Episode 2 | The Messiah is Coming | Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls

[Music] we've all probably said at one time or another i can't wait could be a number of things i can't wait to get married i hear that a lot i can't wait to have a baby never said it but i've heard that before i can't wait till summer i can't wait till retirement all kinds of things that we're waiting for but the reality is oftentimes we don't have a choice we have to wait i think we actually need to learn to be able to wait and discover what god is trying to say to us or teach us in the waiting if we think about the church we have cycles of waiting advent is a time of waiting we're waiting for the coming of the lord lent is also a time of waiting but imagine for a moment knowing that something is going to take place but you don't know exactly when you have to wait where your wildest dreams are going to come true bigger than having a baby or a wedding much much larger than that you're waiting for a time of liberation a time of freedom a time that your hopes and your dreams and and everything you've longed for are ultimately going to be fulfilled and you're being invited to wait to watch and to be ready scripture says a voice of one crying out in the desert prepare the way of the lord make straight his paths and we wait [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to jesus and the dead sea scrolls i'm father dave pavanka i'm president of franciscan university of steubenville again with dr john bergsma who is a theology professor here at the university and also author of the book jesus and the dead sea scrolls that we are spending some time talking about and letting this text this book give us an insight into the life that jesus was living the communities around him but then also what does that say to us today so it's been a great blessing um today we're going to focus on the messiah yes that the essene community it seems like they were spending a lot of time thinking about waiting for the messiah so we hear messiah every christmas but what does that mean yeah yeah messiah is the hebrew word for smearing with oil so really really yeah that's a great image a smear we do that yeah that's interesting we we need to come back to that with the sacraments there's something to that no doubt right yeah we're conformed to the messiah by being also smeared i just like the smearing word that's right that's great so yeah meshiach is one who has been smeared and you you translate that into greek and it gives you christos you know so that's why we get messiah in christ i mean the same thing in two different languages um but yeah the the scrolls are great because they show us how people were expecting the anointed one you know in in in the old testament there were several different anointed roles there was the famously the prophet the priest and the king they were all anointed and there grew over time this hope that a definitive like a final anointed one who would kind of wrap those rules together uh would would come and um we see that in the gospels obviously we see it in the scrolls and it's just it's super fascinating okay yeah so that that community was that was one of their charisms or highlighting the seeing community was the waiting of the messiah right the end of history is going to come god's anointed one is going to show up and it really god's anointed ones because their dominant view of this was that they're going to have a royal messiah from the line of david and a priestly messiah from the line of aaron and and so these these two messiahs were going to show up so we see that reflected in some of their end times literature where first the priest the messiah shows up and and interestingly uh one of the important things that these messiahs were going to do was lead them in their communal meal they had this meal of bread and wine that and sometimes some meat as well but they would celebrate that on a daily basis that was a very sacred occasion that big began and ended with songs of praise we'll we'll talk about that more later i'm sure thank you but those eyes have come one of the things that they were going to do is lead in that meal and and um you know defeat the enemies of god's people and usher in an age of peace for the devout and the holy okay so the messiah in the end all these the two messiahs this how is it that they see community what made their life different or how did they wait for this or prepare for this or pray for this differently than maybe another group at their time sure well they took very literally the words of isaiah 40 verse 3 which says a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord so they meditated on that and what they got out of that is that they should leave jerusalem or other parts of judah and head out into the wilderness which for them was that barren desert area around the dead sea and so they went straight east from jerusalem out there they you know maybe literally ran into the dead sea say we can't go any further into the wilderness we'll just so to speak set up camp here and then prepare the way of the lord and they understood that mean to to get spiritually ready for uh for for god's arrival in the persons of his representatives which is these two messiahs although they you know also had a minority report where maybe it would just be one messiah so the the people they they get away they're preparing looking for signs how how do we know when the messiah comes i mean they're they're out there they're preparing it seems obviously this is advent right we spend time preparing how are they going to know what what are going to be the signs that he's finally here yeah so um uh first of all they were working their calendars very diligently and they were working on biblical prophecy like in daniel 9. and they were calculating the 70 weeks that daniel speaks of until the the arrival of an anointed one that we see there and they had a sense that although it was hard to make all those calculations in the ancient world they had a sense that they were coming to the end of that uh 70 weeks or roughly 500 year period and that at any moment uh god's anointed one would show up so you know that's was one thing that they were doing was working those calendars and paying careful attention to uh prophecy another thing that they were looking for was signs that they believed would accompany the anointed one when he arrived and here i want to talk about kind of the again i mentioned it before but their minority report you know their dominant view is that we're going to get a priestly messiah and a royal messiah and the two of them are going to kind of carry things forward together but there was also a minority voice in their community and in their writings that suggested well you know what guys maybe melchizedek that priest king from genesis 14 maybe he's going to come back and he's both priest and king and he's going to do it all himself and expectations grew around melchizedek such that they expected he might come back at the end of time and he would proclaim the year of the lord's favor a great jubilee period and only this jubilee remember how that year jubilee forgave money debt and physical slavery release people from physical therapy they said no this this melchizedek jubilee it's going to free people from slavery to satan in the debt of their sins and so that was one one possibility that they were entertaining as well so when we see somebody coming who is freeing people from slavery to satan and forgiving their sins we will know that he's the man he may be on to something he may be out of something okay so i i hear you say this and i hear you saying two messiahs and that makes me a little bit nervous because there's just one messiah so help me under that so it's not the fact that there are two messiahs that save uh i guess just make sure that we're clear on that yeah well you know father when we look back at the israelite prophets we do find some like zechariah who have visions of uh two sons of oil that will come in the future a priestly figure and a royal figure and we have passages like jeremiah 33 that talk about god's faithfulness both to the house of david and the house of levi and so you can see how they would have an expectation that there's going to be really like a a a great priest and a great king that's going to come at the end of time now again we're a little uncomfortable with that it's like well how does that work out and but but father this to me this is absolutely fascinating this explains something that i've always wondered about some of the gospels particularly luke right why does luke begin not with jesus but pay so much attention to john the baptist that's where i was going exactly exactly why does john the baptist get so much attention and why are we told that he has a is from a priestly line through his father zechariah and we have this huge buildup to john's birth and that continues to be reflected in our liturgy and you know that the feast days that we devote to john to this very day he's a very important figure for us i mean to cut to the chase i really think saint luke was writing his gospel in such a way that his fellow jews that were looking for two messiahs could see you know what john the baptist is this man from the line of aaron who came and truly was anointed and prepared the way for the royal messiah from the line of david right and that's where they go to go back to the anointed part that that there was and there's a lot of people there was an anointing on john and he was the one to literally use the text prepare the way exactly he's the one beginning to speak of it so would they would they have recognized that right away with john the baptist or whether they thought something is something's moving something's happening something's coming yeah or do we look back on that we see that i oh i think that some in the essene movement saw what was going on and began to pick up on it okay and we even see it in john chapter one remember where there's the two disciples who are following john the baptist and our lord passes by and says behold the lamb of god who takes with sins and these two disciples of john go and follow our lord one is andrew the other unnamed but you know church tradition has identified that as john the apostle and uh so i you know um as we'll talk in later episodes i think that john the baptist was formed in that essene community and left and and john and andrew um were also influenced but when they when john and andrew for example looked at the baptist and looked at our lord they sensed that something was moving yeah and this is one of the reasons why they're willing to join up and i think that that that sense that something is moving something is happening you can almost get this excitement that when you begin to read and think about this that and this is what the second vatican council john the 23rd invited us to to pay attention to the signs of the time like what's going on around our world and be aware of that that's what the prophet ultimately does the prophet pays attention to what's going on and then speaks and helps bring clarity and insight so you see this going on with these scenes with the early community again the whole the whole purpose though is preparing for the messiah for coming of the messiah which is great 2000 years ago what does this have to do with us what is what is i mean the messiah has already come so how how is it that this should inspire us or that this should cause us to think pray react feel indeed yeah well one of the things it does is it gives us a better appreciation for jesus ministry and how his ministry continues in the church when we look for example in luke 4 at our lord's first sermon in his hometown which is by the way perhaps one of my favorite texts that i've really built my life in my ministry on absolutely the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor to proclaim the year of the lord's favor our lord reads that at his home synagogue that was a text father that the essenes associated with the melchizedek who was to come and that year the lord's favor they looked upon that as the great jubilee of melchizedek and and then jesus sits down to begin his homily there because because they they preached sitting in those days and he begins his homily by saying this is fulfilled in your hearing it's like that is electrifying here there's huge groups of jews that are that are really uh you know fascinated by this text and and he reads it and says it's been fulfilled i've had the opportunity uh probably i don't know eight or nine times to be able to go to the holy land and i remember one time i was in nazareth and we're just walking along and the guy just like offhandedly said okay and that's where the the temple the synagogue where jesus i said what that's i mean that that when i think of of my ministry and my life as a priest the luke 4 text has been so inspiring and so moving and in in many ways so an ability to really encounter jesus in that text the spirit of the lord is upon me so the last three or four times i've gone to the holy land i go and it's a really simple room i don't know if you've actually been there and whether or not it's the actual room i don't know right but but it's a very simple room and it just go and and what you said is so so true the excitement because they were waiting that's what they were year after year after year after year for the coming of the messiah and they hear them say this and they're probably like did he just see what i thought he said yeah did he really say that oh that's great all right great well there's more to come so just we invite you to stay with us [Music] we've all probably had experiences of like weighting an expectation i don't get the opportunity very often to to be around nieces and nephews as they're getting close to their birthday or christmas and things there's just so there's something about that in excitement anticipation that is it's catchy right this is what's going on to a whole nation right that that when we take a look at the dead sea scrolls it's giving us a glimpse of an entire nation people waiting for the coming of a messiah it's the focus of all that they're doing sure it's become you know their whole lifestyle right you know you can look at these as seen men it's a lifestyle of waiting so again you know the excitement when this teacher from nazareth you know makes this claim that he's the fulfillment of this but you know but of course people want to see some verification okay anybody can claim to be the messiah what can you show us to verify well when we look in luke 4 no sooner does jesus preach then in that very chapter he goes to a synagogue and casts a demon out of a man you know an exorcism this is liberating people from the power of satan this is what they expected the end times melchizedek to do to liberate people from the power of the devil the slavery to the devil and in the following chapter we have that episode of the paralytic being let down from the roof and he says to man your sins are forgiven and to verify that he gets up and has a physical healing just to confirm that the spiritual reality has taken place so here is jesus not only making these claims but then delivering on that hope and that expectation that somebody will come to free us from satan somebody will come to free us from our sins and and he's doing it yeah but then that continues in the church because he's not as you mentioned before he's not the only smeared one we get smeared every one of us gets smeared in baptism and confirmation but you particularly father in holy orders are smeared with oil and your ordination to continue this ministry of freeing people from dominion to satan people how do you do that you know is the right of exorcism well yeah the right of exorcism is one way but the sacrament of way absolutely the sacraments have exorcistic power i love to talk about this but and and and other things the prayers for deliverance etc um but but the sacraments are freeing people from their sins obviously reconciliation but every you know sin and satan are always together and when you're when you're freed from one you're free from both they that it goes so that the ministry of christ is continued in in the sacraments by those who've been smeared like he was yeah but i think that's that's so key again that our goal and desire is that what we're talking about here and what was taking place there actually makes a difference in our life today it's not just something cool that you found it's not just but this actually impacts us today and yeah i was thinking about that that waiting for in the longing for the messiah honestly when when the obviously during the covet people weren't able to go to mass and i remember the first time that we were able to have mass together when people came and there was literally cheering like i said in the name of the lord be with you and people began to cheer this this expectation this longing to encounter the one and this is what that we allow the lord to be actually move in our heart to give us a sense of expectation and desire and hope and that he is ultimately the one that's going to be able to satisfy that absolutely that's one of the things i think i like about luke 4 is that that i'm we're all we're all we'll maybe talk about this later we're all baptized priests prophet king but i particularly as a sacramental priest get to participate in exactly what you were just talking about the liberation and the obviously it's jesus who frees us from our sin but he uses me as an instrument to bring that about and that satisfaction that that longing that is finally fulfilled sure yeah well i mean that we're living in that great jubilee that that the essenes were expecting you know this this great period of freedom and it's you know they they weren't very specific well how long is that jubilee going to last you know they don't really say but when you think about it with with our ability to go to the sacrament of reconciliation so frequently you know um the our our ability you know in the vast uh you know a number of places in the world to free to frequent the sacraments i think somebody's cited a statistic like 90 of the world's population is within you know at least a half days travel of a catholic church you know so you can this this this this overflowing of of god's grace to free us from our bondages you know our bondages to our own passions our bondages to spiritual powers we're just living in that perpetual outflow of grace and forgiveness and that's what the church age is and i think that's so good is that again the community that you're looking at was awaiting for the coming of the messiah but we get to live in that and forgive me it's probably john's gospel he says blessed are those who have seen but more blessed are those you know those that get to see that we get to live in that um the the first reading recently was from zechariah i believe and it was said rejoice for the coming the one will come on on a donkey and and they were they were preparing for and they're rejoicing about what was going to be but we get to live in that time of what is right the messiah has come and this is this is not merely an event that's taken place two thousand years ago but it's an event that continually takes place this encounter that we have with the messiah that the fact that one of the texts in luke 4 says give sight to the blind that i think that there's something that takes place in our spiritual life when and this is this is a moment of conversion for us but that when we realize that when jesus says i've come to give sight to the blind to heal the the crippled to free the captive that's not those people john that's you that's right that's that's me that's the people who are listening jesus wasn't just talking but the look for um proclamation is a proclamation from me that that i'm blind right that there are things all around me that i just don't see there are brothers and sisters around me that i'm not able to see because i'm too worried about me or whatever it is right but the lord wants to continue to heal our blindness continue to free us from kepler yeah and i want to bring the sacraments into that because uh you know from my experience as a protestant pastor for example i never knew how to preach the miracles of christ particularly in the gospel of john other than it being an experience that happened two thousand years yeah yeah i was like that happened you know so what do you say about it today you know so like many protestant preachers i just hung out with paul you know in the calling officials we like paul yeah exactly we like fall too but didn't know how to preach the miracles of christ and the reason father didn't know how to preach them was because i had not been initiated into the sacraments and i failed to see the connection between our lord's signs that he worked in his earthly ministry and the sacraments that we participate in the church and the big dawning the big light bulb going on for me was studying the gospel of john and realizing that oh my goodness john the apostle has written these accounts of jesus miracles so that you can see similarities to sacramental celebration like the wedding at cana changing the transubstantiation water to wine and then jesus calls the uh the servants up to distribute the wine to the party and then john uses the word diaconoy isn't that something exactly the word for deacon yeah to to to describe these where normally they would be called slaves or doulas in greek but but john uses intentionally use of the word diaconoy servants to describe them so we see oh just like you know jesus once changed one substance to another and then called servants forward to distribute it to everybody at the party so we sitting here at mass you know one substance to another here come the servants to bring it to you know so and it's true with all of the seven miracles that are recounted in the gospel john are written in a way that you can see those connections with the sacraments you know so the gospel of john in so many parts of scripture just came alive to me after my conversion after i was confirmed and brought into the catholic church began to participate in the sacramental life and seeing oh it's through the sacramental life that jesus continues to touch me forgive me heal me you know amazing it makes it so personal and it all begins there is we're going to spend more time talking about baptism because there was the purification ritual in these scenes but one of the things i love is to do a baptism i take as much oil now i'm going to now smearing right but there's we are baptized into christ and the one things i love about the church is this incarnation we use stuff and things and to take that oil and that that child is now an anointed one right it's an anointed one and and i think we need to be able to step into that reality that the the sacraments are vessels our instruments are channels of grace and to be able to stand in that and claim that and believe that and what your work here does john is it helps us to see that this wasn't just some manifestation they figured out they get around how many sacraments let's have seven but that we see the beginnings of this in the scriptures and and we get to live that out we do we do and what a great blessing it is that we get to live in in the time of the messiah the jubilee yeah yeah yeah you know for me as a protestant you know i had a true relationship with christ outside the catholic church um but it was always just kind of this personal relationship through prayer it was not very tangible and one of the beautiful things you know of my experience coming into the church is hearing the voice of the priest saying you know i absolve you from your sins you know it's the voice of jesus you're not feeling the touch you know i was just that's exactly that's exactly what i was just going to say even even the touch the the physical contact is so important if you pay attention to sacraments all of the sacraments have some kind of tactile element to it because as human persons we need that that's great that's great uh we should probably pray that yes pray for that coming of the messiah do you want to lead it absolutely all right all right let's just pray for this and the father son holy spirit amen heavenly father we give you thanks uh that our our spiritual older brothers uh among the jewish people and in particular this this uh group of s scenes uh prepared the way for us in so many ways um but we give you thanks lord that what they anticipated we are allowed to experience and uh to enjoy heavenly father stir in our hearts that we may always give thanks and praise you day by day that your sources of grace and forgiveness are poured out so abundantly through your church may we take uh great advantage of all these opportunities lord to drink from the fountain of your grace that comes to us through the eucharist through reconciliation and the other sacraments and give praise to you for that lord and share it with others we ask this through christ our lord amen amen almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen [Music] amen [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

Views: 50,596

Rating: 4.9081969 out of 5

Keywords: Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, Catholic, college, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Franciscan University of Steubenville (College / University), Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Fr. Dave Pivonka TOR, Dr. John Bergsma, Dead Sea Scrolls

Id: RvsHnz-iLAo

Length: 27min 24sec (1644 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020