000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Proper 20 [25]/Year B 187
emphases are compatible in ways that make it logical to consider them at
the same time. For background on the books of Jeremiah and Wisdom,
see the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany/Year C, and Proper 8/Year B.
Jeremiah’s sermons on judgment made some people so uncomfortable
that, in today’s short lesson, Jeremiah laments that some people in Judah
plotted to assassinate him. Until God made this known to Jeremiah (Jer.
11:18), he was like a gentle lamb being led to the slaughter, innocent and
unaware of the plot against him (Jer. 11:19a). The prophet quotes those
involved in the conspiracy as saying they want to destroy him and see to
it that his name is no longer remembered so that the memory of his ministry
would not trouble subsequent generations (11:19b). Jeremiah, however,
knows that God judges righteously. In the minds of many in
antiquity, this quality included God’s punishing perpetrators of injustice.
When Jeremiah says, “To you I have committed my cause,” Jeremiah
means that the prophet trusts God to carry out retribution (Jer. 11:20).
The Wisdom of Solomon invites readers to live in a godly way and thereby
attain immortality while cautioning readers against ungodliness that leads to
death. In Wisdom 1:16 the author introduces a speech from the mouths of
the ungodly, assuring the reader that the ungodly make a covenant with
death. In 2:1–20, the author uses the literary form of the Hellenistic diatribe
to voice the viewpoint of the author’s opponents, the ungodly. For them,
death means the end of existence (2:1–5). Therefore, they should enjoy the
pleasures of this present life to the maximum, even if such pleasure means
that they oppress others, including the poor and righteous (2:6–11).
In Wisdom 2:12–16, the ungodly charge that the presence of the righteous
is an inconvenience because they reproach the ungodly (2:12). The
ungodly plan to kill the righteous to test whether the words of the righteous
one are true (2:18). If so, God will deliver the righteous person from
death (2:19). They condemn the righteous to “a shameful death” that
includes insult and torture to find out how faithful and gentle that person
is and whether God will protect (2:19–20).
The author then comments that the reasoning of the ungodly is mistaken.
They are blind to the secret purposes of God which includes an
afterlife. The writer is confident of immortality because God “created
human beings for incorruption” by making them in the divine image
which is “the image of [God’s] own eternity” (2:21–23). At the end of
earthly existence, the righteous do not die but pass into fullness of life with
God and are truly “happy.”
Although the Gospel reading for today, Mark 9:30–37, does not directly
recollect the passages from Jeremiah or Wisdom, the latter illustrate a