I've waited till now, because before... my hour had not yet come

Hello!!

It has been quite a while since I have been able to post on my blog.  Far to long, in fact.  But, my hour has come to continue my posts!  And I phrase it that way for a reason.

Today, I'd like to fill you in on an interesting word study I've done within the book of John.  

I recently I've been reaping the benefits of three pretty good investments:

• The Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition Study Bible (New Testament)

• The Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition Bible (Old and New Testaments)

• The Catholic Bible Concordance (RSV2CE)

The first, the RSV2CE Study New Testament has many annotations, cross references, word studies, topical essays, maps, and charts.  It is incredible!  But I actually bought it by mistake, thinking I was buying the second item on my list: the RSV2CE Bible.  This doesn't have the deep study like the former, but it has the whole text of both Testaments including the Deutrocanonicals (7 books of the Old Testament omitted from protestant translations, often referred to as "apocrypha").  The translation, RSV, is a good balance between accurate and practical.  The Douay Rheims has all the accuracy, but is difficult to read.  The New American is super easy to read, but sacrifices some of the beautiful language.  The RSV is a nice in-between.  In addition, a few of my favorite theologians like Dr. Scott Hahn and Dr. John Bergsma use the RSV.  The third item is a concordance for the RSV.  This is basically a large index of all the words in the scriptures with references to all their occurrences in the scriptures.  For example, on pg 908 of the Concordance, we see the word "Hour" occurs 103 times in the RSV Bible; the first is 1 Sam 9:24, second Judges 13:4, and on and on.

Speaking of "hour" I'd like to focus its appearance in the fourth Gospel.  The work "hour" appears in John at the following places: 1:39, 2:4, 4:6, 21, 23, 52, 53; 5:25, 27; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 16:2, 4, 21, 25, 32; 17:1; 19:14, 27.  That's much more than what I want to focus on, however.  So I went ahead and bolded the ones we'll focus on (mainly when Christ talks about "the hour" or his "hour").  

For the first half of the book, the "hour" is "a highly anticipated moment in the ministry of Jesus that constantly grabs the attention of the reader and drives the narrative forward (Jn 2:4, 4:21, 5:25; 7:30; 8:20)."  The second half of John shows that, "Jesus comes upon his 'hour' only in the final days of his life (Jn 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1)."  Theses quotes have been taken from the topical essay in my RSV2CE study New Testament.  

So, what is this hour referring to?  There seems to be an obvious answer, the historical answer.  This hour is the time of Christ's passion.  In John 7:30 and 8:20, His enemies are unable to arrest Him because His "hour" had not yet come.  Just before His last supper, in John 12:23, Jesus declares that the "hour" of His glorification has at last arrived.  John12:27 makes clear references to His death and suffering, while in John 13:1 we see that Christ will soon be going to His Father.  In John 16:21-22 we are let in on the fact that the disciples will also suffer in this "hour".   Again, from the topical essay on Christ's "hour," "At the historical level, then, the 'hour' is the time when Christ passes through the agonies of betrayal and bodily torment, finally mounting the cross out of love for the Father and as a sacrifice for our salvation.  This 'hour' of Christ's humiliation and death is in John's Gospel the 'hour' of his exaltation that becomes the source of everlasting life for the world."

There is yet another, more interesting meaning of the "hour" of Jesus.  "If Christ's hour is linked to the historical events of His passion, it also reaches beyond them into the liturgical commemoration of these events in the life of the Church."  He not only is hearkening forth to historical realities, but liturgical ones also.  There is a liturgical answer as well.  This answer will point us to Christian worship.  Firstly, in John 2:4 Jesus responds to his mother's request for wine with a notice that His "hour" has not yet come.  Mary: they have no wine.  Jesus: my hour has not yet come.  Quite an interesting response, and seemingly unwarranted.  The hidden meaning is that Christ is making the assumption that once his "hour" comes, He will  provide an abundance of the finest wine.  Secondly, in John 4:21-23, the "hour" points toward a change in worship.  God's worship by His people would not necessarily be in Jerusalem (which was in a fixed point) or Samaria (which was idolatrous), but rather, it will be in spirit (we can lift our hearts up to the Lord anywhere) and truth (worshiping God without error).   Thirdly, in John 5:25-29 Christ's voice, at His hour, will be heard by the dead, and they will live again.  Lastly, Christ's "hour" will gather believers from all nations.  In John 12:20-24, Christ is approached with a request to meet with some greeks, to this request He replies, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Truly truly, i say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit."  Another interesting response from our Lord.  In His "hour" we find that in the new worship, peoples from every nation are enabled to sprout into new life. 

Connecting these four references, we see the following: Christ's hour will consist of all nations coming together to worship in the spirit ("we lift [our hearts] up to the Lord") where: (1) those deadened from sin will come back to life by hearing His Word, (2) Christ's death and risen body will be the wheat that becomes for us the "bread of Life," and (3) He will pour Himself into the Eucharistic cup under the visible sign of wine.  Very incredible, wouldn't you say?

Doing simple word studies can change the way you see our faith!  

Before I go, if you're interested, I gave a talk at St. Mary's Parish in Escondido little more than a week ago.  I talked about covenant theology, and did a basic walkthrough of salvation history.  If you'd like to receive an audio CD of the talk, feel free to send me your mailing address at lambssupper@gmail.com.   I'll send you the talk (approx 40 min) and the worksheet I handed out at the event.  I'll likely be doing similar events more often, because it was very well received.  When I do, I'll be posting it one here, and hopefully recording them as well.

Feel free to send me any questions and all your prayers!!

God bless, as I continue to pray for all my readers

Luke