lectionary # 405. 17th week, Friday, August 1,2008

Scripture: 17th week, Thursday, August 1, 2008. Jeremiah 26:1-9.Psalm
69:5.8-10.14. Matthew 13:54-58. Lectionary # 405.

Today Jeremiah and Jesus are featured as those who speak
prophetically. Both are rejected as prophets and both are concerned about
the worship in the Temple, the house of the Lord. The time of Jeremiah's
proclamation is around 608 B.C. while what we read from Matthew about
people's attitude concerning Jesus is written in 80 A.D. ten years after
the destruction of the Second Temple. Jeremiah's plea for a return to the
Lord goes unheard by king and his entourage; they even threaten to kill
Jeremiah. His prophetic announcement will be realized within the present
generation and the Babylonian Exile will take place while the Temple is
desecrated and destroyed and the people of Israel are transported to
Babylon, present day Iraq.
Jesus also is prophetic but has little success in the synagogue and
in the Temple area. Both he and Jeremiah have fire in their bellies which
is expressed in their zeal for the Temple of the Lord. In fact, Jesus will
use Jeremiah's words in confronting the money changers near the Temple who
may have passed beyond their boundaries. We read in Matthew that Jesus
says, "No prophet is without honor except in his native place, indeed in
his own house." Then we realize that he was too much for them as the text
reads. After all, isn't he the son of Mary of Nazareth, a peasant woman.
Isn't Joseph his father? We know that they really do not know Jesus nor
his origins. John will use the same thought but with our knowledge of his
use of irony we realize what his intention is more easily than that of
Matthew on this point of the origin of Jesus.
Our Psalm helps us to pray, to feel, and to realize what both
Jeremiah and Jesus sense from their opponents. The Psalm does fit well with
the time of the Babylonian Exile. We can easily pray this psalm for the
peace of Jerusalem whether we be Christian or Jew. In the Hebrew
Commentary of Soncino on the Psalms this important statement is made: "This
psalm should be read throughout with Jeremiah in mind. Whether he wrote it
or not, his history gives key to its meaning." (Soncino, Psalm 69, p.216).
Amen.