I suppose all of us have had it happen to us. We confide something really important and\npersonal to our closest family members or friends, and they just seem to ignore\nwhat we say. They move on, and even\nchange the topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what happened to Jesus in this morning\u2019s Gospel. Jesus tells his closest disciples what is\ngoing to happen to him in no uncertain terms: suffering, death on a cross, and\nresurrection after three days. And what\nhappens next? Jesus is lobbied by two of\nhis disciples Mother for the top places in the Kingdom of God for her sons. You would think these disciples would have\nshown some concern, some empathy, even some curiosity after hearing what Jesus\npredicted would happen to him. But\ninstead Matthew tells us they were completely derailed by the request of the\ntwo brothers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew says \u201cWhen the ten heard this they became indignant\nat the two brothers\u201d. And Jesus had to\nset them straight. He tells them such an\nhonor is not his to give. He tells them\nthey must become servants of others just as he had become. He tells them they will drink of the same cup\nthat he will drink. That would mean to\nme that they were going to have to suffer just like Jesus predicted he would. It would seem that Jesus had returned to his\noriginal topic- suffering. But it\ndoesn\u2019t seem to have phased the disciples in the least. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there is the story of Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesied fearlessly in the name of\nthe Lord. It was a prophecy of suffering\nand exile. It wasn\u2019t what the people\nwanted to hear- in fact, it ran counter to what the priests and other prophets were\nsaying at the time. So, it was a source\nof irritation to them. The Israeli\nsociety just didn\u2019t want to face the reality of an impending woe. So, the people decided to scheme against Jeremiah;\ntry to get some argument against him using his own words. They planned to throw him into a pit and\nleave him; and he says as much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think Jesus disciples ignored his prophecy of suffering for\nthe same reason the Israelis rejected Jeremiah\u2019s prophesy of suffering and\nexile. It\u2019s the same reason that most of\nus avoid talking about pain and suffering. \nWe just don\u2019t want to hear about it, even when it is the truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it is much more certain to be avoided when it is a\nsocietal woe rather than an individual one. \nIn many cases, we will show empathy and concern for a loved one who\nwants to talk about their suffering, like when someone is suffering from a\nterminal illness; or someone has lost a loved one because it is the others who\nare suffering, not us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it is quite another thing when some woe is predicted on\nsomeone that is going to affect us as well. \nThat was the case with the Apostles. \nCertainly, if all of what Jesus predicted would happen to him came to\npass, the Apostles would all be sure to suffer as well. And if the Israeli nation in Jeremiah\u2019s day were\nconquered and sent into exile; well everyone would be affected and suffer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is no different today; prophets of doom are rejected when\nthey speak. Think about some of the\nmodern-day prophecies of doom that all of us are hearing about: climate change; runaway debt; Immigration; moral\ndecay; terrorism; abortion; socialism; you get the point. Which of these are real and which are not? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Real prophets are humble servants, they do not gain from\ntheir prophesies. Real prophets speak in\nthe name of God, not in the name of man. \nThe prophesies of real prophets come true, as did all of Jeremiah\u2019s\nprophecies, as did everything Jesus told his disciples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact is that there are success stories about prophesies\nof doom that were averted by sincere people.. There are times when prophets\nhave been listened to, and people have responded rather than rejected them. The book of Jonah tells one such success story. The people of Nineveh repented of their sin\nafter Jonah prophesied their doom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lent is a time for us to repent and change our way. Part of our Lenten practice should be listening\nto modern day prophets. They are our\ncollective conscience; they are awakening us to important truths we don\u2019t want\nto hear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can make important changes in our lives that respond to\nthe truth they predict even if the prophecies are inconvenient truths. It\u2019s been done before; and it is done one\nperson at a time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday of Second Week in Lent Jer 18:18-20; Mt 20:17-28 Deacon Larry Brockman I suppose all of us have had it happen to us. We confide something really important and personal to our closest family members or friends, and they just seem to ignore what we say. They move on, and even change the topic. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[592,591],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}