Nebuchadnezzar has seen plenty to know the Most High God who
is the God of Daniel and his three friends and so puts out a statement praising
this God. The praise is for the signs
and wonders the king has seen and declares that God’s kingdom is everlasting in
a way that man’s kingdoms, even Nebuchadnezzar’s are not. The passage seems to be something written by
the king, both the first few verses praising God and then the passage following
concerning the dream. The first part of
the vision is a beatific vision of the spreading kingdom of Babylon, a kingdom
that was good and beneficial and then a watcher, a holy one from heaven, came
down and declared an end to the vision and the tree that represented the king. The watcher (an angel) says that the king’s
mind will be changed to the mind of a beast for a season of time and the dream
ends. Clearly, there was reason for the
king to be troubled.
Peter, having last seen Jesus at the trial at the high
priest’s home, and having then denied him three times just as Jesus had said he
would, now is restored by being asked three times if he loves Jesus. At the third query, Peter is grieved and
responds, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” That first phrase confesses that nothing is
hidden from Jesus, He knows what Peter did that night, just as Jesus had
prophesied. Indeed, Peter does love
Jesus and that love will be tested in later life, “you will stretch out your
hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” Finally, Jesus says those words Peter first
heard, “Follow me”, but now he knows at some level what those words
entail. Peter wants to know, however,
that not only he will suffer, asking “What about John?” Peter, like all of us, doesn’t want to suffer
alone, but Jesus’ call is individual and particular. We walk the walk we are given, ultimately
obedience isn’t dependent on companionship with others, only with Him.
Peter’s admonition is based in the belief that the end is
nigh. Two thousand years later we might
look back and smile that he seems to have been quite wrong about that
prediction. In spite of that, he was
exactly right about the prescription for our behavior. In the parables Jesus told about the end
times, the wealthy man went away and left behind the servants who were
entrusted with something and were expected to focus their attention on that
something and make something of it, just as Adam and Eve were entrusted with
the earth. We were given a trust, the
Great Commission, and a commandment, to love God and those created in His
image. Those two things are closely
related to one another. Love, Peter
says, extends itself without grumbling and serves others. Self-seeking is the enemy of love. Both the king in our first reading and Peter
in the Gospel, lost something for a time because they put themselves
first.
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