Hundreds of years have passed and the new Pharaoh doesn't
care about this Joseph who had not only saved Egypt from famine but who had
made him fabulously wealthy in the process.
He has no historical memory or knowledge. All he knows is that these people aren't
Egyptian and they are incredibly numerous.
They must, then, be subjugated or they will pose a threat if there is an
enemy who forms an alliance with them.
(If you have some time and interest in looking into the history of this
time and who the rulers were, search the term "Hyksos".) Pharaoh so feared the Hebrews that he ordered
the midwives to kill the Hebrew newborns.
The midwives refused and then, most likely, lied when confronted with
the failure to comply. If we assume that
their story was untrue it begs the question, "Is it okay to
lie?" While all sin may be the same,
commandments have a pecking order and preservation of life is a higher order
command than telling the truth to a foreign ruler who has given an immoral
commandment. This idea is the basis for
Martin Luther's thoughts on ethics.
Even though Peter gets the answer right on who Jesus is,
"The Christ", he is not above reproach. When he begins to rebuke Jesus for His words
concerning His death, although he has done so privately, Jesus rebukes Peter
openly and before the disciples. It is certain Peter wasn't the only one
thinking these things and it needed to be dealt with swiftly and openly. Jesus' rebuke was stinging and Peter had to
have felt it. He wasn't calling them to
thrones but to a cross. We, like the
Hebrews in Egypt, tend to get comfortable and to seek comfort wherever we are
and forget that this life is passing away.
Sometimes we have to have our comforts taken from us in order to go and
do what we are called to do.
Paul's metaphor of the body seems to me a perfect one. Do we share his idea? Too often we expect that it is fine for
members to do little more than congregate when clearly Paul's metaphor rules
out that very thing. Members of our
physical bodies are all necessary to the proper functioning of the body and if
one doesn't function then we readily acknowledge we are handicapped, less able
to be fully functioning, limited in what we can do. In the body of Christ we allow that to be a
norm and we fail to realize our potential.
In the first reading the midwives had an incredibly important role
suddenly in the nation. We must be
prepared to call one another to take our places in the body and we must also
cultivate and encourage mutual interdependence within the body if we are to
reach our potential of revealing Jesus.
Ask Him today to show you where He wants you to be and take your place
in the body.
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