The Gospel of John, Chapter 21: Breakfast

 

The Gospel of John, Chapter 21: Breakfast

Read Chapter 21 here.

Since the previous chapter ended with some final-sounding words, this actual last chapter serves as a kind of epilogue or postscript.  

By the Sea of Tiberias (perhaps more familiar to us by one of its other names - the Sea of Galilee) some of the disciples are gathered.  The group includes Simon Peter, Doubting Thomas, The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved (TDWJL), and a few others.  Simon Peter says “I am going fishing” and the others go with him.  They are fishing at night, from a boat, but they do not catch a single fish.

The narrator informs us of the time of day, which, as we have seen before, is likely significant: 

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  (verse 21:4)

This is similar to the other resurrection appearances - Jesus shows up, but the disciples do not recognize him immediately.  Jesus speaks first, asking them if they have caught any fish, and they say, nope.  He suggests that they cast their fishing net to the right side of the boat.  They do so, and their net is so full of fish they can hardly haul it in.   

At this moment, TDWJL recognizes Jesus and exclaims to Peter, “It is the Lord!”  The text says:

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the sea.  (verse 21:7)

It seems Pete is shocked and embarrassed. Because he is naked?  Because he doubts the resurrection?  We don’t know.  The other disciples drag the heavy net into the boat.

They all go ashore and find a charcoal fire there.  There is fish cooking, and some bread.  Jesus asks them to bring some of the fish they have just caught.  The text specifies that the net is full of large fish, 153 of them.  Another piece of miracle is that despite the huge haul, the net is not torn.

Jesus says “Come and have breakfast.”  A wonderful and simple invitation.  By this point, all the disciples recognize that it is the Lord.  Jesus gives them bread and fish.  The author notes that this is Jesus’ third resurrection appearance to the disciples.  Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene doesn’t count, because she ain’t no disciple.  Or so the gospel author and centuries of tradition would have us think.

What do I love about this story?  I love it because it was one of my Mom’s favorite Bible scenes.  I love it because it’s breakfast, and cooked by Jesus.  I love it because Jesus is so down to earth and friendly.  He is quite unlike what we have seen in some of the earlier chapters of this gospel. I love it because it has a miracle involving fish.  I love it because Peter is impetuous, as always.  And I love that it is so specific about the number of fish caught.

Next we have the famous passage where Jesus offers Peter redemption from Peter’s three denials of Jesus on the night of his arrest.  Three times, Jesus asks Peter “Do you love me?”  This time, Peter is able to reply in the affirmative, three times.  Jesus has some instructions to go along with the redemption, and a dire prediction.  It’s worth sharing the whole dialogue:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” 

He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” 

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” 

He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” 

Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” 

Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” 

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

(verses 15-19)

And so we have circled back to the start of the gospel.  In 1:39, Jesus issues the simple invitation to the first disciples - “Come and see,” just as simple as “Come and have breakfast.”  In 1:42 Jesus says to Peter “You are Simon son of John.  You are to be called Cephas (Peter)”.  And here in Chapter 21 Jesus calls Peter “Simon son of John” just as he did at the start.  And in 1:43, Jesus says to another new disciple, “Follow me.”

It’s now the dawn of a new day.  We have an immense catch of fish.  We enjoy a hearty meal with close friends, sitting by the sea.  We have a renewed sense of purpose.  Given the particular week in which I am writing this, I find re-reading this story immensely comforting.  Jesus’ language is all about invitation and companionship and love; he does not use force or oppression.  “Come and have breakfast.” 

Although the story has circled back to the beginning, Jesus does not seek to return to how things were.  Jesus wants to move forward with love.

At the same time, Jesus’ words are perplexing.  Jesus reaches back to one of the major metaphors of the gospel – the sheep and the Good Shepherd – and assigns to Peter, and by implication us, the task of caring for his “sheep”.  There’s very little explanation on how to do that.  Would that we could live up to what Jesus is asking us to do!  Perhaps it’s good that Jesus didn’t spell it out to specifically, because how we tend the “sheep” now has to be different than what was needed in 1st century Palestine. Or in 17th century England, a time that at least one US Supreme Court Justice, curiously, feels is relevant to our jurisprudence.  Or in 21st century United States.

From Jesus’ prediction, Peter knows that it will not be all sweetness and light to be tending Jesus’ sheep.  

The next paragraph focuses on The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved and implies a kind of rivalry between Peter and TDWJL.  TDWJL had been following Jesus and Peter during their close conversation.  Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”  (verse 22).  Jesus replies “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?  Follow me!”  The implication is that TDWJL will not die, but then the narrator denies that is the meaning of what Jesus said.  Jesus is basically saying, never mind about the other disciple, you just keep your eyes on me and follow me.  

This week, powerful people in this country showed just how much they want to impose draconian abortion restrictions on all women, no matter the woman’s circumstances. I will interpret this passage about Peter and TDWJL (John 21:21-23) as showing us that Jesus does not make the same rules apply to everyone.  He is able to take into account the particulars of both Peter and John’s situation.  Jesus knows each person’s situation is unique.  Justice Alito, the rest of McConnell’s Handmaidens on the Supreme Court, and on down the line to state legislators - they have no qualms about applying the steepest penalty across the board regardless of the circumstances surrounding a pregnancy (but zero penalty for the man causing an unintended pregnancy! and zero intention to provide healthcare coverage for those involved!).

But I believe Jesus is able to see the need of the woman who has a miscarriage that looks just like an abortion attempt.  I believe Jesus is able to see the need of the woman in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, very much intended, but who finds out something has gone wrong and her health is threatened.  I believe Jesus is able to see the need of the woman who already has three children, has an unintended pregnancy, and just lost her job and her health insurance, and can’t see how she will support another child.  I believe Jesus is able to see the need of the woman with an unintended pregnancy because a man raped and impregnated her.  The Jesus I worship will not oppress these women the way Justice Alito would.  And yes, forcing any of these women to give birth against their will is oppression.

Theodicy would address why these women end up in these horrible circumstances in the first place, but I'm not going there. There is no good answer to that question. In Jesus' prediction about Peter's fate, Jesus is acknowledging that horrible things happen.

In the final paragraph of the gospel the narrator reveals that he himself is The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved:

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.  (verses 24-25)

Thus ends this reading of the Gospel of John.  Thanks be to God.  It was not an easy read, but I feel I have gained blessing from the reading of it.  

First Lines: April 2022 edition

This photo has nothing to do with reading, unless
you consider that the building behind the tree
 is a school. 
The photo was taken several years ago
so there were definitely books in there.
Not so sure about now.

 Below are the first lines of the five books I finished reading in April.    

 

Book 1

Hours of Operation

Mall traffic on a gray winter’s day, stalled.  Midmorning and the streetlights are still on, weakly.  Scattered flakes drift down like ash, but for now the roads are dry.

 

 

Book 2

Dear young girls, Home again from the deserts and oases of the Sheikdoms I find your enthusiastic letters on my desk. They have aroused in me the wish to tell you and many others who take an interest in our ancestors about these strange discoveries in Danish bogs.

 

 

Book 3

“Shhh!” 

Violet Speedwell frowned.  She did not need shushing; she had not said anything.

 

Book 4

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 overcome it.

Book 5

“The whole city is a memorial to slavery”

Prologue

The sky above the Mississippi River stretched out like a song.  The river was still in the windless afternoon, its water a yellowish-brown from the sediment it carried across thousands of miles of farmland, cities, and suburbs on its way south.

 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan.  Published 2007.  146 pages.

This short novel is about the final night of operation at a chain restaurant.  Although it was written before the pandemic, it had a poignancy brought on by my thoughts of what the restaurant industry has gone through in the past two years.  The epigraph for this book reads “for my brother John and everyone who works the shifts nobody wants.”  And that in a nutshell is what this book is about. 

 

I started this book and then got a book on my kindle that I have been waiting for.  But I liked this book’s main character and the writing style, so I decided to finish it before starting on the next one.  Stewart O’Nan is originally from Pittsburgh. This is the first work I have read by him, and I hope to read more (but not horror!). 

 

Book 2

Meet Me at the Museum, by Anne Youngson.  Published 2018.  277 pages.

I really enjoyed this book.  It’s an epistolary novel, not usually my favorite, but the thoughtful characters and the interesting (but not violent) plot were just what I needed.  A bonus – I learned about Tollund Man. 

NPR Review. 

 

Book 3

A Single Thread, by Tracy Chevalier.  Published 2019.  318 pages.

This book is purportedly about sewing, but it’s really about so much more.  A single woman, aged 38, makes her way through life after World War I in Britain.  There is a whole swath of women who are called “surplus women” – since so many men were killed in WWI, many women are not able to find a husband.  The main character, Violet Speedwell, wants to break away from the norms of her time, but at the same time wants to be accepted and be a part of regular society.  Her mother is a piece of work.  I really liked the characters and the symbolism.

I read it for book club, and I was the most enthusiastic person about it. Most of them liked Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring more than this one. I vaguely remember Girl With a Pearl Earring as being great writing but also a little creepy.

 

Book 4

The Gospel According to John (the Bible).  Author not easily determined for certain. Written about 90-110 C.E. 21 chapters; 84 pages.

On this very blog I have a barrage of posts with my commentary on this gospel.   I still have to write up my thoughts on Chapter 21, which features breakfast.

Book 5

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, by Clint Smith.  Published 2021.  The text ends at 288 pages. With endnotes 353 pages.

I highly recommend this thoughtful book.  The author traveled during 2017-2020 to various places and interviews with fascinating people, to examine the effects slavery in the US still has on our society.  Smith takes us to New Orleans, Louisiana; Monticello Plantation – Jefferson’s estate in Virginia; The Whitney Plantation, a museum in Louisiana; Angola Prison. Louisiana; Blandford Cemetery, Virginia; Galveston Island, Texas; New York City; Goree Island, Senegal; and an interview of his grandfather and his grandmother.

 

Side story:  A few weeks ago, while visiting folks in Maryland, my brother and I set off to drive from Cockeysville to Rockville.  But there was a crash on the main highway, so the GPS directed us to side roads.  We turned on to McDonogh Road, and I said to my brother, “I think there’s a private school named McDonogh School.  I wonder if it’s on this road.”  Sure enough, soon we passed a huge grassy expanse with a sign for the school.

 

Just a week later, I was astonished to read this passage in How the Word Is Passed:

Waters drove me past two schools named after John McDonogh, a wealthy slave-owning merchant after whom dozens of schools, filled largely with Black children, were named until the 1990s.  (page 5)

The internet informed that this same slave-owner John McDonogh was the founder of the private school in Baltimore.  He was a nasty guy.  (Read a bit of that Wikipedia piece to find out.)

 

Clint Smith writes, speaking of New Orleans: “The echo of enslavement is everywhere.” 

It seems that echo is also hiding on the back roads of suburban Maryland.  Maryland was, in fact, a slave state, although it did not secede from the Union. 

According to Wikipedia, McDonogh was a slave-owner, a recluse and a miser.  In his will he left his fortune to the cities of New Orleans and Baltimore for the purpose of building schools for poor children, both Black and White.   So was McDonogh a bad guy, for owning slaves, and all the other nasty things he did to get rich?  Or was he not such a bad guy because he made education possible for poor kids of all races?  

 

 

A whole slew of unfinished books

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan.  Published 2018.   334 pages.  Great writing.  Too gruesome for me at this time. Maybe later.

 

The Personal Librarian by Heather Terrell or Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.   Published 2018. Did not finish but might resume later.  No time to investigate the confusing list of authors.

Love in A Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford.  

I was searching for a light read but this book was not it.  The book started out with a whole bunch of accusatory prose about people in the 1930s whom I had never heard of.  

 

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland.  Another failure in the search for a light read.  I’ve tried twice but just wasn’t hooked.

 

A tome

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky.  Translated by Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear.  First published 1879.  This translation first published 1990.  796 pages. 

I’m reading this in bits and pieces.  This is only possible because there are plenty of synopses available out there.  So far I’ve gotten to about page 178. 

 

The Gospel of John, Chapter 20: Resurrection

Read Chapter 20 here.

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb…” The chapter begins with these familiar words.

At key moments in the narrative, the Gospel of John makes a point of telling us when the action is occurring – early in the day, noon, or the night; in light or in darkness.  Light and darkness are also key metaphors in the gospel for spiritual vision or lack thereof.  At this moment in this gospel telling, the light of a new day is about to shine.

The other important thing to point out here, that is mentioned in nearly every Easter sermon, is that women are main characters here.  In this gospel, one woman is named.

To proceed with the story… Mary Magdalene sees that, surprisingly, the tomb is open - the stone has been rolled away from the entrance.  It doesn’t say she is alarmed but we can guess that she is, from what she does – she immediately runs back to Simon Peter and the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (TDWJL) and tells them that someone has taken Jesus’ body away.  She exclaims, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”  The use of “we” implies that Mary M. had gone to the tomb with other people.

Peter and TDWJL run to the tomb. TDWJL gets there first and peeks in, noticing that the burial cloths are there.  Simon Peter catches up, and fully enters the tomb.  He sees that the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was folded up, separate from the other cloths.  TDWJL then goes into the tomb.  “He saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”  I think in this sentence, “they” refers to the rest of Jesus’ followers, not including The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved.  

We can infer that what TDWJL believes in that moment is that Jesus is raised from death to life. Could it be that TDWJL is doing a little humble-brag?  Only the most advanced disciples believe in the resurrection right away.  In fact, it’s a relief to learn that it took time for most of the disciples to come to believe in the resurrection. 

The two disciples head back home, leaving Mary still at the tomb, crying.  She looks into the tomb and sees two angels, who ask her why she is crying.  She repeats what she told the disciples - they have taken him (Jesus’s body) away, and I don’t know where they have put him.  She turns around, and sees a person standing there.  It’s Jesus, but Mary does not recognize him yet.  Jesus asks, Why are you crying?  Whom are you looking for?  Mary thinks he is the gardener, and asks him where he has put the body.  

Then Jesus calls her by name.  “Mary!”  She recognizes him and exclaims, “Teacher!”  The text implies that Mary approaches Jesus, because next Jesus warns her “not to hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  Jesus instructs Mary to go and tell “my brothers” (the disciples):  

“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”  (verse 17)

Mary goes to the disciples and tells them that she has seen The Lord, and tells them what he said to her.

I just realized that throughout this gospel, when the word “disciples” is used, my assumption has been that it refers to men.  Isn’t Mary Magdalene a disciple, a follower of Jesus?  It seems she is, or should be considered so, because Jesus entrusts to Mary the crucial message that he is alive, raised from the dead.  But I think this gospel is written with the assumption that the disciples are men.

When Jesus uses the phrase “my Father and your Father” he is reinforcing the unity he spoke of in his prayer in Chapter 17.  “All mine are yours, and yours are mine” (verse 17:10).  In verse  15:15 Jesus had moved from calling the disciples his servants to calling them his friends.  In this phrase in 20:17 Jesus is portraying himself as their brother.  In a sense, this brings us full circle back to chapter 1:  

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  (1:12-13)

The story leaps to the evening of the same day.  The disciples are meeting together, locking the doors of the house where they are, because they fear the Jewish leaders who opposed Jesus.  Into that gathering Jesus appears and says, “Peace be with you.” (Verse 19)  

Jesus shows them his hands and his side – presumably the marks of his wounds from being nailed to the cross, and from where the soldiers pierced his side after he died.  Nowhere in the text of this gospel did it describe the process of nailing a person to a cross.  It is assumed that we know that is part of crucifixion.  

The wounds are proof that it is Jesus himself.  The disciples are overjoyed to see Jesus.  Jesus says again “Peace be with you,” and continues “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  The first part of this sentence must be further proof of Jesus’ identity, because he has said this very thing about a thousand times in this gospel.  But I think this is the first time in this gospel that Jesus sends the disciples.   The text, as usual, is enigmatic; it does not say exactly where he is sending them or for what purpose.  But we know from Chapter 7 that we should not make the same mistake the Pharisees made (verses 7:32-36).  Jesus is not talking about sending them to the grocery store.  This gospel’s theme is that Jesus was sent from the Father to bring light and life.  Now Jesus is sending the disciples out to bring the same to all. Jesus is sending them to carry out the new commandment to love one another.  That’s my interpretation, anyway.

Then Jesus breathes on the disciples and says:

 “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”  (verse 22-23)

This is quite a gift Jesus is giving.  Jesus had already spoken to the disciples about the gift of the Holy Spirit (14:15-17,  14:25, 15:26, 16:7-13).  But this verse is the only time the word “forgive” appears in the entire Gospel of John (in the NRSV). Will the disciples be careful not to misuse their new power to forgive or retain sins?

One of the disciples was not in that locked room when Jesus appeared – Thomas.  The other disciples tell Thomas they have seen the resurrected Jesus, but he doesn’t believe them.   Thomas declares that he must physically see and touch where the crucifixion nails went into Jesus’ hands and feet, and where the soldiers stuck a spear in his side.  Hence the nickname that he has been stuck with throughout the centuries:  Doubting Thomas. Seems unfair, as in Chapter 11 Thomas was the first one to volunteer to walk into danger with Jesus.

A week passes, and again the disciples are gathered together, with Thomas among them this time.  Jesus appears and says “Peace be with you.”  He invites Thomas to see and touch his hands and his side.  “Do not doubt but believe.”   And Thomas does believe.  Jesus speaks of future believers:

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (verse 29)

The gospel author notes that Jesus did other “signs” but they are not recorded here. The purpose of what is written in this gospel is: 

so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (verses 30-21)

Those two verses sound like the end of the gospel, but there is one more chapter.

The Gospel of John, Chapter 19: Crucifixion

 

The Gospel of John, Chapter 19: Crucifixion

Read Chapter 19 here.

The torture and humiliation now begin in earnest.  And so does the political maneuvering between the Jewish leaders and Pilate, the Roman governor.  There is a tragic sense of fatalism - everything is happening as it has to happen, everyone is playing their allotted role.  Numerous times in this chapter the author tells us that scripture is fulfilled.

First, Pilate has Jesus whipped.  That in itself should be enough torture, but it doesn’t stop there.

Since Pilate has repeatedly called Jesus “King of the Jews”, the soldiers mock Jesus by making a crown of thorns and torture Jesus by putting this painful thing on his head.  They dress him in a purple robe, sarcastically say “Hail, King of the Jews”, and slap Jesus in the face.  

Pilate appears again before “them” (I surmise that this means the Jewish leaders who arrested Jesus and brought him to Pilate).  Jesus appears before them all, wearing the crown of thorns and the mocking robe of “royalty.”  Pilate twice says that he finds nothing to accuse Jesus of.  The chief priests and police call out “Crucify him!” and say that Jesus’ crime is that “he has claimed to be the Son of God.” (verse 7)

Pilate becomes afraid.  I guess he doesn’t want to get mixed up in a religious-political dispute.  Or he doesn’t want to choose between dissing the emperor or dissing the God of the Jewish people.  Pilate quizzes Jesus again, trying for a third time (a mirror image of Peter’s three denials?) to find a reason to free Jesus, but Jesus says nothing.  Pilate says, don’t you know I have supreme power over your life?  Jesus then responds that the only reason Pilate has power is that it was given to him “from above.”  

Again Pilate tries to release Jesus.  The Jewish leaders who oppose Jesus throw it back in his face - they say, if you let free this man who claims to be a king, then you are being disloyal to the Roman emperor.

Next Pilate tries to appeal to the people outside the Praetorium.  Are these just the Jewish leaders, or is it a crowd of people?  I think in this gospel it’s just the leaders.  The text notes that it was the “day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was about noon.”  I am not sure what this detail means. Is there likely to be a big crowd there at that time on that particular day? 

Pilate said to “the Jews”, (the leaders who oppose Jesus), “Here’s your king!” but they shout for Jesus to be crucified.  Pilate:  You want me to crucify your king?  The chief priests declare that the Roman emperor is their only king. So Pilate sends Jesus to be crucified.

As this gospel tells it, Jesus has to carry his own cross, walking to The Place of the Skull, Golgotha, the place of the crucifixion. 

There are few details in this gospel about the mechanics of crucifixion, but suffice to say that it is an extremely cruel, humiliating, and torturous way to die. They place Jesus on a cross between two other criminals.  Pilate arranges for a sign to be on Jesus’ cross that says, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” The text specifies that the sign is written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. Anybody and everybody should be able to read it.  The Jewish chief priests object to this label, but Pilate says, too bad.  “What I have written I have written.”  (verse 22).  

As Jesus hangs naked on the cross, slowly dying, the soldiers take Jesus’ clothes and divvy them up between them.  This is to fulfill a scripture.

Some of Jesus’ closest family and friends are standing nearby watching.  The first mentioned are women – Jesus’ mother, his mother’s sister, another Mary, and Mary Magdalene.  Jesus sees his own mother and “the disciple whom he loved” and bequeaths to his mother a new son, the disciple he loves.  This is heartbreakingly touching, and I think it is further fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer in Chapter 17:12 that “not one of them [Jesus’ followers] was lost”. 

Jesus senses that his death is near.  He says, in order to fulfill scripture, “I am thirsty.”  Those in charge put a sour-wine-soaked sponge on a branch of hyssop and hold it to Jesus’ mouth.

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.”  Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (verse 30)

Every Good Friday, when I hear this story again, it never fails to give me chills.

The gospel author notes that “the Jews” do not want the bodies of the crucified people to remain on the crosses during the sabbath.  This next detail is gruesome, and does not appear in the other gospels.  In an additional cruelty, the soldiers break the legs of the two crucified criminals.  I looked this up, and the internet says that breaking the legs makes the crucified victims suffocate, and so would hasten death.  It would be less painful, I’m sure, if the soldiers just ran them through with a sword. But this is the Roman system of punishment, and the point is to make the punishment as cruel as possible. 

But Jesus is already dead, so the soldiers do not break his legs, which the text says is a fulfillment of a scripture.  The soldiers do stick a spear into the gut of Jesus, and blood and water pour out.  This is also to fulfill a scripture.

Joseph of Arimathea is a secret disciple of Jesus.  He asks Pilate to let him have the body of Jesus; Pilate agrees.  Nicodemus (of Chapter 3, the Jewish leader who “had at first come to Jesus by night”) also arrives with burial spices.  The two men prepare Jesus’ body with the burial spices and linen.  And then they place the body into a nearby tomb which had never before been used.

A Convergence of Holy Days

The brisket is roasted and stored in the fridge.  Two Passover desserts are safely tucked in the freezer.  The Apple Matzo Kugel, required according to the family halachah, is ready.  We have enough matzo to last to mid-May.  There is ample cream cheese, hummus, and peanut butter to spread on it.

In other words, the larder is pleasantly stocked but there has been nothing to eat for dinner this week.  Just like the week before Thanksgiving.

It occurred to me that we could have a reverse seder plate this year.  Put a whole bunch of different foods on the seder plate.  During the seder meal, we would remove each food from the seder plate and eject it from the house while explaining why it does not belong.  That seems to be the direction America is headed, pointing out those who do not belong here.

It's not unheard of to desire to throw things
off the seder plate:
"A woman belongs on the bima like an orange
belongs on the seder plate,"
said some dude who was threatened by women.

Tomorrow night is Good Friday, with solemn worship commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus.  It is also the first night of Passover, with a festive meal commemorating the exodus from Egypt.  This is not the first time that these two, both of which the Common Household observes, have coincided.

In the past, the Common Household seder
has included telling the Passover story
using Peeps.

I think the clump of purple Peeps are Israelites
leaving Egypt.

You can tell this Peep is Moses.  He has a staff.

I was today years old when I discovered that the first night of Passover, the “First Seder,” never falls on a Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday.  Minimal research on the internet leads me to conclude that this is thanks to Maimonides, the medieval Jewish scholar.  

I first learned about Maimonides through my children, as is the case with many things I have learned.  When my son was a mere youth, his second-grade religious school class was studying Maimonides.  I asked him “What are the eight levels of tzedakah, according to Maimonides?”  He replied, “Level 1, level 2, level 3, level 4, level 5, level 6, level 7, level 8.”   

He always replied to any question with the most concise answer.

Maimonides’ numbered list of eight levels of charitable giving has to do with the amount of cheerfulness exhibited while giving, the swiftness of giving, and how much recognition can be conferred upon the giver.

Maimonides set up the Jewish calendar so that Passover never begins on the night of Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday.  It seems Maimonides was most concerned about Yom Kippur not starting on a Thursday night, and the result of that rule guides the weekdays on which Passover can start.  If Yom Kippur would start on a Thursday night, then it would immediately precede Shabbat (which starts on Friday night).  That would be two solid days of numerous prohibitions against doing various things.

I haven’t looked up the dates of the First Seder back to Maimonides time in the 12th century, but did look back at the years of my marriage to see how many times the First Seder fell on a Friday night.  For the past 33 years, the First Seder has fallen on a Friday night 10 times (30%), but one of those Fridays was not Good Friday.   There was a stretch, from 1999 to 2011, when the First Seder never fell on a Friday, thus lulling me into complacency.  From 2012 to 2022, though, 5 of the 11 First Seders fell on Good Friday.  In 2016 the First Seder fell on a Friday, but that was one of those rare years when Holy Week was widely separated from Passover, due to the intricacies of the lunar and solar calendars.  The next time when the First Seder will coincide with Good Friday is in 2029, seven years from now, if we make it that far.

Having just read the account of the crucifixion in the Gospel of John, I am aware of how unjust and painful an event it was.  And yet there is redemption at its core.  We will be commemorating Good Friday at church tomorrow evening with traditional readings and music.  The exodus from Egypt was also an event of injustice,  pain and redemption.  The firstborn of the Egyptians died.  The Israelites had to leave their homes in a hurry and trek to a place unknown to them.  We will be celebrating that uncertain freedom at home the next night with traditional readings, food, and music.

There is much pain and injustice in the world.  I hope to spend these paradoxically joint holy days praying for redemption and peace.  God knows, the world needs both.

This is a giant painting of the burial of Jesus,
at the Church of the Sepulchre in
Jerusalem.  The holy sites are right on top
of one another, just as these two holy days are this year.