The history of the people of Israel is filled with shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of the Lord’s pasture. The prophet Jeremiah takes aim at one of them, Zedekiah, the final King of Judah who failed to take care of the people and protect them from Nebuchadnezzar II. Zedekiah did not understand, as Psalm 23 tells us, that the Lord is his shepherd who will unite, rather than scatter, his people. Unlike King David, Zedekiah did not trust in God’s leadership and insisted on being directed by his own will rather than by God’s. But Jeremiah gives the people hope: Behold, I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; he shall do what is right and just in the land. Jeremiah, like the psalmist King David, knows that God is always there to lead us and to care for us. But we have to have confidence in order to be able to express such confidence.
Even when, in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tries to take his disciples away to a deserted place so they can rest a while, the crowds show up in great numbers. Jesus’ compassion for the crowd, who appear like sheep without a shepherd, is so great that his heart is moved with pity for them, and he reaches out immediately. Why is he not annoyed by this intrusion? It has to do with where his heart his: Jesus is mercy, and his instinct is to take care of his people. Jesus is the one God promised who comes to save his people in their distress. He is, as Paul tells the Ephesians, our peace, a savior who breaks down the dividing wall of enmity between Jews and Gentiles, who, through the cross, gives them access in one Spirit to the Father, and brings them into one Body with one life – a life in him – to share. Our shared life in Christ is indeed what saves us, that we might manifest his love to our world, through our unity and community. This is what it means to say Jesus saves…
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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