Sidonians

So who has heard of the Sidonians?

Perhaps if I say the cities of Tyre and Sidon some might get the Gospel reference to the travels of Jesus.

That said it is somewhat strange that he did travel to that part of the ancient world.

Again unless we are familiar with the Hebrew scriptures we would miss this as well.

For Tyre and Sidon were regarded at the time of Jesus by the people of God as, as good as, or rather as bad as the Samaritans.

And I suppose I assume that most people will have heard of them because of one of Jesus’ most famous parables about good neighbourliness.

Albeit that once again I suspect most of us will not have a clue that to Jesus’ audience a ‘good Samaritan’ was a contradiction in terms, san impossibility.

So Jesus deliberately chooses a Samaritan for his parable just as he deliberately journeys to and through the region of Tyre and Sidon, it is calculated.

The Gospel writer Luke as well as Jesus anticipates that we will make these connections.

In Luke chapter 13 the number 18 features three times.

Once in connection with those who died when a tower fell upon them and killed them and twice in connection with a woman crippled by a Spirit for 18 years.

The reference to 18 years occurring only twice in the Hebrew scriptures in Judges chapters 3 and 10.

The first reference has to do with the oppression of the ancient Israelites by a Moabite King.

In Deuteronomy we read that no Moabite may enter the gathering of Israel to the tenth generation because of their duplicitous actions towards Israel when the people of God were journeying to the promised land.

It is one of the reasons why the book of Ruth was written and included in the Hebrew scriptures to justify the  blood line of King David and indeed of Jesus in the genealogy of Jesus (Math 1:5).

The second reference has to do with the actions of ancient Israel and their syncronistic worship with amongst others the Sidonians who again are singled out for the approbrium of God, for why we ask?

According to the writer of Genesis it was Noah’s son Ham who did not avert his gaze and saw his Father’s nakedness, a shameful thing.

Ham was the father of Canaan whose people occupied the land God promised to ancient Israel and who were to be driven from the land because their evil was so great.

The second significant reference to Sidon which once again both Luke and those gathered in the synagogue with Jesus that Saturday morning would have known, was in the book of the Kings.

King Solomon the Temple builder, the ‘Prince of Peace’, the one who established God’s reign and Kingdom on earth married many wives.

These included women from the detested Moabites AND worse, he followed the detestable practises associated with the Goddess Ashtoreth of the Sidonians.

The third reference to Sidon again occurs in the book of Kings, when Elijah, as Jesus too would, visits Sidon and raises the son of a widow back to life.

The fourth reference again in the book of Kings occurs when Elijah is in a contest with Queen jezebel, a Sidonian, and incurs her wrath when he has her 420 prophets executed.

All this is as I say common knowledge to the listeners in the synagogue that Saturday morning with Jesus.

Likewise to the readers of the Gospel of Luke we are expected to know the following:

  1. Jesus referenced the miracle of Elijah and the widow who lived in the region of Sidon as an example, like Naaman the Syrian, of a faith not to be found in Israel.

This follow on immediately after his reading from the prophet Isaiah chapter 61 by way of his manifesto, and the coming day of the Lord, when there will be release, rejoicing, freedom, forgiveness and blessing for all, now beginning, in and through the ministry of Jesus, of the year of Jubilee.

 

  1. Then the sermon on the plain, Luke’s equivalent of Mathew’s sermon on the mount, is located in the region of Tyre and Sidon, where Jesus had travelled ostensibly to get some space!

In this sermon Jesus pronounces NIOT that Israelites who are pure and undefiled the Righteous people of God who are blessed and the hated Sidonians amongst others damned as would have been expected.

But rather that it is the [poor, those who are aware of their need of God, of their failure to live up even to their own expectations of themselves let alone God’s who are blessed.

Whilst the rich, those who are self-righteous, happy with the status quo which means that the few who are rich live a life at ease unconcerned that it is the poor at whose expense they are enjoying it.

The rich are not crying out to God for his deliverance and the levelling of the playing field for the year of Jubilee when all debts will be cancelled and all people enjoy the blessing of God in the land. No these rich are at ease while others suffer.

It is not rich per se that Jesus condemns nor poverty that he baptises but rather the attitudes of all who seek the blessing of God in and upon all rather than the favoured few that are blessed.

Jesus will neither baptise the status quo nor bless violent revolution but rather incarnate table fellowship at which all are equally welcome.

  1. Then third reference and we should by now be starting to get a sense of the deliberate picture building that the Gospel writer is painting is in chapter 10 of Luke’s Gospel.

Jesus disciples have been refused hospitality in Judean villages whereas they have been welcomed with pen arms in the region of Tyre and Sidon.

A similar point to Jesus’ referencing of Elijah in the synagogue in Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry when he received less than a warm welcome, indeed they sought to kill him!

Jesus pronounces in prophetic style terms woes upon these villages and blesses but announces that it will be more acceptable on the day of judgement for Tyre and Sidon than they.

This is once again quite a remarkable and totally unpalatable and unacceptable message to Jesus Jewish listeners in the synagogue.

SO here we are in chapter 13 of Luke again in the synagogue when through the healing of the crippled woman Jesus challenges the synagogue ruler as to the real purpose of the sabbath: healing, deliverance, release or the continuance of her oppression and exclusion?

AND so Jesus expects us not simply to pick up these references but to see what he means by them.

The blessing of God in and through Christ extends to Israel’s enemies.

God’s covenant  love in Jesus is inclusive, all embracing.

Sectarian barriers are removed.

Dare we believe that?

Dare we live in the light of that?

 

 

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