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Commentary on Job 19:21-27

Job asks his ‘comforters’ for some genuine compassion, saying:

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!

His body is covered with sores and his family destroyed. He is not sure yet why this has happened, but the words of his friends do not seem to be of much help. He asks them:

Why do you, like God, pursue me,
never satisfied with my flesh?

It is bad enough having God do these things to him without them aggravating the situation.

And then, in stark contrast to what goes before and follows after (not in our readings), in the very depths of his misery, Job bursts out in a marvellous statement of faith and hope. According to the NIV Bible, it is:

“…probably the best-known and most-loved passage in the book of Job, reaching a high point in Job’s understanding of his own situation and of his relationship to God.”

So strongly does he feel about what he is going to say that he would like it to be inscribed in stone so that it would survive his death and endure until the day when his vindication will take place. Job says:

For I know that my vindicator lives…

‘Vindicator’ or ‘Avenger’ translates the Hebrew word goel, a technical term in law. It is frequently used of God as the saviour of his people and the avenger of the oppressed; early rabbis also used it of the Messiah. In the Latin translation of St Jerome (the Vulgate) the word is translated ‘Redeemer’. The word seems analogous to the title given in the New Testament to the Spirit—the Paraclete (parakletes)—which means someone who comes to protect you and stand by your side, such as a defence lawyer in court.

Job now in deep faith awaits his God to come and vindicate him before his friends, who have condemned him as a sinner and wrongdoer. The Jerusalem Bible comments:

“Job, slandered and condemned by his friends, awaits a Defender who this time is God himself. Job still believes his happiness to be lost for ever and his death to be at hand: when God undertakes to avenge his cause, it will be after his death. Nonetheless Job hopes to witness this and to ‘see’ his vindication. In 14:10-14 he had envisaged the possibility of a temporary shelter in Sheol, and here it would seem that he is counting on a brief return to earthly life to see his vindications accomplished; in this he is prompted by his faith in a God who can bring men back from Sheol. Job’s faith thus momentarily defies mortal horizons in his desperate need for justice; it prepares us for the explicit revelation of bodily resurrection…(see 2 Macc 7:9).”

Job expresses his confidence that ultimately God will vindicate his faithful servants in the face of all false accusations.

Job’s words of faith and hope are probably best known to us in the famous aria from Handel’s oratorio the Messiah, “I know that my Redeemer liveth”, although ‘Redeemer’ or ‘Vindicator’ here, with the hindsight of the New Testament, has a meaning going far beyond what Job is saying.

God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. He will “stand upon the earth” as judge. And that will be the moment of Job’s justification. Job expects to die from the physical afflictions of his body, but “then in my flesh I shall see God”. God will be close to him and perhaps he will even be able to return to earth for a short period.

In spite of his sufferings, Job knows in his heart they are not the result of his sin, and that his basic innocence and goodness will be finally recognised by his being brought face to face with the one who will vindicate him.

Job’s great hope should be the basis of our faith, too. We too know that our Avenger, our Vindicator, our Redeemer in the person of Jesus Christ lives, and that he has gone ahead of us so that we can share with him the life that no one can take from us.

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Commentary on Luke 10:1-12

Two days ago we saw Jesus firmly setting out for Jerusalem and the accomplishment of his mission. Yesterday we saw how he responded to people who wanted to or were being invited to join his mission. During the coming days we will see Jesus preparing his actual disciples for their work.

In addition to the inner circle of the Twelve, we are told today that he appointed another 72 (12×6) and sent them two by two to the places he himself would be visiting (note that only Luke mentions this group). That is a good description of our Christian role. We are supposed to go first to prepare the ground, but then it is Jesus himself who comes to plant the seed of faith.

Jesus then goes on to give an instruction to his disciples. We, too, should be listening to his words. First, he points out that the harvest is great and there are very few labourers—few who are willing to do the harvesting work with Jesus.

This is a text which is often thrown at us during ‘vocation’ campaigns. We tend to hear it as a call for more priests, brothers and nuns. It is that, of course, but when Jesus spoke there were no priests, brothers or nuns. The challenge was being thrown out to all his followers to find more people to join in the harvesting work.

We have to be careful as we listen to these words not to exclude ourselves because we are middle-aged, or married, or already have a career. The words are addressed to all of us and call for some kind of response from every one of us. It is never too late to respond to the call.

Second, Jesus warns his followers that it may not be easy.

I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.

In spite of the message of truth, love, compassion and justice that we bring, it does not mean that we will be received with open arms. On the contrary, we may meet with strong opposition and even persecution. Our message will be seen as threatening. It will be distorted and misunderstood.

Third, the disciples are called on to travel light. Jesus himself “had nowhere to lay his head” and he only had the clothes he wore.

So many of us are weighed down by the things we own. Some of us have to protect our property with the latest in security devices. In our search for prosperity and material security we have lost the more precious gift of freedom. The disciples are not to stop to greet people in the sense of carrying on lengthy conversations. Their mission was urgent—there are few labourers for a potentially huge harvest.

Fourth, they are to be bearers of peace. Peace, shalom, is much more than an absence of violence. It is a deep inner harmony with oneself, with others, with one’s environment, with God:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)

We could hardly bring a more precious gift to others than this inner peace. It is, in fact, the heart of our Christian message. Faith, hope and love are the keys to peace.

Fifth, the evangeliser is to stay in the first house that accepts him. He should not be going around looking for better accommodation. At the same time, he is to be provided with shelter and hospitality:

…for the laborer deserves to be paid.

This, it seems, was the way Jesus himself lived. And this was the overall ideal of the Christian community: a network of mutually supporting people sharing their resources with each other and with those in greater need than themselves.

Sixth, their work is primarily to heal the sick in the places they go to. ‘Healing’ should be taken in a wider sense of including body, feelings, mind and spirit. And ‘healing’ should also be seen not just as getting rid of a sickness, but of making a person whole again. Bringing healing and wholeness into the lives of individuals and communities is of the essence of the Kingdom and at the heart of Jesus’ work and that of his followers. The sign of that wholeness is inner peace. Today it is no different.

And they are to say:

…the kingdom of God has come near.

This is not just a statement they are to throw out. It is the core of Jesus’ message and an explanation of why people are experiencing healing and wholeness coming into their lives. This is the effect of the coming of the Kingdom; this is what the coming of the Kingdom means. God’s power is penetrating their lives, transforming them and making them whole again.

Luke mentions the Kingdom of God more than 30 times; Matthew more than 50 times. Matthew’s is truly a Gospel of the Kingdom.

The term can have a number of meanings:

• the eternal Kingship (basileia) of God;
• the presence of the Kingdom in the person of Jesus; he is the embodiment, the incarnation of the rule of God in himself, an incarnation he wishes to be found in his disciples and the communities they establish;
• the future Kingdom in the life that is to come.

In short, the Kingdom—the rule of God—is intended to be both a present reality as well as a future hope.

And finally, seventh, if there is any place where they are not received, the disciples are to leave it to its own fate. Even then those people are to know that the Kingdom of God is near to them also. There is always the hope that the results of their very rejection of the Kingdom will lead to a deeper awareness later on. By rejecting the messengers of God, they have opened themselves to a fate worse than that of Sodom, a city utterly destroyed because of its shameful lack of hospitality to divine visitors. But those hearing the message of Jesus are even more accountable for hearing the message of the Kingdom proclaimed to them and turning their back on it.

Clearly, we cannot literally apply all of these points to our own work on behalf of the gospel, but we need to make the underlying principles and values ours too. It will require some reflection on our part, both as individuals and as communities, on how we should effectively share the gospel with those around us and be the harvesters that are so badly needed. Indeed, let us pray for vocations, but let us remember that every single one of us is being called to work in the harvest field and not just some chosen souls who are totally unknown to us.

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Commentary on Job 38:1,12-21;40:3-5

The three ‘comforters’ are followed in their dialogue with Job by Elihu (chaps 32-37), who adds his own advice.

In today’s reading, Yahweh intervenes with two speeches in which he gives Job the answers to his questions. They cover more than four chapters altogether (38-42). In our reading we are given short excerpts from the first speech. And, in each case, Job will give a short response of acknowledgement.

In a way, the answer to the why of his suffering is that there is no answer, in the sense that no human person is in a position to call into question the infinite wisdom and power of God. Job will now accept his situation. He is a person of tiny significance in a vast universe—one which is totally beyond his comprehension. How can he question the God who is behind it all?

Yahweh speaks to Job “out of the whirlwind”. This is a traditional way of describing an appearance of God and is evocative of his overwhelming power. Earlier Elihu had imagined the appearance of the divine presence as a display of “golden splendour” and “awesome majesty”. He had also anticipated the storm or whirlwind from which Job would hear the voice of God. Job had said, “Let the Almighty answer me.” He now receives the Lord’s answer.

Yahweh begins by asking a series of questions full of poetic images. They compare the almighty power of the creator God with the impotence of Job, the creature.

Yahweh begins by asking Job if he had ever given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its place. ‘Morning’ and ‘Dawn’ are seen as distinct entities. Obviously, the answer is ‘No’. Only the Master of the Universe could do such a thing. The light also has the effect of driving the wicked into hiding; they cannot tolerate the light and love darkness (Jesus will say something in the same vein). Again, this is clearly far beyond the capabilities of Job. When the “dawn” comes to the earth:

It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyed like a garment

Here is a wonderful image of the dawn breaking over the earth and changing the colours of everything as the sun rises. The “clay” is a deep red.

Has Job ever gone to the “springs of the sea”? It was believed that there were springs under the earth which supplied the seas with water, or has he been to the “recesses of the deep”, the depths beyond the confines of the earth? Has he been to the “gates of death” or seen the janitors of “gates of deep darkness”—Sheol, the place of the dead?

Does Job have even the faintest idea of the extent of the earth? The vast majority of people in those days, even the rich, had not travelled far from their home and had no way of knowing what the rest of even the inhabited world was like. We need to remember it was not until the end of the 15th century of our era, when the great sea explorations began, that people had any idea of the size and shape of our planet, and even longer before we began to penetrate the mysteries of the skies above our heads.

Job had never been to the homes of Light and Darkness, ideas thought of as distinct from the sun and moon (as they are in the creation story of Genesis where Light is created before the Sun).

All of these are places to which only God has access. If Job did know these things, he might have some power to control them, but in fact, he is totally powerless. If he did know all these things, he would now be very ancient indeed! But so limited is Job’s knowledge that he is in absolutely no situation to question anything that God does.

In the last part of the reading, which is Job’s response to God, he is for all practical purposes reduced to stammering and speechlessness:

I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.

He will no longer complain because his grasp of the situation is so weak. How can he call to account Yahweh who is so vast in his power, while Job is so little? He can have no idea of the full picture of things.

We know many things about our world and environment which were completely unknown to Job. But in spite of all that we have discovered in the intervening centuries, life is still largely a mystery, and we are equally unable to explain why many things happen to us or what goes on in the mysterious wisdom of God.

The only response that gives peace is to hold on to the conviction that he is a God of truth, of love, of compassion and of justice. And, in spite of the disorder and chaos and violence, our world is shot through with Truth, Love and Beauty. As the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said:

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God…There lives the deepest freshness deep down things”.

Lord, that we may see!

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Commentary on Luke 10:13-16

In today’s Gospel, we hear strong words from Jesus against towns where he had preached extensively—Chorazin, Bethsaida and especially Capernaum.

Chorazin is only mentioned twice in the Bible, here and in the parallel passage of Matthew (11:21). It was near the Sea of Galilee and probably between 3 and 4 km north of Capernaum. Bethsaida, the home of some of Jesus’ disciples, was on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had been built by Philip the Tetrarch, who called it ‘Julias’ after Julia, a daughter of the emperor Caesar Augustus. Capernaum, situated on the north shore of the lake, appears frequently in the Gospel narratives and was the centre from which Jesus did much of his missionary work. His work and preaching would have been most familiar to the people there.

Jesus says that if the gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon had witnessed all that Jesus had said and done in those towns of Palestine, they would have repented long ago—just as the pagan people of Niniveh had repented at the preaching of Jonah.

Tyre and Sidon were towns on the Phoenician coast, north of Palestine (Lebanon today). Jesus was said to have visited the area just once and only very briefly, so the people there did not have an opportunity to witness Jesus’ miracles or hear his preaching, unlike the people in the towns mentioned above.

And Jesus goes further. Addressing his disciples he says:

Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.

In other words, to listen to the messengers of Jesus is equivalent to listening to him personally—to reject those messengers is to reject Jesus and to reject God.

And in our own times, perhaps we should emphasise that those ‘messengers’ are not just bishops, priests and religious. They include all those who sincerely proclaim the gospel by their words and their lives.

It might be no harm then for each of us today to hear those warnings of Jesus addressed to ourselves. How well have we really responded to the call of Jesus in the Gospel? How open are we to hear that message coming to us from different kinds of people in our community? How committed are we to accepting, living and sharing that Gospel with others?

Might it be true to say that there are people in other parts of our world, our country, our society who, if they were given what we have been given, who heard what we hear, would respond much more generously than we have done?

There is never any room for complacency in our Christian life. Because we have been given so much, so much more is expected of us. As Jesus says elsewhere, we may be very surprised to see others, who never had an opportunity directly to hear the gospel, go before us into God’s Kingdom.

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Commentary on Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-17

Today we have Job’s final response to Yahweh, and the restoration of his fortunes. The reading is in two parts. In the first we have Job’s last words and they are his reply to the second speech of Yahweh (which we have not read in the liturgy).

They are a final statement of total acceptance of everything that God decides and of what happens to Job:

Job answered the Lord:
I know that you can do all things
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Job now finally sees that God and his purposes are supreme and are not to be questioned by him. He says an unconditional ‘Yes’ to his Lord.

Job regrets his limitations, saying:

I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me that I did not know.
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you

He has been talking about things he did not really understand. But now he has seen with his own eyes. This is not strictly speaking an actual vision of God, but rather a graced insight into the nature of God. Previously, Job had very conventional ideas about God, mainly derived from others. But now he has had a direct experience of God’s mystery and submits totally to the Almighty. His questions have not really been answered, but he now understands that he cannot question what happens under God and that there are deeper meanings to the realities of suffering and death. He can now accept that his suffering, pain and loss are not incompatible with the wisdom and power of God.

So, in his very last words, he expresses deep regret for all the things he has said, especially his complaints against God for what he has experienced. He says:

…therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.

The second part is the final paragraph in the book, and (unlike the dialogues) is in prose form. The contest between God and Satan is over. Job has not cursed God and has come triumphantly through the most painful trials. Comments the NIV Bible:

“The cosmic contest with the accuser is now over, and Job is restored. No longer is there a reason for Job to experience suffering—unless he was sinful and deserved it, which is not the case. God does not allow us to suffer for no reason, and even though the reason may be hidden in the mystery of his divine purpose—never for us to know in this life—we must trust in him as the God who does only what is right.”

Job’s fortunes are now restored; he gains back even more than he lost. The number of animals is twice as many as he had before. His seven (perfect number) sons and three daughters replace the children he lost in the hurricane.

We do not know anything about the boys, but we are told the names of the three daughters—Jemimah, which means “dove”; Keziah (or Cassia) which means “cinnamon”; and Keren-happuch (“Mascara” in the Jerusalem Bible) which means “container of antimony”. Antimony was a much-desired form of eyeshadow. The girls were all outstanding in beauty and, contrary to normal custom, would receive the same inheritance rights as their brothers—an indication of Job’s great wealth. Normally daughters would only inherit if there were no sons.

Finally, we are told that Job, in the tradition of the true biblical patriarch, lived to be 140 years old and saw his descendants to the fourth generation.

The Greek text of the book has two additions to the end of the text (which do not appear in our reading). The first indicates that, from very early on, the book of Job was thought to contain the idea of resurrection after death:

It is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord will raise up.

The second tells us that Job lived “in the land of Ausitis on the borders of Idumaea and Arabia” and identifies Ausitis with Jobab, a king mentioned in Genesis (36:33).

The epilogue, in a way, seems to contradict the teaching of the dialogues which challenge the conventional idea that the good are rewarded and the evil punished in this life. Rather the lesson is that there is no relationship between God’s wisdom and the experiences that we have in life.

Material blessings are not a guarantee of personal virtue any more than material deprivation or sickness are punishments for sin. As St Paul will say later:

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

Paul never saw his own sufferings and hardships as a punishment from God, but rather as an opportunity and a grace to share somehow in the sufferings of Jesus his Lord.

These ideas, of course, would not come until later. The sufferings of Job are seen primarily by the biblical author as a test of Job’s virtue. Once he has passed the test, there is now every reason for his wealth to be returned to him. The idea of wealth as a concrete sign of God’s blessing has not been altogether abandoned. This notion will be radically changed when, to the astonishment of his disciples, Jesus says that:

…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (Matt 19:25)

His Kingdom is one where the “poor in spirit” will be among the blessed.

For us, God’s blessings are seen not in our material possessions, but in internal blessings like inner consolation, joy, peace and shared fellowship.

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Commentary on Luke 10:17-24

We saw at the beginning of chapter 10 how Jesus had sent his 72 disciples out to all the places where he himself would visit. Today we see them returning full of joy and satisfaction:

Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!

They discovered that, in his name, they were able to do the same things that Jesus did.

In reply, Jesus said to them:

I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.

The power of evil is being reversed and this was partly the doing of his disciples working in his name. And he further reassures them:

I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you.

‘Snakes and scorpions’ more likely represent evil powers and so the statement is not to be taken literally and still less to be tested (as some obscure sects have tried to do with predictably tragic consequences!). It is true that for the committed disciple nothing can really hurt them. Physically, maybe, but not their real selves. Nothing, as Paul says, can separate us from the love of God, that is, the love that God extends to us at every moment of every day.

Then Jesus tells his disciples the real reason why they should be happy. It is not because they have special powers over evil spirits, but rather:

…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

In other words, their blessedness comes not from what they are able to do, but because they have been chosen as the instruments for God to do his work, to make the Kingdom a reality. That is the origin of our blessedness too.

Then follows a beautiful prayer of Jesus to the Father. He thanks the Father because all that is coming into the world through Jesus is being made known, not to the wise and great ones of this world, but to “the little ones”, the people who, in the eyes of the majority, are of no account:

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

And, since that day on the lake shore when Jesus called four fishermen to be his followers, he has been calling very ordinary people to know his identity, to hear his message and share his vision.

And so he can say truly to them:

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

All of this applies to so many of us too. We, for reasons only known to God himself, have been given knowledge of the Son. We too, by means of the Church, have been given a vision denied to so many—we have heard the Word which is the Way to truth and life.

Whatever problems we may be facing right now, let us on this day count our blessings and express our gratitude for them. And the only way to do that is to say ‘Yes’ to Jesus and his gospel. Let us start doing that right now.

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Commentary on Job 3:1-3,11-17,20-23

A dialogue begins in chapter 2 of Job, and in it, he now curses the day of his birth, but not God. As Job was there in misery and desolation, his family and all his property wiped out, his body covered with ulcers as he sat in an ashpit, he is scolded by his wife who urges him to curse the God who brought them to this state. He replies in a phrase which underlies the whole book:

Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil? (Job 2:10)

Subesequently, Job is is joined by three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar who come to console him. They were appalled by his appearance; as far they were concerned, he was dead.

For seven days and seven nights they all sat together in total silence. Then Job broke the silence and uttered the words we have in today’s reading. He curses the day he was born and the night he was conceived:

Let the day perish in which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man-child is conceived.

The birth of a boy would normally be good news; it would mean the continuation of the family line. But Job is now alone—his whole family wiped out. There is nothing to live for.

There now comes a series of rhetorical questions:

Otherwise he would now be with the dead:

I would be asleep; then I would be at rest
with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuild ruins for themselves,
or with princes who have gold,
who fill their houses with silver.

He would be in the company of kings and princes in their magnificent tombs, crammed with all kinds of treasure (like the kings of Ur or the Egyptian pharaohs).

Or at least why did he not enter the world:

…like a stillborn child,
like an infant that never sees the light…

Why was he not where:

…the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.

In this, he is speaking of Sheol—a word of unknown origin, indicating the deepest parts of the earth. It is the place where the dead, both virtuous and wicked alike are, leading a colourless existence where there is no praise of God. The belief in rewards and punishments after death and of bodily resurrection only came very late in the Old Testament period (see 2 Macc 12:38-45).

Why allow a man to grow up and suffer like this? Those:

…who long for death, but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad when they find the grave?
Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
whom God has fenced in?

Job can see no future for himself. A life like this is not worth living. He longs for the liberation of death and curses the day of his birth.

We ourselves may have somewhat similar experiences, and surely we know of others who have gone through terrible inner and outer pain. Suffering people may wonder where a loving God can fit into such a situation. Today, there are strong initiatives on the part of some to arrange an early termination of such an existence. Not a few take the way of suicide while others resort to “euthanasia”. These are very sensitive issues which need to be dealt with through compassion and understanding.

Although Job regrets now that he was born, he never contemplates suicide. And, of course, later on, when his fortunes change again for the better, his words in today’s reading will be set aside.

We too, must always live in hope. Some of our pains and sufferings are of a temporary nature and will go away. Others, such as terminal illness, we know cannot be taken away. Yet, here too, as experience has shown many times, total acceptance and inner peace is possible. And so many good things can come from pain. In pain, one may experience the deep sympathy and compassion of people who might otherwise ignore us. Our own pain can help us to understand much better the pain of others and bring a healing compassion to their situation. A world totally free of pain could become a place of total selfishness and self-indulgence.

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Commentary on Luke 9:51-56

We come today to a distinct turning point in Luke’s Gospel. It is marked by the opening words of today’s passage:

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

The ‘taking up’ or the ‘assumption’ of Jesus refers to his passion and death leading to resurrection and ascension. It corresponds to the ‘glory’ that John speaks of and for whom the crucifixion is a ‘lifting up’ into ‘glory’.

At this point we have now come to the end of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee and we move on to a new section—the journey to Jerusalem, which ends at chapter 19:27 where we find Jesus in Jerusalem. The opening corresponds to Mark 10:1 where Jesus is seen entering Judea to preach there and which John more specifically describes as a journey to Jerusalem during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:1-10).

But Luke diverges from Mark’s story with very different material. He now follows Matthew’s source as well as using material of his own. The section consists almost entirely of teachings of Jesus to his disciples. It is all loosely organised within the framework of Jesus’ making his way to Jerusalem. The section we are entering is a time of preparation for the disciples for their future role as Messengers of the Kingdom.

Jerusalem is the place where it is all going to happen—the ‘exodus’ of Jesus, including his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension—leading to the passing on of his mission to his disciples with the coming down of the Spirit of the Father and Jesus on the disciples. And it will be from Jerusalem that the new Church will be established and from Jerusalem it will spread gradually throughout the whole Mediterranean area until it reaches the empire’s capital in Rome, and from there to the ends of the earth.

As he set out, Jesus sent some messengers ahead to announce his coming. In order to go directly from Galilee to Judea, where the city of Jerusalem was situated, they would have had to pass through Samaria. Samaritans were particularly hostile to Jews, especially when they were on their way to a Jewish festival in Jerusalem (as Jesus and his disciples seem to be doing). It would take at least three days to cross Samaria and the Samaritans were refusing the disciples overnight shelter. Because of this situation, Jewish pilgrims and travellers often avoided confrontation by going down the east bank of the Jordan River. There is an irony here that, when the first Christians were persecuted in Jerusalem, they took refuge in Samaria, which became one of the first places to accept the Gospel. It is very likely that the evangelist is aware of the irony when telling this story.

Faced with this hostility, the brothers James and John, whom we described yesterday as hotheads (Sons of Thunder), suggested that fire from heaven be called down to burn them up. Their threat is reminiscent of the fire that Elijah brought down on the emissaries of an idolatrous king (1 Kings 18:38). They were indignant that their Master, the Messiah, should be treated in this way. There is a parallel here between Jesus’ negative reception in his home town of Galilee and his rejection by the people of Samaria.

But Jesus distances himself from those disciples and gives them a scolding. This was not Jesus’ way. Instead, they went off to another village where they hoped to find a better welcome. As we see in other parts of the Gospel, Jesus does not normally go out of his way to court trouble. On the other hand, he will not hesitate to speak his mind or do what he believes is right, even if certain kinds of people take offence at it.

It is never Jesus’ way to destroy his enemies. We will see that clearly after he reaches Jerusalem where far worse things are done to him. Jesus’ purpose always is to change people who are against him, to defuse their hostility and help them to see things in a better way. It is something we could try to do more often. It is not at all the “softy’s” approach. On the contrary, it requires great inner strength and security.

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Commentary on Luke 12:8-12

Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for trials to come in the future. He encourages them to be faithful to their Christian commitment and to their faith in Christ as Lord. When we publicly acknowledge Jesus as Christ and Lord, Jesus too will acknowledge us as his faithful disciple.

Of course, it will be difficult during times of abuse and persecution, but disciples must always be ready to acknowledge their allegiance to Jesus. To deny that allegiance may win them a reprieve in this life, but not in the next. Jesus said on an earlier occasion:

For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. (Matt 16:25)

The word for ‘deny’ in today’s Gospel is the same word used in Peter’s denial and disowning of his Master (see Luke 22:34,61).

Then comes a saying which can cause difficulty for some:

…everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

Why should there be this one exception to the forgiveness of sin? And why is speaking against the Son acceptable, but not against the Spirit?

To speak against the Son is clearly wrong, but with repentance, there can be reconciliation. But to sin against the Spirit is to go against Truth itself. This was basically the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees. They not only criticised Jesus—that could be understood. But they locked themselves into a situation where they shut out any openness to the Truth—the Truth that others could so easily see present in Jesus. As long as they were in that situation, there was no possibility of reconciliation. To sin against the Spirit—the Truth—is to close the door on reconciliation.

It seems that in Luke’s context he may be applying the saying to those Christians who are under attack for their faith. If they deny the Spirit of Truth, they too lock themselves out from being reached by God. In times to come—even up through our own time—Jesus’ disciples will be dragged before civil and religious authorities. He is telling them they are not to be afraid or worried about how to defend themselves or about what they should say.

Again and again, people who have been in this position have attested that the words do indeed come and with them a certain peace and strength—provided one retains one’s integrity and wholeness. And it is the presence of that Spirit, the Spirit of God and of Jesus, that is at work.

Most of us will not have to suffer severely for our faith. But there will likely be times when we may find our religious beliefs and practices ridiculed and made fun of. We can be tempted at such times to go into hiding, to conceal our Christian identity. We may even fail to come to the support of people who are under attack, refuse to stand by them and refuse to stand up and be counted as committed followers of the gospel.

If that has happened in the past, let us ask forgiveness. Let us pray that in future we may have the courage and integrity in word and deed to let people know who we are and what we stand for.

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Commentary on Luke 12:1-7

After his confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus now turns to the crowds. We are told that they were gathering round him by the thousands, so densely packed that they were trampling on each other. Clearly they were hungry to hear a man who had spoken in such extraordinary and daring ways to their religious leaders.

But Jesus begins by speaking first to his own disciples.

Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy.

The fermenting characteristic of yeast is seen by the Jews as a corrupting agent. That is why they only use unleavened bread at the Passover.

The corrupting agent in the Pharisees was their hypocrisy. On the outside they pretended to be what they were not on the inside:

Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known.

It can mean that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees will ultimately be laid bare. In contrast, the followers of Jesus must practice transparency. And although much of the teaching that the disciples receive is in private, ultimately all will have to come out into the open.

The Church is not a secret society, although it has its ‘mysteries’, its special teachings and rituals, which are only fully understood by those who are ‘inside’. The Church is of its very essence evangelical. Its purpose is to share the vision of Christ with the whole world. This is crucial to the setting up of the Kingdom, the accepted reign of God in the world.

Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.

This, of course, will involve dangers. The gospel will be resisted; it will be seen as a dangerous threat to other views of life. Christians will die and, in fact, thousands have sacrificed their lives simply because they were followers of Jesus.

But physical death is not the worst enemy—it is the consequence of living. It is an end we will all have to face one day, sooner or later, one way or the other. But Paul says:

I will show you whom to fear: fear the one who, after killing, has authority to cast into hell.

Only God as the Supreme Judge has this power. Of course, the only person God “casts into hell” is one who has chosen to separate himself or herself definitively from God.

Hell (in Hebrew ge-hinnom meaning the ‘Valley of Hinnom’ or ge-ben-hinnom, ‘Valley of the Son of Hinnom’) refers to an area situated to the southwest of Jerusalem. In the time of the kings it had been the centre of a cult in which children were sacrificed (see 2 Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 7:31), and hence was seen as a place of abomination. The Hebrew is transliterated into Greek as gaihenna, which appears in some translations of the New Testament as gehenna.

The punishment of sinners by fire after death first appeared in Jewish apocalyptic literature, but the name gehenna for this punishment only appears in the New Testament. The term is only used in Matthew, Mark, the Letter of James and here. The word is not to be confused with Hades, which was a general name for the place of the dead.

The one we are really to fear is the one who can make us deny Christ and all that Christ means, and to die in a state of denial. But whatever threats hang over us, we are not to fear. We have the example of many before us who have gone to their deaths in peace and without hesitation. They knew they had no other choice: either death or Truth. Jesus says:

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

So our duty is clear: to proclaim the good news of the gospel with openness and integrity and not to fear the consequences. We are not alone.