Of all the Old Testament prophets, Jeremiah comes closest to the New
Testament understanding of what it means to be a bearer of
God’s word.
He foreshadows the truth, first emphasized in the New Testament by
Paul, in opposition to the wandering preachers, who set great store
in their own miraculous powers and visionary experiences, that
witness means suffering.
This theme was then taken up by Mark (followed, as we see in
today’s ospel, by Matthew) in his redaction of the Jesus
tradition.
It is this aspect of today’s passage from Jeremiah that the
caption rightly emphasizes: “The word of the Lord has meant
derision for me.”
Responsorial Psalm: 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Many of the psalms are intensely personal, but when they were
adopted into the liturgy of the temple, they acquired a corporate
meaning, the “I” of the psalmist being expanded to
embrace the whole people of God.
In the person of Jesus Christ, who is the true Israel, the psalm is
narrowed down again to a single person, the “I” of
Christ himself. But then it expands once more to include the body of
Christ, which in him can take these words to itself.
The people of God on their pilgrimage pass through a dry and weary
land where there is no water.
But in the sanctuary, as they assemble to celebrate the liturgy,
they have a pledge and assurance of the ultimate vindication of
Christ’s cause.
They feast together on “marrow and fat” and praise God
with joyful lips, even in the midst of the dry and weary land.
It is a pity that the text as printed omits a tiny yet crucial
word—“therefore” (Greek: oun): “I appeal
to you therefore, brethren.” It is crucial because Rm 12-15 of Romans present Christian ethics as “therefore
ethics,” that is to say, Christian ethics is a response to
what God has done in Christ.
Only after expounding the redemptive act of God in Christ and
setting it in the context of salvation history could Paul go on to
discuss ethical problems. This ethic is seen as the true Christian
worship.
In a celebrated essay, Ernst Käsemann suggested that Paul is in some
way anticultic, that for him true Christian worship is to be seen in
ethical behavior, not in the cultus. This is the kind of either-or
that appeals to the German mind, but it does less than justice to
the inclusiveness of the biblical material.
No one doubts that liturgy must penetrate life, but life must first
find its focus in liturgy. We present our bodies as a living
sacrifice in the liturgy (Cranmer included this phrase in the
eucharistic prayer, and it has remained a feature of Anglican
liturgies ever since) precisely in order that we may go out into the
world and present them in life.
Christian ethics is not primarily expressed in a code. Paul will
give something that looks like a code in Rm 12-15, with many single commandments.
But these are meant as illustrations of what a renewed
mind, not conformed to this world, will lead to.
In an apt illustration, John A. T. Robinson has spoken of the
Christian’s “antennae,” which should enable one to
discern the will of God in a given situation and which arises out of
a transformed mind.
Such transformation takes place through hearing the Word of God and
through offering oneself to God in union with Christ’s
suffering. This takes place quite concretely in the liturgy.
As we noted in the comments for last Sunday, Matthew has detached
this section from Mark’s pericope and placed it by itself.
As in the second reading today, a tiny but significant word has been
left out at the beginning—the word “then”
(Greek: tote): “Then Jesus began to show his
disciples.” This word detaches this section and yet links it
as a sequel to the foregoing pericope.
The other major alteration Matthew has made in the Marcan text is in
the final verse (Mt 16:27), which he has converted into a scene of the parousia—Last
Judgment: “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in
the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what he
has done.”
For Mark, the court of the Son of Man will vindicate the church and
pass judgment upon the believing world. For Matthew, it is the
church that will be judged—a theme that he hammers home again and
again, right up to the parable of the sheep and the goats.
The church will be judged according to the fidelity of its
discipleship, even at the cost of taking up its cross and following
Jesus, in its readiness to lose its life for his sake.
