Narrative Lectionary Year Four, Summer (John)
July 25, 2021 – Ephesians 4
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Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Daniel D. Maurer
Ephesians, Chapter Four continues with the Pauline author’s exposition of the message that Christians—regardless of their affiliation with different churches, their beliefs, or whether or not male believers have a foreskin—should find common ground in Christ.
The whole of the Ephesians can be easily summed up with what New Testament scholar Daniel Wallace, New Testament scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary states: “Christians, get along with each other!”
Nowhere is such a message more relevant than in our own time, where people define their tribe by what its stance is “against” something. Americans (and American protestants), in particular, are guilty of this—being descendents of those who fled their former country, whether from persecution or for religious freedom. Americans easily define themselves by what they are against.
Chapter Four of Ephesians continues down this path. Often, the chapter serves as a springboard for many preachers to highlight how all people have gifts to provide, and therefore are a part of the greater body of Christ. This take isn’t the least bit wrong and it’s also the direction Dr. Leetch went in the Narrative Lectionary resources. However, I’d like to offer an alternative reading which I hope might be enlightening to your exposition of this text to your congregation.
It deals with the middle section of the chapter, beginning in verse 8:
“Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)”
I’d like to springboard off of verse 10. Interestingly, it’s a similar concept to an earlier word in Ephesians 1:10 with my all-time favorite word in the the Bible, anakephalaiosasthai. Translated in the NRSV, that word is “gather up all things” and the Koine Greek word has its roots (of all things) in Greek mathematics as the “sum of all.”
So we have all this gathering up and filling up. And it’s all in Christ. What does it mean? From this author’s theological view, it directly addresses the Pauline author’s larger concern—namely that people weren’t getting along, as people are apt to do. Christ’s role of death and resurrection was to be the center for all believers, regardless of their views on this or that.
Then there’s this weird parenthetical comment about ascending and descending. (Jesus the helicopter).
“The lower parts of the earth,” incidentally, finds a home in the creeds of the church—“he descended into hell” or “he descended to the dead” whichever your tradition’s preference is.
Filling everything up, Christ then claps his hands together and returns to the heavens. (Also like a helicopter? Probably not.)
These oft-passed-over verses in the chapter find incredible value for your congregation.
1) They address that Christ, having even gone to the place of the dead, took that all into himself before ascending. For members fearing death or who have lost loved-ones, it’s a pastoral opportunity to share that we don’t need to be worried about it. God’s taken care of it, because God filled everything up, from bottom to top. God is in all. (Pantheism might be a heresy, but panentheism is not.)
2) From a more proclaimational viewpoint to address today’s completely maddening political situation of fence building, we find that these verses grapple with it forcefully. The message is that all people, everywhere, and regardless of their political views on this or that, simply define must themselves with only one measuring rod: Christ. Christ has gone to the bottom, the very bottom, to fill everything up, all the way to the top.
Whether we’re Lutheran or Protestant, Republican or Democrat, Christian or other, or even dog-people vs. cat-people—Christ’s action of descent and ascent is to be the defining understanding above all else. And if one self-identifying feature finds itself in conflict with another and breaks people apart, that’s not just sad, it’s unchristian. I state this strongly, because the Pauline author of Ephesians does it as well.
Now, obviously, non-Christians or others of different religions wouldn’t categorize themselves in this way. But, we who believe, must, for the sake of unity.
Your opportunities as a preacher might find value in this little-referenced or preached-upon middle section of the chapter. I encourage you to explore the option to remark about it, because our world is so very torn into two directions right now.
That’s not only sad. It’s dangerous.
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EPHESIANS 4 TEXT
Readers: Reader 1, Reader 2
Reader 1: I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Reader 2: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Reader 1: Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower
parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)
Reader 2: The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Reader 1: We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.