The Revised Common Lectionary for the Principal Service on Easter offers a choice of readings.

Acts 10:34-43

Reading

34 Peter began to speak to Cornelius and the other Gentiles: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; 38 how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Commentary

The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with the Ascension of the Christ and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws to become Jesus Followers.

Chapters 16 to 28 of Acts are an account of Paul’s Missionary Journeys, his arrest, and his transfer to Rome – and the stories are not always consistent with Paul’s letters.

The Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles see the Holy Spirit as the driving force for all that happens. The events surrounding today’s reading exemplify this.

Today’s reading serves as one of the predicates for the decision made at the so-called Council of Jerusalem in 49-50 CE.

Today’s reading is part of the story of the Baptism of Cornelius. Cornelius was a centurion who led more than 100 soldiers. He was therefore a significant officer in the Roman Army. He was described in Acts 10:2 as “a devout man who feared God with all his household.” (in the First Century, a Gentile who was “devout” and sympathetic to Judaism was called a “God-fearer.”) Cornelius had a vision (10:3) and was directed by God to send some of his men from Caesarea to Joppa to find Peter.

Before Cornelius’ men arrived, Peter fell into a trace and saw a sheet being lowered that contained foods that were ritually “unclean” for Jews (10:9-14). Peter was told however, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (v.15). The centurion’s men then met with Peter and brought him to Caesarea.

Peter was initially reluctant to “associate with or visit a Gentile” (v.28), but he recalled his vision and Cornelius also recounted his vision to Peter. The Jewish Annotated New Testament says that refusal to associate with Gentiles was rarely reflected in Jewish writings but represented a common perspective among Gentiles in the First Century. It notes that the actual practice among Jews would not have supported this refusal to associate — as indicated by the existence of the “Court of the Gentiles” at the Temple.

On the basis of these visions, Peter gave the address that is today’s reading — a synopsis of the Gospel According to Luke. The JANT observes that verse 34 (“God shows no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him”) meant that to be God’s people was no longer constituted by the ethnic division between Jew and Gentile but by a religious distinction – those who do (and those who do not) fear God and do what is right.

In saying Jesus the Christ is “Lord of all” (v.36), Peter was proclaiming that Jesus is Lord of both Jews and Gentiles. Peter’s speech acknowledged that the resurrected Christ did not appear to all people, but only those who were chosen by God as witnesses (v.41). The statement that Jesus the Christ was “ordained by God as the judge of the living and the dead” (v.42) can be understood in the context of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible – judges were persons who set things right.

In the verses that follow today’s reading, the Holy Spirit “fell upon all who heard the word” (v.44). Peter and the “circumcised believers” were “astounded that the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles” (v.45), including Cornelius. Peter therefore baptized all of them (v.48), even though they were Gentiles. The Baptism of Cornelius was presented in Acts as the decisive step in the expansion of the Jesus Follower Movement to Gentiles.

In the Council of Jerusalem story, the Baptism of Cornelius was referred to by Peter as a reason for permitting Gentiles to become Jesus Followers (15:7-8).

Jeremiah 31:1-6

Reading

1 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest,
3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again, you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant,
and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim: “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.”

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 609 and continued until 586 BCE when he died in Egypt.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” were added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

The Jewish Study Bible sees the book of Jeremiah as “the product of a debate within Jewish circles from the late monarchy [610-586 BCE] and the exilic periods [586-539 BCE] concerning the question of theodicy or the righteousness of God. Although fully aware of the theological problems posed by the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jewish people, the book affirms God’s existence and righteousness as well as the future of the restored nation Israel on its land.”

Understanding the Bible says: “in Jeremiah’s view, Judah’s failure to enforce Mosaic principles that protected impoverished laborers and their families, coupled with the government’s implied mandate for the rich to use any means, including fraud and violence, to increase their wealth, compelled Yahweh to bring the entire system to an end.” UTB continues: “Jeremiah struggled to make Judah’s leaders realize that the newly reborn Babylonian Empire was Yahweh’s judgment on his people for their faithlessness, idolatry, and social injustice.”

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, but today’s reading is in poetry style and is part of a two-chapter “Book of Consolation.” The thoughts in these chapters are similar to Second Isaiah (Isaiah of the Exile) in stating that Jerusalem would be restored.

In today’s reading, the prophet spoke for YHWH to say that all the families of Israel (the 12 Tribes) would be restored (v.1), just as the Israelites were restored in the Exodus. YHWH’s covenantal love has been “everlasting” (v.3) and Israel was portrayed as YHWH’s bride (“virgin Israel’ v.4).

The prophet said that the people of Israel will have a new Exodus and will again take their tambourines (v.4), just as Miriam (Moses’ sister) and the women used tambourines to celebrate passing through the Sea of Reeds (Ex. 15:20). There would also be a renewal of pilgrimages to Jerusalem (“let us go up to Zion” v.6).

Colossians 3:1-4

Reading

1 If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Commentary

Colossae was a town in the Lycus valley in what is now western Türkiye. According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, it had a flourishing wool and textile industry. The population consisted of native Phrygians, Greeks and a sizable community of Jews — perhaps as many as 10,000.

A Jesus Follower community was founded there by Paul’s associate, Epaphras (1:7). The letter is short (three chapters) and expressed concern about apocalyptic and mystical practices that were inconsistent with Paul’s understanding of being a Jesus Follower.

Scholars debate whether this letter was written by Paul or by his disciples in the decades after Paul’s death in 63 CE. It lacks many terms used in Paul’s authentic letters and its style is more liturgical than Paul’s other letters.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that “the letter presents the idea that the believers’ lives are completely transformed by Christ’s death and resurrection [vv.12-14], instead of Paul’s usual tension between the only partially fulfilled present and the future resurrection and full enjoyment of Christ’s benefits.”

The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that the authentic epistles speak of “justification” and “sanctification” in the present tense but reserve “salvation” for the future. In Colossians, salvation is a present reality and justification has no place at all. The JANT also observes that Colossians contains a “hierarchical description of household relations” whereas “Paul’s own description of marital relationships [in his authentic letters] is remarkably nonhierarchical (cf. 1 Cor 7.14).”

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary describes today’s reading as a summation of the teachings of the preceding section and a foundation for the detailed ethical instructions that follow. In particular, the theme of 2:12-14 (“you were buried in Christ in baptism and you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God”) is echoed in today’s reading (vv.1-2). The NJBC notes that vv.3-4 emphasize that although the resurrection had taken place, not all the conditions of the end-times are present and that the end times would be a time when all believers will be revealed in glory.

Immediately following today’s reading is an expression one of Paul’s most important theological insights – that the Christ (the Messiah) is the ultimate unifying principle for all reality. “The Christ is all and is in all” (v.11) so that there is no longer a dichotomy between the “sacred” and the “profane” — just as there is no essential difference between a Gentile (a “Greek”) and Jew, slave and free and the like (v.11).

John 20:1-18

Reading

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Commentary

The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.

The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.

Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and the Pharisees/Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.

There are many differences between the accounts of the Resurrection in John and in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Fourth Gospel, imagery of light and dark is significant, and it is “still dark” when Mary Magdalene (alone in this Gospel) came to the tomb. In the Synoptic Gospels, it is “toward dawn” (Matt), “the sun had risen” (Mark), and “early dawn” (Luke). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that although Mary is alone, she said “we do not know” (v.2) which reflects the engrafting of another tradition into the account.

In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary Magdalene was accompanied by “the other Mary” (Matt), “Mary the mother of James and Salome” (Mark) and “Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women” (Luke).

In all the accounts, the stone had been rolled away (in Matthew, by an earthquake). In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary and the others saw a man/angel (two in Luke).

In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary and the others told the disciples what they had seen but they were not believed. In John, Mary told Peter and the Beloved Disciple that the body had been taken out of the tomb, and they both ran to the tomb to see for themselves. In John, Peter and the Beloved Disciple saw linen wrappings but no angels (vv.6-7). Later, Mary saw two angels in the tomb (v.12).

As the accounts continued, the disciples were told that Jesus would see them in Galilee (Matt and Mark), but in Luke and John, the initial appearances of the Risen Christ were in in Jerusalem.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that the “they” to whom Mary referred (v.3) may have been grave robbers, but linens were valuable and grave robbers would not have left them behind.

The NJBC offers these insights regarding the theology of the Fourth Gospel: The concluding portions of this reading say that Jesus’ return was not to the disciples. Rather, his return was to his place with the Father (v.17). It observes that John sees Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, exultation, and return to heavenly glory as part of a single event. Jesus’ resurrection was not as if Jesus had returned to life and then later ascended into heaven. Rather, Jesus has passed into an entirely different reality.

In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong analyzed the Resurrection story in depth. He noted that the earliest writings about the Resurrection portrayed it as something done to Jesus by God. “He was raised” (rather than “he rose”) is also the language used by Paul in all his epistles.

Spong observed that in the Fourth Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, there are four separable stories that have been combined: (1) the Mary Magdalene story (v.1 and 11-18; (2) the Peter and the Beloved Disciple story (vv. 2-10) which was a standalone story inserted into the account; (3) the Upper Room story in which the disciples were completely unaware of the Magdalene Story and the Peter/Beloved Disciple Story; and (4) the Doubting Thomas story dealing with the meaning of faith.

Spong describes Resurrection eloquently. He says: “Resurrection is not about physical resuscitation. It is about entering and participating in the ‘new being.’ It is about the transformative power that is found in Jesus; that which issues in new dimensions of what it means to be human.”

Later, he says: “Resurrection is not something that occurred just in the life of Jesus; it occurs or it can occur in each of us. The Christian life is not about believing creeds or being obedient to divine rules; is about living, loving, and being. Resurrection comes when we are freed to give our lives away, freed to live beyond the boundaries of our fears, freed not only to be ourselves, but to empower all others to be themselves in the full, rich variety of our multifaceted humanity. Here prejudice dies. Here wholeness is tasted. Here resurrection becomes real.”

Matthew 28:1-10

Reading

1 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Commentary

The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint Translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.

Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.

The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.

Although Matthew generally follows Mark’s account of the Resurrection, he does not include Salome (to be consistent with 27:61) or the intent of the women to anoint the body with spices (Mark 16:1) — which The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says the guards would not have permitted. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that women as well as men were allowed to visit and attend to tombs for both male and female deceased persons.

This account included an earthquake as the result of an angel’s rolling back the stone (v.2). As in Mark, the angel told the women to tell the disciples that the Resurrected Christ would see them in Galilee. Matthew added a meeting in Jerusalem between the women and Jesus (vv. 9-10) in which the women took hold of Jesus’ feet and worshiped him. Jesus told the women to tell “his brothers” to go to Galilee.

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Reading

7 Thus says the LORD: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel.”
8 See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.
9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.”
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again.
13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14 I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the LORD.

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 609 and continued until 586 BCE when he died in Egypt.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” were added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

The Jewish Study Bible sees the book of Jeremiah as “the product of a debate within Jewish circles from the late monarchy [610-586 BCE] and the exilic periods [586-539 BCE] concerning the question of theodicy or the righteousness of God. Although fully aware of the theological problems posed by the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jewish people, the book affirms God’s existence and righteousness as well as the future of the restored nation Israel on its land.”

Understanding the Bible says: “in Jeremiah’s view, Judah’s failure to enforce Mosaic principles that protected impoverished laborers and their families, coupled with the government’s implied mandate for the rich to use any means, including fraud and violence, to increase their wealth, compelled Yahweh to bring the entire system to an end.” UTB continues: “Jeremiah struggled to make Judah’s leaders realize that the newly reborn Babylonian Empire was Yahweh’s judgment on his people for their faithlessness, idolatry, and social injustice.”

Today’s reading is in “poetry style” and comes from a two-chapter section of Jeremiah called “The Book of Consolation.” It described a return from Babylon by the Judeans and the reunification of Samaria and Judea, called “the remnant” (v.7), as well as those in “the northland” (v.8) which The JSB says refers to those exiled from the north to Mesopotamia after the Assyrian Conquest in 722 BCE.

In this reading, the prophet spoke for YHWH (translated as LORD in all capital letters) and went so far as to say that YHWH would reunify all Israel. The prophet used “Jacob” and “Israel” interchangeably (“Jacob” in vv. 7 and 11) because Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel” when he wrestled with an angel/God in Genesis 32.

The prophet urged the people to sing with gladness (vv.7 and 12), and to pray to YHWH to save the “remnant” (the usual term for those taken away in the Babylonian Exile).

Ephraim, called YHWH’s firstborn (v.9), was the largest of the 10 tribes in Northern Israel and was also shorthand for Israel (the Northern 10 Tribes) after the division of the nation in 930 BCE. Ephraim was one of Joseph’s sons (Gen.48).

Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a

Reading

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

15 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18 so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.

Commentary

Ephesus was a large and prosperous city in what is now western Türkiye. In the Acts of the Apostles and 1 Corinthians, Paul is said to have visited there. In Ephesus, there were Jesus Followers who were Jews and there were Jesus Followers who were Gentiles, and they did not always agree on what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.

Because the letter contained many terms not used in Paul’s other letters and gave new meanings to some of Paul’s characteristic terms, most scholars believe that this letter was written by one of Paul’s disciples late in the First Century. The letter was intended to unify the Jesus Follower community in Ephesus, but (as The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out) it was a “circular letter” that spoke to numerous audiences to which it might be circulated. The first three chapters are theological teachings, and the last three chapters consist of ethical exhortations.

In today’s reading from the first chapter, the author was working his way up to the main theme of unity. He emphasized that the Christ mediates all the blessings we receive (v.3), that the Christ was at the “foundation of the world” (v.4) and that the Jesus Followers were adopted as God’s children through the Christ (v.5).

He went on to give thanksgiving for the faith of the community (v.15) and prayed that the “eyes of their hearts” will be enlightened (v.18).

Matthew 2:1-12

Reading

1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6 `And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'”

7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Commentary

Although the Gospel According to Matthew is the first gospel presented in Christian Bibles, most scholars agree that it was written about 15 years after the Gospel According to Mark – which was written around 70 CE, the time of the destruction of the Temple. It was written primarily for a Jewish Jesus Follower audience as shown by the numerous references to prophets in the Hebrew Bible as “predicting” aspects of the life of Jesus the Christ.

Matthew’s Gospel follows the same general chronology as Mark’s and is one of the “Synoptic” Gospels. Over 50% of Matthew comes from Mark, and the other two sources for Matthew are (a) “sayings” that are also found in Luke’s Gospel (but which are not in Mark) and (b) material that is found only in Matthew.

“Special Matthew” material includes a genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth (1:1-17) that is different from the genealogy used by Luke, particularly in that it begins with Abraham (not Adam, as in Luke) and includes four women (Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Rahab) who acted scandalously at times but played a significant role in the Davidic line.

Other materials unique to Matthew are the unstated assumption that Mary and Joseph resided in Bethlehem where Jesus was born (2:1), the appearance of angels in dreams to Joseph (1:20, 2:13 and 2:19), the visit and gifts of the Magi, the flight to Egypt, the decision to move to Nazareth after Herod’s death, the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod, and the extended Sermon on the Mount (Chapters 5 to 7). Matthew is intentional in presenting Jesus as “the New Moses” (“raise up a prophet like me [Moses]” Deut. 18:15) whom the temporal powers seek to kill as a child (Pharaoh/Herod); goes to Egypt; returns to Promised Land; and goes to the mountain to receive the Law/deliver the Sermon on the Mount.

Herod the Great was the king of Judea from 37 BCE to 4 BCE, so if there is any historical basis for the story that is today’s reading, Jesus would have been born in or before 4 BCE. In Greek, the “wise men” are Magi, a word related to the English word “magic.”

The prophet on whom the chief priests relied in stating the Messiah would be in Bethlehem was Micah 5:2 – which was a recent reading (Fourth Sunday of Advent).

Although there are traditionally said to be three wise men because of the three symbolic gifts suitable for a king (v.13), the text does not identify the number of Magi. Calling the wise men “kings” did not occur until substantially later, perhaps as a way to assert that secular kings were subservient to Jesus the Christ. The Jewish Annotated New Testament says that First Century Jews would have thought of them as Zoroastrian priests and “early Jewish readers may have regarded them as Persian astrologers and not as wise but as foolish [citing Philo].”

Regarding the star, The JANT says: “no ancient sources confirm this astronomical phenomenon, and no star in the sense we know it today could stop over a house without incinerating the earth.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests that the star is a “midrashic element derived from Num 22-24, the Balaam narrative, esp. 24:17” (“a star shall come out of Jacob and the scepter shall rise out of Israel”).

Matthew’s account of the flight to Egypt (vv. 13-15) cannot be harmonized with Luke’s account of the Holy Family’s actions after the birth of Jesus. In Luke, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem 40 days after his birth for Mary’s purification and for Jesus to be presented (Luke 2:22-38). At that time, Simeon and Anna offered public prayers of praise.

There is no evidence outside Matthew’s Gospel for Herod’s killing children under age 2 who lived in and around Bethlehem.

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Reading

1 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. 3 Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.

5 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 627 and continued until 586 BCE when he fled to Egypt (Ch. 43) and died there.

According to The Jewish Study Bible, Jeremiah was descended from the priestly line of Eli – who had presided as the high priest at Shiloh in the early years of Israel’s history in the land (1 Sam. 1-4). Jeremiah was presented as a priest and a prophet and his prophesying for 40 years was seen in Rabbinic Tradition as a parallel to the 40 years Moses led the Israelites in the desert.

The call of Jeremiah is said to have been in 627 BCE – “the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah” (1:2) and his prophesying lasted until 587 BCE, the “eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (1:3). The JSB says: “Jeremiah emerges as one of the major figures who grappled with the theological problems posed by the destruction of the nation, and who laid the foundations for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in the years following the end of the exile.” He was a constant opponent of King Jehoiakim (608-598) who was an Egyptian sympathizer and of King Zedekiah (597-586), a Babylonian appointee who nevertheless went to war (unsuccessfully) with Babylon in 597 BCE.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there are different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, so much so that the English word “jeremiad” is defined as a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes. In the Bible, the Book of Lamentations was placed after the Book of Jeremiah because of the (incorrect) view that Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” are thought to have been added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

Today’s reading is in prose style and attacked the kings and priests (the “shepherds”). The Jewish Study Bible points out that the term “shepherds” (meaning kings) is even used in the Code of Hammurabi.

Consistent with the “do bad, get bad” theology of the Deuteronomists, YHWH (“LORD” in all capital letters) will “attend to” them for their “evil doings” (v.2).

The writers then held up the promise that YHWH would raise up for “David” (Judea) a righteous king who would enable Israel to live in safety and righteousness (v.5). For the Deuteronomists, YHWH was in charge of everything, and YHWH caused the Exile, the end of the Exile through Cyrus of Persia, the return of the Judeans to Jerusalem, and the relatively peaceful Persian Era (539 to 333 BCE).

The JSB observes: “The restoration of Davidic rule over a reunited people was one of the goals of Josiah’s reforms. The image is developed especially in the works of Second Isaiah who sees Israel’s return from Babylonian exile as a second exodus.” It has its basis in Nathan’s prophesy to David in 2 Sam. 7.

If these “predictions” of YHWH’s promises of restoration were in fact made after the Exile, the writers had “20/20 hindsight” that the “remnant” (a common designation for the Judeans who returned to Jerusalem after the Exile) would be “fruitful and multiply” – the command given by God to humans in Gen. 1:28.

Because the restoration of the Davidic kingship did not occur after the return from Exile, these prophesies by Jeremiah became (and remained) an important part of Ancient Israel’s understandings (and expectations) of what the Messiah would be and do.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible and The JSB note that the last verse includes a play on words. “Tsedeqah” is the Hebrew word for “righteousness” and is intended as a contrast to Zedekiah, the last king of Judea before the Exile.

Colossians 1:11-20

Reading

11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Commentary

Colossae was a town in the Lycus valley in what is now western Türkiye. According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, it had a flourishing wool and textile industry. The population consisted of native Phrygians, Greeks and a sizable community of Jews — perhaps as many as 10,000.

A Jesus Follower community was founded there by Paul’s associate, Epaphras (1:7). The letter is short (three chapters) and expressed concern about apocalyptic and mystical practices that were inconsistent with Paul’s understanding of being a Jesus Follower.

Scholars debate whether this letter was written by Paul or by his disciples in the decades after Paul’s death in 63 CE. It lacks many terms used in Paul’s authentic letters and its style is more liturgical than Paul’s other letters.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that “the letter presents the idea that the believers’ lives are completely transformed by Christ’s death and resurrection [vv.12-14], instead of Paul’s usual tension between the only partially fulfilled present and the future resurrection and full enjoyment of Christ’s benefits.”

The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that the authentic epistles speak of “justification” and “sanctification” in the present tense but reserve “salvation” for the future. In Colossians, salvation is a present reality and justification has no place at all. The JANT also observes that Colossians contains a “hierarchical description of household relations” whereas “Paul’s own description of marital relationships [in his authentic letters] is remarkably nonhierarchical (cf. 1 Cor 7.14).”

The first part of today’s reading is part of a prayer for spiritual wisdom for the Colossians. The author adopted an apocalyptic theme by contrasting light and darkness (vv. 12-13). He expressed the theme that believers are redeemed and receive forgiveness of sin in the Christ (v. 14). “Redemption” conveyed the sense of being bought back, the way something already owned is redeemed from a pawn shop. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that the phrase “forgiveness of sins” (v.9) does not occur in the undisputed Pauline writings.

The JANT points out that spiritual wisdom and understanding are a major theme of this letter, but that authentic Paul “contrasts the negative attributes of wisdom and understanding – which he associates with cleverness and argumentation – with ‘pneumatika,’ ‘spiritual things.’ The author of Colossians reverses Paul’s moral vocabulary: wisdom, here positive, involves knowledge (v 9), right living (v 10), and patience (v 11).”

The second part of the reading is described by The NJBC as “an independent unit that has the character of a primative Christian hymn.” The author described the Christ as the “image” (or symbol or manifestation) of the invisible God (v.15) and described the Cosmic Christ as the unifying force for all created things, the one who brings life to us even though we encounter our own deaths, and the force that reconciles all things in the God of Love. The Christ is the firstborn of all creation (v.15) and the firstborn of the dead (v.18) – the first person raised from the dead. The NOAB observes that these images are based on the figure of Wisdom found in Proverbs, Sirach and the Book of Wisdom.

Regarding the reference to thrones or dominions or rulers or powers (v.16), The NJBC notes: “In the false teaching in Colossae [Gnosticism], these entities may have been thought of as rivals of Christ or beings that provided supplementary power to that of Christ (2:10,15). Such a belief grew out of the complex and highly developed angelology that was widespread at this time.”

The JANT describes the Christology in this hymn as “perhaps the most exalted in the NT (cf. Jn 1.1-8; Phil 2.6-11).” The NJBC says that most scholars agree that the words “the church” in 18a are a later addition to the hymn and the epistle.

Luke 23:33-43

Reading

33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” 35 And they cast lots to divide his clothing. The people stood by, watching Jesus on the cross; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.

The Passion in Luke generally follows the Passion as recounted in Mark (which, in turn, relied on many motifs from Psalm 22 and the Suffering Servant Song in Second Isaiah). Luke’s account, however, contained a number of episodes and sayings not found in any of the other gospels. For example, only in Luke did Jesus appear before Herod Antipas (23:6-12). Only in Luke did Jesus say, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (v.34) – a verse not found in all ancient manuscripts. The essence of this prayer was repeated by Stephen (the first martyr) in Acts 7:6, also written by the author of the Gospel of Luke. The NJBC sees the prayer as “part and parcel of Luke’s theology of rejected prophet and of a Jesus who teaches and practices forgiveness of enemies (6:27-28; 17:4).”

The NRSV translators’ notes add that the words “written in Greek and Latin and Hebrew (that is, Aramaic)” are inserted after verse 38a in some ancient authorities.

In today’s reading, another exchange unique to Luke is the one between Jesus and the so-called “Good Thief” who rebuked the other criminal (v.40), asked to be remembered when Jesus came into his kingdom (v.42) and received the promise to be with Jesus “in Paradise” (v.43). The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that “Paradise was originally a term for the garden of Eden (Gen. 2.8-10) and was a contemporary [in the First Century] term for the lodging place of the righteous dead prior to the resurrection.”

During Pentecost Season 2025, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.

The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading. In Track 2, congregations may choose between the reading from Sirach or from Jeremiah.

The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.

Joel 2:23-32

Reading

23 O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before.
24 The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
25 I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
30 I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

Commentary

Joel is one the “Minor Prophets” – the 12 prophets whose works are much shorter than those of the “Major Prophets” (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and are found in a single scroll.

Joel (whose name means “YHWH is God”) is located in the Bible between Hosea and Amos (two early prophets – in the 700’s BCE) because some of the themes in Joel are similar to those in Amos.

Joel’s prophesy, however, was much later and contained no direct reference to either the Assyrians or Babylonians. It is therefore dated in the Persian Period (539 to 333 BCE) when the Persians ruled over Israel and Judea. The Jewish Study Bible notes that there is no mention in Joel of a king or dateable event, and that the most likely period of its composition is from about 400 BCE to 350 BCE – a time of relative calm under the generally benevolent rule of the Persians.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes: “Joel is not only acquainted with the Temple at Jerusalem, but is so much interested in its priesthood and services that, like Haggai and Zechariah, he can be considered a ‘cultic prophet,’ that is, a prophet who could exercise his ministry within the life of the Temple, even using liturgical forms, and whose message may have been transmitted through priestly circles. As such, Joel helps mark a notable change in prophecy in the Hebrew Bible.”

The NOAB calls the first part of today’s reading (vv. 23-27) an “Oracle of Salvation” in that God promised remission of the plague (vv.20, 25), the return of fertility (vv.21-24), the removal of shame, and the restoration of the covenantal blessing (vv.26-27).

The reference to a prior locust plague (v.25) can be understood literally and can also be seen as the invading Babylonian army that destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Both were understood as a call to repentance and resulted from YHWH’s judgment upon the people.

The Jewish New Year starts in the Autumn, and the “early” rain refers to Autumn rains and the “later” rain (v.23) comes in the Spring. Spring and Autumn are the two rainy seasons in Israel.

The entire community, even slaves, will share the immediacy and intimacy of the relationship with God (vv.28-29). The author of Acts of the Apostles (“Luke”) used a paraphrase of verse 28 as part of Peter’s speech on Pentecost (Acts 2:16-17).

The final verses (30-32) are apocalyptic in tone and describe Judah’s ultimate vindication. The “Day of the Lord” (vv.30-31) turned the agricultural images to cosmic images. Some of the descriptions of the Day of the Lord s (particularly the sun being turned to darkness) (v.31) were adopted by the authors of the Gospels according to Mark, Matthew, and Luke (the “Synoptic Gospels”) to describe the time that Jesus of Nazareth was on the Cross. The images of verse 31 were also used in Rev. 6:12.

Sirach 35:12-17

Reading

12 Give to the Most High as he has given to you, and as generously as you can afford.
13 For the Lord is the one who repays, and he will repay you sevenfold.
14 Do not offer him a bribe, for he will not accept it
15 and do not rely on a dishonest sacrifice; for the Lord is the judge, and with him there is no partiality.
16 He will not show partiality to the poor; but he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged.
17 He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan, or the widow when she pours out her complaint.

Commentary

The Book of Sirach is not included in the Jewish version of the Hebrew Bible (even though it is sometimes cited in the Talmud) but is included in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox versions of the Bible. Protestants place Sirach in a separate section of the Bible called the “Apocrypha” (which means “hidden books”). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary opines that Sirach is “not included in the Jewish canon probably because the Pharisees who defined that canon near the end of the 1st cent. AD frowned on some of Ben Sira’s theology (e.g., his denial of retribution in the hereafter).”

The book is known by the name of its author, and its full title is “The Wisdom of Jesus [which is Greek for Yeshua or Joshua], son of Sirach.” In the Roman Catholic tradition, the book is known as “Ecclesiasticus” (“the Church’s book”).

It was written between 200 and 180 BCE, during a time when the Seleucids (from Syria) were ruling Judea and trying to impose Greek culture and gods upon the Judeans. Ben Sira described himself as a “scribe” (a person of learning). The NJBC notes that “in Ben Sira’s extensive travels, he came in contact with other cultures and wisdom traditions… and did not hesitate to utilize what he had learned as long as he could make it conformable to his Jewish heritage and tradition (39:1-11).” It goes on to say: “He did not intend to write a systematic polemic against Hellenism which had made its impact felt throughout the Near East. Rather, his purpose was to demonstrate that the Jewish way of life was superior to Hellenistic culture and its blandishments and that true wisdom was to be found primarily in Jerusalem, and not in Athens.”

The Prologue to Sirach (written by Sirach’s grandson after 132 BCE) contains the first reference in Jewish Literature to “the Law and the Prophets and the other books of our ancestors” – the division of the Hebrew Bible into three parts. The book itself primarily consists of “traditional” advice to young men in the Jewish community, consistent with the advice given to young men in the Book of Proverbs.

Today’s reading is part of a chapter in which Sirach urged sincere and cheerful generosity to the Most High (i.e. at the Temple) advising that the Lord will repay sevenfold (v. 13) and will listen to the prayers of those who have been wronged (v. 16). The orphan and the widow (v.17) are to be protected because of their powerlessness and the Most High will hear their supplications.

Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22

Reading

7 Although our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name’s sake; our apostasies indeed are many, and we have sinned against you.
8 O hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler turning aside for the night?
9 Why should you be like someone confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot give help? Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not forsake us!
10 Thus says the LORD concerning this people: Truly they have loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them, now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.

19 Have you completely rejected Judah? Does your heart loathe Zion? Why have you struck us down so that there is no healing for us? We look for peace but find no good; for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
20 We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the iniquity of our ancestors, for we have sinned against you.
21 Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us.
22 Can any idols of the nations bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not you, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this.

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 627 and continued until 586 BCE when he fled to Egypt (Ch. 43) and died there.

According to The Jewish Study Bible, Jeremiah was descended from the priestly line of Eli – who had presided as the high priest at Shiloh in the early years of Israel’s history in the land (1 Sam. 1-4). Jeremiah was presented as a priest and a prophet and his prophesying for 40 years was seen in Rabbinic Tradition as a parallel to the 40 years Moses led the Israelites in the desert.

The call of Jeremiah is said to have been in 627 BCE – “the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah” (1:2) and his prophesying lasted until 587 BCE, the “eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (1:3). The JSB says: “Jeremiah emerges as one of the major figures who grappled with the theological problems posed by the destruction of the nation, and who laid the foundations for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in the years following the end of the exile.” He was a constant opponent of King Jehoiakim (608-598) who was an Egyptian sympathizer and of King Zedekiah (597-586), a Babylonian appointee who nevertheless went to war (unsuccessfully) with Babylon in 597 BCE.

The JSB notes: “The book of Jeremiah as a whole suggests that Jeremiah was prophesying in an atmosphere where many prophets suggested that the Babylonians would not conquer Jerusalem and destroy the Temple. This explains the unpopularity of Jeremiah in his period.”

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there are different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, so much so that the English word “jeremiad” is defined as a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes. In the Bible, the Book of Lamentations was placed after the Book of Jeremiah because of the (incorrect) view that Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” are thought to have been added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

Today’s reading is in “poetry style.” It follows a section (vv. 1-6) that described a severe drought that Judah suffered. Jeremiah understood this drought as demonstrating divine judgment against the nation. The JSB points out that because God was portrayed in the Bible as controlling the cosmos, YHWH could cause rain to fall so that the people could grow crops and raise cattle. A drought meant starvation for many.

The first part of today’s reading (vv.7-9) was a lament that confessed Judea’s sins, bemoaned YHWH’s absence, and asked that YHWH not forsake the people (v.9).

In The JSB (but not the NRSV), the next verse is in prose form and its content is Deuteronomic: YHWH said God would punish the people because they “love to wander” (v.10). The NJBC says: “This evil is called a restless wandering, probably an allusion to the multiple idolatrous sanctuaries or to the frequent attempts to enter foreign alliances.”

The omitted verses (11-16) are in prose form, but the last verses in today’s reading (19-22) are in poetry form. Jeremiah criticized the priests and prophets who “ply their trade” (v.18), presented the plight of the Judeans (v.19); acknowledged the people’s wickedness (v.20); appealed to YHWH’s reputation (v.21) and to the “glorious throne” (the Temple or Jerusalem); and prayed that YHWH’s power would bring rain to the land (v.22).

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

Reading

6 I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

16 At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Commentary

The Letters to Timothy and Titus are called “Pastoral Letters” because they concerned the internal life, governance and behavior of the early Christian churches and their members. Most scholars agree they were written in the early Second Century in Paul’s name by some of his followers (Paul died in 63 CE). Writing a document in someone else’s name (pseudepigraphy) was a common practice in the First and Second Centuries. Scholars note that the tone and vocabulary in the Pastoral Letters are different from Paul’s authentic letters. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out, for example, “The Pastorals’ concept of faith (pistis) – a concern for ‘sound teaching’ differs from that in Paul’s undisputed letters where faith is a matter of trust.”

By the time these letters were written, the Jesus Follower Community had become more institutionalized and concerns about “heresy” had arisen. The Pastoral Letters were written to Paul’s “co-workers” but had a broader audience. By the time they were written, Paul was regarded as an authoritative figure of the past. The NJBC advises: “The Pastorals insist that a valid Christian theology must affect behavior in the real world.”

In Acts of the Apostles 16:1, Timothy was described as having a Jewish mother and a Greek father. He was one of Paul’s co-missionaries and is described in 1 Timothy as Paul’s “loyal child” (1:2).

2 Timothy purported to be written by Paul from prison (v.8) and is more personal than 1 Timothy. The author, writing as Paul, treated Timothy as his “beloved child” (v.2), loyal disciple and his spiritual heir. In the letter, Paul was portrayed as near death (4:6). Timothy was presented as a “third generation” Jesus Follower who followed both his grandmother and his Jewish mother (Acts 16:1-3), although nothing in 2 Timothy hints at Timothy’s Jewish background.

Today’s reading is from the last chapter of the letter. “Paul” was portrayed as near death (“the time of my departure”) and stated (v.6) that his life was a sacrifice (a “I am being poured out as a libation”) and an athletic contest (“the good fight”)(v.7). Verse 6 is the same as Phil. 2:17. “Faith” (v.7) is once again presented as a body of beliefs. The NOAB sees the “crown of righteousness” (v.8) as a symbol of positive judgment from the Lord at his Second Coming.

“Paul” asked forgiveness for those who opposed his message (v.16) and praised the Lord for the strength to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles (v.17). The reference to being rescued from the “lion’s mouth” (v. 17) recalled Daniel in the lion’s den (Dan. 6:21) and Psalm 22:21.

Luke 18:9-14

Reading

9 Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, `God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.

Today’s reading is called the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and is found only in Luke. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that the story often leads Christian readers to see the Pharisee as a symbol of all Pharisees as “hypocritical, sanctimonious, and legalistic.” This understanding is not only unfair to Pharisees in general, but can urge Christian readers to say, in effect, “thank God I am not like this Pharisee.” In doing this, the parable leads those readers to see themselves as better than someone else – to take the same position they condemn in the Pharisee.

Tax collectors were generally hated by the population because Rome employed them and they kept the excess funds that they were able to extort above the “quota” they were required to deliver to Rome. The JANT also points out the tax collector’s standing “far off” (v.13) was not a sign that he was ostracized or ritually impure – to even enter the Temple in the first place, one had to be ritually pure.

The thrust of the parable is that being “righteous” (v.9) (or in a right relationship with God and others) is not a matter of “good deeds” as recited by the Pharisee (vv.11-12). Instead, being “justified” (v.14) and restored to a right relationship with God requires that one be “humble.” Being humble is not a matter of having a falsely low view of oneself, but also means not being arrogant or having a falsely exalted view of oneself. The etymology of “humble” includes the word “humus” (or earth), and being humble is being grounded in one’s sense of one’s worth and talents.

The JANT also notes that the Greek word (par) translated as “rather than” (v.14) can also be translated as “alongside” – which would mean that both the Pharisee and the tax collector were justified.

During Pentecost Season 2025, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.

The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.

The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.

Jeremiah 31:27-34

Reading

27 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. 28 And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. 29 In those days they shall no longer say: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

30 But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.

31 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 627 and continued until 586 BCE when he fled to Egypt (Ch. 43) and died there.

According to The Jewish Study Bible, Jeremiah was descended from the priestly line of Eli – who had presided as the high priest at Shiloh in the early years of Israel’s history in the land (1 Sam. 1-4). Jeremiah was presented as a priest and a prophet and his prophesying for 40 years was seen in Rabbinic Tradition as a parallel to the 40 years Moses led the Israelites in the desert.

The call of Jeremiah is said to have been in 627 BCE – “the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah” (1:2) and his prophesying lasted until 587 BCE, the “eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (1:3). The JSB says: “Jeremiah emerges as one of the major figures who grappled with the theological problems posed by the destruction of the nation, and who laid the foundations for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in the years following the end of the exile.” He was a constant opponent of King Jehoiakim (608-598) who was an Egyptian sympathizer and of King Zedekiah (597-586), a Babylonian appointee who nevertheless went to war (unsuccessfully) with Babylon in 597 BCE.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there are different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, so much so that the English word “jeremiad” is defined as a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes. In the Bible, the Book of Lamentations was placed after the Book of Jeremiah because of the (incorrect) view that Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” are thought to have been added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

Today’s reading is in prose and was a late insertion. It has an “eschatological” (end times) tone (“the days are surely coming” in v.27) and affirmed the restoration of the houses of both Judah (the south) and Israel (the north). In the verse preceding today’s reading, Jeremiah was said to be sleeping, and his “vision” is recounted in this reading.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible observes that Chapters 30 and 31 “describe the fulfillment of hopes for the reversal of judgments detailed in earlier portions of the book of Jeremiah.” It suggests that verses 27 and 28 are an “eschatological reversal” and a “recreation of order from the chaos described in a similarly visionary statement in 4.23-26.”

The rejection of the “sour grapes” saying (vv.29 and 30) was a statement that there is personal responsibility for one’s actions and that the “sins of the fathers” will not be borne by the children. This theology is also found in Ezekiel, another prophet of the Exile, particularly in Ezekiel 18:2-4. In Jeremiah, this personal responsibility will be true in the future (“in those days” v.29) but in Ezekiel it is seen as true in his own time (the Exile). The shift from collective responsibility to individual responsibility was an important change in the theology of Ancient Israel.

The writer went on to say that in the “end times” YHWH would make a “new covenant” with Judah and Israel (v.31) to replace the Covenant at Sinai which the people broke. In the New Covenant, the law would be written on their hearts (v.33), and YHWH would forgive their iniquity (v.34). Many Christians have taken the reference to a new covenant as prophesying the New Covenant/Testament through Jesus the Christ.

Regarding the New Covenant, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says: “The newness [of the New Covenant] is not found in the essentials of the covenant but in the realm of its realization and its means….The very inner nature of humanity is created anew… Yahweh has to create a new people. There is a continuity in the essentials of the former and the new covenant, but there is a profound discontinuity in the means given to Israel to fulfill the new one. This extraordinary prophecy had a great influence and found a certain fulfillment in the hands of Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah. They did not speak of a new covenant but of an eternal covenant, one that could not be broken.”

The NJBC also notes that there is a similar idea in Deuteronomy – the LORD would “circumcise” the hearts of the people. (Deut. 30:6).

Genesis 32:22-31

Reading

22 The same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Commentary

Genesis is the first book of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah also called the Pentateuch (“five books”) in Greek. Genesis covers the period from Creation to the deaths of Jacob and his 11th son, Joseph, in about 1650 BCE, if the accounts are historical.

The Book of Genesis (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.

The first 11 Chapters of Genesis are called the “primeval history” which ends with the Tower of Babel story — an “etiology” (story of origins) relating to the scattering of humankind and the multiplicity of languages. The last chapter of the primeval history also traces Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”).

The background to today’s reading includes Jacob’s supplanting his fraternal twin (but older) brother, Esau, by tricking Isaac into giving him the blessing that properly belonged to Esau.

Jacob sought to find his wife Rachel in Haran (the land from which Abraham came) and was tricked into working for his uncle, Laban, for 14 years. Jacob had 12 sons (six by Leah, Rachel’s older sister; two by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid; two by Zilpah, Leah’s maid; and two by Rachel). Ten of these sons (along with Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh), became the 12 tribes of Israel. (Levi and Joseph were not included in the 12 tribes when the lands were later divided.)

Many years had passed, and Jacob was very wealthy. Jacob and his wives, children and flocks traveled from Haran toward Canaan, but had to pass near Edom, the land of his twin brother, Esau. Jacob learned that Esau was coming toward him with 400 men, so he divided all that he had into two groups so that one group might escape and be preserved if Esau attacked him. He prayed to YHWH and sent Esau a substantial gift of livestock (500 animals) in hopes of appeasing him.

Today’s reading was set in the night before Jacob and Esau met. It recounted Jacob’s wrestling with someone identified variously as a man (v.24), a spirit/angel (which would disappear at daybreak, v.26), and as God (v.28). Jacob tried to obtain the wrestler’s name (v.29) which would have given him “control” over the wrestler, but this was refused. Instead, God gave Jacob a new name so that he was no longer Jacob (“supplanter”) but “Israel,” which originally meant “El rules” — but the text says it means “one who strives with God and humans” (v.28).

At the end of the story, Jacob changed the name of this place to Peniel (“face of El”) because he had seen God face to face (v.30). “El” is the most ancient name for God in the Middle East. In Hebrew, the suffix “el” appears in many other names that have meanings “of God” such as
Gabriel (God is my strength), Daniel (God is my judge), Beth-el (House of God), “Peniel” (Face of God), Samuel (Name of God), and the like.

In the remaining chapters of Genesis, the name used for this patriarch will sometimes be “Jacob” and sometimes be “Israel” depending on the source of the story.

The NOAB notes: “An Israelite prohibition against eating the thigh muscle of an animal is cited as testimony to the truth of the story. This prohibition is reflected nowhere else in the Bible.”

The NJBC observes that the story is the source of three etiologies: the names “Israel” and “Peniel,” and the food taboo on eating thigh muscle.

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Reading

14 As for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: 2 proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. 5 As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Commentary

The Letters to Timothy and Titus are called “Pastoral Letters” because they concerned the internal life, governance and behavior of the early Christian churches and their members. Most scholars agree they were written in the early Second Century in Paul’s name by some of his followers (Paul died in 63 CE). Writing a document in someone else’s name (pseudepigraphy) was a common practice in the First and Second Centuries. Scholars note that the tone and vocabulary in the Pastoral Letters are different from Paul’s authentic letters. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out, for example, “The Pastorals’ concept of faith (pistis) – a concern for ‘sound teaching’ differs from that in Paul’s undisputed letters where faith is a matter of trust.”

By the time these letters were written, the Jesus Follower Community had become more institutionalized and concerns about “heresy” had arisen. The Pastoral Letters were written to Paul’s “co-workers” but had a broader audience. By the time they were written, Paul was regarded as an authoritative figure of the past. The NJBC advises: “The Pastorals insist that a valid Christian theology must affect behavior in the real world.”

In Acts of the Apostles 16:1, Timothy was described as having a Jewish mother and a Greek father. He was one of Paul’s co-missionaries and is described in 1 Timothy as Paul’s “loyal child” (1:2).

2 Timothy purported to be written by Paul from prison (v.8) and is more personal than 1 Timothy. The author, writing as Paul, treated Timothy as his “beloved child” (v.2), loyal disciple and his spiritual heir. In the letter, Paul was portrayed as near death (4:6). Timothy was presented as a “third generation” Jesus Follower who followed both his grandmother and his Jewish mother (Acts 16:1-3), although nothing in 2 Timothy hints at Timothy’s Jewish background.

Today’s reading continued the author’s exhortation to follow the teachings of Paul (v.14).

In the early Second Century, there was no codification of the Christian Scriptures, even though some of Paul’s authentic letters were likely in circulation and Jesus Followers may have known of some of the four Gospels that were later included in the Christian Bible. Scholars agree that references to “the sacred writings” (v.15) and “scripture” (v.16) were to the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (LXX).

The statement that “all scripture is inspired by God” (v.16) is an expansion of the Greek term “theopneutos” (“pneuma” means “wind” or “breath”) so the phrase literally is that scripture is “God-inspirited” – it is the spirit of God makes the scripture useful (v.16).

The reference in 4:1 to Jesus’ appearing does not seem to be a reference to the life of Jesus of Nazareth on earth, but instead is in connection with his judging the living and the dead at the so-called Second Coming.

The author warns about the danger of turning away from “sound doctrine” (v. 3) (literally, “healthy teaching” according to The JANT) and wandering away to “myths” (v.4).

Luke 18:1-8

Reading

1 Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.

Today’s reading appears only in Luke. The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that the aim of the story about the need to pray (v.1) is carefully stated because the details are incongruous, just as in the story of the master and the unjust steward (16:1-9). Prayer is important in Luke and is emphasized in many of the stories.

The plea of the widow to be granted justice (v.3) is grounded in Deut. 27:19 (“Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.”) – a saying that would have been known to Jesus’ audience. The NJBC points out that widows were generally powerless in the First Century, and are presented in scripture as the image of powerlessness. The JANT points out that the words translated as “grant me justice” (v.3) are literally “avenge me” and the words “wear me out” (v.5) can also be translated as “slap me in the face.”

The thrust of the story is that if even an unjust judge will grant justice, how much more certain one can be that a just judge (God) will grant justice (v.7).

The last part of the concluding verse ties in two thoughts: the Son of Man’s coming is anticipated by Dan. 7:13 (“As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being [bar adam — Son of Man] coming with the clouds of heaven.”). The question “will he find faith on earth?” ties back to the apostles’ request for an increase in “faith” in 17:5.

During Pentecost Season 2025, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.

The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.

The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Reading

1 These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; 6 take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 627 and continued until 586 BCE when he fled to Egypt (Ch. 43) and died there.

Jeremiah was descended from the priestly line of Eli (v.1) – who had presided as the high priest at Shiloh in the early years of Israel’s history in the land (1 Sam. 1-4). Jeremiah was presented as a priest and a prophet and (according to The Jewish Study Bible) his prophesying for 40 years was seen in Rabbinic Tradition as a parallel to the 40 years Moses led the Israelites in the desert.

The call of Jeremiah is said to have been in 627 BCE – “the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah” (v.2) and his prophesying lasted until 587 BCE, the “eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (v.3). The JSB says: “Jeremiah emerges as one of the major figures who grappled with the theological problems posed by the destruction of the nation, and who laid the foundations for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in the years following the end of the exile.” He was a constant opponent of King Jehoiakim (608-598) who was an Egyptian sympathizer and of King Zedekiah (597-586), a Babylonian appointee who nevertheless went to war (unsuccessfully) with Babylon in 597 BCE.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, so much so that the English word “jeremiad” is defined as a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes. In the Bible, the Book of Lamentations was placed after the Book of Jeremiah because of the (incorrect) view that Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” are thought to have been added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

One of the consistent themes in Jeremiah was his ongoing battles with the “court” prophets who told the king what the king wanted to hear and who opposed Jeremiah at every turn. In addition, The JSB notes: “Jeremiah challenges prophets who represent the older tradition of Isaiah that Jerusalem was inviolable and would be delivered.”

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary states: “The two predominant themes of his message are precisely to define true Yahwism and to proclaim the imminent wars as punishments of the Judah’s aberrations.”

Today’s reading is part of an extended prose insert in the Book of Jeremiah that begins with Chapter 26. The incidents reported in these four chapters (26-29) represent an early interpretation of the significance of the life and message of Jeremiah and were likely written by the Deuteronomists in 75 years the after the Exile (which ended in 539 BCE).

The “elders among the exiles” (v.1) would have been those leaders sent to Babylon in the first wave of the Exile in 597 BCE. (A larger group was sent in 586 when the Temple was destroyed.)

The “directions” given by YHWH in verses 4 to 7 are what actually – as a matter of history – had happened in Babylon when the Exiles were there. The New Oxford Annotated Bible describes the advice given by Jeremiah (assuming it was given in 597 BCE) was “revolutionary” and was “in contrast to the early return from exile predicted by the other prophets.” The Jewish Study Bible says that verse 7 “is intended to shock – most people would have expected the words ‘and seek the welfare of the city’ to refer to Jerusalem not to Babylon.”

In effect, after the Exile, the Deuteronomists interpreted the behaviors of the Judeans in Babylon during the Exile as reflecting the “will” of YHWH. Later in Chapter 29, the Deuteronomists said that YHWH would “visit” the Judeans only after their seventy years in Babylon (597 to 539 BCE) were completed (v.10).

2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c

Reading

1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. 2 Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my LORD were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”

8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”

Commentary

The authors of the Book of Kings were also the authors of the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Samuel. These books were given their final form around 550 BCE – long after the events they described. The authors used the stories in these books to demonstrate that it was the failures of the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judea to worship YHWH and obey God’s commands that led to the conquest of Northern Israel in 722 BCE by the Assyrians and the conquest of Judea by the Babylonians in 597 BCE. (The conquests were not seen as the result of the Assyrians’ and Babylonians’ greater wealth and more powerful armies.)

After Solomon’s death in 928 BCE, the nation divided in two. The Northern Kingdom consisted of 10 tribes and was called “Israel.” The Southern Kingdom had two tribes, Judah and Benjamin and was called “Judea.” For the most part, the Deuteronomists portrayed the Kings of the North as unfaithful to YHWH, and Ahab (873-852 BCE) was one of the worst offenders. His wife was the Baal-worshiping foreigner, Jezebel.

Consistent with the theological view that YHWH controlled all that occurs, the authors of Kings asserted, somewhat surprisingly, that YHWH gave victory to Naaman, a general of Aram (modern Syria) over Israel around 850 BCE (v. 1). This occurred presumably because King Ahab and his successors did not worship YHWH faithfully.

Elisha, the successor to Elijah, was in Samaria, the capital of Northern Israel at this time. The King of Aram heard from his wife (who learned from an Israeli slave girl) that Elisha was a prophet who could cure Naaman of his leprosy (which could have been any skin ailment). The Jewish Study Bible says that the problem “did not disfigure him or disqualify him from military office or entering temples in his homeland.”

In the omitted verses (4-6), the King sent Naaman to Elisha. He also sent a letter to the King of Israel asking that Naaman be cured of his leprosy and sent along staggeringly generous offerings. The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that the gifts amounted to 750 lbs. of silver and 150 lbs. of gold.

The King of Israel’s reaction to the letter emphasized that YHWH controlled life and death (v.7) and it also showed the foolishness of the Kings of Israel – a consistent Deuteronomic theme. The King refused the gifts and (in his anger and frustration) was about to tell Naaman to return to Aram. (The JSB points out that the King of Israel was not aware of Elisha’s healing powers.) Elisha prevailed on the King of Israel to allow Naaman to come to see that he (Elisha) was a true prophet (speaker for God).

Elisha’s prescription did not involve divine guidance or prayer as Naaman expected (v.13). Instead, Elisha directed Naaman to wash seven times in the River Jordan. After initially refusing to do so, Naaman’s servants convinced him to go there, and he went to the River Jordan and was healed (v.14).

In the concluding verses, Naaman stated that YHWH’s power was not territorially limited to the lands of Israel and Judea – it extended to the whole world (v.15), an important theological message the Deuteronomists sought to convey. Naaman also took some soil from Israel so he could make offerings to YHWH (v.17) because, as The JSB points out, he became convinced that while God is universal, God can only be worshiped on the soil of his chosen land, Israel.

The Jewish Study Bible notes: “One motif of the story is that people of higher status are dependent on people of lower status: Naaman on counsel from his wife reporting information from and Israelite slave girl (vv.2-3); the king of Aram on the king of Israel, and the latter on Elisha (vv.5-8); and Naaman on the advice of his own servants and Elisha (vv.13-15).”

2 Timothy 2:8-15

Reading

8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David — that is my gospel, 9 for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. 11 The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.

14 Remind them of this and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.

Commentary

The Letters to Timothy and Titus are called “Pastoral Letters” because they concerned the internal life, governance and behavior of the early Christian churches and their members. Most scholars agree they were written in the early Second Century in Paul’s name by some of his followers (Paul died in 63 CE). Writing a document in someone else’s name (pseudepigraphy) was a common practice in the First and Second Centuries. Scholars note that the tone and vocabulary in the Pastoral Letters are different from Paul’s authentic letters. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out, for example, “The Pastorals’ concept of faith (pistis) – a concern for ‘sound teaching’ differs from that in Paul’s undisputed letters where faith is a matter of trust.”

By the time these letters were written, the Jesus Follower Community had become more institutionalized and concerns about “heresy” had arisen. The Pastoral Letters were written to Paul’s “co-workers” but had a broader audience. By the time they were written, Paul was regarded as an authoritative figure of the past. The NJBC advises: “The Pastorals insist that a valid Christian theology must affect behavior in the real world.”

In Acts of the Apostles 16:1, Timothy was described as having a Jewish mother and a Greek father. He was one of Paul’s co-missionaries and is described in 1 Timothy as Paul’s “loyal child” (1:2).

2 Timothy purported to be written by Paul from prison (v.8) and is more personal than 1 Timothy. The author, writing as Paul, treated Timothy as his “beloved child” (v.2), loyal disciple and his spiritual heir. In the letter, Paul was portrayed as near death (4:6). Timothy was presented as a “third generation” Jesus Follower who followed both his grandmother and his Jewish mother (Acts 16:1-3), although nothing in 2 Timothy hints at Timothy’s Jewish background.

The JANT observes: “The author is concerned with two major issues: the suffering of believers for the gospel [citing verses] and the preservation of correct apostolic teachings [citing verses].”

Today’s reading includes a synopsis of the “gospel” (good news) that Paul preached in his epistles (e.g. Rom. 1.3). Jesus is the Messiah, was resurrected, and is a royal ruler (v.8). A recitation of his hardships was a common motif in Paul’s epistles and are repeated here (vv.9-10) to emphasize the depth of “Paul’s” faithfulness.

The JANT notes that the use of the word “criminal” (v.9) Is the same word used in the Gospel of Luke for those who were crucified with Jesus (23:32).

The sayings in verses 11 to 13 are likely a quotation from a hymn that would have been used in the Jesus Follower Community early in the Second Century.

Luke 17:11-19

Reading

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.

Today’s reading presents a story found only in Luke. Jesus was traveling between the Galilee and Samaria (v.11). The 10 lepers who approached nevertheless “kept their distance” (v.12) as prescribed by Leviticus 13.

Jesus directed the cured lepers to “show themselves to the priests” (v.14), so the “other nine” – presumably Jewish — lepers would have gone to Jerusalem where the priests were at the Temple. As The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out, the Samaritan leper would have been going to Mount Gerizim in Samaria.

The NOAB explains: “Samaritan is a geographical designation used also to name an inhabitant of Samaria, which was originally the capital of the former Northern Kingdom that fell to Assyria ca. 722 BCE. Samaritan became the term for persons living between Judea and Galilee who came to be regarded as a distinct ethnic and religious group. Tensions existed between Samaritans and Jews after the return of the Jews from exile in Babylon and remained in Jesus’ day.”

The background to seeing Samaritans as a distinct ethnic group arose from the intermarriage of Assyrians with persons in Northern Israel after 722. They were also a distinct religious group, in that the holy mountain for Samaritans was Mount Gerizim, and by the first century BCE, the Samaritans had their own version of the Torah – translated into Aramaic and called the Targum.

The NOAB points out that the phrase translated as “made you well” (v.19) is the Greek word “sesōken” which is literally translated as “saved you.”

During Pentecost Season 2025, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.

The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.

The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Reading

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, 3 where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him.

6 Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came to me: 7 Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.” 8 Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

9 And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; 12 and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. 13 In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, 14 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 627 and continued until 586 BCE when he fled to Egypt (Ch. 43) and died there.

According to The Jewish Study Bible, Jeremiah was descended from the priestly line of Eli – who had presided as the high priest at Shiloh in the early years of Israel’s history in the land (1 Sam. 1-4). Jeremiah was presented as a priest and a prophet and his prophesying for 40 years was seen in Rabbinic Tradition as a parallel to the 40 years Moses led the Israelites in the desert.

The call of Jeremiah is said to have been in 627 BCE – “the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah” (1:2) and his prophesying lasted until 587 BCE, the “eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (1:3). The JSB says: “Jeremiah emerges as one of the major figures who grappled with the theological problems posed by the destruction of the nation, and who laid the foundations for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in the years following the end of the exile.” He was a constant opponent of King Jehoiakim (608-598) who was an Egyptian sympathizer and of King Zedekiah (597-586), a Babylonian appointee who nevertheless went to war (unsuccessfully) with Babylon in 597 BCE.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there are different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, so much so that the English word “jeremiad” is defined as a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes. In the Bible, the Book of Lamentations was placed after the Book of Jeremiah because of the (incorrect) view that Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” are thought to have been added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary states: “The two predominant themes of his message are precisely to define true Yahwism and to proclaim the imminent wars as punishments of the Judah’s aberrations.”

Today’s reading is a portion of an extended post-Exilic prose insert that begins at Jer. 31:38. The New Oxford Annotated Bible refers to this section as an “Appendix” to the “Book of Consolation” (Chapters 30 and 31) in which the writer said that YHWH would restore Judea after the Exile.

Today’s reading purported to be set in 588 BCE (v.1), just before the Exile began. The NOAB notes that chronologically, this Chapter should follow Chapter 37 “and that its placement here emphasizes the centrality of the restoration of Jerusalem in postexilic expectations for the future.”

In January 588, the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem for a second time to put down another Judean revolt, and King Zedekiah imprisoned Jeremiah. The Jewish Study Bible says that the grounds for Jeremiah’s imprisonment would have been “treason because of his claims that God had given Jerusalem into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.” Jeremiah was able, however, (through Baruch) to arrange the purchase of land even though he was in prison. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says that “the sale likely occurred in the summer during an interruption of the siege because Egyptian armies were marching against those of Babylon.”

Jeremiah’s purchase of land was intended to show a faith in the future restoration of Judea that The JSB describes as “a metaphor for God’s promise to restore Jerusalem.” The purchase price of 17 shekels of silver would have been seven ounces of silver (about $150 today) – a price much lower than the prices of other sales recorded in the Bible. The JSB notes that “the low price may be explained by the fact that the sale takes place during a siege.”

The sale of the land to Jeremiah by his cousin Hanamel was consistent with the law in Leviticus 25:25-28 that if a family member has financial difficulties, his land should be sold to a relative. The NOAB characterized this (vv.9-14) as “the most detailed account of a business transaction in the Bible.” Regarding the deeds (v.11), The NOAB explains: “The official copy of the deed, written on papyrus, was rolled up and sealed; the open copy was for easy reference. Similar storage of deeds in earthen jars is known from Elephantine in Egypt.”

Baruch, referred to in v.13, was Jeremiah’s secretary and was said to have recorded portions of what became the “Book of Jeremiah” (see Jer. 36:4).

Amos 6:1a, 4-7

Reading

1 Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.
4 Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall;
5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music;
6 who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
7 Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

Commentary

After Solomon died in 930 BCE, the Kingdom of Israel split into two parts, the North (called Israel with 10 tribes) and the South (called Judea with two tribes). Each of the Kingdoms had its own king.

The reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel (788-747 BCE) was very prosperous but was a time of great inequality between rich and poor in which large landowners gained control of the lands of small farmers. (A three-liter bottle of wine is called a “Jeroboam.”)

Amos was a cattle herder and cared for fig trees in Judea (7:14), but he was called by YHWH to go north to prophesy (speak for the LORD) against the evils in Israel from about 760 to 750 BCE.

Amos is one of the 12 “minor” prophets whose works are shorter than the three “major” prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). He was the first (chronologically) of the prophets whose words left an indelible stamp on later thought in Israel about God. He used vivid language and called for justice and righteousness, social equality, and concern for the disadvantaged.

His writings included announcements that the “Day of the LORD” (when YHWH would intervene in human affairs) was imminent and urged that the special covenant with the LORD entailed special ethical responsibilities. Some of his presentations are indictments, some are exhortations, and others are visions.

The JSB points out that Amos (c. 760 BCE) stressed social and political ills in Israel whereas Hosea (740-730 BCE) largely was concerned with improper religious worship.

In today’s reading, Amos (speaking for YHWH) harshly criticized the conspicuous consumption by the wealthy in both Jerusalem/Zion (v.1) and in Northern Israel and predicted their doom. (The NJBC sees the inclusion of Zion as a later addition because Amos’ prophesy was directed at Israel.) His mention of the “ruin of Joseph” (v.6) was a colloquial reference to the impending destruction of Northern Israel by Assyria in 722 BCE.

The “back story” to this reference to “the ruin of Joseph” is that according to Numbers 18, the Tribe of Levi was not allocated land because they were priests and received tithes from the other tribes. Therefore, there would have been only 11 tribes receiving land. To fix this, Joseph was not counted as one of the 12 tribes, but Joseph’s two sons (Ephraim and Manasseh) were both counted among the 12 Tribes of Israel and were allocated land.

Because the Tribe of Ephraim became the largest and most prosperous of the Northern 10 tribes and King Jeroboam was an Ephraimite, the nation of Northern Israel was sometimes referred to as “Ephraim” or “Joseph.”

According to The NOAB, the reference to “beds of ivory” (v.4) is substantiated by archaeological evidence that found over 500 fragments of ivory in Samaria, and that some of the wealthy houses had ivory decorations and inlays.

The reference to David (v.5) reflected the tradition that David was an accomplished musician (1 Sam. 16:23) who played the lyre to soothe King Saul. Later Jewish tradition attributed the authorship of the entire book of Psalms to David.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that the elites will be the first to go into exile, and that the “revelry” that will pass away (v.7) was “marzeah” in Hebrew, a social and funerary ritual banquet of Canaanite origin.

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Reading

6 There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. 9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will bring about at the right time — he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

Commentary

The Letters to Timothy and Titus are called “Pastoral Letters” because they concerned the internal life, governance and behavior of the early Christian churches and their members. Most scholars agree they were written in the early Second Century in Paul’s name by some of his followers (Paul died in 63 CE). Writing a document in someone else’s name (pseudepigraphy) was a common practice in the First and Second Centuries. Scholars note that the tone and vocabulary in the Pastoral Letters are different from Paul’s authentic letters. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out, for example, “The Pastorals’ concept of faith (pistis) – a concern for ‘sound teaching’ differs from that in Paul’s undisputed letters where faith is a matter of trust.”

By the time these letters were written, the Jesus Follower Community had become more institutionalized and concerns about “heresy” had arisen. The Pastoral Letters were written to Paul’s “co-workers” but had a broader audience. By the time they were written, Paul was regarded as an authoritative figure of the past. The NJBC advises: “The Pastorals insist that a valid Christian theology must affect behavior in the real world.”

In Acts of the Apostles 16:1, Timothy was described as having a Jewish mother and a Greek father. He was one of Paul’s co-missionaries and is described in this letter as Paul’s “loyal child” (1:2).

Today’s reading is most of the last chapter of the letter. The author emphasized contentment (v.6), which The NOAB notes is the translation of the Greek word “autarkeia”) which is a Stoic term meaning “self-sufficiency.” The NJBC refers to this as “stock invective drawn from the polemic of philosophers against their opponents. As in the Platonic dialogues, these latter are regularly depicted as ‘sophists’ who teach for pay and seek to please rather than present to the truth.”

The author cautioned against love of money as a “root of all kinds of evil” (v.10), and encouraged the active “pursuit” of righteousness and “fighting the good fight of the faith” (v.12). The reference to Pontius Pilate in verse 13 is the only mention of him (outside the Gospels and Acts) that appears in the New Testament. The “manifestation” (epiphaneias in Greek) (v.14) is a reference to the Second Coming, a term used in many of the Pastoral Letters.

The references in verses 15 and 16 of God as all-powerful, immortal, and invisible reflect the influence of Greek philosophy on the Jesus Follower Movement.

Luke 16:19-31

Reading

19 Jesus said, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ 25 But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27 He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house — 28 for I have five brothers — that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30 He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.

Today’s reading is part of a chapter that deals primarily with the danger of riches. The “rich man” (v.19) in this story has historically been named “Dives” – which is Latin for “rich man.” Being dressed in purple was a sign of wealth. Purple was difficult to produce because it was derived from a specific kind of shellfish. The rich man’s selfishness was shown by his failure to assist the poor man “at his gate” (v.20).

The poor man named “Lazarus” is not to be confused with the brother of Martha and Mary who was raised from the dead by Jesus as recounted in John 11.

The story does not describe Lazarus’ character, but his presence “with Abraham” (v.22) indicated a blessed afterlife condition. The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that “salvation in the Gospel of Luke is not contingent upon Jesus’ sacrificial death.”

Even in Hades, the rich man maintained his “status” and still saw Lazarus as having a lower station in asking Abraham to send Lazarus to the rich man with a drop of water (v.24) and to send him to “my father’s house” (v.27) to warn his brothers.

Although the reference in the text to someone coming back from the dead was to the poor man (v.28), some commentators see the reference in verse 31 (“someone rising from the dead”) as evoking Jesus’ Resurrection. After the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the primary division between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees was whether Jesus had been resurrected.

During Pentecost Season 2025, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.

The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.

The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Reading

18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.
19 Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”)
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
21 For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?
9:1 O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 627 and continued until 586 BCE when he fled to Egypt (Ch. 43) and died there.

Jeremiah was descended from the priestly line of Eli (v.1) – who had presided as the high priest at Shiloh in the early years of Israel’s history in the land (1 Sam. 1-4). Jeremiah was presented as a priest and a prophet and (according to The Jewish Study Bible) his prophesying for 40 years was seen in Rabbinic Tradition as a parallel to the 40 years Moses led the Israelites in the desert.

The call of Jeremiah is said to have been in 627 BCE – “the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah” (v.2) and his prophesying lasted until 587 BCE, the “eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (v.3). The JSB says: “Jeremiah emerges as one of the major figures who grappled with the theological problems posed by the destruction of the nation, and who laid the foundations for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in the years following the end of the exile.” He was a constant opponent of King Jehoiakim (608-598) who was an Egyptian sympathizer and of King Zedekiah (597-586), a Babylonian appointee who nevertheless went to war (unsuccessfully) with Babylon in 597 BCE.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, so much so that the English word “jeremiad” is defined as a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes. In the Bible, the Book of Lamentations was placed after the Book of Jeremiah because of the (incorrect) view that Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” are thought to have been added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

One of the consistent themes in Jeremiah was his ongoing battles with the “court” prophets who told the king what the king wanted to hear and who opposed Jeremiah at every turn. In addition, The JSB notes: “Jeremiah challenges prophets who represent the older tradition of Isaiah that Jerusalem was inviolable and would be delivered.”

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary states: “The two predominant themes of his message are precisely to define true Yahwism and to proclaim the imminent wars as punishments of the Judah’s aberrations.”

Today’s reading is in “poetry style” and was structured as an extended lament by the City of Jerusalem over its fate. In verses 19a and 20, the writer quoted the people of Judea (which included Jerusalem) who bemoaned their situation – either in anticipation of the conquest by the Babylonians or after it. In verse 21, “Lady Jerusalem” mourned for all the people of Judea.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that YHWH’s parenthetical interjection in verse 19b about worship of foreign idols was intended to show the disingenuousness of the people’s complaints. The NJBC sees the verse as YHWH’s “explanation” for his departure from Jerusalem.

The NOAB points out that “Balm in Gilead” (v. 22) refers to the medicinal resin of the storax tree found in Gilead, an area east of the Jordan River in what is now modern Jordan. Citing Gen. 37.25, The JSB says: “It was apparently a site where balm and other healing substances could be extracted from local plants.”

The NOAB opines that the “slain of my poor people” (v.9:1) most likely represents a post-destruction perspective. The JSB notes that it introduces a condemnation of the people by YHWH “which recalls earlier traditions in which God proposed to destroy Israel in the wilderness (Ex 32-34) but Moses persuaded God to desist.”

Amos 8:4-7

Reading

4 Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances,
6 buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely, I will never forget any of their deeds.

Commentary

After Solomon died in 930 BCE, the Kingdom of Israel split into two parts, the North (called Israel with 10 tribes) and the South (called Judea with two tribes). Each of the Kingdoms had its own king.

The reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel (788-747 BCE) was very prosperous but was a time of great inequality between rich and poor in which large landowners gained control of the lands of small farmers. (A three-liter bottle of wine is called a “Jeroboam.”)

Amos was a cattle herder and cared for fig trees in Judea, but he was called by YHWH to go north to prophesy (speak for the LORD) against the evils in Israel from about 760 to 750 BCE.

Amos is one of the 12 “minor” prophets whose works are shorter than the three “major” prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). He was the first (chronologically) of the prophets whose words left an indelible stamp on later thought in Israel about God. He used vivid language and called for justice and righteousness, social equality, and concern for the disadvantaged.

His writings included announcements that the “Day of the LORD” (when YHWH would intervene in human affairs) was imminent and urged that the special covenant with the LORD entailed special ethical responsibilities. Some of his presentations are indictments, some are exhortations, and others are visions.

The JSB points out that Amos (c. 760 BCE) stressed social and political ills in Israel whereas Hosea (740-730 BCE) largely was concerned with improper religious worship.

Today’s reading is a continuing portion of a longer prophetic speech that included Amos’ vision of a basket of fruit (v.1). In this portion of Amos’ prophesy, he criticized the unfair and fraudulent business practices of the wealthy and their impatience for the Holy Days to pass (v.5) so they could resume bilking the poor, enslaving them (v.6), and taking their lands.

An ephah (v.5) was about 21 quarts and making an “ephah small” would be done to cheat the customer. “False balances” (v.5) were scales that were weighted in favor of the seller. “Sweepings of the wheat” (v.8) referred to selling the chaff instead of wheat.

According to The NOAB, “buying the poor… and needy” likely refers to outright slavery as opposed to “selling the righteous” (2:6) into debt slavery.

Amos said that YHWH would remember these misdeeds and punish the evildoers (v.7). In 722 BCE, only 40 years later, Assyria conquered Israel and scattered its wealthy class.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Reading

1 First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

5 For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all — this was attested at the right time. 7 For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Commentary

The Letters to Timothy and Titus are called “Pastoral Letters” because they concerned the internal life, governance and behavior of the early Christian churches and their members. Most scholars agree they were written in the early Second Century in Paul’s name by some of his followers (Paul died in 63 CE). Writing a document in someone else’s name (pseudepigraphy) was a common practice in the First and Second Centuries. Scholars note that the tone and vocabulary in the Pastoral Letters are different from Paul’s authentic letters. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out, for example, “The Pastorals’ concept of faith (pistis) – a concern for ‘sound teaching’ differs from that in Paul’s undisputed letters where faith is a matter of trust.”

By the time these letters were written, the Jesus Follower Community had become more institutionalized and concerns about “heresy” had arisen. The Pastoral Letters were written to Paul’s “co-workers” but had a broader audience. By the time they were written, Paul was regarded as an authoritative figure of the past. The NJBC advises: “The Pastorals insist that a valid Christian theology must affect behavior in the real world.”

The NOAB observed that although it is not possible to reconstruct entirely the teachings of the author’s opponents, “it appears that they have some connection with Judaism and Torah observance….Recent research has connected the fellow Christians whom this author opposes with those who told and treasured the traditions found in the later apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla which valorizes and authorizes women’s ministries which, in their asceticism and renunciation of marriage, also claimed Paul as their champion.”

In Acts of the Apostles 16:1, Timothy was described as having a Jewish mother and a Greek father. He was one of Paul’s co-missionaries and is described in this letter as Paul’s “loyal child” (1:2).

Today’s reading urged accommodation by the Jesus Followers to worldly authorities for the sake of the peace of the church (v.2). In urging this, the writer did not address the fact that the Roman Emperor claimed to be divine and required to be worshiped. The writer linked salvation with “knowledge of the truth” (v.4). He affirmed that there is “one God” (v.5), a reformulation of the Jewish statement (the “Shema”) found in Deut. 6:4-9.

The idea of Christ Jesus as a “ransom” (v. 6) traces back to Mark 10:45 (“For the Son of Man came … to give his life as a ransom for many”). This idea, in turn, was primarily derived from the Fourth Servant Poem of Isaiah (Is. 52:13 to 53:12) which portrayed Judea as a suffering servant during the Babylonian Exile (587-539 BCE).

The verses that follow today’s reading follow what The NJBC calls “commonplace Greco-Roman philosophy.” They forbade women from holding leadership and teaching positions (vv.8-12) and assigned all blame for the disobedience event in Genesis to the woman (v.14). The author also took the position that women will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness with modesty (v.15), a theory of salvation at odds with Paul’s justification by faithfulness.

Luke 16:1-13

Reading

1 Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, `What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, `How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, `Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, `And how much do you owe?’ He replied, `A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, `Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.

Today’s reading has two parts, the first of which is about the dishonest manager. The second part (vv.10-13) is an admonition about the need to be faithful in small matters and to be faithful and honest with what belongs to another. The verses conclude with the maxim that one cannot serve two masters – God and wealth (“mamōna” in the Greek). The NOAB notes that the Greek word mamōna is the same as an Aramaic word that means “that in which one fully trusts.” In that sense, mammon would be treated as one’s god.

The NOAB describes the first part of the reading as “enigmatic” on a number of levels. In Luke’s Gospel, a “rich man” (v.1) learned of his manager’s “squandering.” Rich men in Luke are typically disfavored because they do not support the poor.

In this story, the “master” (v.8) praised the steward for his shrewdness even though it worked to the master’s disadvantage. In the Christian Scriptures, “shrewdness” is not typically presented as desirable virtue, particularly (as here) because it involved additional cheating of one’s master. The Jewish Annotated New Testament surmises that perhaps the rich man had no choice but to commend the steward (v.8a) because the steward had (by his actions with the debtors) created for the master a reputation for generosity.

In the same verse, Jesus was critical of “children of light” (i.e. persons who are spiritually enlightened) as compared to “the children of this age” (v.8b).

The meaning of verse 9 is difficult. Was Jesus in fact urging people to “make friends by means of dishonest wealth”? This advice seems entirely inconsistent with the values in the second part of the reading (vv.10-13).

One way to read verse 9 is to understand it as ironic. When one’s dishonest wealth is gone because it has been used to make friends, into what kind of “eternal homes” will these “friends” be able to invite those who became their friends “by means of dishonest wealth”? Do these kinds of “friends” even have “eternal homes” into which they could invite a person who ingratiated himself this way? Could Jesus be saying ironically: “Sure, try that dishonesty/ingratiating strategy and see where it gets you in the long run, particularly when you hope for an eternal home when the money is gone. This strategy may work for you in the short run, but it won’t really get you anywhere worthwhile in the long run.”

An alternative understanding of this verse was recently presented by The Rev. Julia Gatta of the School of Theology at Sewanee. Based on a reading of many of the parables about wealth in Luke, including – most particularly – the story of Lazarus and the rich man, she suggested that “they” in this sentence is the poor, and that using one’s wealth to assist the poor will lead to a welcome into eternal homes.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary has an extended – and different – analysis of this parable:

“The legal system presupposed by the parable is a widely attested one and is contrary to the OT ban of usury. The steward was authorized to make binding contracts for his master. The usurious interest on oil and wheat, for example, would not be listed separately in the contract. It would be included in the one lump sum mentioned in the contract. Thus, a person may have obtained only 450 gallons of olive oil, but because of the 100% interest charged, had to have 900 gallons written on his contract (see v 6). There is no evidence that the steward could pocket that interest as his commission; the steward’s job was to make money for his master….

“The master is an absentee landlord and not a beloved figure in Palestinian or Greco-Roman society. [The] charges were brought against the steward with hostile intent: this is the usual, negative meaning of diaballein [the Greek word used for “accused” or “charges” in verse 1]. The master believes the calumny and prepares to dismiss his steward…. In his soliloquy [vv. 3-4], which attracts the reader to identify with him, the unjustly treated steward does not engage in self-pity or some other tactic of indecision. He will act decisively….

“Twice it is mentioned that the sums are owed the master. There is no evidence that the steward is foregoing his commission. The steward is going to get even with his master at the master’s expense [for his unjust dismissal]. He cancels the usurious profit of his master. Surely, the debtors will reciprocate such largess (see v 4)…. [The reference to ‘dishonest steward’ in v.8a] is not a simple repetition of what is implied in vv 1-2, but a reference to the dishonest conduct depicted in vv 5-7….

“[The word translated as “shrewdly” or “prudently” in v 8b] is phronimos [which] refers to practical action aimed at accomplishing some particular end. It does not have anything to do with virtue in the more general sense of justice….

“One way to understand the parable is that it is important to imitate the steward’s shrewdness in the use of possessions (even though these possessions were not his own)….

“Verses 8b-13 present a prime example of Luke’s two-sided thinking: mammon can seduce disciples away from God, yet disciples must use mammon – now – for alms!… Disciples are to convert mammon into heavenly capital by sharing it with others, particularly the needy….If they do not share possessions, they will not be entrusted with the true, heavenly reality.”

During Pentecost Season 2025, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.

The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.

The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Reading

11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse – 12 a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.

22 “For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.”
23 I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro.
25 I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled.
26 I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger.
27 For thus says the LORD: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
28 Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 627 and continued until 586 BCE when he fled to Egypt (Ch. 43) and died there.

Jeremiah was descended from the priestly line of Eli (v.1) – who had presided as the high priest at Shiloh in the early years of Israel’s history in the land (1 Sam. 1-4). Jeremiah was presented as a priest and a prophet and (according to The Jewish Study Bible) his prophesying for 40 years was seen in Rabbinic Tradition as a parallel to the 40 years Moses led the Israelites in the desert.

The call of Jeremiah is said to have been in 627 BCE – “the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah” (v.2) and his prophesying lasted until 587 BCE, the “eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (v.3). The JSB says: “Jeremiah emerges as one of the major figures who grappled with the theological problems posed by the destruction of the nation, and who laid the foundations for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in the years following the end of the exile.” He was a constant opponent of King Jehoiakim (608-598) who was an Egyptian sympathizer and of King Zedekiah (597-586), a Babylonian appointee who nevertheless went to war (unsuccessfully) with Babylon in 597 BCE.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, so much so that the English word “jeremiad” is defined as a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes. In the Bible, the Book of Lamentations was placed after the Book of Jeremiah because of the (incorrect) view that Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” are thought to have been added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

One of the consistent themes in Jeremiah was his ongoing battles with the “court” prophets who told the king what the king wanted to hear and who opposed Jeremiah at every turn. In addition, The JSB notes: “Jeremiah challenges prophets who represent the older tradition of Isaiah that Jerusalem was inviolable and would be delivered.”

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary states: “The two predominant themes of his message are precisely to define true Yahwism and to proclaim the imminent wars as punishments of the Judah’s aberrations.”

In today’s reading, the first two verses are in “prose style” and serve as an introduction to the warnings to Jerusalem given in the years just before the Babylonian conquest in 597 BCE and the Babylonian Exile in 587 BCE.

In the verses preceding today’s reading, YHWH said “I am bringing evil from the north” (v.8), a reference to the Babylonians. In verse 9, Jeremiah held the Judean leadership (particularly the prophets) responsible for Judea’s fate. In verse 10, the NRSV reads that Jeremiah said that YHWH had deceived the people. In The Jewish Study Bible, the translator’s note observes that the LXX says that “they [the people] shall say” that YHWH deceived the people.

The balance of the reading (except for verse 27) is in “poetry style.” In it, YHWH rendered God’s judgment, and The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that the upcoming destruction was portrayed as a reversal of creation as described in Gen. 1:1-2:4a. The JSB notes that “all creation suffers as a result of human wrongdoing.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes: “This description is found, almost identical, in Joel in the same invasion context (Joel 2:1-11). Amos (8:9-10), Zephaniah (1:2-3,14-18) and Nahum (1:2-8) produced the same effects in their proclamations of the Day of the Lord, also on the occasion of wars.”

YHWH condemned evil (v.22) and saw the cities in ruins because of YHWH’s fierce anger (v.26). The NOAB points out that Verse 27 is a later insertion (after the Exile ended in 539 BCE) to the effect that YHWH would not make the destruction a “full end” and that there would be a restoration.

Exodus 32:7-14

Reading

7 The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'” 9 The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”

11 But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, `It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, `I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” 14 And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Commentary

The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Torah/Pentateuch and covers the period from the slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh (around 1250 BCE, if the account is historical), the Exodus itself, and the early months in the Wilderness.

Today’s reading is set at Mount Sinai (“Horeb” in other parts of Exodus and in Deuteronomy) during the time in the Wilderness.

At Mount Sinai, Moses had received the Law from YHWH and had been gone for 40 days and nights. (“Forty” is a euphemism in the Bible for “a long time.”) While Moses was away, the people under Aaron (Moses’ brother) became impatient and asked Aaron to “make us a god who shall go before us” (v.1). Aaron cast a calf made from the gold earrings that Egyptian women (somewhat curiously) gave the Israelite women when they left Egypt (3:22,12:35,32:4). Aaron also built an altar and proclaimed a festival to YHWH (v.5) and the people “rose up to revel” (v.6).

The Jewish Study Bible observes: “Although most commentators believe that they [the authors] mean ‘god’ literally, it is more likely that they mean it as a metonymy [a shorthand substitute, for example calling a businessperson a “suit”] for something that would serve as a new means of securing God’s Presence.”

YHWH was presented in today’s passage as having very human qualities. At first, the angry God disowned the Israelites and the role YHWH played in their liberation (v.7), said Moses brought them out of Egypt, and determined to “consume them” (v.10) and make a great nation of Moses and his descendants.

Moses responded that “they are your people” (v.11) and suggested that the Egyptians would question YHWH’s power and motives if the Israelites had been rescued by YHWH and then were killed (v.12). He reminded YHWH of the promises by YHWH to the Patriarchs (some of which were unconditional). As a result of Moses’ pleas, YHWH’s mind was changed about bringing disaster on the people (v.14). The reversal did not, however, fully respond to Moses’ requests in verse 13. The Jewish Study Bible points out that Moses would later have to implore both YHWH and the Israelites to reconcile further in order for YHWH to lead them to the Promised Land.

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Reading

12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the foremost. 16 But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Commentary

The Letters to Timothy and Titus are called “Pastoral Letters” because they concerned the internal life, governance and behavior of the early Christian churches and their members. Most scholars agree they were written in the early Second Century in Paul’s name by some of his followers (Paul died in 63 CE). Writing a document in someone else’s name (pseudopigraphy) was a common practice in the First and Second Centuries. Scholars note that the tone and vocabulary in the Pastoral Letters are different from Paul’s authentic letters. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out, for example, “The Pastorals’ concept of faith (pistis) – a concern for ‘sound teaching’ differs from that in Paul’s undisputed letters where faith is a matter of trust.”

By the time these letters were written, the Jesus Follower Community had become more institutionalized and concerns about “heresy” had arisen. The Pastoral Letters were written to Paul’s “co-workers” but had a broader audience. By the time they were written, Paul was regarded as an authoritative figure of the past. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary advises: “The Pastorals insist that a valid Christian theology must affect behavior in the real world.”

The NOAB observed that although it is not possible to reconstruct entirely the teachings of the author’s opponents, “it appears that they have some connection with Judaism and Torah observance….Recent research has connected the fellow Christians whom this author opposes with those who told and treasured the traditions found in the later apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla which valorizes and authorizes women’s ministries which, in their asceticism and renunciation of marriage, also claimed Paul as their champion.”

In Acts of the Apostles 16:1, Timothy was described as having a Jewish mother and a Greek father. He was one of Paul’s co-missionaries and is described as Paul’s “loyal child” (v.2).

Today’s reading is a prelude to the author’s opposing false teachings and it presented a portrait of Paul. “Paul” asserted his authority by saying that his conversion occurred “because [Jesus] judged me faithful and appointed me to his service (v.12). He acknowledged that he had been a “blasphemer, persecutor and a man of violence” (v.13) – a description not wholly consistent with descriptions of Paul in 1 Cor.15:9, Gal 5:19 and Acts 8:1, 9:1-2.

The authors stated that “the saying is sure” (which The NOAB points out is a common phrase found only in the Pastoral Letters) that Jesus the Christ came to save sinners (v.15) and made Paul “an example to those who would come to believe in [Jesus] for eternal life” (v. 16).

The JANT notes that the phrase “King of the ages” (v.17) is likely a Greek rendering of the Hebrew words “melek ha-olam” (King of the Universe) which is a part of every Jewish blessing. This verse is structured as a doxology – a statement of praise.

Luke 15:1-10

Reading

1 All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

8 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.

Today’s reading comes just before the parable of the Prodigal Son and just after last week’s reading whereJesus had dinner at the home of a leader of the Pharisees. In today’s reading, the Pharisees criticized Jesus for dining with sinners (v.2).

It is difficult to gauge Jesus’ relationship with the Pharisees during his lifetime. By the time the Gospels According to Matthew, Luke and John were written the relationship between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees was competitive and strained, and these three Gospels contain criticisms of the Pharisees not found in Mark. The JANT notes: “Scholars correctly describe [Luke’s] Gospel’s presentation of Pharisees as puzzling, inconsistent and complex.” The NJBC says: “The basic issue between Jesus and the Lucan Pharisees remains the same: Are some people outside the limits of God’s mercy?”

The JANT points out that owning 100 sheep meant that the person was one of considerable wealth. Portraying God as a shepherd was common in the Hebrew Bible and is found in Psalms 23, 78, 80 and 100. Moses was also a shepherd when he had his Burning Bush Experience in Exodus 3.

Because the shepherd who looks for the lost sheep is understood as God, the woman searching for the lost coin (a drachma, the equivalent of a day’s wages for a laborer) can be seen as a feminine depiction of God. The JANT points out that “friends and neighbors” (v.9) are feminine nouns in Greek, indicating that they were female associates of the woman who found the lost coin.

Some commentators note that a sensible and practical shepherd would never put 99 sheep at risk just to find one lost sheep. This fact in the parable underscores the enormity of God’s mercy, forgiveness and having all persons in the “fold.”

During Pentecost Season 2025, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.

The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.

The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Reading

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 627 and continued until 586 BCE when he fled to Egypt (Ch. 43) and died there.

Jeremiah was descended from the priestly line of Eli (v.1) – who had presided as the high priest at Shiloh in the early years of Israel’s history in the land (1 Sam. 1-4). Jeremiah was presented as a priest and a prophet and (according to The Jewish Study Bible) his prophesying for 40 years was seen in Rabbinic Tradition as a parallel to the 40 years Moses led the Israelites in the desert.

The call of Jeremiah is said to have been in 627 BCE – “the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah” (v.2) and his prophesying lasted until 587 BCE, the “eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (v.3). The JSB says: “Jeremiah emerges as one of the major figures who grappled with the theological problems posed by the destruction of the nation, and who laid the foundations for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in the years following the end of the exile.” He was a constant opponent of King Jehoiakim (608-598) who was an Egyptian sympathizer and of King Zedekiah (597-586), a Babylonian appointee who nevertheless went to war (unsuccessfully) with Babylon in 597 BCE.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, so much so that the English word “jeremiad” is defined as a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes. In the Bible, the Book of Lamentations was placed after the Book of Jeremiah because of the (incorrect) view that Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” are thought to have been added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

One of the consistent themes in Jeremiah was his ongoing battles with the “court” prophets who told the king what the king wanted to hear and who opposed Jeremiah at every turn.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary states: “The two predominant themes of his message are precisely to define true Yahwism and to proclaim the imminent wars as punishments of the Judah’s aberrations.”

Today’s reading is in “prose style” and contains two critical aspects of the theology of the Deuteronomists: (a) YHWH – like a potter — is in charge of everything and can “shape evil against” Israel (v.11) and “declare concerning a nation” (v. 7); and (b) that if a nation or an individual obeys YHWH’s commands and “turns from evil” (vv.8 and 11), God will change the decision, and good outcomes will result. God was presented as not capricious but responsive to repentance. These themes are present in all the books written and edited by the Deuteronomists (Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings).

The New Oxford Annotated Bible observes that the Potter story is one of the “symbolic acts” that Jeremiah undertakes on the LORD’s instructions and is similar to the sermons on the Temple (Chapter 7) and on Covenant (Chapter 11). It says: “These acts are narrated, for the most part, as though they were private experiences, and signify that Judah’s fate is already determined by its sin….They are addressed first and foremost to post-catastrophe readers.”

That is, this passage is “Post-Exilic” – written to the community in Judea by the Deuteronomists after the Exile as both an explanation of why the Exile occurred and as a warning against failing to worship YHWH fully going forward.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Reading

15 Moses said to all Israel the words which the LORD commanded him, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings, and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Commentary

Deuteronomy is the fifth (and last) book of the Torah and is presented as Moses’ final speech to the Israelites just before they entered the Promised Land. “Deuteronomy” comes from Greek words that mean “Second Law” and is structured as a “restatement” of the laws found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Parts of it were revised as late as 450 BCE, but the bulk of the book is generally dated to the reign of King Josiah of Judea (640-609 BCE).

It is also the first book of the didactic “Deuteronomic History” which consists of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. This “History” teaches that when the people and kings of Israel and Judea worshiped YHWH properly, they prospered, but when they worshiped false gods, other nations (the Assyrians in 722 BCE and Babylonians in 587) conquered them.

Today’s reading is a continuation of Chapter 29 and expressed a theme found in all the Deuteronomic books (Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings): “if you do good, you will get good, but if you do bad, you will get bad.” Indeed, life outside the covenant will lead to death (v.18) but observing the commandments will lead to prosperity and life (v.15).

Scholars agree that verses 1 to 10 in Chapter 30 (which precede today’s reading) are a later insertion between Chapter 29 and today’s reading. This is shown by the promise to “restore your fortunes (v.3) and the reference to the “book of the law” in verse 10. The Torah itself (as a unified book) did not exist until it was finalized and codified around 450 BCE. Similarly, the word “again” (v.9) shows that the text was directed at the returning exiles from Babylon in 500 BCE rather than the Israelites in the Wilderness in 1200 BCE. The JSB describes this as “an insertion that serves the religious needs of a community different from that of the book’s original audience.”

Rather than seeing the Exile and the other conquests of Judea as the result of the greater economic and military might of foreign nations, these conquests were portrayed as the result of failing to obey the commandments of the LORD (v. 16) and being “led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them” (v.17).

Verses 16 and 17 start with “if” and reflect the Deuteronomists’ understanding that the Covenant with the LORD was conditional. Judea had failed to live up to its part of the covenant, and this is why it suffered.

The NOAB and The Jewish Study Bible point out that “in the technical language of Near Eastern treaties ‘love the LORD and walk in his ways’ (v.16) means to act loyally and to honor the commitments of the treaty.”

The NOAB and The JSB also point out that “choose life” (v.19) shows “a didactic use of life and death suggesting the influence of Wisdom teachings upon the authors [citing passages from Proverbs].”

Regarding verses 11 to 14, The JSB notes: “Turning their own characteristic imagery against them, the passage challenges the assumption of Near Eastern wisdom schools about the inaccessibility of divine wisdom and the limits of human knowledge (cf. Job Ch 28).” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary concurs: “The law is not esoteric knowledge requiring that a chosen intermediary like Enoch ascend to heaven in order to communicate it. It is recited in the covenant festival, and God has now put the disposition to obey it in the heart (cf. Jer 31:33; Ezek 36:26-27).”

Philemon 1-21

Reading

1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God 5 because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ. 7 I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother.

8 For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, 9 yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love — and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. 10 I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. 11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me. 12 I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. 13 I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. 15 Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother– especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

17 So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

Commentary

The Letter to Philemon is the shortest letter attributed to Paul and is presented as his last letter in the Bible. (When Jerome translated Paul’s letters into Latin for the Vulgate, he arranged them from the longest to the shortest on the theory that the longer letters were more important.) Today’s reading contains all but the last four verses of the entire letter.

The letter was written from prison, but the site was not specified. It is from Paul and (as is often the case) Timothy (v.1). It is addressed to four recipients – Philemon, Apphia, Archippus and to the church that meets in one of their homes (v.2). Paul was sending the slave Onesimus (whose name, according to the NRSV Translators’ Notes, means “helpful” or “beneficial”) back to Philemon with the hope he will be “useful” (v.11) and with a request that Philemon free Onesimus as a “brother in the Lord” (v. 16). Paul noted that he himself converted Philemon (“owing me in your own self” v.19).

Depending on which verses the reader emphasizes, The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that Onesimus was the slave of Philemon and either ran away from his master after causing him some financial loss (vv.15,18) or he was sent by his owner to serve Paul in prison (v.13).

There are also multiple interpretations of Paul’s vague requests to Philemon regarding Onesimus: (a) to receive him back and forgive his transgressions whatever they may have been (vv.17-18); (b) to send him back to Paul to take care of Paul’s needs in prison (vv.13-14); or (c) receive him back and free him (vv.16, 21). The final decision is left up to Philemon (v.14) but Paul was clearly leaning on Philemon to “do the right thing” (v.14).

The Jewish Annotated New Testament provides these observations: “What is known of Onesimus, except for a reference in Col. 4.9 [‘he (Tychicus) is coming with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother who is one of you.’] comes from the later letter of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, to the church at Ephesus, written probably in the year 107, when Ignatius, under arrest, was on his way to Rome to martyrdom. He refers (Ch 1) to the bishop of the church at Ephesus, Onesimus, and tradition has held that this is the same Onesimus as in Philemon.”

The JANT continues: “In the antebellum United States, both pro-slavery advocates and abolitionists appropriated Paul’s letter to Philemon to support their views of slavery. Some of the former argued that Paul had indeed returned the slave Onesimus to Philemon, and that Philemon himself was both a Christian and a slaveholder. Conversely, some abolitionists argued that Paul, as a Jew, could not possibly have returned a fugitive slave to his owner. They cited Deut 23.15 with its injunction that ‘slaves who have escaped from their owners shall not be given back to them,’ as well as other texts from the Tanakh.”

The JANT also presents an Essay on Slavery in the Roman Empire that says in part: “Chattel slavery was widespread in the Roman Empire….Roman slavery was not race based: individuals were enslaved primarily through captivity in war or by birth to a slave mother….The Essenes did not practice slavery….Jews themselves were enslaved in the Roman-Jewish wars…. Paul, while not seeking the abolition of the slavery, envisioned slaves as having an equal status to free people in relation to salvation: once ‘in Christ’ all people are free from the power of sin…. The Gospels assume that slaves are part of the social order. Jesus heals a centurion’s slave (Mt 8. 5-13) and the slave of the high priest is in the crowd of those who arrest Jesus (Mk 14.47)…. Eph 6.5-8 provides a theological model for obedience: ‘slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ’ (v.5). Neither the institutions of pagan Rome nor those of Judaism and Christianity offered a fundamental challenge to the practice of slavery.”

Luke 14:25-33

Reading

25 Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.

Today’s reading emphasized the costs of discipleship and the need for total devotion if one is to be a follower of Jesus. The language in verse 26 (“hate father and mother etc.”) is seen as hyperbole by The JANT and is stronger than parallel sayings in Matthew 10:37 (“whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me”) and in John 12:25 (“Those who love their life lose it and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”)

The need to “carry the cross and follow me” (v.27) is parallel to sayings in Mark 8:34 and Matt.10:38 and is understood as the need to be willing to risk death or endure other sufferings. Verses 28 to 32 are practical admonitions and examples of recognizing in advance the cost of an endeavor. The JANT opines that the reference to “building a tower” suggests an “elite audience.”

The conclusion in verse 33 is that one must give up all one’s possessions if one is to be a disciple of Jesus the Christ. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes: “This troublesome verse is introduced by Gk houtōs oun, normally translated “similarly” [rather than “So therefore” as in the NRSV] and shows that in verse 33 the conclusion is being drawn from the parables of vv 28-32 [building a tower or waging a war]…. The comparison drawn between vv 28-32 and 33 is this: the fate of those who are not able to see something through to completion. Jesus’ followers must not recoil before any sacrifice required of them to see their following of him through to the end, even if this means the sacrifice of all their possessions….Thus, v 33 is not a command that all disciples willy-nilly renounce their possessions.”