BIBLE STUDY #146
TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN
ORDINARY TIME
August 18, 2013
In those days, the princes said to the
king:
“Jeremiah ought to be put to death;
he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city,
and all the people, by speaking such things to them;
he is not interested in the welfare of our people,
but in their ruin.”
King Zedekiah answered: “He is in your power”;
for the king could do nothing with them.
And so they took Jeremiah
and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah,
which was in the quarters of the guard,
letting him down with ropes.
There was no water in the cistern, only mud,
and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
Ebed-melech, a court official,
went there from the palace and said to him:
“My lord king,
these men have been at fault
in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah,
casting him into the cistern.
He will die of famine on the spot,
for there is no more food in the city.”
Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Cushite
to take three men along with him,
and draw the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before
he should die.
“Jeremiah ought to be put to death;
he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city,
and all the people, by speaking such things to them;
he is not interested in the welfare of our people,
but in their ruin.”
King Zedekiah answered: “He is in your power”;
for the king could do nothing with them.
And so they took Jeremiah
and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah,
which was in the quarters of the guard,
letting him down with ropes.
There was no water in the cistern, only mud,
and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
Ebed-melech, a court official,
went there from the palace and said to him:
“My lord king,
these men have been at fault
in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah,
casting him into the cistern.
He will die of famine on the spot,
for there is no more food in the city.”
Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Cushite
to take three men along with him,
and draw the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before
he should die.
The Word of the Lord
Brothers and sisters:
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.
For the sake of the joy that lay before him
he endured the cross, despising its shame,
and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.
Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners,
in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.
For the sake of the joy that lay before him
he endured the cross, despising its shame,
and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.
Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners,
in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
The Word of the Lord
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Reflection
What is prophecy? We mistakenly think
that it is predicting the future. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could win the
football pool at work or pick the winning lottery numbers because we are
prophets!
Prophecy is really the normal biblical
way of discerning God’s will in our life. A prophet is one who seems to be
blessed with knowing God’s will in certain situations. Faithful people were
supposed to identify these prophets, listen to them, and carry out their
message.
In biblical times prophecy was
considered so important that those in authority created official prophets to
discern God’s will. In the end, they proclaimed the will of the king or other
ruler, but rarely the will of God.
So how does one tell a true from a
false prophet? Writing in the
Preaching Resources part of ‘Celebration: a Comprehensive Worship Resource,”
Rev. Roger Vermalen Karban defines the meaning a true prophet. “There are five
characteristics of a real prophet: The true conscience of the people will
always take us back to the beginnings of our faith. He or she can never profit
from prophecy. On the contrary, the authentic mouthpiece of God will always
suffer for engaging in such a ministry. And those who carry out their words
will also suffer. Finally, when pressed, most people can tell the difference
between the real prophets and the fakes, but because of the suffering aspects
attached to following real prophets, they hesitate to acknowledge them.”
Jesus certainly fills the
bill for a true prophet, as he does in today’s Gospel. He creates a prophetic
passion and urgency when he says, “I have come to
set the earth on fire.” This saying recalls the prophet Elijah who drew down
fire from heaven against the prophets of
Baal in 1 Kings 18:36-40. In Luke 9:54 the disciples wanted Jesus to call down
fire from heaven against the Samaritans who did not welcome them, but Jesus
refused.
This is sufficiently obscure to allow
for more than one interpretation. Setting the earth on fire is the
eschatological (end time) judgment predicted by John the Baptist: the tree not
bearing fruit in 3:9 is cut down and thrown into the fire, the chaff is thrown
into the first in 3:16, and fire as the instrument of judgment in 17:29. Luke
also associates fire with the gift of the Spirit. In 3:16 John the Baptist,
referring to the Messiah, says, “I am baptizing you with water, but one
mightier than I is coming…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
And in Acts 2:3, we see the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost as fire.
The baptism Jesus is referring to also
allows for 2 meanings: it could refer to Jesus death (see Mark 10:38) or to the
baptism of the Spirit at Pentecost.
The
division that Jesus brings seems to be in contradiction t0 the infancy
narrative accounts of him as one who brings peace (see 1:79, 2:14, and 2:29).
To the one who accepts Jesus, there will be peace. The ones who don’t are
separated from the ones who do accept Jesus, and this causes division in the
family.
In
the first reading, Jeremiah is certainly a true prophet. He is trying to change
‘the system’ which he sees as corrupt and not following God’s will. As the
years pass, he sees little hope of anything changing because the leaders are
too corrupt and entrenched. The only answer is for the present leadership to be
destroyed and replaced by a new one. When the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem
In the second reading, the
author of Hebrews is a prophet in the sense that he brings us back to the
beginnings of our Christian faith. He
encourages us to “persevere in running the race that lies before us, while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and
perfecter of faith.”
Fr. Phil
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