[Response to readings for March 12-14]
The first verse of one of the Psalms for today implores God thusly:
Save me, O God, by your name;
vindicate me by your might.
In fact, in Numbers we see how God vindicates Moses when a group of 250 Israelites start an uprising. Hint: it involves the ground swallowing people up and fire coming from the sky. In Mark, we have the much more well know vindication of Jesus’ ministry with these words:
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”
Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Hebrew story and other cited text here. Have I recently mentioned how awesome Biblegateway.com is?This passage is the conclusion of Mark. Someone went back later and added a post-resurrection citing, but the author of Mark did not think such an account was necessary.
Sometimes you hear leaders in the Bible broken down into three categories: Prophets, Priests and Kings. Jesus is a prophet. I like his method of vindication best; continuing on in the face of diversity, not forgetting what the ministry is about even in the face of death. To me, this is how a prophet is vindicated.