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"Houston, we have no problem" by Frank Ramirez
Houston, we have no problem
by Frank Ramirez
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 and Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
It’s something of a question mark for folks that want their Bibles to match up all the stories fair and square that Matthew, Mark, and Luke place the date of the Last Supper on Friday of Holy Week, the day the Passover Meal was eaten, while John places that gathering on Thursday, the Day of Preparation, a full twenty-four hours earlier?
Why didn’t someone fix this early on, get rid of the discrepancy, and have the gospels agree on what seems a pretty important matter?
As it turns out, there’s an interesting story behind all this. Eusebius, who wrote his church history in the fourth century, looks back to the second Christian century
According to Eusebius, “A question of no small importance arose at that time.” In Asia, or Asia Minor really, the churches of Asia “held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Savior’s Passover.” In other words, what we call Good Friday would move around according the Jewish calendar which was based on the 354 day Lunar Calendar, regardless of what day it fell on -- Good Friday could be Tuesday or Wednesday or Saturday, or any day! Because of that those who fasted during Lent ceased their fast on that special day.
“But it was the custom of the churches in the rest of the world,” Eusebius wrote, “...of terminating the fast on no other day than that of the resurrection of our Saviour.” A series of great church councils were held to settle the matter, deciding that all should observe Easter on a Sunday, and the Last Supper on the Friday before. This was to be the case for all Christians everywhere.
Problem.
“But the Bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold on to the old custom handed down to them.” That individual wrote a letter explaining that the tradition of doing things this way came to them first through Philip, one of the twelve apostles, and two of his daughters, who died at Ephesus, as well as the Beloved Disciple “who was both a witness and a teacher,” the one who reclined at the chest of Jesus at that supper, and who would have been the source for the account of the Last Supper in the gospel of John. The letter went on to list martyrs and other saints who testified to the tradition in Asia.”
At first a war of words began to heat up, as two sides who believed two different things about the same event, insisted that everyone had to observe the Holy Day on the same day.
Enter Irenaeus, whose name comes from the Greek word for “peace,” and who indeed worked for peace between the parties. Basically he insisted that despite the strong feelings on both sides of the controversy that they “should not cut off whole churches of God which observed the tradition of an ancient custom.... And this variety in its observance has not originated in our time; but long before in that of our ancestors...” Irenaeus added, “It is likely that they did not hold to strict accuracy, and thus formed a custom for their posterity according to their own simplicity and peculiar mode. Yet all of these lived none the less in peace, and we also live in peace with one another; and the disagreement in regard to the fast confirms the agreement in the faith.”
Sometimes disagreements about church practice led to out and out war, with people killed on both sides of an issue. Irenaeus instead asked the churches whether it was not possible to remain on peaceful terms even when there was no agreement. And so both gospel accounts became the norm, because they recognized that people were doing the same thing, but on a different day. Their peace was in the sameness.
No Problem.
The letter kills, in other words, and the Spirit gives us life.
Instead of trying to make everyone fit into the same box they worked for unity in Christ instead of in customs,. The question was not: are we doing this right? The question was: are we loving each other well?
Nowadays this is not an issue anymore. We don’t calculate the day of Easter, and therefore the days for Good Friday and Maundy Thursday based on the lunar calendar which helps define Passover for our Jewish cousins. It’s a pretty simple formula -- Easter is the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox, which is the first day of spring. But that’s another story.
(Quotes from Eusebius come from Eusebius: Church History, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Volume 1, 1890, Book 5, chapters 23-25.)
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and is the senior pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren near Nappanee, Indiana. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 24, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Houston, we have no problem" by Frank Ramirez
Houston, we have no problem
by Frank Ramirez
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 and Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
It’s something of a question mark for folks that want their Bibles to match up all the stories fair and square that Matthew, Mark, and Luke place the date of the Last Supper on Friday of Holy Week, the day the Passover Meal was eaten, while John places that gathering on Thursday, the Day of Preparation, a full twenty-four hours earlier?
Why didn’t someone fix this early on, get rid of the discrepancy, and have the gospels agree on what seems a pretty important matter?
As it turns out, there’s an interesting story behind all this. Eusebius, who wrote his church history in the fourth century, looks back to the second Christian century
According to Eusebius, “A question of no small importance arose at that time.” In Asia, or Asia Minor really, the churches of Asia “held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Savior’s Passover.” In other words, what we call Good Friday would move around according the Jewish calendar which was based on the 354 day Lunar Calendar, regardless of what day it fell on -- Good Friday could be Tuesday or Wednesday or Saturday, or any day! Because of that those who fasted during Lent ceased their fast on that special day.
“But it was the custom of the churches in the rest of the world,” Eusebius wrote, “...of terminating the fast on no other day than that of the resurrection of our Saviour.” A series of great church councils were held to settle the matter, deciding that all should observe Easter on a Sunday, and the Last Supper on the Friday before. This was to be the case for all Christians everywhere.
Problem.
“But the Bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold on to the old custom handed down to them.” That individual wrote a letter explaining that the tradition of doing things this way came to them first through Philip, one of the twelve apostles, and two of his daughters, who died at Ephesus, as well as the Beloved Disciple “who was both a witness and a teacher,” the one who reclined at the chest of Jesus at that supper, and who would have been the source for the account of the Last Supper in the gospel of John. The letter went on to list martyrs and other saints who testified to the tradition in Asia.”
At first a war of words began to heat up, as two sides who believed two different things about the same event, insisted that everyone had to observe the Holy Day on the same day.
Enter Irenaeus, whose name comes from the Greek word for “peace,” and who indeed worked for peace between the parties. Basically he insisted that despite the strong feelings on both sides of the controversy that they “should not cut off whole churches of God which observed the tradition of an ancient custom.... And this variety in its observance has not originated in our time; but long before in that of our ancestors...” Irenaeus added, “It is likely that they did not hold to strict accuracy, and thus formed a custom for their posterity according to their own simplicity and peculiar mode. Yet all of these lived none the less in peace, and we also live in peace with one another; and the disagreement in regard to the fast confirms the agreement in the faith.”
Sometimes disagreements about church practice led to out and out war, with people killed on both sides of an issue. Irenaeus instead asked the churches whether it was not possible to remain on peaceful terms even when there was no agreement. And so both gospel accounts became the norm, because they recognized that people were doing the same thing, but on a different day. Their peace was in the sameness.
No Problem.
The letter kills, in other words, and the Spirit gives us life.
Instead of trying to make everyone fit into the same box they worked for unity in Christ instead of in customs,. The question was not: are we doing this right? The question was: are we loving each other well?
Nowadays this is not an issue anymore. We don’t calculate the day of Easter, and therefore the days for Good Friday and Maundy Thursday based on the lunar calendar which helps define Passover for our Jewish cousins. It’s a pretty simple formula -- Easter is the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox, which is the first day of spring. But that’s another story.
(Quotes from Eusebius come from Eusebius: Church History, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Volume 1, 1890, Book 5, chapters 23-25.)
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and is the senior pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren near Nappanee, Indiana. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 24, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
