The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Ezekiel 2:2-5
The beginning chapters of this book explore the prophet’s call. Like Isaiah (Is. 6) and Jeremiah (Jer. 1), Ezekiel had a vision of God accompanied by a call. And, like the other prophets, God laid it all out for Ezekiel: what he was supposed to do, as well as the kind of response he could expect.
Imagine God sends you on an errand – a mission ordained by God’s very self. God tells you what you are to say, and you have no doubt of the experience. God doesn’t promise “success” in worldly terms. God clearly spells out the audience and what they are capable of. Verse 3 says that he is being sent to a people so hardened by past disobedience to God that they won’t listen to anything or anyone. How’s that for a charge?!
If you read further in Ezekiel’s story, you’ll see that he did not have an easy time of it. He doesn’t seem to find it necessary to record a point at which he says yes to God. But every time God says “get up and go,” Ezekiel gets up and goes. God doesn’t promise success, but, in v5, God does promise that Ezekiel will be heard and the people will know his message comes from God.
How has God invited you on mission? Has God told you the likely response to your task? Or is it plain enough? How have you responded?
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Today’s reading shifts us into the second, or “sorrowful” letter. At the beginning of the chapter, Paul recounts a particular revelatory or mystical experience that he’d had. In vv7-10, lest we think more highly of Paul than we should – he tells us what balances that. Paul knows the sin of pride is subtle and all too easy to fall into, even for him. He also knows how easy it can be to glorify another person because of their experiences and gifts, such that we might begin to follow that person rather than Christ.
Paul talks about his suffering, the “thorn in the flesh.” I think it’s important to note that Paul isn’t complacent in his suffering. He doesn’t just accept it. He prays ardently to be relieved of it. In the end, God says “no,” and it is that “no” which Paul accepts. There is nothing wrong with fighting our suffering, with struggling over it. Many times I think God just wants us to ask for relief so that God can grant it. Other times, God wants to work through the suffering. It’s always a tension that we must work through and discern carefully.
In other places, Paul will boast of his weaknesses, but he wants this audience to know that he has plenty of things he could boast about that are not weaknesses. The church at Corinth evidently tried to judge people by things like gifts and visions. Paul says in v6 that’s not an appropriate criterion for an apostle.
In the Jewish tradition, physical ailments were caused by demons or Satan. Thorns in the Old Testament were a reference to enemies. Because of the abundance of what God gave him – revelations and mystical experiences – Paul says in v7 that God balanced this with a thorn in the flesh. Paul likens that thorn to Satanic activity. And he says he learned to accept it as a means of humility. Throughout the centuries many have tried to identify the “messenger” or “thorn.” The fact is, Paul doesn’t say and maybe that’s intentional. Maybe he wants us to be able to substitute our own thorns and understand them in a deeper way without getting too hung up on defining his.
In v9 God says to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Recall a time of trial and testing. How was God’s grace sufficient to see you through it? What were your weaknesses in that time? Was God’s power made evident through weaknesses in any way?
Mark 6:1-6
The people in Jesus’ native place thought they had Jesus figured out – they knew exactly who he was. And this “knowledge” prevented them from learning anything else about him. They were set in their opinions and they accepted these as fact. Notice the superficialities they’re focused on: ancestry, origin, occupation. They were scandalized, from the Greek word meaning “to trip over a stone.” The stones of their own judgments tripped them up. How often are we the same? In our quest to be “grounded” in what we know, how often do we accept as fact what might well be opinion, and tenuous at that?
In v1, Jesus goes back to Nazareth where he grew up. In Mark 1:9, we see that Mark understands Nazareth as Jesus’ home place. He was “accompanied” by the disciples. In the gospels and early church, this was a technical term for discipleship. Mark rarely uses it (only in 2:15 and this verse). This tells us that the visit to his native place was less about popping in on the family and more about teaching and missionary work.
In his native place, he was confronted with people who know him. In v2, they are basically asking “who do you think you are?” Jesus, in other places, will ask his disciples, “who do you think I am?” What would Jesus say if you asked him this question: who are you?
V3 calls him a carpenter, a Greek word for any type of craftsman who worked in hard materials such as wood or stone. They also name him “son of Mary,” which seems like a slur since Jewish men were generally known as son of their father. However, if there were questions about the paternity of Jesus, the entire family would have been marginalized, and that doesn’t seem to be the case. In that culture, it could also mean that he was the son of a widow, or it could mean that his mother’s lineage was seen as superior to his father’s.
It is also verse 3 that sits in a Catholic/Protestant divide on the issue of Mary’s perpetual virginity. Common interpretations of the brothers and sisters referred to here are
- non-Catholic scholars hold the view that these were the biological children of Mary and Joseph
- Some scholars see these as the children of Joseph by a previous marriage
- Many catholic scholars see this as the extended family of jesus – his cousins
None of these views compromise the doctrine of the virginal conception of Jesus, but the first is at odds with the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity.
After examining what they think they know of Jesus, they “took offense,” from the Greek word skandalon; they were scandalized.
In v4 Jesus quotes what was probably a common proverb or saying of his time. And then v5 tells us that Jesus couldn’t do much for his native place because of their lack of faith.
Think about this… in the past few weeks, Jesus has done amazing things – healings, raising from the dead, stilling the storm. You might want to re-read those stories with an eye for the seeds of faith present. Here, there was no faith and that lack limited what Jesus could do or was willing to do. How much does our own openness – or lack thereof – allow or limit God’s work?
Luke and John both include a similar incident but they soften this idea that Jesus’ power might be limited in some way. Mark is giving us another angle on Jesus as both divine and human.
Ask God to bring to mind someone you think you know. What do you think you know about this person? Ask God to enlighten you as to other possibilities.
What preconceived ideas do you have about how God should act, and how might those ideas limit God’s actions?
Connections
A prophet is someone who holds up a standard and then calls out the ways in which we are not living up to that standard. The Old Testament prophets held up the standard of the Torah. Jesus was also a prophet, holding up a standard rooted in the Torah but at once simplified and expanded. Even we who follow Christ don’t always want to have a spotlight on our failures. The danger is in becoming like Ezekiel and Jesus’ audience: blind to our faults and hardened to those who try to help us.
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© 2024 Kelly Sollinger