Volker Leppin and Vasileios Marinis discuss hypocrisy, reward systems, righteousness, and religious performance in Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12). The text is appointed for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, in Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary.
Hypocrites (Fifth Sunday after Epiphany)
Voiceover Voice:
If the Lord says, “Here I am,” he says “Here I am in the poor.” Helping the poor, helping the suppressed is approaching God.
Helena Martin:
This is Chapter, Verse, and Season: a lectionary podcast from Yale Bible Study. Join us each week as two Yale Divinity School professors look at an upcoming text from the Revised Common Lectionary.
This episode, we have Volker Leppin, Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology, and Vasileios Marinis, Associate Professor of Christian Art and Architecture.
They’re discussing Isaiah 58:1-12, which is appointed for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany in Year A. Here’s the text.
[Isaiah 58:1-12]
Shout out; do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they want God on their side.
“Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day
and oppress all your workers.
You fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your needs in parched places
and make your bones strong,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.
Vasileios Marinis:
This is a wonderful excerpt, particularly when read at the beginning of the fast. It talks about, essentially, the pitfalls of outward religiosity, fake religiosity, and talks about how God is very unhappy with people that we might call hypocrites. That they think that they do all the right things. They expect God to reward them for doing all these outward signs of a good fasting. And I think the implication here is that these people do all these for very selfish reasons. Essentially, to gain some kind of reward from God. But at the same time, they ignore the hungry, and the poor, and the destitute. They oppress their workers. They are spiteful. They are argumentative. And God makes clear here in this passage that God dislikes this sort of behavior.
Volker Leppin:
You say hypocrites, yeah? They are men that are. I’m thinking about in this sense, any religious Christian would be a hypocrite. Thinking for what has Karl Barth said so critically about religion being a kind of revolt against God. We want to impose ourselves, we want to have our rules, and then we really expect something, religious people. Not only in the context of fasting, but then say, why do we go Sunday morning worshiping? Is it just as it should be to have a good time, to be close to God somehow? Or is it also a little bit like, I want to be good, and God should notice that I’m good. Isn’t there kind of feeling that they say in every religious behavior?
Vasileios Marinis:
This is true. And there is this idea of good behavior gets rewarded, and the expectation. And I think the passage here is about that. But it’s about the kind of behavior that people, Christian’s if we want to go there, the kind of behavior that they think will bring them the rewards. And we’re all aware of Christian preachers preaching a gospel of prosperity. Thinking that you’re good and you are rewarded and terribly rich because God favors you.
But the text itself also, I think it points to the direction of reward in doing what you are supposed to be doing. Taking care of your workers and of those who are oppressed and hungry and so on. And this is particularly evident, I think, in verses 9 to 12, which indicate that those who do what God considers appropriate fasting will be rewarded. And there is even a promise of restorations. Verse 12 says your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. You shall rise up the foundations of many generations and so on. So, I think this reward system is promised, is found in the passage. The importance of the passage is how to get there and instructions on how to accomplish it.
Volker Leppin:
Everything in myself, being a Lutheran, being someone dealing with mysticism, revolts somehow against this idea of rewarding in any case. Is it really good if I share my bread with the hungry just to get a reward? Is that what God expects from me? Or does God expect from me being open-minded to the poor, seeing the need of other people, and then sharing my bread or whatever I have just because I love my neighbor? Isn’t that what we should come to without any question about reward?
Vasileios Marinis:
Yes. I’m not a Lutheran obviously so I don’t have particular issues with rewards. And what you’re suggesting is a much deeper theological interpretation of the [psalm] and interpretation of behavior. But as a Greek Orthodox, I think these should be assigned reading for everybody who is a practicing Greek Orthodox. Especially at the beginning of the Lent, especially the Great Lent in the Greek Orthodox church is of particular importance. But I’m afraid that many people focus on the technicalities. What to eat, what not to eat, when to go to church, when not to go to church. And here we have almost an indictment of this kind of behavior that, yes, okay, don’t eat meat, and you go to church for great vespers and so on and so forth. But this is not enough. You should not expect anything because you just did all the technical stuff. What is important is behavior. One should share one’s abundance, hospitality, and care. God here essentially proposes a whole new way of life that is not attached to doing the technical right thing, but rather doing the right thing in the context of a community.
Volker Leppin:
And he gives a very interesting promise, I think, beyond all thinking of reward. If you look at verse 9, the promise is, here I am. What a great promise this is. Just to see God is there. We might approach him, her, them. We might come close to God. That’s all we have to expect.
Vasileios Marinis:
Yeah, that’s wonderful. It’s verse 9 promises that God hears immediately and then verse 11, the Lord will guide you continually is also very important, I think. It’s nice, they compliment each other very, very nicely. The Lord will be with you should you do these things.
Volker Leppin:
And he will be with you, with us, maybe especially in those people we deal with. Having Matthew 25, the great judgment day in my mind, hearing about helping the poor, sharing my bread, that’s all what Jesus asks for the judgment. And then he says what you have done to the lowest of my brethren, that have you done to me. And so, if the Lord says, “Here I am.” He says, “Here I am in the poor.” And that makes it fascinating to think helping the poor, helping the suppressed is directly approaching God.
Vasileios Marinis:
Yeah, that’s a wonderful point of that you’re making. And it’s particularly important because it doesn’t have a footnote. It doesn’t say you help the poor and the destitute only in these cases.
Only if you do a background check, or only if they deserve it, or only if you think that they will use the money for good, you know, there is a full stop there, right? You do these things no matter what. And in the context of 2022 in the United States, this is a kind of a shocking commandment. You’re supposed to do all of these things without questioning.
Volker Leppin:
I love your idea of having no footnotes, no reservation about this. Just radically following this. I look in the history of Christianity for, let’s say, St Francis or figures like a human who really did this. Who like Jesus Christ wanted to go down to those who were suppressed and embrace them, kiss them, be with them in a very radical way. That’s always also a question to ask people in our way of life in the 21st century, saying we are Christians, but maybe not radically enough.
Helena Martin:
Thanks for listening. And thank you, Professors Leppin and Marinis, for your insight on Isaiah.
Remember to rate and subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re listening, and visit our website: YaleBibleStudy.org.
Chapter, Verse, and Season is a production of the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. It’s produced by: Creator and Managing Editor, Joel Baden; Production Manager, Kelly Morrissey; Associate Producer, Aidan Stoddart; and I’m your Host and Executive Producer, Helena Martin. Mixing on today’s episode, and our theme music, are by Calvin Linderman.
We’ll be back with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.
Book of the Bible:
Isaiah
Subjects:
Isaiah
Guests
Text
New Revised Standard Version Bible
Copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Credits
Host and Executive Producer: Helena Martin
Production Manager: Kelly Morrissey
Creator and Managing Editor: Joel Baden
Assistant Producer: Aidan Stoddart
Music: Calvin Linderman
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Chapter, Verse, and Season gives listeners the opportunity to overhear the kinds of conversations that take place in the halls of Yale Divinity School. Each week, professors from different theological disciplines chat about biblical texts from the Revised Common Lectionary. They bring their own interests to the table and hopefully spark new insights into the scripture appointed for each Sunday.