BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Nov. 21, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): 118 [Presbyterian: 108:1-13]
Evening Psalm(s): 145 [Presbyterian: 66:1-20]
Old Testament: Zechariah 9:9-16
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:13-22
Gospel Matthew 21:1-13
Presbyterian Readings for the current day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
Zechariah predicts the crushing of Israel’s enemies (Zech. 9:1-8), which will lead to the coming of Israel’s king “triumphant and victorious . . . humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (v. 9; cited in the Palm Sunday texts of the Gospels (Mt. 21:5; Jn. 12:14-15). This king will rule “from sea to sea,/and from the River [‘probably the Euphrates,’ W. Sibley Towner, HarperCollins Study Bible] to the ends of the earth” (v. 10). The LORD will bring home his scattered peoples (vv. 11-12), lead them as a victorious army (vv. 13-15), and “will save them/for they are the flock of his people . . . jewels of a crown” (v. 16).
Peter advises his readers that they may need to endure suffering for the sake of Christ. “But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed” (1 Pet. 3:14). We are to be ready to explain and defend “the hope that is in you [us]” (v. 15). Peter presents the example of Christ’s suffering (v. 18). “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil” (v. 17; cf. 2:19-20). Peter’s Letter is addressed to “the exiles of the Dispersion” (1:1), probably Gentile Christians who feel scattered like the Jewish Dispersion. They are located in five provinces of the northern and western part of Asia Minor (now Turkey). We know of suffering for the mere fact of being Christian in those areas a few years after Peter’s time, but tradition has it that Peter and Paul both suffered martyrdom under Nero’s persecution in the city of Rome.
Matthew’s reading is the account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and so fits well with the reading from Zechariah. Matthew apparently understood the Zechariah text as a reference to two animals, due to the parallelism of the Hebrew poetry. But the primary significance is the symbolic action. Jesus presents himself as the “Messiah,” but his immediate action at the Temple demonstrates that his messiahship is of a different kind than the people were expecting.
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.