Don’t Shoot the Messenger
What if you’re a prophet, but the message that God gives you to proclaim isn’t revolutionary?
By Tony Jones
Old Testament Reading: Jeremiah 29: 1-7
For Sunday, October 10, 2010 – Year C, Ordinary 28
Jeremiah seemed to generally have a pretty sour disposition, which I guess can be expected since over the course of his prophetic career he was attacked by his own brothers, beaten and put into the stocks by a priest and false prophet, imprisoned by the king, threatened with death, thrown into a cistern by Judah’s officials, and opposed by another false prophet. Why so much grief just for doing what he’d been told by God? Probably because God gave him such a difficult message.
Whose Address Is On that Letter?
Among other things, Jeremiah had to preside, in the Lord’s stead, over the expulsion of the Israelites from their Promised Land into Babylon. Although this happens because of the false worship of Israel, it’s not a message they want to hear.
We pick up the story in approximately 598 BCE. Most of Israel is in Babylon, and a couple of prophets named Hananiah and Shemaiah are telling the people that their exodus from the Babylonian Captivity is imminent. When the Babylonians had invaded Judah and carted off the Israelites, they hadn’t destroyed the Temple, so the Israelites were particularly receptive to Hananiah and Shemaiah’s message of hope.
The Untouchables
Why does Jesus keep his distance from the lepers and heal them as they’re walking away?
By Tony Jones
Gospel Reading: Luke 17: 11-19
For Sunday, October 10, 2010 – Year C, Ordinary 28
From a ways off, the team o’ lepers shout to Jesus, asking for his help. We’d like to think that Jesus would call lepers over to him, that he’d touch them (or allow them to touch him), like he does with the Hemorrhaging Woman, the Blind Beggar, and the Poor and Lame all around him.
A ‘High-Touch’ Savior?
We like to think of Jesus with kids in his lap and lost sheep over his shoulders. He’s a hugger, just like your pastor in the narthex on Sunday morning. Seriously, how many times have we heard that people today lack human contact, that they need more touch. And we’d like to think that Jesus — and, by extension, followers of Jesus — would provide that to a [insert Christian euphemism here] lost and hurting world.
Lepers! That’s the perfect biblical metaphor for touching the untouchables. Mother Theresa did it all the time, shocking visitors to Calcutta by providing loving touch to lepers without any fear of contracting the horrific disease herself.
But Jesus doesn’t call the 10 Lepers over to himself. He doesn’t walk over to them. Instead, he keeps his distance and tells them to go see the priests. As they’re walking away, they are healed of their leprosy (presumably by Jesus, though the text doesn’t say that exactly).
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