Excerpt from Mark 11:20-25

“Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

Reflection by Christina Villa & Dan Smith

Christina:

I’m always a little surprised to find that the Jesus in the Bible is really not the same as the Jesus in hymns and on those decorative plates your grandmother had.

Take today’s Scripture.  Jesus curses a fig tree and makes it wither because he was hungry and the fig tree didn’t have any figs on it.  Not a very good example to set for the disciples.  Not very pastoral.

He doesn’t do this kind of thing often, but nevertheless this scripture suggests that Jesus had an actual human personality, which means he wasn’t always in a good mood. Even Jesus got aggravated.  And he let it show.

Jesus was perfectly good, but he wasn’t always perfectly nice. One of the many reasons I would never make it as a clergy person is that people expect ministers to be not only ultra-good, but also super-nice and pastoral all the time. Not even Jesus could manage that. And I wonder: is that what we really want in our spiritual leaders?

In my earlier years of working among ministers, I spent a lot of time in meetings trying to figure out how they really felt.  Anything negative was phrased so carefully that I frequently thought something was being praised when in fact it was being criticized. I remember one former colleague who would energetically nod his head up and down while saying, “No, I don’t think so.”

This is what happens when we forget that nice and good aren’t the same thing. Let’s give our pastors a break and let them have actual human personalities, just like the rest of us. And Jesus.

Dan:

It’s not just clergy that need grace.  WE ALL DO.  Many of us take on too much work, too much responsibility, too many commitments, and then we hit the wall.  Our frustration reaches the max and something or someone gets cursed.  “Nice and good” aren’t the same thing.   We’re not going to be nice all the time, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t good people.  It’s good to know God’s grace is with us even when we’re not nice.  And as Christians, it’s even better to know that Jesus is the perfect example of that truth!  However, even knowing that, I do feel sorry for the cursed fig tree!

Prayer
God, please watch over us, even when we lose it and curse someone or something.  Help us to know that even in those moments when we are not “nice” we are still good people.  AMEN.

“Teaching is, by its very nature, not a profession that yields a lot of tangible returns—and especially not in the first decade or so…The teacher who has simply tried to be faithful in activating thought and whose life is given to helping students to create for themselves frequently is never able to know whether anything at all has resulted from the work.  Students are rarely inclined to tell their teachers what they have been learning (creating inwardly).  Indeed, the students may not even realize that it was a teacher who got something going for them; that may be a fact lying dormant and unrecognizable for years to come.  Small wonder, then, that we ‘lose heart’ and feel lonely in a ministry of teaching.  Did Jesus feel less lonely, less deserted?”

Locke E. Bowman, Jr.  Teaching Today: The Church’s First Ministry

Jesus was the greatest teacher of all.  Thank God for great teachers who touched our lives.  Thank God for Church School teachers who start us on the path of faith.  Thank God for public school teachers.  Thank God for people like you and me, who teach loving and just values to any who will learn.  And thank God that we never stop learning from all who teach us.

Blessings,

Dan

Jacob and his sons agree to allow Dinah marry Shechem on one condition: every male in the Hivite tribe had to be circumcised. Jacob could not allow his daughter to marry outside her own people – that was taboo. Thus to identify with Jacob’s clan the Hivites had to be circumcised. (Genesis 34:13-16)  The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you: that you will become as we are and every male among you be circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live among you and become one people.) After pleading his case, all the males in the Hivite tribe agree to let themselves be circumcised, which opens the way for Shechem to marry Dinah. But all is not kosher:   And all who went out of the city gate heeded Hamor and his son Shechem; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares, and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. And the other sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey. (Genesis 34:24-29)

When Jacob finds out what happened he is livid: “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” But they said, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?” (Genesis 34:30-31).

Personally, I don’t think this is a story of rape, but a love tragedy, something along the lines of Romeo and Juliet or Westside story – a story of forbidden love. First of all, the revenge seems to be totally out of proportion to the alleged crime. Let’s see: your sister gets raped, so in turn you kill the guy and his dad, and all the males in his village, then you plunder their village, steal all their belongings, and on top of that you abduct their wives and children!?  What???

Secondly there is no word for rape in ancient Hebrew.  Some scholars have pointed out that the Hebrew root word ‘nh that is used here to be translated as rape or “lay with her by force” also has the meaning of shame. In the ancient world a sexual relationship between Schehem and Dinah would be considered a shameful act because they were not of the same ethnicity. The rest of the story affirm this understanding, because the text clearly states that Jacob and her brothers were upset for this very reason: When they heard of it, the men were indignant and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done. Because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Just think of this story in a more contemporary context, what would have been the reaction a hundred years ago in the Deep South regarding a sexual relationship between a black boy and white girl?  You get the idea.

Thirdly, a rapist doesn’t fall in love with the girl he rapes. Rape is an act of violence. Schehem obviously fell head over heels in love with Dinah, and although we don’t hear from Dinah in the text there is an indication that this was mutual: And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the girl, and spoke tenderly to her heart. He spoke tenderly to her heart, hmm…….

Fourthly, Jacob and the brothers are indignant that their sister was defiled. This word is found nowhere else in Genesis, rather it is a word used in other Bible books where there is a reference to someone who is ritually impure in a religious sense. Having a sexual experience with a non-Israelite would made Dinah ritually impure. This was somewhat of a big deal in the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament). Also, when the brothers justify their act of genocide, plunder, and abduction, they say it was because they could not allow their sister to be “treated like a whore.” Someone is not considered a whore because they are raped. A whore, or harlot, or prostitute refers to someone who engages in sexual relations for business reasons, in other words there is mutual consent.

Lastly, the text informs us that Schehem seized her and lay with her. In ancient times there was a practice called “marriage by abduction.”  Although this sounds like rape, and sometimes it did involve force, in other cases it was consensual and was actually arranged by friends or family members when the more usual marriage arrangements by fathers could or would not be made. Today we would say the couple eloped. Usually after the fact the more formal negotiations occurred, although sometimes violence was the aftermath. (Alice Ogden Bellis)

You see, this is what I think happened. Dinah went out to the nearest village where her family had decided to set up camp for awhile. Maybe she was curious or bored and wanted to meet new people. Whatever the reason, she went out to “visit the women in the region.” She and Schehem met and fell in love, but it was taboo. They knew they had no future – her father would never allow her to marry outside her people. So an “abduction marriage” was arranged. Once the deed was done, her father would have no choice but to allow her to marry Schehem. She would no longer be a virgin and thus no man from her own tribe would be willing to pay the dowry and marry her. And it almost worked – this love story almost had a happy ending, if it wasn’t for her brothers. They had no real concern for Dinah; their honor was tarnished – their sister slept with the other; that could not be allowed.  And their wounded pride led to a blood bath. And Dinah’s matrimonial prospects are destroyed and her own tribe is in danger:  the surrounding clans may decide to take revenge for the injustice. In the words of Alice Ogden Bellis: Dinah was a victim, not of rape, but of brothers who were overzealous in their concern for what they mistakenly believed was good for their group.

This story makes one think: How many times have we caused hurt and pain by sticking to our principles, believing our perspective on an issue to be right, justifying our actions even if it is to the detriment of someone else?

Kobie