“Foreshadowing.” Isn’t that an awesome word? Sounds so Gothic. “Foreshadowing” [insert creepy organ music here], “a narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about events to come are dropped or planted,” suggests one dictionary. A wonderful example of this is hidden in the Greek word translated in today’s Gospel text as “arrested” (paradidōmi), which literally means “handed over” or “delivered up” (vs. 12). This is the same word which Matthew uses to describe Jesus’ passion, and the events leading up to it, as well as Judas’ role in Jesus arrest. (See Matthew 17:22, 20:18, 26:2 and for Judas 26:25, 46 and 48.) Yes, John the Baptist – and later Jesus – was indeed arrested. Yet the former is a powerful foreshadowing of the latter – a taste of things to come , a narrative shadow that will cloud Jesus’ ministry from this, its starting point, all the way to Calvary.
However, there is a wee problem with foreshadowing: it may color the interpretation of the events that follow. True, that is its narrative purpose. But this ‘coloring’ can, in the extreme, distort the interpretation. Here I am indebted to Biblical scholar Troy A Miller, who focuses our attention on the following sentence: “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (vs. 17). What I am getting at here can best be explained by this observation by Miller:
Though it is not untrue to say that Jesus came to earth to die it is more true to the Gospels to say that he first came to live. He came to announce, invite sinners into, proclaim the demands of, and in the end bring in God’s kingdom. For this he was ultimately killed…In fact, it can be rightly said that Jesus’ death takes on its true significance only in connection with that which he lived for and proclaimed – God’s kingdom.
Now, that may seem at first glance to be an interesting observation, and nothing more. However, I am struck by the fact that many Christians seem likewise focused on their own death, and their own hope of the resurrection (of where they will spend eternity, and the certainty of “securing a spot”) to the detriment of how their lives in this world are to be lived out. And by “lived out” I do not mean struggling to make God love them, or to tilt the scales of God’s justice somehow in their favor. Luther sparked the Reformation after discovering the foolishness (indeed, impossibility) of such an endeavor. By “lived out,” I mean, instead, truly living out one’s life in a manner that reveals to the world (and to the benefit of one’s neighbor) that one is a disciple of Jesus. This takes the form of love. Not romantic love, but Christian love. This agape love looks like, and consists of, acts of mercy, service, justice, compassion, inclusion, invitation, self-sacrifice, humility, approachability, consistency – the list goes on. These acts are based not on one’s personal political philosophy, but on the Scriptural example of Jesus. And we engage in these acts as disciples. After all, disciples are folks who sat at the feet of a teacher, and then devoted themselves to that teacher’s teachings. Indeed, so deeply has the disciple imbibed, internalized, made a part of themselves, such a teaching that it colors all that they do; their outlook and decision making. So that, ultimately, the life of the Christian is not about their death, but about their life – a life that proclaims God’s kingdom.
