Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent
When life gets tough, really tough, what do we do? What do you do when the very people who are supposed to be on our side, stand against us? The answers are as personal and varied as there are people. That said we might put the answers into two categories, complaining or proactively dealing with the sources of frustration. In reality, our actions are often a combination of the two approaches, and sometimes the suffering is beyond our immediate comprehension.
In the first reading, the people’s attitude toward Jeremiah must have almost been beyond his comprehension. Their behavior was cruel, bordering on evil. Not only were they intentionally ignoring him and his teaching, but they attacked everything for which Jeremiah stood. Ironically, Jeremiah had spent most of his ministry, standing up for these very people. Jeremiah had given his heart and soul to lift them up and here they were tearing him down. It must have broken his heart and the words in today’s reading suggest as much.
For Jeremiah, who lived during the time of the sieges of Jerusalem by Babylon, faithfulness to Lord was in short supply. Its diminishment came about as many of the Israelites neglected their faith even to the point of abandoning the holiness of the Sabbath. Repeatedly, Jeremiah delivered the Lord’s plea for the peoples return to faithfulness, only to have it fall on deaf ears. Do we heed the Lord’s call for faithful discipleship? If we do, then what changes are we in the process making? Have we invited the Lord into said process of change?
In the end, the Lord and perhaps Jeremiah realized that only through the death of Israel itself, could the Israelites learn of their need to heed the Lord’s call. Thus Israel soon fell and in their tomb of exile they had time to contemplate their return to the Lord.
While in the course of predicting his own death and resurrection, Jesus learns of the disciples bickering about which of them is the greatest. Like the people in Jeremiah’s time the disciples had missed the point. Jesus reminded them in order to be a true disciple they will need to be a servant; and that this service may ask them to suffer and die just as he would. How are we being asked to suffer in the service of the Lord? Prayerfully, unite that suffering to the cross of Christ, so that your pain will be shared, and your soul will be raised on the last day.
-Michael Montgomery