How willing are you to witness to God’s truth,
even in the face of difficulty?
The prophet Jeremiah was not popular among the people to whom God sent him to prophesy, particularly because Jeremiah was to inform them of their city’s imminent destruction by the neo-Babylonian warrior-king Nebuchadnezzar. The princes of Judah tell King Zedekiah that Jeremiah ought to be put to death; he is demoralizing the soldiers and all the people, and so Jeremiah is thrown into a cistern where he sinks into the mud. One can well imagine Jeremiah praying Psalm 40: Lord, come to my aid! Finally, at the request of a court official, King Zedekiah has Jeremiah taken out of the cistern before he should die. Jeremiah is true to the word of God; he does not even speak throughout his ordeal because he is a necessary witness to the truth of what God reveals, even in the face of difficulty, and he will continue to give witness to that truth, no matter the personal cost.
Jesus likewise knows that his death and rising will create division among the people to whom he has come to reveal God’s truth: I have come to set the earth on fire, he tells his disciples in Luke's Gospel. Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. And that division will be where we least expect it: a father will be divided against his son, and a son against his father. But the fire of which Jesus speaks is meant to destroy all that is unnecessary, anything that might compromise the truth he has come to proclaim. Jesus loves humankind profoundly; he longs for us to be purified of our sin and redeemed, so that we might rise with him. We, for our part, must be ready to stand behind the love that he came to reveal, no matter what division we must face to do so, no matter what transformation we must undergo, no matter what sin we must vanquish.
The persecuted community addressed in the Book of Hebrews is aware of this charge: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us. It was hard to be a Christian in the early Church; Christians endured much opposition. Yet they had but to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus to see how he endured such opposition, so that they could have the strength to struggle against sin and persevere. We as a Christian community are called to no less.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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