A homily on Jeremiah, chapter 15, the Letter to the Romans, chapter 12, and the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16.
In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today's readings from the prophet Jeremiah, Matthew's Gospel, and the letter of Paul to the Romans, present different ways of understanding God's supposed retribution for the failings of the human race. We can read the three passages as a progression from the confused and very human frustrations of the prophet Jeremiah, to the Gospel passage, in which our Lord calms and redirects the equally human responses of Peter. And the twelfth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans lays out what the new life, of which our Lord is the foundation, looks like. And Paul reminds us against reverting to the kind of confusion and frustration to which Jeremiah gives voice in today's first reading.
We remember that Jeremiah says at the very beginning of the reading: "O Lord, you know; remember me and visit me, and bring retribution for me on my persecutors." Jeremiah wants to get even, because no one is paying any attention to him, believing, as he does, that no one is heeding the message which he believes he has from God. This reaction of Jeremiah's is understandable and natural. We all, I'm sure, allow this desire for revenge, for retribution, to come to the surface of our minds from time to time. And every day we hear news of one kind or another of violent retribution.
Jeremiah goes on to justify his demand, as though he is entitled to God's fulfilment of his request. E.g, "Your words become to me a joy....I did not sit in the company of merrymakers....for you had filled me with indignation." Note that Jeremiah thinks that his own indignation comes from God --- this kind of thinking is a constant temptation for religious people. Jeremiah here is a model of a kind of puritanical temperament, which imagines that to give up merrymaking and to adopt a grim religious outlook on life, particularly toward the merrymaking of others, is somehow to be doing the work of God. And Jeremiah wants this God to take revenge on the people that Jeremiah disapproves of.
But, notice what the Lord says here. "If you turn back --- if you, Jeremiah, turn back --- I will take you back, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall serve as my mouth." In other words, it seems to me, God is turning Jeremiah away from his desire for retribution, back to Jeremiah's true calling: to utter what is precious. God promised only that the wicked and the ruthless will not prevail. God is turning Jeremiah away from his grim, vengeful attitude, back to his true calling: to be a prophet to the nations, as it says in the first chapter of the book of Jeremiah.
The theme of retribution comes up again in today's Gospel Our Lord says, "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done." To understand this remark, we must look at the rest of the passage, which presents some interesting contrasts to the reading from Jeremiah.
Like Jeremiah, Jesus experiences suffering at the hands of others. But Jesus prophesies that this suffering will lead to his rising on the third day, and he does not demand retribution for it. Peter, in the very human state of mind which he exhibits so often, objects to this announcement. And Jesus tells Peter that he is setting his mind "not on divine things but on human things."
According to our Lord, to set our minds on divine things is the deny ourselves, to save ourselves by losing ourselves. We deny ourselves when we decide to follow Jesus where he leads us. It is in this paradoxical context of saving ourselves by losing ourselves, that we are to understand Jesus's remark about his Father repaying everyone for what has been done. We naturally, in our normal state of mind set on human things, think of repaying evil for evil. But there is far more than that going on here. The Book of the Revelation to John may be read as a fuller description of the coming of the Son of Man with his angels. And it culminates, as we know, in the coming of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Of course, this is far beyond the simple retribution which Jeremiah imagined.
Today's reading from Paul's letter to the Romans, the twelfth chapter, gives us another insight into what the Christian attitude to retribution really is. Paul writes, "Do no repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all." Furthermore, Paul writes, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." In other words, we must not imagine, as perhaps Jeremiah did, that our indignation is God's indignation, and we must not act on it. God alone is judge of all, and he alone knows how to repay evil. Paul writes, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." That is what God does, that is what God's retribution amounts to, and it is what he requires us to do.
Our translation titles this section of Paul's letter, "Marks of the true Christian." Indeed, it is a remarkable list of attributes. I spent some time recently attempting to compare my own behavior to this list. I think I almost achieved a few of them. My awareness of my own shortcomings reminds me not to be too quick to point out, even only to myself, the supposed shortcomings of others. All all three readings today remind us, one way or another, of what God is calling us to do an be. They remind us not to be too quick to call down God's wrath, when we have yet to attain the goals he has set for us.
In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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