THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)
Readings:
Jeremiah 20:7-9
Psalms 63:2-6, 8-9
Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 16:21-27
We have often referred to the prophet Jeremiah as one of the whiniest and most reluctant prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. The first reading today gives us just a glimpse of his character. His faults and his foibles did not prevent him from being included in the canon of Hebrew Scripture. Indeed, he is one of the greats, and it was his name just last week that was mentioned in the gospel when Jesus asked His apostles, “Who do people say that I am? Some say John the Baptist,” they responded, “others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
Many of the Old Testament luminaries had a way of praying to God which bordered on the edge of angry complaining or protesting. Jeremiah’s words are strong. Dupe and deceive can more commonly be translated “persuade,” “seduce,” or “entice.” Jeremiah is upset. Pashhur, high priest of the Temple, who didn’t appreciate Jeremiah’s gloom and doom predictions, had just taken Jeremiah out of the stocks where he had placed him. The stocks were located by the much used upper Gate of Benjamin, so that hundreds of people could scorn and deride Jeremiah, and heap shame on him to the fullest. Jeremiah’s strong words in our first reading are an emotional response to his public humiliation, to his being made a “laughing stock all day long.”
Jeremiah wants to rethink this vocation of prophet, for proclaiming God’s word has been overwhelmingly negative, filled with humiliation and mockery. Jeremiah is close to submitting his resignation to God [imagine?], he wants to retreat from this role of publicly proclaiming news no one wants to hear. Once Jeremiah gets everything off his chest with God and declares he wants nothing to do with God [v. 9], he realizes that there is in his heart “as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary holding it in, and I cannot.” In spite of the enormity of the task, Jeremiah will continue to proclaim the word of God. Were the lectionary to give us just a few more verses, we would witness Jeremiah’s attitude change from antagonism to trust as he realizes that God will ultimately vindicate him and judge his persecutors.
In our gospel today, we have an important New Testament character, Peter, previewed in last weekend’s reflection. Jesus has just proclaimed His first Passion prediction in Matthew’s gospel: “Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Peter’s heroic confession in last weekend’s gospel is somewhat tarnished by Peter’s response to Jesus’ proclamation. The one Peter proclaimed as “Messiah,” at least in Peter’s view, should never have to endure the suffering that Jesus predicts. Peter’s notion of Messiah is more warrior prince than obedient Son! Further, Peter dares to reverse the roles of teacher and student, by taking Jesus “aside and beginning to rebuke Him: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” Perhaps Peter thought the possibility of harm done to the Lord under his watch an affront to his brazen masculinity. In any event, the little tete-a-tete Peter has with Jesus does not go as expected.
Jesus turns to Peter and, with a sharp rebuke, says: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” The comparison to Satan must have stung, but, in light of Jesus’ temptations in the desert, Peter is like Satan, in that Satan wanted Jesus to choose the ephemeral things of life, to avoid sufferings and death, to avoid the plans that Jesus’ Heavenly Father had designed from time immemorial. It is likely that all of the apostles could not envision any long-awaited Messiah suffering and dying, or enduring the humiliations that were spoken of by Jeremiah in our first reading. And Jesus takes it farther than speaking only of His personal suffering and death, for should those who follow in His footsteps, those who wish to be called disciples of Jesus, they too “must deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” So much of this had to be confusing to the disciples.
I have always found it curious, that with all the various Passion predictions in the gospels, which (to the best of my understanding) all end with, “and on the third day be raised,” that more questions are not raised in the gospels about this simple but important phrase. Is it because without the example of Jesus’ own ignominious death and resurrection, the thought would be inconceivable? The cost of discipleship is high, but the rewards are immeasurable. As Jesus states: “The Son of Man will come with his angels in His Father’s glory, and then He will repay everyone according to his conduct.”
There is an aphorism repeated often in the writings of the medieval church: ‘per crucem ad lucem,’ through the cross to the light. Peter and the disciples knew that Jesus loved them and wanted what was best for them. Like Jeremiah, who could not see how his sufferings and humiliations could be linked to God’s will, so also the disciples could not imagine that the following of Jesus would involve linking their own sufferings and death to that of the Master. Yet, isn’t that what we are all called to do? Somehow we come to know God’s love more deeply through our own crosses, those things that make us feel like we just cannot go on any longer – the loss of a spouse or loved one, the unexpected loss of a job, the sickness which is part of the human condition, the estrangement or betrayal of a friend, the loneliness and depression which afflicts so many, the disappointment with our lot in life, our sometimes faltering battle with our own sinfulness, and, finally, the ultimate humiliation of our own deaths. Through all things, we come to learn not to be conformed to the things of this world, but to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect “ (Romans 12:2).
An Anglican priest once wrote with regards our struggles with suffering: “I wish there were some easier way, some way to learn to trust God that was paved with luxury and endless ease but per crucem ad lucem: the way to the light runs smack dab through darkness – or more accurately, we discover the light speeding toward us in these very dark places.” Through whatever sufferings we are called upon to endure, may we unite those sufferings with those of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who loves us and who waits for us in the brightness of heaven.
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