Proper 25 – Year C
Sermon Notes from the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People
RCL Readings[1] – Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 or Sirach 35:12-17; Psalm 84:1-7; II Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14
ACNA Readings – Jeremiah 14:1-10, 19-22; Psalm 84; II Timothy 4:6-18; Luke 18:9-14
Seasonal Introduction. This season is often called “Ordinary Time,” a term derived from ordinal, meaning “numbered” or “in sequence.” However, there is nothing ordinary about this time. Rather, it is a time when we may reflect on how God (starting on Trinity Sunday and ending with Christ the King Sunday) has been at work in our own lives, the lives of his people, and how he will continue to work in the days to come. Ordinary Time is a season when we are invited to perceive the mystery of God at work in our daily lives, in the ordinary, in the mundane.
Common Theme. Righteousness cannot be separated from mercy. We are called to be merciful to others. We are also to call out to God for mercy even as we turn from the injustice we so often practice.
Hebraic Context. Sirach 34:21-22 states, “If one sacrifices ill-gotten goods, the offering is made in mockery; the gifts of the lawless are not acceptable.” Yeshua ben Sira continues, “Like one who kills a son before his father’s eyes is the person who offers a sacrifice from the property of the poor.”[2] Offering sacrifices to God—or hospitality to others—from another’s goods was not only considered thievery but also an abomination to God.
Tax collectors at the end of the Second Temple period were widely regarded as sinners.[3] They were considered thieves—the Mishnah even states that you should not accept charity from tax collectors, for it might have been stolen goods.[4] Additionally, tax collectors were excluded from serving as witnesses in court cases, since it was assumed that they took more than the amount set by the government.[5] They were not excluded merely for being tax collectors, but because they took more than was required and were therefore considered thieves. When tax collectors asked John the Baptist what they should do, he replied, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”[6]
Jesus did not spend time with tax collectors because they shared His theology or lived righteously. Rather, He ate with tax collectors because they were sinners, and He wished to draw them back to God with true repentance—including restoring their ill-gotten gains with added compensation beyond what was stolen, as commanded in the Torah.[7]
Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22.[8] Without water, life ceases to exist. Israel does not have the major rivers of Egypt or Mesopotamia and is, therefore, dependent on rain. The Torah declares that the rain God sends on Israel is dependent on their obedience.[9] Obedience and disobedience not only harm those who sinned but all the land, from the nobles to the servants, from the farmers to the wild animals of the land.
In Jeremiah 14:1-6, God reminds His people that they are in a drought. “Judah mourns… her people lament on the ground”—not because they desire to repent, but because there is no water. While Judah understood the physical problem, Jeremiah understood the moral issue at hand—iniquity and sin.
Jeremiah emulates Moses and the psalmists. Although he knows the sin of Judah, he argues that God should save Israel for His own name's sake. Moses made a similar argument after Israel worshiped the golden calves: “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did He bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and relent from this disaster against Your people.” God attached His name to Israel and to Jerusalem; as they diminish, so does His name in the eyes of the nations: ”Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’”[10]
God relented from destroying Israel in the time of Moses, and He would not utterly destroy Judah in the time of Jeremiah. However, God keeps all His promises—those which benefit us and those which promise correction. The drought was due to the iniquity of the people, and they would soon face even worse, with sword and pestilence joining the famine.
God continued by telling Jeremiah, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people.” And yet, Jeremiah prayed. Before God restrained Jeremiah’s prayer, he had prayed that God would provide for Israel despite their sin. In Jeremiah 14:19-22, Jeremiah continues praying—but this time in lament and repentance.
Jeremiah cries out before God, knowing that Judah and Zion are living in sin, and still asks the question, “Why have you struck us down?” The Jewish idea of repentance centers on the word תשובה (teshuvah), to turn. However, Jeremiah simplifies the situation: ”We know our wickedness.” As David declared, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”
God warned Israel through the Torah and the prophets—they did not listen—and so God was blameless. But Jeremiah would not stop crying out. He continued to remind God of His eternal covenant. He continued to praise God and hope for God’s providence of rain. God would later respond, “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up, and break down, and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it… Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.”[11]
Sirach 35:12-17.[12] Jesus declares in Matthew 9:13, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” The people who built and served in the temple wrote:
“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.”[13]
“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.”[14]
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.”[15]
The prophets continually make the same argument, from Samuel to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Micah.[16]
Christians often look at these teachings and, despite these being taught by the very people who offered the sacrifices that God commanded, conclude that sacrifices are no longer required. Yeshua ben Sira addresses the question at some length, “The one who keeps the law makes many offerings.”[17] Torah is clear that God commanded the people of Israel to bring sacrifices before Him—sacrifices were required by God.
Concerning the Levites, Deuteronomy 18:1-2 states: “They shall eat the LORD’s food offerings as their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as He promised them.” The people were to bring offerings and tithes for the Levites to eat according to God’s promises. And yet, Joel 1:9 lays a charge against Israel, “The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD.” If Israel didn’t bring sacrifices, they not only were disobedient to God; they also broke part of the promise of God to be the Levites’ inheritance.
But our offerings aren’t only of blood, wine, and bread. Sirach also states, “The one who returns a kindness offers choice flour, and the one who gives alms sacrifices a thank offering.” Christians often assume that animal sacrifice was for making atonement, and yet Moses goes before the LORD with a prayer to make atonement for the people of Israel. Sira also declares, “To forsake unrighteousness is an atonement.”[18]
Is God pleased “with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?”[19] No. He desires justice, steadfast love, and humility. Sirach also states, “The offering of the righteous enriches the altar, and its pleasing odor rises before the Most High. The sacrifice of the righteous is acceptable.” This is by no means contrary to Scripture but highlights that a ritual sacrifice without righteousness—charity and generosity—and obedience in all the ways that God commanded the people is utterly insufficient and is even considered vain and an abomination.
It is in this context that Sira writes, “Give to the Most High as He has given to you and as generously as you can afford. For the Lord is the one who repays, and He will repay you sevenfold.” What at first seems like a surefire way to be blessed with great wealth and favor from God can just as easily be an abomination to Him.
We ought not be fooled; God does repay our righteous acts with great blessings. Proverbs 19:17 states, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his deed.” But Yeshua ben Sira continues, “Do not offer Him a bribe, for He will not accept it.”[20] More important than giving the little we offer back as tithes and offerings to the God who gave us everything is how we treat the poor, those without justice, the orphan, and the widow.
God is the judge. He knows all our sacrifices. He knows our obedience or disobedience, both in what is seen and what is unseen. While we must not appear before the Lord empty-handed, our offerings must be made in righteousness. After all, God hears the cry of the oppressed who stand as witnesses against their abusers, for He “does justice for the righteous and executes judgment.”[21]
Psalm 84:1-7.[22] Numbers 16 details the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Moses, by the command of God, told the congregation to “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins… And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, together with their wives, their sons, and their little ones.”[23] We don’t hear about the families of Dathan and Abiram in the Scriptures after the ground opened up and swallowed those who remained in the tents of those wicked men.[24]
However, we do hear about the sons of Korah. The sons of Korah were a Levitical family who physically had to remove themselves from the tents of wickedness against all cultural standards. They shamed their family by walking away from their father’s tent to join Moses and the congregation of Israel.[25]
Psalm 84 reflects the understanding of men who left their familial fidelity—rarely done in ancient Middle Eastern culture and almost always seen in a negative light. Yet they found something even greater—a living God, a king, and a protector. Having abandoned their father, Korah, the sons of Korah would have been without the protection of their patriarch. They may have even been seen as traitors to their family by anyone who might have taken them under their protection. But God became their shield. He also became their new dwelling place.
The chief gatekeeper of the house of God was Shallum, the descendant of Korah.[26] David made Heman, a descendant of Korah, one of the three chief musicians, possibly in charge of the morning liturgy.[27] They didn’t just open the gates every morning, stand at the gates and sing, and let people into the Tabernacle and Temple. The Korahites “were entrusted to be over the chambers and the treasures of the house of God.”[28] Mattithiah, Shallum’s son, was in charge of the grain offerings as the chief cultic baker[29]—the most common offering in the Temple.[30] Some of the descendants of Korah also served as David’s mighty men.[31]
Despite their challenging history—and indeed because of it—the goodness of God was shown to the Korahites who placed their trust completely in God rather than in their rebellious forefather. But it is also important that the sons of Korah did not stop giving thanks to God for His provision in all things.[32] God provided a new dwelling for them after losing their old one in service to Him. And so, the sons of Korah continued to praise and humbly worship God long after attaining prestigious positions.
II Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18.[33] Paul charged Timothy to be ready to preach the word of God, even while he himself was imprisoned for doing so. Timothy was to fulfill his ministry, just as Paul—by the strength of God—had fully proclaimed God’s message. Paul discipled Timothy not only by teaching sound doctrine but also by demonstrating how to live according to those doctrines.
Paul’s life was extraordinarily hard. He endured great suffering—imprisonment, beatings, lashings by whip and by rod; he was stoned, shipwrecked, and showed the discipline to travel by foot for months in order to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles. Through his actions, Paul proved that he believed in the gospel he preached and in the righteous Judge who would reward him. He remained faithful when only God strengthened him and also when his disciples, friends, brothers, and sisters supported and encouraged him.
Discipling others to serve as ministers of God cannot be done without being a servant minister oneself. If we teach a doctrine or theology, that teaching should be evident in our lives. Paul was asking Timothy to be willing to suffer as he had suffered—just as Paul himself followed the example of Jesus. Paul understood that God had rescued him to preach the gospel in season and out of season—reproving, rebuking, and exhorting. Paul also understood that God would continue to rescue him—not from death, for he knew that his death was near, but from evil deeds so that he could finish the race in faith.
Luke 18:9-14. Jesus compares two men who “went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” Luke provides insight into what Jesus is addressing: self-righteousness and pride with contempt for others. While, today, the Pharisees are often seen as hypocrites, Jesus warned, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This was not an easy task, since the Pharisees (unlike the Sadducees) were held in high regard. Naturally, we might assume that the Pharisee would be righteous.
Mondays and Thursdays were common fast days in the late Second Temple period for those who feared God.[34] Additionally, the righteous would pray three times a day, as well as offering many other prayers and blessings. It was the Sadducean priests who were said to take what they wanted by force instead of waiting for Israel’s tithes—some even stole tithes from other priests.[35] The Pharisees were not a ruling class. They taught, as Jesus did, that one should love God and love your neighbor. Nonetheless, God was always clear that righteousness isn’t just fasting and tithing—at least not without justice. Ezekiel 33:13’s warning was for the righteous as well as for the wicked. “Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die.”
Isaiah 58 perfectly summarizes God’s view on those who think themselves righteous but treat others with contempt: “Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God…Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.”
The Pharisees and the people of Israel understood that God hates pride. From the prayer of Hannah to the prayer of Mary, the humble are exalted while the proud are scattered.[36] From the Proverbs to the prophets, arrogance is an abomination to the LORD. They also recognized the need for repentance.
Righteous King David, a man after God’s own heart, had to return to God in repentance.[37] Wicked King Manasseh, the sacrificer of children, also had to return to God in repentance.[38] Rabbis and disciples alike understood their own need for repentance.[39] Meanwhile, the tax collectors were generally considered to be thieves certainly needed to repent.[40]
The Pharisee should have known better than to become proud. He too should have turned to God in repentance, declaring “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”[41] If he had, he would have gone to his house justified—although he would still be expected to fast, tithe, love God, and love his neighbor. But our hearts are deceitful, and we so easily exalt ourselves.
Hebraic Perspective. Confession and repentance are powerful recurring themes in both Jewish and Christian theology. Confession is often diminished in comparison to repentance, but Psalm 32:5 says, “‘I acknowledged my sin to you… I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”[42] Knowledge (ידע, yada) and confession (ידה, yadah) are perfect for word play as the words are so similar in both sound and meaning.
But confession often comes with additional caveats before forgiveness, in Leviticus 26:40-41 God says, “But if they confess their iniquity… and also in walking contrary to me… if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob.” Numbers 5:7 says, “He shall confess his sins that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.”
Confession shouldn’t always be about the bad things we have done either. We not only confess our sins, we also confess the Lord as our Saviour and God. ידה (yadah) is often translated as praise, for it is a confession of truth. After David is delivered from his enemies he declares, “For this I will praise (ידה) you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to Your name.”[43]
Repentance, on the other hand, often doesn’t come with the same caveats as confession. Repentance was considered to be so important that Jewish scholars considered it to be one of seven things created before the world began: the Torah, the Throne of God, the Garden of Eden, Hell, the Temple, the name of the Messiah, and Repentance.[44] From where comes the tradition that repentance was made before the world? The answer is from Psalm 90:2-3 in which it is written “before you formed the earth, you said to man ‘return’”. The word “return” שוב shuv is also the root word for “repent.” תשובה teshuva.
One aspect of the Hebraic understanding of the word repentance is a returning to the place you were before, which, for a sinner who had departed from God’s presence, is to be back in the presence of God. To return doesn’t mean you start a long journey back towards God and might, if you don’t fail, eventually reach Him. Returning means being back in the same place or state that I started—we are immediately back with Him.
The call for God’s people to repent and return to the Lord is particularly evident in the prophets but it can be found throughout the Scriptures. Acts 3:19 uses the Greek word ἐπιστρέψατε, (epistrephate, sometimes translated as “converted” such as in the KJV). But it also has the Hebraic undertone of תשובה teshuvah (translated in the LXX as ἐπιστρέψατε in Ezekiel 14:6; Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:7; II Chronicles 30:6). One doesn’t return to something new, one returns to something or somewhere they have been before. When Peter called on those gathered in the temple, he called on them to repent and return back to the God of Israel through the risen Messiah.
But as amazing as repentance is, confession is still necessary. Whether we are confessing our God before the world, “Oh give thanks (הודו, hodu, from ידה, yadah) to the LORD, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever”[45] or we are acknowledging our sin before the LORD, after our confession comes gladness and great rejoicing.
Endnotes
[1] Alternative RCL Readings: Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65
[2] Sirach 34:24, see also: II Samuel 12:1-6
[3] Tax Collectors were classified in the same category as sinners (Matthew 9:11; Matthew 11:19; Mark 2:16; Luke 5:30; Luke 7:34), prostitutes (Matthew 21:31), and pagans (Matthew 18:17)
[4] Bava Kamma 10.1
[5] Sanhedrin 25b.15-16
[6] Luke 3:13
[7] Exodus 22:1 (Exodus 21:37 in some translations); II Samuel 12:6; Proverbs 6:31; Luke 19:8
[8] ACNA includes Jeremiah 14:1-6
[9] Leviticus 26:3-4; Deuteronomy 11:13-17
[10] Psalm 115:2
[11] Jeremiah 18:7-8, 11
[12] The Wisdom of Sirach, sometimes referred to as Ecclesiasticus, was written in Hebrew by Yeshua ben Sira sometime between 196-170 BC. By the time the Hebrew Scriptures were canonized, it was not included—possibly because it was written late and was not written by a prophet. However, it was translated into Greek by Yeshua ben Sira’s grandson and was later included in the Septuagint and was popular in both the Hebrew and Greek translations in the first centuries BC and AD. The Eastern, Greek church accepted Sirach as part of the canon of Scripture, as did many early church fathers, while the Western, Latin church did not accept Sirach as fully Scripture until 1546. The Protestant church rejected Sirach as Scripture, although it is still considered to be useful as an “example of life and instructions of manners.”
[13] King David, Psalm 40:6
[14] King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 5:1
[15] Asaph, Psalm 50:8-9
[16] Isaiah 1:11-13; Jeremiah 7:22-23; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8
[17] Sirach 35:1-2
[18] Exodus 32:30-32; Sirach 35:5. See also: Numbers 16:46-48, Leviticus 5:11-13; Isaiah 6:7; Proverbs 16:6, “By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.”. Conversely, see: Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22. This paradox would likely not be seen as a theological problem in the time of Jesus.
[19] Micah 6:6
[20] Sirach 35:14; Deuteronomy 10:17
[21] Sirach 35:22
[22] ACNA includes Psalm 84:8-12
[23] Numbers 16:26-27
[24] Dathan and Abiram are mentioned only in relation to their rebellion, whether in Numbers 16 and 26, Deuteronomy 11, or Psalm 106.
[25] Numbers 16:26-27; Psalm 84:10, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
[26] I Chronicles 9:17-19
[27] Beyond being a descendant of Korah and Samuel the prophet, Psalm 88 states that Heman was an Ezrahite. This term (האזרחי) is only mentioned in relation to the singers (I Kings 4:31; Psalm 88:1, 89:1) standing before the Tabernacle (I Chronicles 6:31-33, 44; 15:19). Perhaps this is his title because Heman, and Ethan with him, was designated to sing at dawn (זרח). Alternatively, they could have been stationed at the Eastern (מזרח, from the dawn—east) gate.
[28] I Chronicles 9:26-27
[29] The job of Mattithiah is slightly unclear in the Hebrew, however the Greek Septuagint clarifies it. See Leviticus 2:5; Leviticus 6:21; Leviticus 7:9; II Samuel 6:19; and I Chronicles 9:31. He would bake the unleavened cakes brought for sacrifices. Meanwhile, his kinsmen baked the weekly showbread.
[30] Grain offerings, as detailed in Leviticus 2, were offered with most other sacrifices in the Temple. The grain offerings could be brought before God throughout the year. They were also offered twice daily along with the whole burnt offerings. In addition, while many assume that blood offerings were the most common sacrifice, Leviticus 5:11-13 specifies that a grain offering could even be used for a sin offering before God.
God promised, in Deuteronomy 18:1-2, that He would feed the Levitites who served Him. The Grain offering was one of the most important offerings of the people to fulfill the promise of God. Deuteronomy 12:19 and 14:27-29 served as a warning to Israel regarding the provision of the Levites. In Joel 1:9, one of the charges against Israel that led to exile was that the grain offerings and drink offerings were cut off and the priests were in mourning—almost certainly because they were starving. with neither offerings nor working fields.
[31] The Levitical cities were stationed in important economic, cultural, and military corridors. Many Levites worked in their cities and fields, but some were expected to go out and teach the Torah, as seen in II Chronicles 17:8-9, combating cultural and religious invasion along with apostasy. While the Levites weren’t counted among the tribal military units, they lived in strategic locations. On multiple occasions, they demonstrated their military prowess. I Chronicles 12:6 mentions Korahites among David’s mighty men. II Chronicles 23 records the Levites serving as guards for the newly crowned young king in a successful coup. When Uzziah tried to force his way into the Temple, II Chronicles 26:17 speaks of 80 priests, “men of valor”—the term for the commanders of the army and elite troops—who were able to stop even the king.
[32] Not all the sons of Korah continued to worship God. Heman’s father, Joel, had a position of authority, but used it for his own gain, taking bribes while turning away from God. Joel was removed from authority, but his son was reinstated because he turned to God with all his heart.
[33] ACNA includes II Timothy 4:9-15
[34] Taanit 12a.9; Didache 8.1
[35] Pesachim 57a.4-5, 7; Josephus, Antiquities 20.8
[36] I Samuel 2:3-4, 7-8; Luke 1:51-52
[37] Psalm 51
[38] II Chronicles 33:12-13, 19; Prayer of Manasseh
[39] Shabbat 153a.5; Pirkei Avot 2.10; Mishnah Torah 1.1
[40] See Hebraic Context
[41] The petition “Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy” (along with similar prayers, such as "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner") became popular in liturgical responses of the early church.
[42] See also: Psalm 51:3; Jeremiah 14:20
[43] II Samuel 22:50
[44] Torah, from Proverbs 8:22; the throne of God and Temple, Jeremiah 17:12; the garden of Eden, Genesis 2:8; Gehenna, or hell, Isaiah 30:33; the name of the Messiah, Psalm 72:17; Repentance, Psalm 90:2-3. Pesachim 54a and Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 3.4 along with Midrash Rabbah 1.4.
[45] I Chronicles 16:7-36