“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.
[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.
[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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