early leaders of the church in Jerusalem.[1] Throughout this reflection my assumption will be that this is an early Christian letter, written in a similar time period to the letters of Paul, from a leader of the church in Jerusalem to the Jewish followers of Jesus scattered throughout the world. James introduces himself as a servant (literally slave in Greek) of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the translation of the Greek doulos as ‘servant’ in most English translations makes sense, especially with the history of how slaves were treated in the United States, it is worth noting that most of the apostles claim to be slaves/servants of Christ or God. In the ancient world a slave could exercise authority on behalf of their master, yet unlike a servant who is employed and can quit a slave was owned by the household. From a contemporary perspective in an individualistic society where personal freedom is highly valued it is worth being reminded that in the ancient world you were always bound to your family or the household you served. I do think for James the sense of obedience and servitude are an important part of how he sees the life of wisdom.

James and the author of 1 Peter are the only two New Testament authors to address their letters to the diaspora. Although at the time of the writing of James, assuming that the biblical James is the author, Israel and Jerusalem are not yet in rebellion against Rome, there are still more Jews living outside of Palestine in the diaspora than who live inside it. (Moore-Keish, 2019, pp. 20-21) At this early time, prior to 62 CE when James the Just is killed, the boundaries between Judaism and Christianity are still porous and many of the early followers of the way of Jesus Christ considered themselves a part of the Jewish people. Yet, there is also throughout the New Testament an adoption of the titles and language used for the Jewish people throughout the Old Testament to speak about the role of the new followers of Jesus throughout the church. Although James is writing in a manner that is highly reflective of the Hebrew Scriptures and Torah obedience, it is also likely that his audience may also include the churches of Paul and others among the Gentiles. James never mentions Sabbath-keeping, circumcision, or diet. Like the Gospel of Matthew, James attempts to write about a faith that is connected with Torah observance the letter is also shaped by a merciful reading of scripture which is shaped by both the teachings of Jesus and the prophetic witness before him.

Most modern translations will translate the Greek adelphos/adelphoi with ‘brothers and sisters’ rather than the generic ‘brother/brothers’ since James was addressing both men and women with the letter. What immediately strikes me as we enter into the letter of James is the way many of the early Christian writers are sharing a common vocabulary as they address the new followers of the way of Jesus Christ. James’s brief encouragement to find joy in their trials echoes Jesus’s words in the Sermon on the Mount:

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5: 11-12

Although James has been often read in opposition to Paul, his language throughout this letter often uses the same language and rhythms as Paul. Here in verses three and four you can see a similar pattern in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Romans 5: 3-5[2]

In verse four we have the first appearance in the letter of the Greek teleios (NRSVue ‘mature’/NRSV ‘perfect’). This is an important word for James; the word is used twenty times in the New Testament; five of those uses occur in this short letter. Additionally, James utilized both the verbal form teleo twice and the substantive telos once. (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 28) When I was working through Matthew’s gospel this was a word I wrestled with because I don’t believe that the word intends the sense of moral perfection that is often read into it.[3] Teleios is a word of destination and completion, and I like the NRSVue’s adoption of ‘mature’ for this word. James does want his readers to live a complete and mature life shaped by the path of God’s wisdom.

The letter of James shares many similarities with the wisdom literature in the Old Testament with its interest in shaping a life that is faithful to God’s intent as outlined in the law. Wisdom literature often contrasts the path of wisdom with the opposing path of foolishness. James contrasts the single-minded way of faith with the double-minded way of doubt. Faith and doubt are opposing ideas in James, and I believe that Joel B. Green captures the essence of James’s thought when he states that for James, “faith has more the sense of confidence.” (Green, 2025, p. 30) In the Gospel of Matthew ,faith had more the sense of openness and in Matthew’s gospel worship and doubt often coexisted, but James is approaching faith and doubt as opposites. James’s definition of faith is, ironically, incredibly close to Luther’s famous explanation of the first commandment, “We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.” Faith and wisdom are a single-minded confidence in God and God’s ways. For those lacking in wisdom they are told to ask God confidently for the wisdom they need to lack nothing. The parallel use of ‘lacking nothing’ in verse four and ‘lacking wisdom’ five form an interesting parallel between ‘enduring trials’ and ‘asking God for wisdom.’

James targets those among his readers whose practice does not match their profession. They are double-minded because they want to be friends of God and friends of the world at the same time. (NIB XII:182) James’s thoughts echo Jesus’s words contrasting between those who try to serve two masters,[4] and it is telling that Jesus is contrasting those who serve God and wealth as James is about to contrast those of humble means and the rich.  

Martha L. Moore-Keish quotes a portion from the final letter of the Jan Hus, a reformer in Czechoslovakia (1369-1415) before he was burned at the stake that I want to close this portion of the reflection with because it wrestles with the themes of James in the concrete moment of temptation/trial:

Surely it is difficult to rejoice without perturbation, and to esteem it all joy in various temptations. It is easy to talk about it and to expound it, but difficult to fulfill it. Even the most patient and valiant soldier, knowing that on third day He would rise, conquering by His death the enemies and redeeming the elect from damnation, after the Last Supper was troubled in spirit…O most kind Christ, draw us weaklings after Thyself, for unless Thou draw us, we cannot follow Thee! Give us a courageous spirit that it may be ready; and if the flesh is weak, may Thy grace go before, now, as well as subsequently. For without Thee we can do nothing, and particularly to go to a cruel death for Thy sake. Give us a valiant spirit, a fearless heart, the right faith, a firm hope, and perfect love, that we may offer our lives for Thy sake with the greatest patience and joy. Jan Hus, from a letter written just prior to his being burned at the stake on July 6, 1415. (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 25)

[1] Mark 6:3 indicates that Jesus has two brothers, James and Joses. James as a leader of the early church is mentioned in Acts 12:17; James plays a pivotal role in the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 (see verse 13) as well as meeting with Paul when he returns to Jerusalem in Acts 21: 17-26. Throughout Acts James is one of the leaders of the church and he often acts in a conciliatory manner between the church in Jerusalem and the Hellenistic mission of Paul and others. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, James seems to have enough influence and power to make Peter change his behavior.

[2] See also 1 Peter 1: 6-7:  In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

[3] See my reflection on Matthew 5: 33-48 and Perfection and Blamelessness in the Bible.

[4] Matthew 6:24.

Introduction to the Letter of James

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James the Just, 16th-century Russian icon

The Letter of James (or book of James) in the New Testament is either written by or attributed to James the brother of the Lord, one of the early leaders of the church in Jerusalem. If James the brother of Jesus, or James the Just as he is sometimes known, is the author of this letter then it is an early window into a Jerusalem based Christianity since James the Just was killed in 62 CE. Martha L. Moore-Kiesh expands on how early Christian writers elaborated on James’s martyrdom:

Eusebius, for instance, cites Clement of Alexandria, who say that James was “thrown down from the pinnacle of the temple and beaten to death with a fuller’s club.” Because of this legend, later iconography of James often portrays him with a club, recalling this alleged mode of his death. (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 6)

Scholars for generations have debated whether the Letter of James is an early Christian document from a leader of the young church or a latter document attributed to James for authority. Ultimately it is impossible to know which is true but many of the arguments for a later date are not viewed as being as conclusive as they once were. For the purposes of these reflections, I am going to assume an early date and that the letter does originate with James the brother of our Lord, although I don’t believe that assumption will drastically alter the interpretation of this letter.

Some may be surprised to see a Lutheran pastor doing a detailed reflection on James since, especially in the Lutheran but also broader Protestant tradition James has often been neglected. Much of this goes back to Luther’s famous “Preface to the New Testament” (1522) where Luther compares James unfavorably with several other New Testament books:

In a word St. John’s Gospel and his first epistle, St. Paul’s epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first epistle are books that show you Christ and teach you all that is necessary and salvatory for you to know, even if you were never to see or hear any other book or doctrine. Therefore St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it. (Luther, 1989, p. 117)

Luther’s distaste for James emerges from his conflicts with the Catholic Church over ‘faith alone’ verse ‘works righteousness.’ James’s strong words about faith without works being dead (James 1:17) provided ammunition for Luther’s opponents to attack his theological perspective. These reflections will not remain bound to the binary way of thinking that characterized the debate over Reformation/counter-Reformation theology.

 A large part of my reflection with scripture is dealing with texts which I am less familiar with to attempt to engage with the breadth of the wisdom of scripture. I’ve been excited to dig deeper into James because it seems to resonate with a lot of my work on Matthew and Revelation. It is coming from early Jewish Christianity (or Judaic messianism since some hypothesize that there has not been a split from Judaism at the time the book has been written) in contrast to the Hellenistic mission of Paul and some of the other disciples. Like Matthew it quotes, alludes to, and echoes the law, the prophets, and the wisdom traditions that make up the Hebrew Scriptures. As Scot McKnight states:

Few dispute the Jewishness of this letter…It appeals to the Tanakh often (1:11; 2:8-10, 23; 4:6; 5: 4, 5), alludes to it constantly (e.g. 1: 13-15, 27; 2: 20-26; 3:9; 4: 7-10, 11-12; 5: 10-11, 17), and breathes throughout the spirit of biblical Judaism as it came to expression in diverse ways in the first century AD. The author chooses to call his audience something thoroughly biblical—“the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (1:1) (McKnight, 2011, p. 25)

It also is deeply connected to several of the teachings of Jesus, particularly the sermon on the mount.

The letter of James is a book that seeks a practice of faith that is authentic and single-minded. It stands in the prophetic and wisdom tradition which privileges a faith that is practices mercy and impartiality, particularly to the vulnerable, over worship or theology. As Luke Timothy Johnson states, “James’s concern is with moral rather than manners.” (NIB XII:179) It can be subversive text to societies and congregations that have organized themselves around a moral order where those with wealth and power have been encouraged to maintain their privileged position. It can be an uncomfortable book. I enjoyed Scot McKnight’s playful adaptation of a famous Mark Twain proverb, “To ape the famous words of Mark Twain, it is not the lack of clarity of context of James that bothers me; it is the words in the text that bother me.” (McKnight, 2011, p. 4) The letter of James is not hard to understand but that does not make it easy to embody.

I have been random in the order I have engaged scripture and although the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures are significantly larger than the New Testament I did not anticipate or realize until recently how much more time I had spent in these fourteen years of reflections in the Old Testament. I realized recently that I had completed thirteen Old Testament books along with most of Psalms and only two New Testament books and that I had fewer books in the Old Testament that I had not written on. My plan going forward is to alternate between the New Testament and Old Testament. The New Testament books tend to go slower for me since I fully translate the Greek Text (with Hebrew I look at critical words and study multiple translations) and I have greater familiarity with the texts. The letter of James is only five chapters, but I am looking forward in learning from my engagement with this letter I have probably underutilized.  

Resources for this reflection

With each of these reflections I have taken multiple dialogue partners to learn from. For this journey I have selected:

Green, Joel B. (2025). James A Commentary. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Johnson, Luke T. (1998) “Letter of James” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes. Nashville: Abingdon Press. (Referred to as NIB XII throughout the reflections)

McKnight, Scott. (2011). The Letter of James: the New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company.

Moore-Keish, M. L. (2019). James: Belief A Theological Commentary on the Bible. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Joel Green, Luke T. Johnson, and Scott McKnight were all New Testament scholars I was familiar with. Joel Green’s commentary just came out and I was excited to have him as one of my dialogue partners. Luke T. Johnson also wrote the much longer Anchor Bible commentary on James, but since he wrote the commentary in the New Interpreter’s Bible, I decided to capture his voice through a series I already owned. The New International Commentary (NICNT) by Scot McKnight is by far the longest commentary, and I’ve used the NICNT and NICOT commentaries in several of these reflections as a good, detailed commentary to assist with translation and other issues. The Belief series is a theological commentary, written by theologians instead of biblical scholars and I like it as a different voice coming with different questions.

Psalm 121 Vaya Con Dios

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View from Badwater Basin in Death Valley shared by photographersnature under CC 3.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley#/media/File:Badwater_Desolation.jpg

Psalm 121

 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
  from where will my help come?
 2 My help comes from the LORD,
  who made heaven and earth.

 3 He will not let your foot be moved;
  he who keeps you will not slumber.
 4 He who keeps Israel
  will neither slumber nor sleep.

 5 The LORD is your keeper;
  the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
 6 The sun shall not strike you by day
  nor the moon by night.

 7 The LORD will keep you from all evil;
  he will keep your life.
 8 The LORD will keep
  your going out and your coming in
  from this time on and forevermore.

Notes on the bolded words below.

One of my favorite farewells is the Spanish ‘vaya con dios’ which means ‘go with God.’ The English Godspeed is similar, which comes from the middle English ‘God spede you’ which means ‘may God prosper you.’ This short but well-loved psalm may have originated as a song for pilgrims making the journey to mount Zion to worship. The departing pilgrim receives a blessing from the one wishing God’s guarding presence upon the pilgrim. It may have originated as a ‘farewell liturgy’ as James Limburg identified this psalm, (NIB IV: 1180) but for many faithful people this has become a psalm of trust which encompasses the entire life of the faithful one guarded by the God who is both personally available and cosmically powerful.

The first two verses of the psalm are spoken by the pilgrim and is spoken in first person. The individual looks to the surrounding landscape to the hills, and likely to the destination of Zion, but their help for through the dangers of the coming journey do not come from the hills but from the LORD. The LORD is both ‘my help,’ one who is personally concerned for the fate of this pilgrim departing on the journey but also ‘the LORD who made heaven and earth.’ In a common duality seen in scripture God is both powerful and attentive, over all things and concerned about the life of the faithful one who places their life in God’s hand.

In verse three the voice now shifts to the one remaining behind as the pronouns are now second person. Within the final eight verses the word rendered ‘keep’ or ‘keeper’ in the NRSVue is the Hebrew samar. The Hebrew samar is a more active concept than ‘keep’ and has the active sense of guarding and watching over. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, pp. 895-897) Within the movement of the psalm the God who guards will not slumber during his time of protecting and watching over the pilgrim. The LORD guards Israel and the LORD will guard the faithful one. The language continues and intensifies as the LORD guards and provides a shade (Hebrew sel) for the pilgrim. The word for shade (sel) is often used in the psalter in the phrase ‘the shelter (sel) of you wings’ and may reference the image of God extending God’s wing or cloak in protection and shelter in the journey through the wilderness. The sun and moon have sometimes been thought of mythologically as forces which oppose the pilgrim’s journey but this is not necessary for the psalm for a journey through desert on the journey to Jerusalem (or any other destination).

In the Lord’s prayer the petition ‘and deliver us from evil (or the evil one)’ taps into a consistent theme with the LORD guarding the pilgrim from evil and guarding their life. In a common Hebrew merism[1] the LORD watches over the totality of the pilgrim’s journey, their departures and their returning home for this journey and their entire life.

Psalm 121 has a rich use in the worship life of the church, and it is frequently used with both baptismal liturgies and funeral services. The psalm’s use in these two moments that form the bookends of the Christian life nicely encompass the belief that God guards the person of faith throughout the totality of their life. Martin Luther would have parents teach their children to “fear, love, and trust God above all things.” This psalm echoes the trustworthiness of the God who guards the life of the faithful one. It is a blessing for the entirety of the journeys of life as people of faith go with God. Our entire life is guarded and sheltered by the God who is both personally available and cosmically powerful.

[1] A merism is a literary device which denote the totality or completeness of something.

A Small Light in Winter- A Christmas Story

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Frozen lake Baikal near Olkhon Island, Photo by Sergey Pesterev, Shared under CC 4.0https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal#/media/File:Lake_Baikal_in_winter.jpg

It had been a difficult several years for Father Petrov. They had laid several of the men of his congregation to rest as casualties of the War to End All Wars between 1914 and 1917. Then came the unrest which led to the October revolution where the Bolsheviks gained control and a pall of fear was cast over the community as the official position of the new government considered the Russian Orthodox Church as a symbol of the old allegiances to the Czar. Yet even last Christmas he had celebrated in a beautiful church in Moscow with an ornate iconostasis of golden painted saints and angels as incense hung in the air and the congregation sang the chants into the night to mark the night of the Savior’s birth. But as 1918 unfolded the new government began to make its mark on Moscow. Food was in short supply and so the leaders began to point to those who had formerly been nobles, the educated, and then to the ornate and beautifully domed structures of the Orthodox churches of the city. It had been a dreary October day when worship was interrupted by uniformed men who came in arresting Father Petrov and all who had dared to assemble on that day, torching the church and sending Father Petrov and his flock on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Irkutsk where they were marched along the shore of Lake Baikal to a bleak camp where they were officially to be reeducated, but it quickly became clear that ultimately they were moved to this land to be forgotten, to pass away in the Siberian winter.

Yet, despite the cold nights and inadequate shelter, Christmas arrived in 1918. There were no songbooks, no incense, no wall of icons or brightly painted walls of a church. Olga, one of his faithful members, had managed to grab seven candles and set them up in the large shed where the tools that were used for coal mining were stored. Father Petrov had a bible and as he carried his lamp to the shed where those who would celebrate this bitterly cold Christmas were gathered, he wondered what he would do without the rituals and relics of the church that had formed him for a style of worship that had endured for centuries. As he approached the shed, he looked to the lantern in his hand and thought of Jesus’ words about a lamp needing to be placed on a lampstand and not being hidden under a bushel basket, and so he found a small table and placed his lamp on it. More people than he had expected had gathered, others in the work camp seeking a small light in winter, a taste of hope in the hopelessness, a reminder of a different world, and perhaps they looked to each other in this land of the forgotten for another soul to see them and remind them that they mattered.

Father Petrov breathed in the cold air and began with the words from John’s gospel, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Then he lit the first candle and said, “and we are witnesses to that light.” Little Anya, who had seen far more than any young child should see in the last months, echoed Father Petrov’s words, “we are witnesses to that light.” And slowly at first and then in rapidly increasing numbers the remainder of the gathered congregation echoed, “and we are witnesses to that light.” Then Olga, Anya’s mother, read from the prophet Isaiah how, “The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined.” Then Olga lit the second candle and said, “and we are witnesses to that light.” This time the community responded immediately and with more force, “and we are witnesses to that light.”

Anya now stepped up beside her mother and said the words she had been practicing for this night, how the prophet Isaiah continued saying, “Unto us a child has been born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Great will be his kingdom, and there will be endless peace.” Then Anya lit the third candle and with the boldness of a child proclaimed, “and we are children of God’s son.” The congregation with a little bit of joy at seeing the faith of a child echoed, “and we are children of God’s son.”

Russian Orthodox Icon of the Archangel Gabriel

Then Rita came forward to tell of how the angel Gabriel came to Mary one fateful night and told Mary, “Do not be afraid.” How often God’s messengers came to God’s people in scary times and told them not to be afraid but before she continued on she brought out from her coat an icon of the angel Gabriel that she had saved from the church before it had been destroyed, and she told of the angel’s message of the virgin Mary and Mary’s words in response, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then Rita lit the fourth candle and said, “And we are servants of the Lord.” The community echoed, “And we are servants of the Lord.” Then Rita’s husband Jusef came and told of Joseph, the father of Jesus, who was a righteous man trying to find a way between what God expected of him in the law and mercy for his betrothed Mary who was found to be with child, and how the angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and spoke again the words, “Do not be afraid.” And then explained to Joseph that the child to be born was from God and was the fulfillment of prophecy. “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” Perhaps we too need to hear in this godforsaken place that God has not forsaken us, indeed God is with us. And then lighting the fifth candle Jusef declared, “And we serve the God who is with us.” And the community echoed, “And we serve the God who is with us.”

Russian Orthodox Icon of the Nativity

Then Victor came forward and he also took from his coat an icon that had been one from his home, an icon of the Christmas scene, and he told the story from the gospel of Luke of Joseph and Mary coming to Bethlehem and finding no place other than a shed, perhaps not unlike the shed they gathered in that night, and the child was born to them, unseen by relatives or most of the world. But how in the night the angel of the Lord came to shepherds and again told them, “Do not be afraid.” And the angel told the good news of great joy for all the people he had been entrusted with and told these shepherds how to find the child and its parents. How the heavenly host broke into song and the shepherds in their amazement went to find Mary and Joseph and the child promised to them, and described their amazement to anyone who heard, and how Mary treasured these things in her heart. Then Victor said, “And we too treasure these things in our heart.” He lit the sixth candle as the congregation echoed, “And we too treasure these things in our heart.”

Finally, Sophia, the oldest living member of the community at seventy-five years old, came to the front and turned to the gospel of John. She said in a clear voice, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.” She lit the final candle and said, “And we are servants of that light.” To which the congregation responded, “And we are servants of that light.” Father Petrov gave a final blessing in the cold winter night and summarized how we were indeed servants of the light who brings light to people living in darkness, who promises us a child who will lead us into a time of peace, who tells his servants not to be afraid, how even in godforsaken places how our God is with us, how we too can treasure these things in our hearts, for the one who was with God in the beginning at creation is here among us bringing light and life into our darkness. He uttered a final blessing for this flock gathered in the shed and then they made their way back to their barracks where they would attempt to shelter from the piercing wind blowing over the lake. But as the left they carried with them a little hope in what before had seemed hopeless, and a small light in the winter.

This story has historical elements, but it is a fictional story. The place and time are real, but the specifics of the situation and the characters only existed in my imagination prior to this night. May this Christmas story from a cold and dark world bring a little light into your season.

Psalm 113 The God On High Who Lifts The Lowly

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Window on the south wall of St Andrews just outside the Feilden chapel, by Henry Holiday and depicting Holy Women of the Old and New Testaments: Sarah, Hannah, Ruth and Esther in the top four panels and the Virgin Mary, Elizabeth, Mary of Bethany and Dorcas in the lower. By Rodhullandemu – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73469366

Psalm 113

1 Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD; praise the name of the LORD.
2 Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised.
4 The LORD is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!

The God of the songs and stories of Israel is a God who turns the world upside down. The LORD of Israel is the one who is high above all nations and lords yet this God raises up the “triad of the wretched” (Bellinger, 2014, p. 490) the poor, the needy, and the barren. This is the LORD on high who lifts up the lowly. Psalm 113 echoes this paradoxical reality in Hebrew thought: the LORD is high above all things, and the LORD looks down and sees the lowliest of all things.

Psalm 113 begins and ends with Hallelujah (NRSV Praise the LORD!). Unlike the previous two psalms it is not an acrostic, instead it is a short poem with two easily discerned parts. In the first four verses the praising and honoring of the LORD is the focus. Verse five forms pivot where the psalmist asks, “Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high.” The final four verses consider how this LORD who is seated on high cares for the lowly.

The praise of the LORD in the first four verses continually mentions the LORD and the name of the LORD as the focus of the praise of the servants of the LORD. The name of the LORD, enshrined in the commandment to “not make wrongful use the name of the LORD your God,” (Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11) is critical to the proper reverence of the God of Israel. Names in the ancient world were powerful things and this God whose name is to be praised at all times (from this time on forevermore and from the rising of the sun to its setting) was due the reverence afforded to the name of the LORD.[1] This God who is above all things and whose name is worthy of reverence is seated on high.

The LORD on high lifting up the lowly is easily seen in the English translations, but when the Hebrew is rendered in a more literal translation[2] the parallel is even clearer as J. Clinton McCann Jr. shows:

A more literal translation captures the effect; God “makes God’s self high in order to sit,” (v.5b) “makes God’s self low in order to see,” (v. 6a) “causes the poor to arise” (v.7a), “makes exalted the needy…to cause them to sit with princes.” (NIB IV: 1139)

God intervenes in the life of the poor, the needy and the barren woman. God uses God’s position and power to lift up the lowly. This is the God of Sarah. Rebekah, and Rachel in the book of Genesis, these formerly barren women who became the joyous mothers of children. This is the God of the exodus who took a poor and needy people out of their captivity through the wilderness into the promised land. This is the God who hears the song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2) and Mary (Luke 1:46-55) which both share common themes with the second half of Psalm 113.

Psalm 113 in modern Jewish life is the first of the “Egyptian Hallel” psalms which are utilized in the Passover celebration. It is possible that this was the psalm that Jesus and his followers sang before they went out to the Mount of Olives after the Last Supper (Mark 14:26). The Psalm resonates strongly with many of the themes of the ministry of Jesus, just as it resonates with the story, songs, and the law. As Deuteronomy reminds the people:

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribes, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. (Deuteronomy 10: 17-18)

This short psalm captures a central theme of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures: the paradox that the God who is high over all things sees and lifts up the lowly.

[1] The four letters of the divine name given to Moses in Exodus 3:14 are behind the English translation of LORD in all capitol letters. The practice of translating this LORD comes from the practice of using the vowel pointings for ‘Adonai” (Hebrew lord) on the consonants in Hebrew so that the reader knows not to utter the name of the LORD the God of Israel.

[2] Translators have to make a difficult choice when rendering a language into another of how to balance the literal meaning of the words with the different syntax and expectations of the language they are translating into. A “wooden” or “literal” translation is often difficult to read or understand because Hebrew sentences often do not include elements that most English readers are used to.

Psalm 110 A Psalm of Enthronement

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Stained Glass window at the Melkite Catholic Annunciation Cathedral in Roslindale, MA depicting Christ the King with the regalia of a Byzantine Emperor

Psalm 110

Of David. A Psalm.
1The LORD says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2The LORD sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes.
3Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
4The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5The LORD is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth.
7He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.

Psalm 110 is repeatedly referenced in the New Testament[1] as a way of demonstrating that Jesus is the Messiah and that as the Messiah, he is more important even than David. Yet this psalm so important to early Christians is heard differently by Jewish readers. Within these reflections I’ve tried to hold both Christian and Jewish voices in conversation, and I think that both can help us gain a fuller picture of the scriptures that we share. This enthronement psalm shares similar themes to Psalm 2. Both psalms view this newly anointed lord as the chosen vessel of the LORD the God of Israel. The king may be seated at the right hand[2]

As an enthronement psalm for a Davidic king, these words would likely come from a court prophet or singer to be spoken as God’s words over the new king. The prophet or singer refers to the new king as ‘my lord’ because they serve that king. The capitalization of the letters in the other occurrences of LORD in this psalm indicate that it refers to the divine name, YHWH, and the vowels are pointed around the letters to indicate to the speaker to say ‘Lord’ (or Adonai in Hebrew) instead of the divine name. YHWH speaks through the prophet to the new king and invites the king into this position of honor and promises to fight on the new king’s behalf. Verse three is full of textual difficulties, as Nancy deClaissé- Walford states, the

words appear to be an elevated description of the newly enthroned monarch, obeyed willingly by the people and endowed with strength and stamina—the dew of your childhood—which emanate from the splendor of holiness.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 836)

Although there were both royal and priestly roles in the world of the Davidic kings, the kings of Israel did have priestly functions. Now the king is linked to the ancient figure of Melchizedek who comes from Salem, and who is also a king, and blesses Abraham by God Most High. This King of Salem becomes the priestly model for the King of Jerusalem, likely built on the same spot generations later. This installation of the new king in both a royal and priestly role integrates this new leader into their privileged place in God’s ordering of the world. (Mays, 1994, p. 352)

The ancient world was a violent place, and the Davidic kings were expected to lead the nation to both safety and military victory. Yet, Israel was never to be a military power,[3] and their strength resided in the God who executes judgment among the nations. The language of ‘filling the nations with corpses’ and ‘shattering heads over the wide earth’ continues the elevated description of the power behind the new monarch and the power behind the throne that ultimately controls the fate of the nations. The LORD, the God of Israel, will provide the stream beyond the path of the new king allowing this king to lift up his head in honor and strength.

Christian readers will hear this psalm through the lens of Christ, and ‘sitting at the right hand of the Father’ becomes a way that the church will talk about the honored and powerful position of Jesus for the church and the world. Jesus takes on the role of king for Christians and this led to the persecution of many early followers of Jesus who refused to pay honor to the divinity of Caesar. The book of Hebrews also highlights the way Jesus fulfils the role of the priesthood for Christians.[4] In liturgical churches the final Sunday of the church year is Christ the King Sunday which celebrates the way Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of God, but instead of being a conquering king he was a crucified messiah. Revelation 19: 11-16 is the closest the New Testament gets to the militaristic language of verse five and six of this psalm. The quotation of this psalm by Jesus in his conflicts with the Pharisees in Matthew 22:44 and parallels probably was not viewed as a convincing argument by his opponents and most Jewish leaders, if they utilize this psalm today, would be waiting for a return of a Davidic ruler who can rule from the power of the LORD the God of Israel and bring the nation back to a place of security. As large of a role as this psalm plays in the New Testament, I don’t believe that it plays a similar role in the thought of contemporary Judaism.

[1] Matthew 22:44; Mark 14:62; 16:19; Luke 22:69; Acts 2:34-35; 7:55; Romans 8:34; Ephesians1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12; 1 Peter 3:22

[2] Being seated at the right hand is a position of honor and power. It is interesting that in Psalm 109 the psalmists asks for an accuser to take this position for the wicked person. The name Benjamin comes from a conjunction of the Hebrew word for son (bin) and right hand (yamin).  

[3] Deuteronomy 17: 14-20 which sets the limits on a king for Israel indicates that the focus is not to be on building a stronger military but instead on a ruler being faithful to the LORD and the covenant.

[4] Particularly Hebrews chapters 5 and 7.

Seeking Christmas

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 It isn’t with the Christmas tree
Or presents wrapped for all to see
St.Nick, he didn’t bring it here
Nor Frosty of the Grinch I fear
 
It isn’t in the shopping mall
Nor songs that sing our ‘Deck the Hall’
Or houses decked in Christmas lights
Or people packed on holiday flights
 
Family and friends, feast and gift
Do comfort and my spirits lift
Yet sometimes all the noise and light
Distracts me on this silent night
 
From Joseph’s trip from Galilee
And his new wife, blessed Mary
From Jesus in a manger lay
For no room was found on his birthday
 
Messiah, the Word of God, the Light
That came upon that Holy Night
When the angel proclamation began
Peace on earth, good will to man
 
Come let us go and seek and tell
This child who is Emmanuel
The creator to creation come
A new covenant of grace begun
 
To seek with Magi Bethlehem
To see the king or the great ‘I am’
To ponder deep within our heart
The words the shepherd did impart
 
For that is what I seek this year
In the middle of the holiday cheer
The place where heaven comes to earth
To fill our hearts and souls with mirth

Mosaic in the Rosary Basilica, Lourdes

Mosaic in the Rosary Basilica, Lourdes