The prophet is appointed a shepherd to a flock doomed to
destruction. Yesterday we saw that
leaders are held to a high standard and I mentioned Ezekiel who, as a leader,
was responsible to judgment for sins of others when he failed to confront
them. The other side of that is that the
sinner was also liable for his own actions.
Here, the people are not let off because they have bad leaders, they are
responsible for their own sins, they can know the Law because it is written in
their own language. The prophet is
rejected by the people, they do not want his instruction nor his leadership and
therefore he breaks his staffs which have been named favor and union, to
illustrate that they have broken covenant with the Lord and His anointed. Because of the hardness of their hearts
toward Him, the Lord will be giving them worthless shepherds, like the ones of
whom Jesus speaks as hirelings in John 10, they will lead for the benefits,
financial and otherwise, not from loving concern for the flock.
The disciples surely were confused by these two moments in
time. First, Jesus says they are going
to Jerusalem "and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the
prophets will be accomplished." If
He paused for breath there, their heads were filled with flights of fancy
concerning thrones and kingdoms, the judgment of the world was at hand and the
Son of Man was going to sit on His father David's throne forever. Then, He says He will be delivered over to
the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, spat upon, flogged and killed but on
the third day He would rise. Surely they
thought the Jews would protect Him from these things, they couldn't have
imagined that the people doing the mocking, spitting and cheering His death
would be Jewish. As they come to Jericho
a blind man shouts for mercy, calling Him the Son of David. His plea is for healing of his blindness and
Jesus obliges, to the delight and astonishment of all.
One of the things we have to pay attention to is the word
"you." We tend to get it wrong
here when we think of ourself as God's temple.
The "you" here is plural, y'all are God's temple. It is both/and. The Holy Spirit inhabits each of us but
together we form something greater. Paul
speaks of building on the foundation of Christ, there is no other foundation
that will stand, as Jesus taught in the parable of the man who built on sand. The foundation of our lives, whether
ethically, morally, or our hopes, is to be built on the solid rock of
Christ. When we have that foundation,
all things hang together even when life doesn't meet our expectations. The disciples had heard that three days later
Jesus would rise, but nothing made sense to them until He had actually done so,
then all things were bearable. Is that
true for you?
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