Psalm
106 – “Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, for
he is good; his faithful love endures forever” (106:1).
“Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have
committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they were in
Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the
abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet
he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power”
(106:6-8).
For a while after this “they sang his praise.
But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel” (106:12-13).
They sinned against the Lord and his anointed
ones. “They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image” (106:19). God
would have destroyed them had not Moses “stood in the breach before him”
(106:23).
Over and over again, they “provoked the Lord
to anger with their deeds” (106:29).
“Many times he delivered them, but they were
rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their
sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his
steadfast love” (106:43-45).
“Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from
among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your
praise. Blessed by the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to
everlasting! And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’” (106:47-48). Amen
Psalm
107 – “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His
faithful love endures forever. Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out!”
(107:1-2).
“[H]e satisfies the thirsty and fills the
hungry with good things. Some sat in darkness and deepest gloom, imprisoned in
iron chains of misery” (107:9-10).
Those that rebel again Him, He will break, but
he also saves. “Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the
wonderful things he has done for them” (107:21)
“Some went off to sea in ships, plying the
trade routes of the world.. They too observed the Lord’s power in action, his
impressive works on the deepest seas. He spoke, and the winds rose, stirring up
the waves” (107:23-25).
“He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled
the waves. What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into
harbor” (107:29-30).
“Those who are wise will take all this to
heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord” (107:43).
Matthew
21 – Jesus and his disciples come near
Jerusalem, to Bethphage and the Mount of Olives. He sends two of his disciples into the village to get a
donkey “and a colt with her” (21:2). They are to get them and to tell anyone
who asks that the Lord needs them. This instruction is seen as a fulfillment of
the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 that the king will come to them “triumphant and
victorious, but humble and riding on a donkey -- on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.”
Matthew makes sure he mentions both
donkey and colt unlike the other gospel writers; Matthew has a tendency to
“double” when it comes to other stories of Jesus. In Matthew 8:28, he heals 2
men with demons, not just one as in Mark 5:1 and Luke 8:26 and in Matthew 20,
he also recounts Jesus’ healing of two blind men, not just one as in Mark 10:46
and Luke 18:35 – not sure why he does this.
Matthew also changes the sense of
the sentence in 21:3 where he addresses the question of what they’ll say if
anyone asks them about taking the animals. Mark says that if someone asks them
why they are taking the donkey, the disciples should reassure them and tell
them the Lord will return it immediately (Mark 11:3). Matthew turns this question into a kind of mysterious assent
once they say, “The Master needs them” (21:3). Luke leaves the confrontation
out entirely.
Jesus enters the city greeted like a king (in
2 Kings 9 Jehu is greeted in the same fashion). Jesus finds the city in
“turmoil” when he gets there. People ask who he is and the crowds say it is the
prophet Jesus from Nazareth. Jesus goes to the Temple where he drives out all
who are buying and selling (In Mark he goes there and
just looks around). He accuses people of turning it into a den of
thieves. The blind and lame come to him in the Temple, and he cures them. The
chief priests and scribes are appalled at how people are addressing him. Then
he goes to Bethany to spend the night.
In the morning he returns to the city and is
hungry. He sees a fig tree by the road with nothing on it but leaves. He curses
it and it withers. The disciples ask him how that happened. He makes it into a
lesson about the power they may have too if they have faith. “[I]f you have faith and do not doubt, not
only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to
this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done” (21:21).
When he goes into the Temple to teach this
time, the chief priests and elders ask him by what authority he teaches and
does these things. To confound them, knowing their fear of the people who have
a high opinion of John the Baptist, he asks them where John’s authority came
from. They claim not to know about John, so Jesus says he will not tell them by
whose authority he ministers.
Then he tells them the parable of the man with two sons, one of whom defies his father
when he asks him to do something but then obeys; and the other who outwardly
complies but does not follow through and do what he said he was going to do. Which of the sons is doing his father’s
will? They go with the one who gives the right response initially, but Jesus
says no, the ones who actually DO the task are the ones who will be rewarded. It is not enough
to “know” the father’s will or say you will do his will. The important thing is DOING the
father’s will, and this the leaders are not doing.
Then he tells them the parable of the landowner who plants a vineyard and leases it out. The
tenants continually abuse the agents of the absent owner. Finally he sends his son to collect his
share thinking they will respect him.
But they do not. They kill
the son. Jesus tells them the owner will “put those wretches to a miserable
death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at
the harvest time” (21:41). So Jesus wishes to
penetrate the blindness of the Pharisees who threaten the life of the Son of
God, owner of the vineyard of Israel. If they do not repent, the kingdom
will be taken away and “given to a people that produces the fruits of the
kingdom” (21:43). They know he is speaking about them and want to arrest him;
the trouble is they fear the crowds who see Jesus as a prophet.
The readings are designed to inspire a respect in the reader for
the narrative of God’s dealings with the world seen over the long-term. As
Joseph’s traumatic destiny in his family was really part of God plan to
preserve and care for his people and not simply the sordid tale of brotherly
jealousy and treachery, so the persecution of the prophets, the sending of the
son Jesus and his rejection by the tenants (the Jews) must be seen as part of a
greater plan God has to extend his salvation to all men.
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