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Message 1 of 3

“Gardens & Thorns”

We’re starting a new series today called “Echo,” and in these next couple of weeks we’re
going to look at some of the passages in the New Testament that act as echoes, allusions,
and parallels to themes that began in the Old Testament.

Let’s say you start attending a church and you want to know more about what’s going on.
You go out and get a Bible. But you’ve heard the Old Testament can be a bit challenging, so
you start in the New Testament. But that doesn’t solve the problem, because there are
plenty of passages in the New Testament that can leave you scratching your head and
saying, “huh?”

Concepts like covenant, Kingdom, and circumcision are all there, and if we’re honest, the
significance of those things doesn’t always resonate with us in modern-day America.

But if you’ve read the New Testament at all, you’ve probably noticed all the superscripted
letters next to many of the verses. When you see one of those it means that you should
look at the notes in the margins. And what do you find when you look there?
It’s usually a chapter and verse from the Old Testament that serves as the original line of
thought that the current New Testament verse is either quoting or alluding to in some way.

The New Testament directly quotes the Old Testament 343 times, but there are more than
2,000 allusions, echoes, and verbal parallels of the Old Testament found in the New
Testament.

For example, take the Gospel of Matthew – the first book in the New Testament. The direct
quotations come fast and furious as he weaves together aspects of Jesus’ birth, life,
ministry, and death with specific texts from the Old Testament. And even when the Old
Testament writer didn’t think he was recording prophecy that would be fulfilled at a later
time, Matthew insists that the older writer was doing just that.

So Matthew tells us that Jesus used parables to teach the crowds of people who came to
him. Ok fine. But in verse 35 of chapter 13, Matthew goes further and insists that by
teaching in parables, Jesus was fulfilling Psalm 78:2 (NIV), which says, “I will open my
mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”

That’s a direct quotation from the Old Testament, and Matthew gives it a straightforward
fulfillment in the New Testament. But echoes are more nuanced and less direct. They
rumble beneath the surface, tucked away unless you know what you’re listening for.

The thing is, these echoes would have been obvious to anyone in that first century culture,
but they’re less obvious to us who are living 2,000 years later.

What we’re listening for is what writers call: METALEPSIS or Intertextuality.

Metalepsis is the literary term for when writers incorporate “echoes” in their writing.

It’s been used by everyone from Homer in The Odyssey to Shakespeare in Hamlet to
Stephanie Meyer in Twilight. It happens when a present text uses an earlier text in order to
give that earlier text an updated, redefined, or fulfilled meaning.

It’s reasonable to ask: Is all this talking about metalepsis and intertextuality, and listening
for echoes really necessary?
In a word, yes it is.
If you want to understand what the New Testament is saying, then these things are
definitely necessary.

Richard Hays is a professor at Duke Divinity School and he’s the definitive scholar on
recognizing the echoes in the New Testament. He teaches that, “New Testament texts must
be read with careful attention to their Old Testament subtexts” (The Moral Vision of the New
Testament, 310).

Not to do so is to risk missing the point of the New Testament altogether. Because, you see,
the writers of the New Testament grew up in the world of the Old Testament. So they had
lived their lives in the symbolic world made up of those words, those images, and those
stories.

Think about it like this:

If I say “New York Yankees,” what comes to your mind?

Today that calls to mind the baseball team that spends crazy amounts of money to get the
best players so they can win the World Series. BUT, if this were 1870, it wouldn’t carry that
image at all. If someone said something about the “New York Yankees” in 1870, we’d likely
hear an echo from the Civil War! The term would be a reference to political affiliations, with
no thought whatsoever of professional sports.

So, it should be obvious that words mean what they mean at the time they’re being used.
And the images that the New Testament writers want us to think of are the ones that they
were thinking of when they wrote the words they did.

So avoiding the Old Testament and going straight to the New Testament doesn’t help
because the New Testament is like a giant echo chamber of the Old Testament!
But that leaves you with 3 options:

1) Throw the whole thing out and write it off as outdated superstition.
2) Keep showing up at church, but give up trying to understand the Bible.
3) Keep reading, keep showing up, ask questions, and seek understanding.

The best of these options is, of course, number 3.

In this series, we’ll identify and listen to some of the New Testament passages whose
meanings come into view most clearly when they’re heard as echoes of the Old Testament.

Today we’ll start with one example and we’ll continue along these lines for the next couple
of weeks.

GENESIS
We begin in Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve wrestle with temptation and
eventually forfeit their roles as truly human beings, genuine image-bearers of God, who are
dependent on God to meet their needs. They assert their desire to be “like God” and as a
result the good creation is thrown off-kilter. God announces in Genesis 3:17b-18b (NIV),
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of
your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you…”

Creation has been INFECTED with the forces of anti-creation even down to its roots.
God calls Abraham (then his name was “Abram”) in Genesis 12 to begin a people whose
function was to be a channel for the blessing of God to spread throughout the world. The
obvious intention is for the blessing to undo the curse of sin as it plows ahead.

The family of Abraham is later called the Israelites; and throughout the Old Testament,
they’re referred to as God’s Son. As God’s Son, they’re expected to bear a FAMILY
resemblance to their Father, the God who created heaven and earth.

So in Exodus 4:22 (NIV) God instructs Moses: “Say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD
says: Israel is my firstborn son…’”

But they don’t bear a family resemblance to their God. So later on Hosea 11:1-2a (NIV)
records God’s lament, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my
son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me.”

As time goes by, Israel actually looks more and more like Egypt from whom they were
freed. And even the great King Solomon comes off sounding a lot more like Pharaoh than a
king after God’s own heart.

Tell me if this isn’t a slap in Solomon’s face:

One verse after we’re told that it took Solomon seven years to get the Temple of God built,
we’re told that, “It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of
his palace” (1 Kings 7:1 NIV).
Can you feel the subtle jab here? Solomon cares more about his own palace than God’s! He
is more concerned with his own reputation than God’s reputation!

And in case you miss the point, 1 Kings 10:14 (NIV) says, “The weight of the gold that
Solomon received yearly was 666 talents.”

It doesn’t matter if you know how much a talent is worth in U.S. Dollars. That’s not the
point. The point is the number – 666 in Jewish thinking is code for “evil.” Solomon’s riches
are causing evil rather than good.

And so it goes for the Israelites throughout the Old Testament: they’re called to reverse the
curse of sin, and yet they continually find themselves tripped up and choked out by the
same thorns that plague everyone else.

JOHN
And then the gospel of John sounds the bell and calls us to attention.
His first words echo the first words of GENESIS: “In the beginning…”

He weaves these types of echoes through his story and then “Jesus came out wearing the
crown of thorns” (John 19:5a NIV).

THORNS are an echo of the curse of sin. And Jesus is there, with a crown of THORNS that
has been driven into his head. And hear the announcement made by the Roman governor to
the Jewish leaders:
“Behold the man” (John 19:5b NIV)!

“The man” is the same word for “ADAM” (it’s pronounced “Ah-Dahm”).
The governor, Pontius Pilate, doesn’t even realize how deeply true his statement is!
The Apostle Paul realizes it, and he compares Adam to Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15:22.
He writes, “Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to
Christ will be given new life” (NLT).

Jesus, having agonized and wrestled with his own calling in another garden – the Garden of
Gethsemane (see Matthew 26:36) – is here taking the curse of sin onto and into himself.
That’s the significance of the thorns upon his head. In his death, the curse can be
extinguished; and in his resurrected life, which will soon be imparted to all who believe, the
blessing can go forward as it was always intended to do.

WRAP IT UP

At the end of his Gospel, John includes another echo from Genesis: the resurrected Jesus
tells the fearful disciples, “’As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he
breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:21b-22 NIV).

This takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden, before sin had a chance to cause such
disruption.

In Genesis 2:7, God breathed his own breath, the breath of life, into human nostrils.

Can you hear the echo? Now, in the new creation, the redeeming life of God is breathed out
through JESUS, making new people out of the disciples, and through them, offering this
blessing of new life to the world.

As Jesus was sent, so we, who have been exposed to the redeeming life and empowering
breath of God, are sent. Therefore, go and follow the one who succeeded in the garden and
who took the thorns upon himself.
That is the way of faith.
That is the way of hope.
That is the way of LOVE.
That is the way of life.
That is the way of Christ.

And so it shall be the way of all who bear his name.

 ECHO
“Gardens & Thorns”

The New Testament has more than __________ allusions, echoes, and parallels of the Old Testament.

What we’re listening for is what writers call: ________________ or Intertextuality.

“New Testament texts must be read with careful attention to their Old Testament subtexts.”
(Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 310)

GENESIS

Creation has been ____________ with the forces of anti-creation even down to its roots.
Genesis 3:17b-18b (NIV), “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days
of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you…”

As God’s Son, Israel is expected to bear a ______________ resemblance to their Father.

Israel is called by God to reverse the curse of sin,

and yet they continually find themselves tripped up and choked out by the same thorns that plague everyone else.

JOHN

The first words of John’s gospel echo the first words of ____________: “In the beginning…”

___________________ are an echo of the curse of sin.

John 19:5a (NIV) “Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns.”

“The man” is the same word for “__________________.”

John 19:5b (NIV) “Behold the man!”

“Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.”
(1 Corinthians 15:22 NLT)

in the new creation, the redeeming life of God is breathed out through ____________.
John 20:21b-22 (NIV) “’As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and
said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

That is the way of faith. That is the way of hope. That is the way of ____________.
That is the way of life.
That is the way of Christ.
And so it shall be the way of all who bear his name.
 ECHO
“Gardens & Thorns”

2,000
The New Testament has more than __________ allusions, echoes, and parallels of the Old Testament.

METALEPSIS
What we’re listening for is what writers call: ________________ or Intertextuality.

“New Testament texts must be read with careful attention to their Old Testament subtexts.”
(Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 310)

GENESIS

Creation has beenINFECTED

____________ with the forces of anti-creation even down to its roots.
Genesis 3:17b-18b (NIV), “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days
of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you…”

FAMILY
As God’s Son, Israel is expected to bear a ______________ resemblance to their Father.

Israel is called by God to reverse the curse of sin,

and yet they continually find themselves tripped up and choked out by the same thorns that plague everyone else.

JOHN

GENESIS
The first words of John’s gospel echo the first words of ____________: “In the beginning…”

THORNS
_________________ are an echo of the curse of sin.
John 19:5a (NIV) “Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns.”

ADAM
“The man” is the same word for “__________________.”
John 19:5b (NIV) “Behold the man!”

“Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.”
(1 Corinthians 15:22 NLT)

JESUS
in the new creation, the redeeming life of God is breathed out through ____________.
John 20:21b-22 (NIV) “’As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and
said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

LOVE
That is the way of faith. That is the way of hope. That is the way of ____________.
That is the way of life.
That is the way of Christ.
And so it shall be the way of all who bear his name.