BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Friday, Dec. 17, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 40, 54 [PCUSA: 102:1-28]
Evening Psalm(s): PM Psalm 51 [PCUSA: 130:1-8]
Old Testament: Isa. 10:5-19
Epistle: 2 Pet. 2:17-22
Gospel: Matt. 11:2-15 [PCUSA: Mark 11:2-15]
Presbyterian Readings with Biblical Text for the Current Day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
Isaiah has predicted God’s judgment on Israel and Judah through the use of Assyria, “the bee that is in the land of Assyria” (Isa. 7:18), when “the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River–with the king of Assyria–the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well” (v. 20). Now Isaiah points out that it is God, not Assyria, that is in control. “Assyria, the rod of my anger–/the club in their hands is my fury!” (Isa. 10:5) . But the list of Assyria’s conquests (v. 9) has made them proud. “Are not my commanders all kings?” (v. 8). The Assyrian calls Jerusalem’s LORD another idol.
shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
what I have done to Samaria and her images? (Isa. 10:11)
Assyria continues to boast:
By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
and have plundered their treasures;
like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones. (v. 13)
God responds with irony:
Shall the ax [Assyria] vaunt itself over the one [God] who wields it,
or the saw magnify itself against the one who handles it?
As if a rod should raise the one who lifts it up,
or as if a staff should lift the one who lis not wood! (v. 15)
So, in the end, the conqueror will find that God has turned against him:
Therefore the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts,
will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors
and under his glory a burning will be kindled,
like the burning of fire. (v. 16)
Peter’s strong criticism of the false teachers continues. “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved” (2 Pet. 2:17). Still on the same “wave length,” Jude says, “They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds . . .wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever” (Jude 12-13). But Peter piles on the criticism. “They [the false teachers] speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them” (2 Pet. 2:18-19). Peter continues, with an allusion to Jesus saying about the return of the unclean spirit (Mt. 12:43-45; Lk. 11:24-26): “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them then the first” (2 Pet. 2:20). Their last state is worse than the first. Peter adds a couple proverbs: “The dog turns back to its own vomit,” and, “The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud” (v. 22). The sharpness of all these criticisms surely points to a dangerous heretical threat!
The Gospel reading for today, on John the Baptist (Matthew 11:2-15) is partly parallel to the reading twelve days ago (Luke 7:28-35, Dec. 5). Matthew can refer briefly to “what the Messiah was doing” (Mt. 11:2), referring to the miracles and related events of chapters 8-12, but Luke, who has a different structure, gives specifics, “Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind” (Lk. 7:21), as background for Jesus’ answer, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard” (v. 22a; cf. Mt. 11:4, with “what you see and hear”). In both, Jesus answer continues with “ the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, [and] the poor have good news brought to them” (Mt. 11:5; Lk. 7:22b). Both use the quotation identifying John as the “messenger” promised in Malachi 3:1 (Mt. 11:10; Lk. 7:27), but only Matthew spells out its meaning, “If you are willing to accept it, he [John the Baptist] is Elijah who is to come” (Mt. 11:14). A key verse for Matthew appears elsewhere in Luke: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force” ( Mt. 11:12); “The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force” (Lk. 16:16, with an alternative reading in the footnote, “everyone is strongly urged to enter it”). Krister Stendahl (Peake’s Commentary) sees a phrase from Matthew 11:12 as “a veritable crux of interpretation” [problematic phrase, interpreted differently by scholars]. He says that verse 12b “reads either: ‘the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence (passive) and men of violence grab it’ or ‘the Kingdom of Heaven manifests itself violently (or: powerfully; reflexive) and keen and daring men take hold of it.’ The latter meaning fits better into Mt.’s context, but the former–taken as a reference to Zealots and others who entertain military dreams of Israel’s deliverance–is more natural from a linguistic point of view . . . In whatever way the intermediate situation be described, the prophetic ministry of John was the last phase and predicted climax before the coming of the Kingdom.” (For further comments on the parallel passage in Luke, see the comments for December 5, 2004 in the Archive.)
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.