The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Overview and Connections
Today’s readings warn us that being a faithful follower of Christ can lead to distressing and painful choices. All too often, we associate a smooth path with a “successful” spiritual life. The moment something goes wrong, we wonder where is God and why has God deserted us. However, if we look back over our life experiences honestly, we might come to appreciate that the deepest growth in our relationship with God often happens during chaos and disaster.
Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
It’s worth reading chp 1 of this book on the call of Jeremiah, which culminates in 1:17-19. Jeremiah’s main job was to predict the exile, and he did this over a forty-year career. His message had two main themes:
- To ask what it truly means to be a follower of YHWH
- To proclaim the imminent invasion as a punishment for not truly following YHWH
Jeremiah insisted that the southern kingdom of Judah should surrender to Babylon and live, rather than resist and die. Obviously, this message was received politically as treasonous and unpatriotic. Jeremiah got people angry because he unsettled their complacency about what was happening around them and why.
Chp 36 speaks of Baruch, who was Jeremiah’s scribe. King Jehoiakim burned a scroll containing the words of Jeremiah, and he wants to go after Jeremiah. The scroll prophesied that the Babylonians would invade and destroy the nation of Israel. In chp 37, Jehoiakim has been deposed, just as Jeremiah predicted, and now Zedekiah is king. But Zedekiah doesn’t listen to Jeremiah either, although he does send the priest Jehukal to tell Jeremiah to pray to God for the country. By this time, the Babylonians are besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah again prophesies that Babylon will invade. Jeremiah is arrested and put in a vaulted cell in a dungeon “for a long time.” Zedekiah finally releases him, but Jeremiah repeats the prophecy, so Zedekiah continues to hold him captive in the courtyard.
In chp 38, some of the king’s officials overhear the prophecies of Jeremiah and conspire to have him put to death. The princes told the king that Jeremiah was ruining the resolve of the soldiers in the city (which he very likely was!). They convince the king to give them power to handle Jeremiah and Zedekiah agrees. They imprison Jeremiah in a cistern. Ebed-Melek (a foreign eunuch) convinces the king that Jeremiah will die at the hands of these men, and Zedekiah agrees that Ebed-Melek can secure Jeremiah’s release. Jeremiah is rescued from the cistern but is still imprisoned in the courtyard. At the end of the chapter, he remains in the courtyard until the fall of Jerusalem.
Zedekiah is a king who is weak and wavering. He is the last king of Israel; on his watch, Jerusalem falls and surrenders to the Babylonian empire, just as Jeremiah had predicted.
In chp 38, vv1-25 predict the exile while vv 26-35 contain the promise of restoration. Vv36-45 see the end of Jerusalem and the martyrdom of Jeremiah.
One theme that runs throughout scripture (both the Old and New Testaments) is the idea that prophets suffer for the message they bring. Christ is the prime example of this, but all the prophets exhibit it to some degree. A close idea, that truly cannot be separated from this, is the assurance of divine vindication. The prophets suffer, but God ultimately vindicates.
Today’s passage has many similarities with Jeremiah 37:11-21. These passages may, in fact, be relating the same event from the perspective of two different oral traditions. This is a common literary occurrence throughout the Old Testament.
V4 finds a parallel in Jesus’ story in Luke 23:2. Jeremiah is called by God with a message from God. It’s painful to hear. The king’s advisors think that God can’t be in such a painful message; therefore, Jeremiah must be preaching counter to peace. How do you discern which party is speaking the truth?
It’s interesting in v6 that the king’s advisors were granted power over Jeremiah’s life but they don’t kill him right away. Instead, they drop him down a well and leave him to starve. Immediate execution would have been more humane, and their choice of punishment indicates a deep hatred of Jeremiah and a desire to see him suffer greatly.
V7 provides another point of connection with the gospels. In Luke 23:47, it is the Gentile centurion who openly proclaims Jesus’ true identity. Ebed-Melech is a foreigner who recognizes to some degree Jeremiah’s holiness and proclaims it openly. This man symbolizes Christ in many ways, coming to save us in our need. But he also symbolizes each of us as we live out our Christian vocation to seek and save the lost.
What audacity is shown by Ebed-Melech! To come before a king and then threaten powerful men in the king’s sphere – the very men that the king has handed power over to. I love v11 because it shows the care with which this man carries out his mission. We think of soldiers as rough people, but this man thinks to go to a linen closet and grab some things that will never be missed in order to make Jeremiah’s rescue as comfortable as possible.
Recall a time when you sank down into the mud and mire of life: situations that sucked you in and seemed to offer no route to escape. How did you get out of the mud?
Where are the “cisterns” in our community?
Who are the modern-day Jeremiahs being silenced?
How can we be Ebed-melechs in our spheres of influence? Are there people around you today who are trapped in mud and mire? How might you embody Ebed-melech to them? What practical considerations might need attention?
Hebrews 12:1-4
Chapter 11 is sort of the “faith hall of fame.” The beginning of chapter 12 encourages us to draw on the strength of our forebears in faith to inform our own life of faith.
Commentator William Lane noted the progression in the passage: from laying aside hindrances (12:1) to fixing eyes on Jesus (12:2) to considering his example (12:3) to recognizing the cost of discipleship (12:4). This shows increasing levels of Christian commitment. In my view, it also reflects the traditional understanding of spiritual growth in phases: purgative, illuminative, and unitive.
We begin the spiritual journey by “laying aside hindrances” (12:1) – this is the “purgative” stage of the journey, where God unburdens us of all the things that get in our way. Next comes the illuminative stage where we see in a new light the example of Christ by fixing our eyes on Jesus (12:2) and meditating on his example (12:3). The final stage in the journey is the unitive stage, where our will is so closely united to God’s that it is one and the same. We may not have yet shed blood (12:4), but if that is what God calls us to do, we can do so joyfully. The author speaks of what I think of as a “contemplative perseverance.”
Sometimes we envision the “cloud of witnesses” as saints who are looking down upon us. And they are, much like spectators at an athletic event. But think, also, about the image of a cloud, specifically of fog. Imagine that you are enveloped in a thick, soupy fog that seems to permeate your very bones. This image also helps us understand that we move through life not alone and individually, but in the midst of other saints, living and dead.
V2 speaks of the “the joy set before him.” Can you picture Jesus in the garden? We often see that scene as Jesus struggling to accept the cup that is his. And yet, the author of Hebrews imagined Jesus’ paschal journey as one driven chiefly by joy.
“In your struggle” is the word antagonizomai, a word unique to the New Testament, meaning to contend against.
We usually associate shedding blood in v4 with martyrdom, and that is accurate. But don’t be too quick to settle for a narrow definition. We have so many daily opportunities to die to self, and until we surrender to those, it’s unlikely that we will recognize the much larger opportunities which beckon us.
Athletes who train for an event have a goal in mind. That goal will inform and permeate every aspect of their lives. What “goals” govern your life and direct your actions?
Luke 12:49-53
Luke uses the word “peace” 14 times. Compare that to six times in John, four in Matthew, and only once in Mark. Peace seems to characterize this gospel. And yet, in today’s reading, Jesus says he did not come to establish peace. In fact, it is not until the very end of this gospel that Jesus himself says “Peace be with you” (24:36). So how are we to understand what’s going on in today’s reading?
It’s vital to understand the Jewish notion of peace. When we think of peace, we likely conjure conditions of quiet and calm. I think of how many times I said to my young children, “Just give me a moment of peace and quiet!” The Hebrew word which we translate peace is the word shalom. This word carries the idea of something far more than absence of conflict. Shalom is a sense of wellbeing; it is the opposite of war, violence, and conflict, but it does not depend on the absence of those things. Shalom is wholeness and it is the ideal of God’s creation. Shalom – wellbeing and wholeness – can be found in any situation because shalom is found in God.
The message that Jesus brings requires a decision on our part. Do we follow Jesus wholeheartedly, or do we persist in trying to make our own way? Most will persist in the latter, which means that those who follow wholeheartedly will be viewed with suspicion and unease. Relationships will be impacted as one goes one way, another the other way. Households may be turned upside down by the repercussions. Today, we associate Jesus with good “family values.” In his day, though, Jesus was viewed as subversive and a threat to established social norms. The gospel can lead to shattered families, as each chooses their own way. To those who seek peace in a surface calm, peace will elude.
Jesus is a man of peace, but his message is divisive. This is a tension we live in. If our shalom is not rooted in God, peace will elude us as well.
The passage begins with Jesus saying he has come to cast fire upon the earth. Fire is a multi-layered symbol. On one hand, it symbolizes judgment and purification, burning away what is not lasting or not needed. But fire also refines, as in the shaping of metals. Fire also provides light in the darkness. Water is a similar primordial symbol: it brings both chaos or death and life. We need both fire and water to live.
In v49 we see Jesus passionately longing to ignite the fire that both frees and shapes us. That’s what he came for and he is eager to see it get going. In v50 Jesus speaks of his coming passion and death; again, he is eager for it. He longs to see it accomplished, because this is what lights the fire that he is eager to kindle. He is “constraining” himself (how I am constrained / how great is my anguish). The Greek word here suggests holding something together, and also the sense of being compelled. It’s as though he’s fighting to hold everything in – hold the fire back – until it’s time to unleash it.
Why does he use the word baptize in v50? Luke 3 talks about John baptizing in the wilderness. And he says Jesus will baptize with something greater than water: the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, the coming of the Spirit is portrayed as something “like tongues of fire.” We associate baptism with the sacrament that brings us into the Christian community. But here I think it’s something more fundamental: the idea of undergoing something which irrevocably changes things. The cross will forever change everything and Jesus is eager to embrace it and bring that change.
V52-53 illustrate the division that the gospel will bring. Micah 7 has similar imagery. Everything in the culture was oriented around the family. To have father against son was a disruption of society at its most basic level. The post-resurrection community would have deeply identified with this because sometimes the choice to follow Christ meant being disowned by their family – it meant division. And Jesus says here – you can expect that.
I do sometimes wonder if an absence of division might indicate something deeper that needs attention. Is the absence because we are not speaking the gospel message?
Take some time to feel the depth of Jesus’ urgency. He longs for all to come to him and he can’t wait to see that happen. How can this sense of urgency inform your own message and ministry to others?
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© 2025 Kelly Sollinger