The Foreshadowing of Christ
Wisdom 2: 1a, 12-24
For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law and accuses us of sins against our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange. We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy and boasts that God is his father.
Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life, for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. Let us test him with insult and torture, so that we may find out how reasonable he is and make trial of his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.” Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hoped for the wages of holiness, nor discerned the prize for blameless souls, for God created us for incorruption and made us in the image of his own eternity, but through an adversary’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.
We don’t often read from the Wisdom of Solomon; it is used infrequently in our lectionary, and I think that is a shame. The Book of Wisdom is a part of what we call the Apocrypha, a collection of Jewish texts that some Christian denominations include in the Bible and others don’t. No one knows for sure when Wisdom was written but it was most likely authored sometime during the last fifty years before the birth of Jesus. If you have not read Wisdom, I commend it to you.
Our passage for today is fascinating because while it was not intended to say anything about Jesus, since Jesus was not even born when the book was written, nevertheless, Christians see in these words a foreshadowing of Jesus and his ministry. Here the author talks about a righteous man, “who reproaches us for sins . . . professes to have knowledge of God . . . and boasts that God is his father.” The author goes on to say, “let us test what will happen at the end of his life, for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will . . . deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. Let us test him with insult and torture, . . . Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”
As we journey our way through these last days of Lent, look around and see if you can find Christ foreshadowed in your life. Is there anyone you know that you would call, Christlike? Who do you respect the most and why do you respect them? Do they have Christlike attributes. When have you been Christlike and what motivated you? Because, Christ is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. He was with God before all things were created and he lives and works among us even now. I promise that you will see him if you only look for him. Amen.
prayer
O God, you have given us the Good News of your abounding love in your Son Jesus Christ: So fill our hearts with thankfulness that we may rejoice to proclaim the good tidings we have received; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.