The end of the week and very nearly the end of the book. On Monday the delight of Ezekiel's eyes was taken from him and he was forbidden to mourn; today the glory comes back into the temple. The whole arc of Ezekiel has run in six days.
What happens
"The angel led me to the gate which faces the east, and there I saw the glory of the Theos of Israel coming from the east. I heard a sound like the roaring of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. The vision was like that which I had seen when he came to destroy the city… I fell prone as the glory of Yahweh entered the temple by way of the gate which faces the east… and I saw that the temple was filled with the glory of Yahweh. Then I heard someone speaking to me from the temple… Son of man, this is where my throne shall be, this is where I will set the soles of my feet; here I will dwell among the Israelites forever."
What to notice
The direction is the entire point, and it only works if you remember chapters 10 and 11. In Ezekiel 10:18–19 the glory left the temple, moving to the east gate; in Ezekiel 11:23 it went up from the city and stood on the mountain east of the city — the Mount of Olives. Today it comes back from the east, through the east gate. The glory returns by the road it took out. And Ezekiel says so himself, flatly: "the vision was like that which I had seen when he came to destroy the city."The same sight, and the opposite errand. The word throughout is kavod, glory — and its root means weight. To be glorious in Hebrew is, at bottom, to be heavy: substantial, of consequence, the opposite of hevel, vapor. What fills the temple in this vision is weight. Then the promise: ve-shakhanti, "I will dwell" — shakhan, to settle in, to tent, the root behind mishkan and later Shekhinah. One detail worth keeping: after nine chapters of measurements, the point of the whole architecture turns out to be somewhere to put his feet down.
A community prayer after a partial restoration — the exile is over and things are still not right — asking Yahweh to finish what he started. It contains one of the loveliest verses in the Psalter.
The selected verses
Psalm 85:9, 10."I will hear what Theosproclaims; Yahweh — for he proclaims peace. Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him, glory dwelling in our land." Psalm 85:11–12."Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven." Psalm 85:13–14."Yahweh himself will give his benefits; our land shall yield its increase. Justice shall walk before him, and salvation, along the way of his steps."
What to notice
Psalm 85:10 uses the exact vocabulary of the first reading: li-shkon kavod be-artzenu — "for glory to dwell in our land."Shakhan and kavod, the same two words Ezekiel 43 is built from; the lectionary has matched them precisely. And Psalm 85:11 is the verse everybody remembers: hesed ve-emet nifgashu, tzedeq ve-shalom nashaqu — "hesed and truth have met; justice and peace have kissed." Four qualities personified and staged as a reunion, with physical verbs. Then the direction of travel in verse 12, a small marvel: emet me-eretz titzmach, truth sprouts up out of the ground, using the verb for a plant germinating; ve-tzedeq mi-shamayim nishqaf, and justice leans down out of heaven to look. One grows from below, one bends from above, and they meet in the middle of the field.
The opening of Matthew 23, the chapter of woes — which the lectionary continues on Monday and Tuesday of next week with the mint and cumin, and the whitewashed tombs. This is the ramp into it.
What happens
"The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets… As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi'… The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
What to notice
The concession in the second sentence is remarkable and almost always skipped. "Do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you."He affirms their teachingauthority without qualification and attacks only the gap between what they say and what they carry. (The chair of Moses is real furniture: stone seats of exactly this kind have been excavated at Chorazin and Hammath Tiberias.) Then the burden image, whose second half is the sting: they "tie up heavy burdens" — phortia barea, cargo — and lay them on shoulders, "but they will not lift a finger to move them."The complaint is not that the load is too heavy. It is that the people who assembled it will not touch it. And the two objects named are both commanded in the Torah — tefillin (Deuteronomy 6:8) and tzitzit (Numbers 15:38), and Jesus wore the latter. Neither item is criticized. The verbs are platynousin and megalynousin — they widen, they enlarge. The fault is in the dimensions.
How They Fit Together
Kavod means weight — so watch which way it travels
Burdens tied onto other people's shoulders by men who widen their own tassels
The Hebrew word for glory is a weighing word, and once that is in view the day organizes itself.
Ezekiel's vision is about a weight arriving. The glory comes with a sound like many waters, the earth shines, and the temple is filled — and the man who has spent nine chapters measuring the building is told what all those cubits were for: this is where I will set the soles of my feet.The architecture exists to be stood in. And the route matters as much as the arrival: it comes back through the east gate, which is the gate it left by in chapter 10, over the mountain it stopped on in chapter 11. Nothing about the return is a fresh start. It is a reversal along the same road.
That is the week finishing where it began. On Monday, Ezekiel lost the delight of his eyes and was told the temple — the delight of your eyes, the desire of your soul — was going the same way. Today the delight comes back, and the man who was forbidden to mourn is on his face in the inner court.
Then Matthew, with a group of men who have understood that kavod is weight and have decided to acquire the appearance of it. Wider boxes on the forehead. Longer fringes on the hem. The better seat at dinner, the better seat in the synagogue, the title in the street. Every item on the list is a way of looking heavier — and none is illegitimate in itself; the tefillin and tzitzit are commanded, the teachingauthority is affirmed in the same breath.
What the passage attacks is the direction the weight travels. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger.Real weight is carried; displayed weight is worn. The scribes have contrived to have the second while transferring the first to somebody else, and the alternative is stated in one line with no ornament: the greatest among you must be your servant.
Which is where Psalm 85 lands the day. Its picture of restoration is not a heavier institution but a meeting: hesed and truth have met; justice and peace have kissed. And the geometry of verse 12 is the answer to Matthew 23. Truth comes up out of the ground and justice leans down out of heaven — one from below, one from above — and they arrive at each other. Nobody is loading anybody. The glory that fills a house and the truth that grows out of a field both arrive under their own weight, and neither needs a longer tassel.
A Question to Sit With
They widened the boxes and lengthened the fringes, and neither object was wrong — both were commanded. What went wrong was a dimension. And meanwhile the actual weight was tied into bundles and set on other people's shoulders by men who would not put a finger under it. I can feel how available that arrangement is: the visible marks of seriousness are cheap and adjustable, and the carrying is neither. What am I currently wearing that makes me look weighty, and whose shoulders is the real load sitting on?