What we can see is the reign of God itself. In the process of healing it remains hidden, but it is already present in the sign: the sign is the healing of mentally ill people. Those signs are so powerful that they attract attention. People are talking throughout the country about Jesus’ mighty deeds. The signs thus create space for the reign of God and allow it to come.
Nevertheless, the reign of God preserves its incognito status. It has to be believed, just as the hidden grace of the sacraments must be believed. One can take the sacraments to be empty signs with nothing behind them, and in the same way it was possible to regard Jesus’ exorcisms as trickery or the work of the devil. That is just what Jesus’ enemies did (cf. Mark 3:22).
So what is the reign of God? In New Testament exegesis it often remains remarkably ambivalent. It has no real place in the world. It is true that it was visible for a short while in Jesus, in his words and his deeds, but after that it apparently remains suspended like mist in the air. No one can grasp it. This book takes a different tack. It is meant, among other things, to show the deep connection between the reign of God and the people of God. That is the primary purpose of the next chapter.
Chapter 4
The Gathering of Israel
In the preceding chapters I have already spoken more than once about Jesus’ “gathering of Israel.” It is high time to take a closer look at that idea, because it is not at all clear what it means. “The gathering of Israel” is not one of the classic theological concepts. You can still search theological dictionaries in vain for it. The closest you will come is “collection.”
The Concept of Gathering
Still, “gathering” is a word that appears frequently in the Bible. From the time of the exile onward, the gathering of the scattered people of God was one of the fundamental ideas in Israel’s theology.1 Deuteronomy 30:1-5 reads:
When all these things have happened to you, the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the LORD your God has scattered you. Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.
We see in this text that the idea of the gathering of the people of God presumes that it is scattered among the nations. Among the prophets, in particular, the “gathering of what is scattered,” that is, those in the Diaspora, plays a major role—and always with great theological significance. “Gathering” in many cases becomes almost a soteriological terminus technicus, that is, a fixed concept representing the bringing of salvation. “Gathering” Israel is often parallel to “liberating,” “saving,” “healing,” and “redeeming” Israel. Thus the term acquires a certain independent quality of representing the coming of salvation, even though “gathering from the Diaspora” remains controlling.
It is always God who gathers the people. It is never said that the people will gather themselves. The background is the image of the shepherd who gathers his or her flock and leads them home—and scattered sheep, as we know, cannot gather themselves. The goal of the gathering is a renewed dwelling in the Land. It is true that the gathering of the people of God means more than simply bringing them together. It always means as well that the people will find unity among themselves:
[The LORD] will raise a signal for the nations,
and will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
the hostility of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not be hostile towards Ephraim. (Isa 11:12-13)
Ephraim here represents the Northern Kingdom, Judah the Southern Kingdom. The division between the northern and southern realms will be healed by the gathering of the people of God. The rivalry of the tribes will come to an end. Gathering from the exile is thus not only being led back into the Land but also the overcoming of the mortal divisions within the people of God itself.
In the postexilic period the gathering of Israel gradually became a central part of the promise of salvation, comparable to the exodus from Egypt, Israel’s primal confession. “With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” God will lead Israel out from among the nations—as once before out of Egypt. In Jeremiah 23:7-8 we even read:
Therefore the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, “As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” but “As the LORD lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them!”
Thus the bringing back of the people from the Diaspora more and more clearly becomes a fundamental statement about God, God’s nature, and the way God acts. This is evident in the relative clausal construction in Isaiah 56:8: “Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel.” Here we already find prayer language, a praise of God’s action that has become a fixed formula. In fact, the “gathering of Israel” enters more and more into the inventory of prayer formulae. In Psalm 106:47, Israel prays: “Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations.” And in the final Hallel, the great conclusion to the book of Psalms, Psalm 147:2-3 reads:
The LORD builds up Jerusalem [anew];
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.
In the Shemoneh Esrei, Israel’s daily prayer, which very probably was composed in the first century CE, that development then came to its conclusion. The tenth petition is: “Sound the great shofar for our freedom and raise a banner to gather our exiles and unite us together from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are You, LORD, who regathers the scattered of His people Israel.”
Thus the petition for an eschatological gathering is among Israel’s fixed prayer formulae. In the time of Jesus the petition had long been in circulation. So it was almost a matter of course for him to adopt the idea of “gathering.” He did not need to think directly of gathering out of the Diaspora, because the idea had already acquired its own quality. It stood for the eschatological union, rescue, and redemption of Israel. But Jesus not only made verbal use of the idea; in his own matter-of-fact way he brought into being exactly what the idea meant.
John the Baptizer
The Baptizer must have given Jesus a critical impetus. It is true that John preached the immediately approaching judgment, but this expectation of the judgment soon to come did not make the gathering of Israel somehow superfluous. On the contrary: it made it all the more urgent. Precisely because the time still remaining for Israel is so limited, the Baptizer had to bring the people together and equip them for what was about to happen. The one who judges with fire will then bring this gathering process to an end: he will fill the granary with wheat and burn the chaff in unquenchable fire (Matt 3:12).
We have already seen2 that the Baptizer addresses not humanity in general or all sinners throughout the world but the people of God. The baptism he confers is not intended to inaugurate a special community or to rescue individuals as such from judgment (though it is meant to do that too); it is an “eschatological sacrament” for Israel.3
What is important for the Baptizer is that there must always be true children of Abraham, always the true Israel (Matt 3:9). The repentance and baptism now offered by God is the last chance for Israel to become this people of God, for Israel is now in the deepest crisis of its history.
It can repent and allow itself to be gathered like wheat, or it can refuse to repent. In that case there will be a separation, just as the chaff is separated from the wheat (Matt 3:12). So for the Baptizer, as far as Israel is concerned, there is gathering and there is separation. Jesus, in his own way, will accomplish both.
“Whoever Does Not Gather with Me”
Jesus too wanted nothing else but to gather Israel in the face of the reign of God now coming to pass. But his point of view is different: the impulse is not the impending judgment but the joy of the reign of God. Judgment is not suppressed or ignored; it remains in the background. If Israel refuses, it will bring judgment on itself. So Jesus can say: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matt 12:30 // Luke 11:23). This saying of Jesus has rightly been dubbed a “call to decision.”4 There can be no neutrality toward Jesus, only for or against. Whoever does not decide for him has already decided against him.
But what makes this saying of Jesus even weightier is that it is not just about a decision for or against Jesus. Since this is about the eschatological gathering of Israel, the choice for or against Jesus is also a decision for or against the salvation of Israel.5 Anyone who does not gather with Jesus now, in this crucial eschatological situation, stands in the way of the salvation and redemption of the people of God.
Besides this radical call to decision there is another saying in which Jesus also speaks of the gathering of Israel. It must have been uttered in a late phase of his work because he is already looking back at a good many refusals: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matt 23:37 // Luke 13:34). On the surface this means that Jesus often wanted to gather the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, to make it the center of the eschatological Israel. But that would presume that he had appeared in Jerusalem a number of times. We cannot exclude that, although it contradicts the way things are presented in the Synoptic Gospels.6 But we can also understand Jesus’ words differently if we suppose that Jerusalem stands for all Israel.
Thus, for example, in the biblical book of Lamentations the words “Jerusalem,” “daughter Zion,” “daughter Judah,” “daughter of my people,” and “Jacob” are repeatedly exchanged for one another. “Jacob” means all Israel. In and of themselves Lamentations 1, 2, and 4 refer to the city of Jerusalem. It is addressed in the same way that Jesus addresses Jerusalem in our text. But the three songs constantly look beyond the city itself to encompass the whole land. For every reader or hearer of Lamentations it was clear that here Jerusalem represents Israel. The lamentation over the destroyed capital is at the same time a lamentation over the people of God, sunk so deep in misery. Jesus quite certainly knew these language conventions. Therefore he could have understood all Israel as included among the “children of Jerusalem.” The capital city is responsible for the land and also representative of it.
But however that may be, these words were probably spoken in Jerusalem, and in them Jesus summarizes his whole activity in retrospect—as his effort to bring about the eschatological gathering of Israel.
The image of the bird (in the Greek text) is, as so often with Jesus, taken from everyday observation. The reference is not to the eagle that spreads its wings but to the hen who repeatedly invites her scattered chicks to gather around her, clucking at them in a low tone; sometimes she also tucks them under her wings. But the true point of comparison in the image is not the protection of the young ones under her wings but the gathering of them.
The Petition for Gathering in the Our Father
At this point we must certainly take a look at the Our Father, for this prayer that Jesus formulated for his disciples summarizes his whole will in one work of genius. For that very reason we find an irritating state of things in the Our Father: here Israel, the people of God, apparently does not appear. There does not seem to be anything said about the gathering of the people of God either. Does that not refute everything we have said to this point? The objection is justified, but it misses the point, because the Our Father itself is shaped by the theme of the gathering of Israel. Its very first petition is: “Hallowed be Thy name!” (Matt 6:9 // Luke 11:2). Exegetes are united in saying that this is not only and not even primarily about the hallowing of the Name of God by Israel. Rather, what is in the foreground is that God is to hallow his own Name, just as he is to bring about his royal reign (second petition) and accomplish his plan of salvation (third petition). But what does it mean for God to hallow his Name?
We can simply not understand this first petition without its Old Testament background. At its base is the theology of the book of Ezekiel, especially chapters 20 and 36. Ezekiel speaks repeatedly of the holy Name of God, and this book contains the single passage in the Hebrew Bible in which the statement that the Name of God will be hallowed has God himself as the acting subject (Ezek 36:23).
In and of itself the hallowing of the Name (qiddush hashem) is a widely attested Old Testament and Jewish theme. But the subject is always the human being or the people Israel, and the reference is primarily to keeping the commandments. This is clear in the basic text, Leviticus 22:31-32: “Thus you shall keep my commandments and observe them: I am the LORD. You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel.” So Israel is to hallow the Name of God. That is the normal usage. The statement that God himself hallows his Name, however, points clearly to Ezekiel. In that book, at Ezekiel 36:19-28, we read:
I scattered them [the Israelites] among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries; in accordance with their conduct and their deeds I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that it was said of them, “These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of his land.” But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
In this text, which summarizes the expectation of salvation throughout the whole book of Ezekiel, there are five series of statements:
First series: Israel dwelt in the Land God had given it. But it did not live according to Torah, the social order given by God. It did not serve the God who had chosen it but other gods. Thus it despised the Land and profaned the Name of God. It filled the Land with envy, hatred, and rivalry. So it spoiled the Land and destroyed the brilliance that ought to emanate from it.
Second series: God could not endure this profanation and despising of the Land. He had to drive Israel out of the Land and disperse it among the pagan nations. But why did God have to drive out his people? People today resist such an image of God. Must God punish? Must God deport people? What the Bible means is more obvious if we formulate such statements consistently in human terms: a society that constantly lives contrary to God’s order of creation destroys itself. That is true in particular of the people of God with its special calling
for the sake of the other nations. If it stubbornly acts contrary to its calling, it destroys the ground on which it stands. It destroys its basis. It deprives itself of its land and of its very existence.
Third series: The scattering of Israel among the nations, which it has brought on itself, makes things still worse, since the result of this dispersion is that the Name of God is profaned still further. Now all the world ridicules Israel and its God. The nations say: what a miserable, powerless god this YHWH is! He is a god who does not care for his own people. He is a god without a people. He is a god without a country.
Fourth series: God has to put an end to this profanation of his Name. He cannot allow his Name to continue to be made a laughingstock because of Israel’s dispersal among the nations. Therefore God himself will now hallow his Name before all the nations. The fact that he intervenes is not at all due to Israel’s deserving.
Fifth series: How does God put an end to this unbearable state of things? How does he hallow his Name? He does so by gathering his people from the dispersion and bringing them back into the Land. He hallows his Name by freeing the Israelites from their idols and giving them a new heart and a new spirit. He takes the hearts of stone out of their breasts and gives them hearts of flesh. So it becomes possible for Israel to live according to the social order God has ordained.
The first petition of the Our Father summarizes this whole text from Ezekiel 36 in a single sentence. The petition “hallowed be Thy Name” begs God to gather his people from the dispersion, to make them one people again, give them a new heart, and fill them with the Holy Spirit. To put it another way: the first petition of the Our Father implores that there once again be a place in the world where the glory and honor of God are visible—a place because of which God’s name can be honored, and also called upon, even by the nations.
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