Sunday Readings Commentary
Father Andrew Wadsworth offers a short commentary on this week's Sunday Lectionary readings.
To read the relevant Bible passage just click on the reference.
Before reading and reflecting on God's word you might like to use the following prayer:
O Lord,
who hast given us thy word
for a light to shine upon our path:
Grant us so to meditate upon that word
and follow its teaching,
that we may find in it the light that shineth
more and more unto the perfect day:
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Second Sunday before Advent
“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
This passage looks towards the end of all things. It is a crucial passage, for here, for the first time in the Bible, the resurrection of the dead is proclaimed. The Book of Daniel was written during a great persecution of the Jews a couple of centuries before Christ. It was then that finally the resurrection of those who remain true to the Lord was revealed. The earlier Israelites pictured the after-life as a sort of powerless, shadowy half-existence in Sheol, where the dead could not even praise God. Yet there had been many hints of conviction that God would never desert those who love him: ‘I know that my Redeemer lives, and that from my flesh I will look on God,’ said Job. Only now, under the stress of the death of martyrs in the persecution, is the full truth revealed: at the end of time God will intervene to draw his own to himself in fullness of life. In this reading ‘many will awaken’ does not mean that some will not awaken; it merely indicates a vast number, the almost limitless multitude of the dead.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Today’s reading, the last in this series about the efficacy of Christ’s single sacrifice, contrasted with the repeated sacrifices of the Old Law, sums up the whole argument. But it also moves into a new key, concentrating not on the saving and cleansing effect of the blood of Christ. Instead, it moves into the sphere of Psalm 110 (Psalm 109), the personal exaltation of Christ. By means of this Psalm, drawn from the Jerusalem liturgy, it meditates the acceptance by God of Christ’s sacrifice. The sacrifice and the sealing of the new covenant in his blood is only the first act in the drama; it must yet be completed by God’s response. The resurrection is God’s response to the sacrifice of Christ, placing him at God’s right hand, where he awaits the final consummation when ‘all his enemies will be made a footstool for him’.
Finally this meditation on the Psalm is rounded off by a confirmation from Jeremiah’s much-loved promise of the New Covenant, promising forgiveness and an unprecedented personal closeness to God of every individual of the Chosen People.
And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
These verses open the chapter known as little apocalypse. What does this mean? The writer of this gospel believes that the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem and the persecution suffered by Jesus's followers are part of a larger conflict between the forces of good and evil that would end only with the return of Jesus. The sombre tone of the chapter with a future which would include natural disasters, wars and social dislocation Is underlining that only Jesus will not provide an escape from difficulties in suffering; in fact, it may make life more difficult. The whole chapter speaks of a day when the liberation by Jesus from the grip of evil will be complete. When the son of man sends his angels to gather the elect from the corners of the earth. The terrible suffering I had are only a print to a new day. This chapter is fundamentally hopeful. Everything depends on what God is yet to do. And what God has yet to do is bound up with what God does in the ministry of Jesus. Trusting God with the future depends completely on what God will do when Jesus has been tried, mocked, and executed. The forecast of Jesus points ahead to this climax of the gospel story.