A reading from the prophet Jeremiah (11:18-20)
The Lord informed me and so I knew it; you then revealed their scheming to me. I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughterhouse, not knowing the schemes they were plotting against me, ‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name is remembered no more!’
O Lord Sabaoth whose judgement is righteous,
you test the mind and the heart:
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for I have revealed my cause to you.
Jeremiah has been called to bring an unwelcome message to his contemporaries, the urgent call to surrender to the power of Babylon. In one of his ‘confessions’, his outpourings in the face of the enemies who surround him, he resembles Jesus in those final days. It is the Lord who has made him aware of the danger: ‘you revealed their scheming to me’. He compares himself to a lamb led unwittingly to the slaughter. They are determined to cut down this tree and to destroy its fruit. Jeremiah’s prayer for God’s vengeance may surprise us, and yet, he actually entrusts his ‘cause’ (rib) to God.
Psalm 7 The plight of the just man faced with violence, and his trust in God’s protection, are the theme of this psalm.
A reading from the holy gospel according to John (7:40-52)
Members of the crowd who had heard these words said, ‘He is truly the prophet,’ others said, ‘He is the Messiah,’ but others said, ‘Is the Messiah to come from Galilee? Does not scripture say that the Messiah is to be from the seed of David and to come from Bethlehem, the village where David was?’ So there was a division in the crowd about him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
The officers went back to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, ‘Why did you not bring him?’ The officers replied, ‘No one has ever spoken like this man.’ So the Pharisees answered them, ‘Have you, too, been led astray? Have any of the authorities of the Pharisees believed in him? This crowd, which knows nothing about the Law – they are accursed.’ One of them, Nicodemus – who had come to Jesus earlier – said to them, ‘Surely our Law does not judge anyone without first giving that person a hearing and discovering what he is doing?’ They answered and said, ‘Are you a Galilean too? Search and you will see: a prophet does not arise in Galilee.’
The presence of Jesus in Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles provokes further discussion about his origins. This text shows the division among the people, some of whom declare Jesus to be the expected ‘prophet’, even the ‘Messiah’, while others oppose him. The chief priests and Pharisees are annoyed when the officers sent earlier to apprehend Jesus do not arrest him. They defend themselves: ‘No one has ever spoken like this man.’ The Pharisees believe they are the only ones not deceived by Jesus, but Nicodemus speaks up for a proper hearing of Jesus’ case. The one who had earlier come to Jesus by night (John 3) defends him now, and will assist Joseph of Arimathaea in honouring the body of Jesus as the gospel draws towards its end (John 19).
How easy it is to dismiss those who ‘know nothing’, without hearing their truth!
We thank God for those who have the courage to speak the truth at considerable risk to themselves.