Wednesday, 2/10/2021
Week of 5 Epiphany

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:97–120; Isaiah 59:15b–21; 2 Timothy 1:15–2:13; Mark 10:1–16

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1–3,11a,14c,18–19, BCP, p. 87); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68–79, BCP, p. 92)

When it’s all become just too much… When you’re ready to walk away from everything, and say, “I’ve had enough: enough responsibility, enough feeling of failure, enough worry and anxiety,” — what keeps you going? 

What keeps me going is Paul reminding Timothy (and through Timothy, me): “…he [Christ] remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). 

Time and again in 2 Timothy, Paul prompts Timothy to remember examples, and counter-examples, of faithfulness. Clearly, Paul wants Timothy to emulate the faithful, like his mother and grandmother, Onesiphorus, Paul himself, and Christ. Moreover, Paul wants Timothy to identify “faithful people” and to train them so they can pass on the faith (2 Timothy 2:2). And Paul wants Timothy to avoid the counter-examples: Phygelus and Hermongenes who abandoned Paul, and Hymenaeus and Philetus who are intentionally teaching falsehoods to oppose Paul (1:15; 2:17). 

In the context of putting before Timothy examples and counterexamples of faithfulness to the gospel and courage in ministry, Paul creates (or quotes) some poetic lines (some scholars think Paul draws upon an early Christian hymn):

11 If we have died with him (that is, Jesus), we will also live with him;
12  if we endure, we will also reign with him;
      if we deny him, he will also deny us;
14 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
    for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:11–13)

Notice that there are four “if” clauses. Each of the first three “ifs” is followed by an “also.” The logic for these three clauses is a natural “if ‘x’ …, then ‘y’ ….” One thing follows another. A person receives the expected result of their action. If we have shared in Christ’s death, then it follows that we will live with him (Romans 6:8). If we endure, it follows that we will reign with him (Romans 5:17; 8:17). 

The third “if” clause still has an “also,” but it is otherwise unusual in its construction. It actually has a future tense in the Greek, which is difficult to bring out in English: “if we will deny him.” It’s a form of expression that Greek writers use to express something they don’t want, or that they fear and are trying to avoid. The gist is this: If, lamentably, on the last day, we should deny Jesus, he will have to deny us. That is what Jesus, in fact, said during his earthly ministry: “…but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). This is the trajectory of life, Paul fears, that those he denounces are on.

But it’s the fourth “if” clause that gives interpreters pause: “if we are faithless.” What stands out is that there’s no “also” following it. In this case, the faithless person does not get the expected result. What Paul has learned in his own life is that despite his faithlessness, he has received mercy. “Christ Jesus our Lord … judged me faithful (understood, even though I wasn’t!) … I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief (or faithlessness), and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:12–14). The faith (or faithfulness) that was not in him, Paul says, came to him as a gift because they were “in Jesus.” Where Paul was faithless, he confesses, Jesus was faithful on his behalf. Where he was loveless and deserving of no mercy, Jesus was love and mercy on his behalf. That’s who Jesus is, “for he cannot deny himself.”  

Paul wants to fortify Timothy (and us) by reminding him (and us) of the utter grace of God in the face of apprehension, indecisiveness, or timidity. Despite the constant temptation to run and hide, Timothy can trust Christ to provide the courage he cannot find in himself. Even in our faithlessness, our final hope is the faithfulness of Christ, “for he cannot deny himself.” As Jesus bid the children come to him (Mark 10:14-16), he likewise encourages us to come, too. If we put our hand out to him, he will securely clasp it with his own.  Once he has taken hold of us, he cannot let go. That’s who he is. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Christ Blessing the Children, stained glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, FL