(I have no idea why the lectionary leaves out verses 13-18
in the James reading. Is it a bad thing
in the Episcopal world to pray for the sick and suffering?)
Why would Rehoboam go to Shechem? Shechem had been an important site in Jewish
history. It was here in Genesis 12 that
Abraham built an altar and worshiped and the site of Jacob’s well (Genesis 33 and
John 4) as well as Joseph’s tomb. It is
about thirty miles north of Jerusalem and in these early days of Jerusalem
being the center of all things, the city of David, it was well to go somewhere
else to be the king of more than just the city.
The people there asked Rehoboam to lighten their load from the forced
labor of building the temple and the other structures Solomon had
constructed. Unfortunately, Solomon’s
wisdom didn’t carry down to his son who was a fool and listened to the counsel
of the young men who persuaded him to be more onerous a taskmaster. As you would have expected, the people rejected
him as leader and therefore rejected the city as well as the place for
worship. How could all this go so wrong
in such a short time from I Kings 8 to I Kings 12?
How did they misunderstand what Jesus had called out to
think He was calling to Elijah to help? The
point of offering the sour wine was to ensure that He didn’t immediately die of
dehydration so that they could see if Elijah came to rescue Him. It was, recall, Passover, the time when there
is an expectation of the return of Elijah (Malachi 4), so it would have been on
the minds of the Jews who were there observing that Elijah might perhaps come. As Jesus told the disciples, however, Elijah,
in the form of John the Baptist, had already come in fulfillment of Malachi’s
prophecy. There would be no salvation
from beyond the grave today. As Jesus
died, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, there was no longer a need for
the high priest to enter the Holy of holies once a year and throw the blood of
atonement on the ark, that work was finished forever at the moment of Jesus’
death. Did anyone make the connection
and how did Mark know this?
Patience isn’t simply sitting in a chair or a pew on Sundays
and then waiting quietly the rest of the week for the Lord to come. James holds up the prophets as the exemplars
for what he means by patience. They spoke
in the name of the Lord and they remained steadfast. Waiting for the coming of the Lord is to be
an active time for the church. We are to
proclaim the coming of the Lord until the day He appears. If we were aware of a fire moving towards
people we wouldn’t sit patiently and quietly as it did so would we? The same is true of the coming of the Lord in
judgement, we have a duty of love to warn those who are not prepared. We know something of vital importance for
people’s lives, it should be our joy to share it. His yoke is unlike Solomon’s and Rehoboam’s,
it is easy and the burden is light.
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