BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 137:1-6(7-9), 144 [PCUSA: 63:1-11]
Evening Psalm(s): PM Psalm 104 [PCUSA: Psalm 125:1-5]
Old Testament: Zech. 14:12-21
Epistle: Phil. 2:1-11
Gospel: Luke 19:41-48
Presbyterian Readings with Biblical Text for the Current Day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
Zechariah describes a final victory for Jerusalem, including “the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem,” causing their flesh to “rot while they are still on their feet,” their eyes to “rot in their sockets,” and their tongues to “rot in their mouths” (Zech. 14:12). Among Jerusalem’s enemies there will be “great panic” (v. 13), but “the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected–gold, silver, and garments in great abundance” (v. 14). Due to Jerusalem’s victory, “all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the festival of booths” (v. 16). Those who refuse will suffer “the plague that the LORD inflicts” (v. 18) as “punishment” (v. 19). Holy things will be restored: bells on horses inscribed, “Holy to the LORD,” and holy vessels, “cooking pots” and “bowels” in the temple (v. 20). “And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day” (v. 21). “Either no traders will be needed because everything will be holy, or nothing will be permitted that defiles pure worship (Jn. 2:16)” ( R. Lansing Hicks and Walter Brueggemann, NOAB). One is reminded of Jesus’ Cleansing of the Temple.
As a part of living “your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27), and as a part of their “sharing in the gospel” (1:5), that is, sharing in Paul’s mission, he urges the Philippian believers to humbly “regard each other as better than yourselves” (2:3) and “look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (2:4). He cites the example of Christ’s self-denial in a passage which, by asserting the pre-existence and divinity of which Christ emptied himself, to be crucified, but then resurrected and exalted “above every name” (v. 9) so that “at the name of Jesus/every knee should bend,/in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (v. 10), and “every tongue should confess/that Jesus Christ is Lord,/to the glory of God the Father” (v. 11). Whether Paul composed this passage himself or, as some think, he is citing an earlier Christian hymn about Christ, it is a significant early expression of what the earliest Christians believed about Jesus. But Paul’s use of it as an example for us, to be humble and look to the interests of others, is also important. In the continuation Paul shows that he follows Christ’s example. He did not regard his Jewish credentials “as something to be exploited” (cf. 3:4-8), and he urges the Philippians to “join in imitating me” (3:17).
The particular focus of the dire prediction for Jerusalem in Luke 19:41-44 is unique in the Gospels, though the prediction of the temple’s destruction occurs elsewhere (Mt. 24:1-3; Mk. 13:1-4; Lk. 21:5-7). Matthew and Luke present Jesus’ Lament over Jerusalem in passages that are almost verbatim (Mt. 23:37-39; Lk. 13:34-35). But the details of the siege in the war with Rome, “when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you and they will not leave within you one stone upon another” (Lk. 19:43-44), lead some critics to suggest that reports of what had happened had influenced Luke’s reporting of Jesus’ prediction. But Josephus’ eye-witness report is much more graphic and detailed. The main point is to recognize “the things that make for peace” (v. 41), and “the time of your visitation from God” (v. 44). We need to be open to God’s will and the Spirit’s guidance in our lives.
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.