Parallels, or Widening Spirals

 

In much of the reading I have been doing over the past months, I have come across people saying that Jesus did X, Y and Z in the New Testament and that those things parallel A, B and C in the Old Testament part of God’s salvation story.  We miss the ties between these events because the words that screamed out a connection to those First Century readers fly past us so quickly and mean nothing to us given the cultural and historical distance. 

Think about certain phrases, places or objects today that are so loaded with baggage that just to use them sends obvious messages. Consider these situations:  

• A biography in which the main character shows up and begins his public exposure on Wall Street or at Ground Zero or in San Francisco or on Skid Row. What would the setting evoke to the readers?
• A potential but unannounced Presidential candidate shows up at Iowa State Fair. The relevance is not lost on most Americans but may be totally missed by Europeans, even those familiar with our politics.
• A musician journeys to Abbey Road to record their first album.
• A politician talks about “choice” or “life” or “big government” or the “little guy”.  We know instantly where they stand.

I often wonder how much we miss in the Bible because we miss the cultural clues. I know most of these parallel storylines have never dawned on me. It’s probably wrong to call them parallel storylines, as God’s intentionally is obvious. they are more like the same story, being looped back around again in an ever-widening spiral.  

The most famous example is made explicit by Paul in Romans 5 where Adam and Jesus are compared and contrasted.

Here are the ones I have come across so far (listed in chronological order from the Old Testament).

1. Genesis 2: God breathes on Adam to give him the breath of life and makes him a living soul. John 20:22 – Jesus (resurrected) appears to disciples, breathes on them and says “receive the Holy Spirit  (Eugene Peterson, Christ plays in 10,000 places, p. 106)
2. The Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden in which Jesus was buried and resurrected. I have seen at least four authors talk about the fact that Jews had an automatic flashing of thought towards the Garden of Eden whenever the word garden was mentioned. They argue that all references to the garden locations in the gospels was intentional, to make a point.

In a garden we fell; In a garden he prayed, ‘Not my will but yours be done’. The cross has made a way so we can enter in to go back to the Garden once again. The cross has made a way. Forever I will say, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.’ (Jonathan David Helser, from the song“The Reward”.)

• In the first garden, man chose to live outside of the way God made for them to live and death entered the picture.
• Jesus was buried in the second garden and was rose again. The message is that there is a “new Adam on the scene, and he is reversing the curse of death by conquering it.. . . He’s reclaiming ccreation. He’s entering into it and restoring it and renewing God’s plan for the world.” (Rob Bell, Velvet Jesus, p. 156 – 157)

3. Jesus was stripped at his crucifixion. This parallels the genesis account of the fall, where Adam was naked and unashamed until he sinned. Jesus was shamed and stripped naked in order to free us from our sin. In this, Jesus shows the ultimate vulnerability of the defenseless. (from the Stations of the Cross)
4. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple parallels the 10 plagues of Egypt. The Plagues were not a punishment on Egypt, but rather a display of God’s sovereignty compared with Pharaoh’s lack of control over the physical world. The Jerusalem temple had become godless place, constructed by a godless King (Herod). Jesus’ sovereignty was obscured there. Pharisees recognized this as the issue when they asked, “By whose authority do you do this?” (Peterson, Christ plays in 10,000 places. p. 168)
5. Passover meal parallels Communion. An ordinary meal eaten in community the night before salvation was provided. No special food or clothes or candles. The Passover celebration took 7 days which again parallels Creation. (Peterson, p. 175)
6. Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years & Jesus temptation for 40 days. His temptation parallels Israel’s 40 years in the desert. Israel faced demons of comfort and food. Jesus faced them all. (Charles Foster: The Sacred Journey, p. 66)

Surely there are more. Feel free to suggest some.