2 Timothy 4:6-8
As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NRSVUE)
Historical fiction. Yep. For the past two centuries scholars have increasingly viewed 2 Timothy (and 1 Timothy and Titus, the “Pastorals”) as having been written by someone other than Paul, the Apostle to whom those letters traditionally have been attributed.
So what do we do with this fact? And what do we do with this passage? Does its authority for us rest on its supposed authorship by the great apostle Paul as it appears to have done for the church of the first few centuries CE? Or do we evaluate it based on other factors – its ability to connect us with the early followers of Jesus, or on our own reading of the text and what it says about living a life in relationship with God?
Any of us who have written a text message or email soon learns the difficulty of conveying emotion accurately in a text (Emoticons and emoji, after all, were invented for a reason.), but the elegiac tone of this passage from 2 Timothy is really hard to miss: “I am already being poured out as a libation,” “time of my departure has come,” “finished the race.” The sense of grief and loss is palpable.
We share in the anguish, but then the tone shifts: “reserved for me the crown of righteousness. . .the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day,” “not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (emphases added)
Wow. From bereavement to hope and confidence in a single sentence!
The Christian message of resurrection from the dead is a tough sell in our own post-Enlightenment world of rationality and scientific skepticism, but it was a tough sell in the Hellenistic world of the first and second centuries as well. We see this in the authentically Pauline epistle, 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul addresses an audience apparently expecting Jesus’s imminent return, but now wavering in their faith over the loss of early followers of Jesus who have already died. Expecting Jesus’s return in their own lifetime these followers were thoroughly disheartened and nervous that Jesus might not return.
2 Timothy 4 appears to address similar anxieties. Paul, the heroic promoter of Jesus and The Way, may have died, but the author of 2 Timothy uses “Paul” to reassure us and leave us with a vision of how to live: We are to pour our lives out “as a libation” (a sacrifice—in the Judeo-Christian context a thanksgiving to God), we are to “run the race” (persevere), and keep the faith (trust).
And the result? The crown of righteousness, not only for ourselves, but for all who follow The Way. It’s a royal image of honor that links us to the image of Jesus as King. Not the kings of recent protests, but a spiritual King for all people. The words may not be authentically Paul’s, but they are definitely Pauline.
Questions for Reflection:
- “I have kept the faith.” says ‘Paul’ in 2 Timothy. But what does that mean? Is it about holding to certain understandings we came to at one stage in our lives? If so then how do we understand such metaphors as a “growing in faith” or “faith journey” that imply transformation or movement from one understanding to another? How is our response affected by the understanding that ‘faith’ is a synonym for ‘trust’?
- Compare ‘Paul’s’ statement, “I have kept the faith,” with the proud assertion in Philippians, an authentic epistle, where he describes himself as “circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. What is the faith that the ‘real’ Paul kept, given that there was no “Christianity” at the time?
- If ‘soli scriptura,’ a core Lutheran tradition, is defined “as the belief that “the Bible [is] the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice,” then, given our own human fallibility, how important is it for us to look at scripture from different angles and allow for differences of opinion?
Prayer:
Lord, we read the scriptures and ponder the words. We seek answers, but each answer brings only more questions. We are confronted again and again by the knowable/unknowable You. We see Jesus, who when asked a question responded almost invariably with another question or a parable that raised still more questions. We ask for patience, Lord. And we trust in your grace.
Amen
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