Proper 10 | Ordinary Time 15 | Pentecost 6

These texts are dominated by the theme of the good news of God’s deliverance of those who are suffering. In some instances, the good news is given liberally, just as God gives the rain and the snow from the skies and as the one who sows spreads the seed over good soil, among thorns and thistles, on rocky ground, and along the path. The Matthew 13 text suggests that at times the suffering of the People of God is so severe the good news from God must be disguised in parables of the coming of the kingdom and rule of God so the oppressors, even though they hear the good news of the coming of deliverance for the people whom they are oppressing, will not understand it. The People of God, however, will understand it, and even though they are suffering so greatly now they will believe and heed the good news from God and will be strengthened by it. In other instances, however, the suffering and the deliverance seem to be repeated in recurring cycles.

Genesis 25:19-34
Persons who are not in the situation of a married woman who wants so intensely to be able to have a child and cannot are not able to comprehend the suffering of such a woman. As severe as such suffering is in our time, even greater was the suffering in this situation in ancient Israel. There appears to be the greatly desired relief from this suffering by Rebekah when, after Isaac had prayed to the Lord, Rebekah became pregnant. The pregnancy of Rebekah was sorely complicated, however, because she was about to give birth to twin sons who struggled fiercely together within her throughout her pregnancy and Rebekah’s life was in grave danger.

As her sons grew, a very nonfunctional family life developed in which the father Isaac loved his son Esau, the coarse and hairy hunter, and Rebekah loved Jacob, who remained with her in her tent. The situation became even worse when Jacob tricked his bother Esau into selling his birthright to Jacob for a single, hearty meal. What we see, then, in this text is an interchange between suffering and deliverance and a recipe for further suffering.

Psalm 119:105-112
In this segment of this extensive acrostic psalm of 22 psalms within a single psalm, all of which are expressions of love for God and for God’s gift of the Torah, the psalmist, although sorely afflicted, is sustained by the Torah of God forever. By living in joyful fulfillment of the guidelines provided within the Torah, the psalmist honors both God and the Torah. This is the Israelite-Jewish model for life. It has a message also for us.

Psalm 65:(1-8) 9-13
Walter Brueggemann, in The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984), p. 136, classified this psalm within his category of “Psalms of New Orientation,” and suggested that “The God of this psalm not only intervenes in the historical processes of oppression, but also governs the reliability of creation, which gives life.” Brueggemann urges us to regain the sense of wonder and the ability to sing songs of praise to God about the reliability of life, as expressed in this psalm. Perhaps we can respond to Brueggemann by saying that in terms of the long haul we have not lost this sense and this ability. In the short term, however, the Holocaust and other events of the twentieth century and of the beginning of the twenty-first century have taken a heavy toll, and our sense of wonder and our ability to sing songs of praise to God about the reliability of life will be regained only slowly. Psalm 65 and our use of it this week can help us to regain this.

Isaiah 55:10-13
This text can be introduced briefly with emphasis on the power and on the efficacy of the spoken Word of God within the prophetic traditions. Here the Isaiah traditions continue the thought of Psalm 65 with an analogy that compares the spoken Word of the inspired individual of God to the rain and the snow that comes down from the sky to enliven the earth.

This emphasis on the efficacy of the spoken Word of God and on the power that comes from God through the proclamation of the Word of God is certainly needed in our time. Even when we do not see any immediate results, the Word does not return to God empty-handed.

Romans 8:1-11
It is becoming increasingly apparent that when Paul and other early followers of Jesus referred to “suffering with Christ in order that they might be glorified with Christ” they were sending a message of support and encouragement in the form of a cryptogram to other leaders of the developing Church. The top leaders of the developing Church were being martyred, not because they were good people or because they were evil people. They were being martyred because they were proclaiming publicly that Jesus the Risen Christ was Lord and that Caesar was not Lord. In certain times and in certain places, advocates of the Imperial Cult, of Roman Civil Religion, would not tolerate that. Therefore, the top leaders of the developing Church, especially those who were the most open and vocal in their proclamation of Jesus as the Risen Christ, were often in a position in which they had to decide whether they should, as Paul put it beyond this text in Romans 8:15, fall back in fear, or boldly proclaim Jesus as the Risen Christ publicly and be prepared to suffer with Christ torture and crucifixion, being torn apart by wild beasts, or some other form of horrible death. Paul did not make it easy for them to avoid martyrdom, nor did he make it easy for himself to avoid that way of witnessing to Christ. As he expressed it in Romans 8:17, the leaders of the early Church could have life in the Spirit, could be the children of God, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ if they were willing to suffer a horrible death and be glorified with him (a code reference to martyrdom). This was not for Paul a way in which they would somehow earn their salvation; instead, it was a way in which they could witness to Christ, even to the point of death.

It is important for us to note that God did not rescue those early Christian martyrs from death, not even at the last moment, just as God does not rescue the martyrs of our time. The rescue is beyond the limits of this world. It is a rescue into life eternal.

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
We often make the generalization that each person should have the opportunity to interpret a parable and to apply its message to that person’s self. Included with this generalization is the idea that giving an interpretation along with the parable in some sense “spoils” the parable. There was even a time within the history of parable research when it was said that a parable should never be allegorized.

Now, however, we realize every interpretation of a parable should be welcomed and appreciated, including allegorical interpretations. In the case of this well-known parable of the sower, we benefit especially from having a first-century interpretation included in Matthew 13:18-23. It is probable that the Sitz im Leben of the parable itself is primarily the proclamation and the parenesis of the Jesus of history and that the Sitz im Leben of the interpretation provided in Matthew 13:18-23 is the proclamation and the parenesis of the early Church during the second half of the first century.

The secrets regarding the kingdom of heaven alluded to in Matthew 13 were apparently to be concealed not from the multitudes of oppressed Jews who heard Jesus speak about the intervention of God that would end the present age of Roman oppression. They were to be concealed instead from the understanding of the oppressive Roman forces and from those few Jewish religious and political leaders who were willing to cooperate with the occupational forces. These latter were the ones who in the form of the “Evil One” (Matthew 13:19) or of “Satan” (Mark 4:15) snatch away the seed that falls along the pathway.

As we become more aware of the pressures placed on the developing Christian leaders to submit to the demands of the advocates of Roman Civil Religion that they acclaim Caesar as their Lord and Savior, we begin to realize that the references to the “Evil One” here in Matthew 13:19 and to “Satan” in Mark 4:15 may have been subtle anti-Roman cryptograms during the second half of the first century. Such images should then be placed next to related terminology such as “Deliver us from the Evil One!” in the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:13.