Divine Power and Glory (Sunday 18th October)

Job 38.1-7, Psalm 104, Hebrews 5.1-10, Mark 10.35-45

I’m never quite satisfied with what God said to Job when he spoke ‘out of the whirlwind’ (not quite the way ‘he’ spoke to Elijah). Is it really satisfactory, when presented with Job’s understandable complaints, simply to indulge in a poetic monologue about divine power and glory? Unless, of course, what looks like a poetic monologue is really a counter-complaint about what hard work it is being God—an entertaining thought, but without much scholarly support.

The most famous quotation from Job is from 19.25, in which he expresses certainty that he has a living advocate, even though there is nothing in the book or the rest of the Hebrew scriptures to justify such faith. In the letter to the Hebrews, it’s spelt out: ‘we have a great high priest who has passed into the heavens’. Those few words state something of huge importance: Jesus is the vital connection between us and God because he belongs with us just as completely as he belongs with God. In him humanity and divinity are perfectly united, which is why our communion with him is also communion with God.

The priesthood of Christ is quite a contrast with the promotion sought by James and John (blamed on their mother in St. Matthew’s account). They seem to think that sitting at either side of Jesus in God’s kingdom will be the ultimate promotion, and that they are ideally qualified. Jesus gives them a quick interview before explaining the situation and they, to their credit, don’t seem to have gone off in a huff. They realized, at that moment, that they and Jesus really were ‘all in it together’, and that the way to the kingdom lies in living that togetherness fully.