Proper 23 | Ordinary Time 28, Cycle B
Most of our attention both exegetically and homiletically in preparation for next Sunday should probably be focused on Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 and Mark 10:17-31. These two tests provide similar prescriptions for life. “If you wish to live,” they both say, “seek the Lord God, who is good, for the Lord God gives life!”
What are some of the implications of this for us here and now? An answer is clearly expressed. “Show respect for life, for marriage, for the property of other people, and for your parents,” they say, and beyond that, “Protect and provide for the poor. No longer exploit them. Instead, help them. Do more for them than is required by the civil legal system of the land.”
Let us examine the social and political situation in which each of these two texts originated, and then look at our own in preparation for our message for next Sunday.
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
Socially, it is apparent that many of the rich and prosperous residents of the Northern Kingdom Israel were severely exploiting the poor people of that land economically. Government policy permitted those who were rich to expand their wealth greatly at the expense of the poor. Politically, there was little effective opposition to the policies and practices of the rich men and women who controlled the government and the economy of that land — except for the prophet Amos, a visitor from the Southern Kingdom Judah. After Amos had proclaimed the message that he was called and inspired by the Lord God to proclaim, the social, political, and religious leaders of the Northern Kingdom — through Amaziah, the priest at Bethel — “advised” Amos to flee away to his own land of Judah, to eat his bread there, to prophesy there if he wishes, but never again to prophesy at Bethel (Amos 7:10-15).
The text suggests that God had revealed to Amos that soon the Northern Kingdom would be destroyed. Perhaps Amos himself perceived this because of his awareness of the international political situation. Certainly by the time that the Amos traditions had been fully formed, the “house of Joseph” and its people had been utterly destroyed by the Assyrians and only a few refugees remained, most of whom were poor and many of whom had been sustained only by sheep and goat herding in barren areas. Within this social and political situation the message of the prophet Amos was expressed and eventually recorded.
Mark 10:17-31
Socially, politically, economically, and religiously during the lifetime of the Jesus of history the Jews in Galilee and in Judea were a heavily oppressed people within their own land. They had none of the autonomy that had been enjoyed by the wealthy people of the Northern Kingdom who had been condemned by Amos. The only Jews in Galilee and Judea during the time of Jesus who were relatively prosperous were those few who cooperated fully with the Roman occupational forces as priests managing the Temple, as tax collectors, and as business contractors. Even these lived in a precarious position, subject to the wishes and whims of the Romans and endangered by the actions of Jewish revolutionaries, the Zealot guerrilla forces, primarily teenage boys whose daring attacks on isolated Roman guards were always met by severe Roman reprisals. Under the conditions in which the Jews in Galilee and Judea lived during the time of Jesus, it is apparent from Mark 10:21 and similar texts that the Jesus of history advocated direct assistance to poor and destitute Jews by the few Jews such as the man depicted in this Mark 10:17-22 account who through full cooperation with the Roman occupational forces managed temporarily to have significant possessions.
Formgeschichte (form study) analysis of the Mark 10:17-22 account indicates that, as in the somewhat similar account in Mark 12:28-34, it is likely that much of the Jesus of history level is still discernible in this Mark 10:17-22 account, even though there had been additions and probably many deletions during the development of the account throughout the reminiscences of followers of Jesus level and the pre-Markan level to the Markan level of development. A careful reconstruction of a scenario during the Jesus of history level provides something similar to the following dialogue.
A fellow Jew, relatively prosperous because he “did business” with the Romans, after hearing Jesus express Jesus’ belief that soon only the Lord God would be ruling over them, approached Jesus and asked for Jesus’ opinion.
“My good man,” he said, “what do you think that I should do so that I may receive God’s gift of eternal life?”
“Why do you address me as your ‘good man’”? Jesus replied. “No one is truly good except God alone! You know the commandments: ‘Do not ever murder anyone, nor commit adultery, nor steal nor defraud anyone. Honor your father and your mother.’ “
And the man said to Jesus, “Sir. I have carefully observed all of these commandments from the time that I was young.”
Jesus looked at him with compassion and said, “One thing is lacking with you. Go! Sell what you have accumulated and give to the oppressed poor people in our land. Then you will have treasures in heaven!”
The man was dismayed about this reply and went away looking very sad and depressed, for he was a man who had accumulated many possessions.
Jesus looked at those who were with him and said, “How difficult it is for people who have accumulated wealth by cooperating fully with the oppressive Romans to let God and only God rule in their lives. I think that it must be easier for a camel loaded down with a heavy burden to go through the eye of a needle than for a man such as that, who has accumulated wealth by cooperating fully with the oppressive Romans and making it easier for the Romans to oppress the rest of us, to let only the Lord God and not the Romans rule that person’s life.”
Those around Jesus then said, “Who then will be saved?”
Jesus said to them, “People with their selfish attachments and limitations are not able to be saved, but God has no such limitations. All things are possible for God!”
The social, political, economic, and religious situations in which we live are different from those of the time of either Amos or Jesus, but probably in most instances closer to the situation at the time of Amos than at the time of Jesus. Much of what Amos apparently condemned could rather easily be condemned among us.
Each of us should analyze the social, political, economic, and religious situation in which we live and in which we are called to proclaim the message from God next Sunday. The prescriptions for life derived from these two texts remain valid today and will remain valid for all of us in this life. The implications of this for us also remain valid. The message that we will proclaim next Sunday will hardly be living, dynamic “Word of God” unless we apply it boldly and courageously to the particular social, political, economic, and religious situation in which we live and work. That is our prophetic call.
Hebrews 4:12-16
In the context of Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 and of Mark 10:17-31, the words of Hebrews 4:12-13 are incisive:
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword. It penetrates until it separates one’s psyche from one’s spirit. It slices into the places where one’s bones are joined together from the marrow in one’s bones. It exposes a person’s most intimate fantasies and speculations. No person whom God has created is invisible to God. All are stripped bare and exposed to God’s eyes, to God, to whom we are fully accountable.”
The writer continues in Hebrews 4:14-16 to assure the reader and the hearer that since we have Jesus as the “great, supreme priest, the Son of God,” we can “with courage and confidence approach God’s throne of grace, in order that we may receive mercy and find grace to rescue us and to sustain us in our hour of need.” That is certainly what we need.
Psalm 90:12-17
These concluding verses of Psalm 90, though not originally intended directly for us, certainly are applicable also to us as we “approach God’s throne of grace” with our people next Sunday.
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Near despair, the character Job in this poignant drama searches for God, wanting to present his case, to reason with God in the presence of God, but cannot find God. For him, God is the Hidden God, like Martin Luther’s concept of deus absconditus. How can we help those for whom God is experienced only as the Hidden God? How can we maintain our faith in God when God is deus absconditus from us? We need more of the Job drama than these eleven verses to be touched by God here.
Psalm 22:1-15
The emotions expressed in this portion of Psalm 22, best known to us because the Markan writer and the Matthean redactors suggest that these were the emotions of the Markan Jesus and of the Matthean Jesus on the cross, are almost identical to the words of Job 23:1-9, 16-17.
If we use Job 23:1-9, 16-17 and Psalm 22:1-15 within our worship services next Sunday, we have the responsibility to explicate and interpret them. If these readings express the emotions of even one person within the worshiping congregations in which we serve, we must not fail to stand with them.
