Fleeing is Believing: Divine Providence and the Third Sunday of Easter

 

Readings for the Third Sunday of Easter

The entire story of Scripture, from the first book, Genesis, to the last, Revelation, is the story of Divine Providence. In what sense does God provide for us in human history? St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas both believed that God, in his Divine Providence, exercised care and foresight for his creation and our well-being. God did not will our fall from grace. God pursued Adam and Eve, and their descendants, from the Garden of Eden into the Wasteland of Sin. Because of Divine Providence, there is the possibility of history, that is, a human story that is going somewhere. History is not  just one damn thing after another, it is a story. Because God is providential—because his providence extends beyond the provision of a garden in the East and pursues us into the desert of sin and death—there is progress toward a goal, there is history. Disasters notwithstanding, we are going somewhere, not nowhere.  God educates us as individuals and as a people.
 
Divine Providence
St. Augustine wrote the City of God after the barbarian Alaric the Visigoth sacked Rome. It seemed like the end of his world, and, in a very important way, it was the beginning of the end. Our world is rooted in the destruction of Rome as a political entity. In reflection on these events, Augustine wrote that God had been educating the human race since the beginning:

“The right education of humanity in general, so far as the people of God is concerned, like the right education of a single individual, advances through certain eras of time, as if by the stages of an individual’s growth and development, mounting up from temporal things to a comprehension of eternal things and from visible things to invisible things.”

 St. Irenaeus, another early Church Father, also saw Divine Providence in history.

“By this arrangement, therefore, and these harmonies, and a sequence of this nature, man, a created and organized being, is rendered after the image and likeness of the uncreated God.”

 There are many damnable things in the history of people, but history itself is more than just one damn thing after another. God’s providence acts in history, bringing good from evil, light from darkness. Our story, according to Scripture, began in a garden and will end in a garden. That is the meaning of history.
 
Our world is a fallen world and the story of our salvation is how God raises us up from our fall. He redirects our gaze to his presence in all we say and do. The story of Cleopas and his friend’s flight from Jerusalem and his encounter with the stranger on the road, is a story about our education in Divine Providence. It is more than mere coincidence that the stranger upbraids Cleopas, not for not knowing the scriptures, but for not believing them. The stranger helps both men understand the meaning of scripture and then, in the breaking of the bread, reveals himself as the Risen Christ, Divine Wisdom, God’s wise providence. Is it a mere coincidence that, at every mass, we reflect on the scriptures, especially the Old Testament and then, with the Risen Christ, share in the breaking of the bread? No, it is Divine Providence …God provides.
 
St. Peter: The Unblemished Lamb
The gospel is the story of two travelers … sojourners … fleeing disaster. It is our story. Why were these two men fleeing Jerusalem? Aren’t they headed the wrong direction? They are missing all the action. They have heard the story of the empty tomb, the angel and the story of Easter. They are not, however, connecting the dots. Remember, when the stranger hears their whole, sad story of why they are running away, he doesn’t criticize them because they didn’t study the scriptures. He upbraids them for not believing what they read. The stranger says,

“Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures. Lk. 24:13-35

Compare Cleopas and his friend’s confusion with the forceful, focused preaching of St. Peter in the second reading. St. Peter addressing the faithful preached:

Beloved: If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.” 1 Peter 1:17-21

So how are we sojourners? So how does St. Peter come up with Jesus as a lamb? We are used to this language, but let’s not skip over it without considering why we accept it. First, a few basic questions:
 
Why does Peter call his listeners sojourners?
The word we translate as ‘sojourners’ is from the Greek word paroikias. That word is derived from two Greek words: par(‘next to’ or ‘with’ ) and oikos (‘house’ ). A person who is a paroikos is literally someone dwelling beside the house. A travelling salesperson, a travelling merchant or a pilgrim might be allowed to camp beside the house. It is also the root for our word “parishioner.”  Parishioners are sojourners or people in exile, aliens or persons far from their true home. Every Christian is on a journey, making an exodus to the Promised Land. In short, we don’t really fit here.

Why does Peter refer to the unblemished Lamb?
Peter refers to Christ, “the true lamb without blemish or spot.”

1. First, the Greek word ‘Cristos’ that we transliterate as Christ, means ‘anointed one.’ Anointed like a king or prophet is anointed in the Old Testament.  The anointed is chosen, appointed or selected by God.
2. The lamb is a sacrifice chosen for the Passover meal in the book of Exodus. The people are commanded to sacrifice the lamb and to marks the lintels of their door with the blood so that the angel of death will pass them over and that they will live to make the journey to the Promised Land. Peter says:

...that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 1 Peter 1:17-21

 Peter is comparing a human person, Jesus, to an animal sacrifice. In the language of scripture study this is called ‘typology.’  Typology is a type of metaphor. A metaphor is when we compare two thing that are not alike on the outside because they bear some important resemblance concerning some interior quality. For instance, a mama bear is a female bear that has cubs.  A mama bear is also a human female who is very protective of her children. One roots for nuts and berries in the forest, the other roots around in the refrigerator for something to feed her family. The point of comparison isn’t the hairy hide or eating habits, it is how protective the bear and mom are concerning their offspring.  That is metaphor.
 
Typology is a species of metaphor. The lamb is a type of thing in the Old Testament rules of sacrifice. A lamb and Jesus bear no exterior resemblance. The deeper inner meaning of both is, however, sacrifice. The lamb’s blood was the mark for the angel of death to Passover the Hebrew’s house in the story of Moses, Pharaoh and the Passover. The blood of Jesus is the mark of the salvation of the Christian, the mark for the angel of death to Passover the Christian.
 
St. Peter makes the same point in  1 Peter 1:3-4, where he says:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you...

 Why did St. Peter think like this? Why does he say Jesus is the lamb of sacrifice? That is what is being explained in the gospel today. This is where the apostolic tradition of typology is made clear.
 
Gospel: Fleeing and Believing
Who is Cleopas? In the Gospel of John, Jesus had an uncle named Cleopas. At the foot of the cross was Jesus’ mother Mary and Mary’s sister, the wife of Cleopas. Jn. 19:25 So, probably, Cleopas was Jesus's uncle.  So, we are hearing a story about Jesus family and belief.  This may explain why Cleopas is named, but not his companion.
 
Cleopas is fleeing Jerusalem. Whatever faith he had in Jesus is gone. Remember when Jesus asked his disciples, “who do people say I am?” Lk. 9:20.  His uncle’s apparent response was just a “prophet, a mighty man sent from God performing signs and wonders.” In short, he is in the non- Messiah category for Cleopas. He apparently thought the scriptures foretold a Messianic soldier. The Gospel says, they “had hoped [past tense] that he was the one to redeem Israel, but now it's the third day since he was put to death.” In short, “I guess that is not going to work out.”  He knows the story of the empty tomb, the angels, the women and the report that he was alive. Their response is, apparently, that Resurrection is in the non-messianic category, so I’m going home.  Wait, hold on a moment. Let’s think this through.
 
That is when the mysterious man on the road upbraids them for not believing the scriptures. Then, the mysterious scripture scholar,

“Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.” Lk. 24:13-35

This is why the Church understands Jesus in the light of the Old Testament. This why we explain him as Jesus the Messiah who leads us on a New Exodus, the sacrificial Lamb of God, the King of Israel, the New Adam, Wisdom, the Bread from Heaven, the new Manna, the Light in the Darkness. These are all Old Testaments types used to understand how Jesus saves. 
 
Divine Providence, the Scriptures and the Church
When I was in my first parish assignment as an associate at Immaculate Conception Parish in Yuma, I was assisting in RCIA classes. I was talking one evening about salvation history and the Old Testament when a young woman asked me a question. She said, “Why are we talking about the Jews and their story, I want to hear about Jesus!”  The meaning of history is Jesus Christ, a Jew, because salvation comes from the Jews. Divine providence in the story of Israel prepares us for the meaning of Christ. How could we understand the meaning of history, who we are and where we are going if there is no one to explain. Faith does not compete with reason; instead it takes us beyond where reason alone can go. When Jesus upbraids Uncle Cleopas on the road, he is instructing him in Scripture 101. How we read and understand the bible is fundamental to getting the story of Christ, his Church and Divine Providence right. This is why individual interpretation of scripture makes no sense. We need a dependable voice to explain the scriptures and that, friends, is the living voice of apostolic authority.
 
When St. Peter is preaching about the unblemished lamb of God, he is using typology. Jesus  is being compared to the type of the Passover sacrificial lamb. Typology is the Early Christian study of Old Testament pre-figurations (events, realities, and signs) that point forward to and are fulfilled in the New Testament, such as the sacrificial lamb.  So, Jesus, the stranger, the Lamb of God, explains the scripture to these two sojourners on the road to Emmaus. After he has taught the scripture, like we do in the Liturgy of the Word at Mass, Cleopas invited him to stay. Because their eyes had been opened to Divine Providence in the scriptures, at the meal they shared, they recognized the Risen Lord in the breaking of the bread. He is the same Jesus who celebrated Passover with them at the Lord’s Supper. Jesus continues to stay with us when we open the scripture and break bread at each Mass. Divine Providence ordained it so.