The mission of the prophets and the resolution of the Messiah

 

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for June 30, 2013, the Thirteenth Sunday in
Ordinary Time | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• 1 Kgs 19:16b, 19-21
• Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
• Gal 5:1, 13-18
• Lk 9:51-62

“I’m on my way!” “We’re on
our way!”

These are common enough expressions, and we know
their meaning. They indicate movement, purpose, resolution. We’ve
uttered them many times, with anticipation, or with anxiety.

Jesus, we hear in today’s Gospel
reading, was “on the way.” The days for his “being taken up”
had been fulfilled, and so “he resolutely determined to journey to
Jerusalem.” A more direct translation is that “he hardened his
face to go”. This language is meant to evoke connections with the
prophets, especially Ezekiel: “Son of man, set your face toward
Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries; prophesy against the
land of Israel…” (Ezek. 21:2; RSVCE). Jesus sent messengers
ahead, reminiscent of God sending messengers before Moses and the
people (Ex. 23:20).

The journey to Jerusalem was, in other
words, a prophetic mission and the concrete realization of a new
Exodus—not from Egypt, but from sin, death, and separation from
God. Jesus was resolute and unflinching in this decision, by which
“he indicated that he was going up to Jerusalem prepared to die
there” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 557). Some
have suggested or insisted that Jesus, in going to Jerusalem, did not
really know of his approaching death, but was acting with naïve
optimism or blind faith.

However, as we heard last week, Jesus
told his disciples that he would suffer, be rejected by the religious
leaders, killed, and raised on the third day (Lk. 9:22). What the
prophets of the Old Testament sometimes saw in startling glimpses,
Jesus saw with calm clarity: his mission was to liberate mankind from
the slavery of sin and the curse of death by being the sinless,
sacrificial Lamb of God. And as the Holy One journeyed to the holy
city, he encountered rejection, opposition, confusion, and even
fervent promises—the same reactions he still encounters today. 

The Samaritans, whose harbored strong
hostility toward the Jews, did not welcome him, apparently because he
journeyed to Jerusalem and not Mount Gerizim, the site of their
temple (cf. Jn. 4:20). Jesus did not fit their concept of a prophet
or messiah, and so they rejected him. Of course, the Pharisees and
scribes also rejected him for the same reason, and the similarities
(and irony) of this fact was likely not lost on St. Luke’s
first-century readers.

Jesus then encountered three men who
got a taste (and give us a clear picture) of the demands of
discipleship. It is easy to say to Jesus, “I will follow you
wherever you go,” but keeping such promises is far more daunting
than making them. Another asked to be given time to first bury his
father; a third wished to first say goodbye to his family.

Was Jesus insensitive to familial
responsibilities and hardships? No, said St. Basil the Great, but “a
person who wishes to become the Lord’s disciple must repudiate a
human obligation, however honorable it may appear, if it slows us
ever so slightly in giving the wholehearted obedience we owe to God.”
Jesus recognized that these men, well intentioned and fervent as they
may have been, were like those who “receive the word with joy, but
they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time
of trial” (Lk. 8:13).

As St. Frances de Sales wrote, in
Treatise on the Love of God, “…we receive the grace of God
in vain, when we receive it at the gate of our heart, and not within
the consent of our heart; for so we receive it without receiving it,
that is, we receive it without fruit, since it is nothing to feel the
inspiration without consenting unto it.” Contrast that with the
newly selected prophet, Elisha. Called by God, he asked permission to
say farewell to his family. Rebuffed by Elijah, he literally
sacrificed his old life, recognizing that following God requires
going all the way.

His actions said, “I’m on the way.”
What do our actions say?

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the June 27, 2010, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)