Samuel gives a farewell address but he lives a good long
time after this. His death isn’t
recorded until chapter 25 and he is the one who anoints David and, for a time,
lives with David. His farewell is as
judge, giving way to Saul who will serve as judge and king. Samuel wants all to know he has done nothing
to cheat or ill serve the people in his life, he is innocent of any charges of
wrongdoing. His point is that they have
replaced him with a king, rejected his leadership, for no reason at all other
than they want to be like other nations.
This, Samuel says, is wickedness and he prays and asks the Lord to
vindicate him and indict the people of their sin in this asking for a king by
calling on the Lord to essentially destroy the wheat crop by storm. After the people confess their sin, Samuel
deals tenderly with them, reminding them that the Lord will not forsake them
“for His great name’s sake” and that Samuel has not forsaken them either, he
will continue to pray for them and teach them the right way.
After the evening’s examination of Jesus, the leaders bring
Him before Pilate for a trial which can lead to a death sentence. The Jews didn’t have the power to execute
anyone, a crime against the emperor was needed and a conviction by a civil
authority. They have settled on three
charges, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give
tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” Pilate doesn’t care about the first charge,
misleading the nation, and the third, that Jesus claims to be a king, will
establish the second, regarding payment of taxes. After Jesus responds to that charge, even
though it seems he has acknowledged His kingship, the fact that those who would
be His people have brought Him here would indicate the threat to Caesar is
minimal at best so Pilate says he finds no guilt in Jesus. On hearing Jesus is from Galilee, and that
Herod is in town for the festival, Jesus is remanded to this leader for trial,
perhaps Herod, a Jew himself, will understand.
Herod had wanted to meet Jesus, perhaps because he had heard of the
miracles and wanted a show, but Jesus refused to perform and Herod mocked Him
and put royal robes on Him and sent Jesus back to Pilate. There was only one way this was going to end.
This passage is more or less the place we get our idea of
confirmation. Luke tells us the people
in Samaria had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus but the Spirit had
not yet fallen on any of them. The
apostles (bishops) came out from Jerusalem and laid hands on them and prayed
for them to receive the Spirit and they did!
When our bishops confirm people they pray the same thing but I wonder if
they expect it to happen in many cases.
Simon, who in yesterday’s reading had believed in Jesus because of the
power in Philip, now sees that power available from these men to others and
offers to pay for it, exactly what he would do for another magician’s tricks,
but Peter, like Samuel in our first lesson, prophesies judgment for this
wickedness. Simon, taken aback by Peter’s
words, immediately repents, he had no idea what he said was wrong, and pleads
with Peter to pray for him. Sometimes we
need to speak the truth boldly in order to call others to repent. We need to be also sensitive to what is
misunderstanding like here and what is wickedness like in our first two
lessons, rejection of God’s sovereignty as king.
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