Monday, March 16, 2015

“To Ransom a slave, You gave away Your Son.”

“To Ransom a slave, You gave away Your Son.”
Brief Exegesis on Romans 14:7-9

Paul here deals with the fundamental truth of our faith as Christian believers i.e. the sovereignty and lordship of Christ. In life and in death, we exists to Kyrio, i.e. to praise, honor, and serve God, the creator and maker of all.[1] We have come into life in order to live for God; and even in death, the supreme ending of that life, we die as a way of honoring and thanking God.[2] Hence, to God we are responsible whether we live or die.[3] In other words, we are servants of God. The reason for this relation as servants to their master is that by His death and resurrection Christ has established His Divine Lordship over all alike, both dead and living. Responsibility to Him therefore no one can ever escape.[4]
Thus we are in the service of God in all things. We belong to and must acknowledge our relation to God as Kyrios.[5] But how then do we describe our status as servants of God? And what kind of a master or a “boss” is He?  
For Judaism in the time of Jesus, as for the Greek world, a slave or servant was on a lower level of humanity. By law a (Canaanite) slave was classed with immobile goods,[6] had no right at law and could not own property.[7] Even his family did not belong to him; it was a property of his master, who might give him a favorite in marriage.[8]  Moreover, slaves were ethically inferior,[9] being subject to the law only to a limited degree. They naturally had no genealogies, and therefore there was no possibility of controlling their origin.[10]
Treatment of slaves corresponds to this estimation. Since a slave was a chattel, his master could do with him as desired; there was none to hinder him. Thus we sometimes read or heard of an angry master throwing a full of cup at a slave waiting on him at table,[11] or of a slave having his ears boxed because even with the best intentions he did not fulfill a command in the precise sense intended by his master.[12]
However, the lordship of Christ is entirely different. It is not entirely on a functional level but on the rule of love, which is rooted in the fact that all members of the community stand in the same relationship to Christ and are thus united on the same level in Him. God elevated our status and put us in an intimate relationship with Him. We are servants, but servants so loved and cared. This is proven in the liberating act of Christ in His passion, death and resurrection.[13]
This drama is best illustrated in the Easter Proclamation (Exsultet): Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave, you gave away your Son.










[1] Joseph Fitmayer S.J., The Anchor Bible: A New Translation and Commentary, vol. 33. (New York: Doubly Dell Publishing Group, Inc.) 691.
[2] Ibid., 691
[3] The International Critical Commentary: Romans’ Sanday and Headlam, ed. S.R. Driver D.D., A. Plummer D.D., and G.A. Briggs D.D. (Edinburgh: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964) 388.
[4] Ibid. 388.  
[5] see 1 Cor. 6: 20b; 7:23-24; 8:6a
[6] Str.~B., IV, 719. Cf. on this pt. and on what follows S Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, II (1911), 91 ff.
[7] Str.~B., IV, 720 f., 722.
[8] Str.~B., IV., I 803; IV, 721.
[9] Cf. Krauss, 92 ff.
[10] Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel. Vol. III., (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965.) 271.
[11] Sukka, 2,9; bSukka, 29a.
[12] Str.~B., IV, 734.
[13] Here we see St. Paul’s theology of the Lordship of Christ as always connected with His passion, death and resurrection. (The Anchor Bible; the International Critical Commentary: Romans’ Sanday and Headlam, ed. S.R. Driver D.D., A. Plummer D.D., and G.A. Briggs D.D. (Edinburgh: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964) 388.) 

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