Above: The Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci
Image in the Public Domain
Jeremiah and Matthew, Part X: Divine Deliverance–Sometimes Deferred, Sometimes Absent
NOVEMBER 12 and 13, 2023
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Assigned Readings:
Jeremiah 25:1-18 (November 12)
Jeremiah 26:1-19 (November 13)
Psalm 123 (Morning–November 12)
Psalm 15 (Morning–November 13)
Psalms 30 and 86 (Evening–November 12)
Psalms 48 and 4 (Evening–November 13)
Matthew 26:1-19 (November 12)
Matthew 26:20-35 (November 13)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thereupon the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a meeting of the Council. “This man is performing many signs,” they said, “and what action are we taking?” If we let him to on like this the whole populace will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and sweep away our temple and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said, “You have no grasp of the situation at all; you do not realize that is more to your interest that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should be destroyed.”
–John 11:47-50, The Revised English Bible
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Eliakim, son of King Josiah, was the brother of King Jehoahaz (a.k.a. Shallum), who reigned for about three months in 609 BCE. But the Pharaoh of Egypt deposed Jehoahaz/Shallum and replaced him with Eliakim, renamed Jehoiakim, who reigned for about eleven years (608-598 BCE). Judah was under foreign domination, as 2 Kings 23:31-24:7 describes.
This was the context of the readings from Jeremiah 25 and 26: Judah was flung between Egypt and Chaldea then under a solely Chaldean threat. Jeremiah understood this as divine judgment–one which would, in time, turn on the agents of that judgment. And agents of the puppet government tried to have the prophet executed for alleged treason.
Jeremiah survived that threat but Jesus went on to die. The Gospel of John contexualizes the moment well: Jesus was about to become a scapegoat. Yet the perfidious plan of the high priest and others failed. Not only did Jesus rise from the dead, but Roman forces did destroy Jerusalem, the Temple, and the nation in 70 CE, a generation later. But I am getting ahead of the story in Matthew 26.
Jesus, surrounded by Apostles, all of whom would abandon him shortly and one of whom betrayed him immediately, faced mighty forces determined to kill him. They succeeded–for a few days.
So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God,
until he have mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of the arrogant,
and of thee contempt of the proud.
–Psalm 123, The Book of Common Prayer (2004)
+++++++
Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness;
you set me at liberty when I was in trouble;
have mercy on me and hear my prayer.
–Psalm 4:1, The Book of Common Prayer (2004)
++++++
Many Bible stories have unhappy endings. Jeremiah, for example, died in exile. Jesus did suffer greatly, but his story had a happy conclusion in the chronological, past-tense narrative. The ultimate end of that tale remains for the future, however. One bit of tissue which connects the Old and New Testament lections today is that tension, reflected in some of the appointed Psalms, between confidence in God and the absence of divine comfort and deliverance in the present tense. It is a tension I do not presume to attempt to resolve all too conveniently and falsely. The good and evil suffer. The good and the evil prosper. Sometimes deliverance does not occur on our schedule. Other times it never happens. This is reality.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 4, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS CARACCIOLO, COFOUNDER OF THE MINOR CLERKS REGULAR
THE FEAST OF JOHN XXIII, BISHOP OF ROME
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ORDINARY TIME DEVOTIONS 
Pingback: Jeremiah and Matthew, Part X: Divine Deliverance–Sometimes Deferred, Sometimes Absent | BLOGA THEOLOGICA