🦁 Lent 6-3
Readings: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Jeremiah 33:10-16; Mark 10:32-34, 46-52.
Reflection
Good morning. This is Tim Tribble, broadcasting from Sacramento, California. Today's readings come to us from Psalm 118, verses one and two and 19 to 29. Jeremiah, Chapter 33, verses 10 to 16. And the Gospel of Mark, Chapter ten, verses 32 to 34 and 46 to 52. This is our last time together before Holy Week.
And we start the march towards Jesus's execution and resurrection. So Jesus at this time, Mark 32 to 34, is titled Jesus Foretells His death for a third time. And this is a very important period because a lot of people still do not understand who Jesus really is. And he tells them that they will be going to Jerusalem, which is about 12 miles away. They're currently in Jericho and he began to tell them what was going to happen. They were going to Jerusalem. The son of man will be delivered to the chief priest. That's the Judas Iscariot, and they will condemn him for his acts against the Jewish faith and understand the verses and scribes. This is the ruling higher upper class of Judaism at that time, and you know, he's been pissing on the power structure and the way they do things and the way that they've taken the covenant and the way it was supposed to be and really messed it up.
So we come in, he said. They're going to be condemned however they are, and they're a part of the Roman Empire. And the Roman Empire. Only Rome can put someone to death. So that's where he said that they would hand deliver him to the Gentiles, the Gentiles being the Roman, a Gentile, is anyone who's non-Jewish. And then they would mock him, spit on him, flogging and kill him. And this was a very common thing. Prisoners were not treated well at all. There there was no dignity, no nothing of when we say flogging, you know, there's these cute little pictures of Jesus on the cross with a few red stripes across his body. I saw a very good rendering years ago and basically this was what he would have look like. The flogs that they use were embedded with glass and other sharp objects. Basically, Jesus would have looked like a pound of ground round hanging on the cross.
But Jesus has one last miracle the sun, the two towers. Barton is sitting at the roadside and he is blind. And he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is walking that way. And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And then, of course, there was a shut up, you know, knock it off. Leave the guy alone. And I made him yell even louder. Son of David, Have mercy on me. He just stopped. And of course, the Colm, come call him. They came. They called the blind man. Take heart. Get up. He is calling you. They come over to
Jesus and he asks, What do you want me to do for you? Now? Mind you, this is Jesus. He already knows. He wants to hear from the guy. He says, Rabbi, teacher, let me recover my sight. Jesus said, Then go your way. Your faith is made. You will. And of course, immediately his sight was restored and he followed him on the way. Your faith has made you well. At the beginning he called him the son of David. That means that Barnabas recognized Jesus as the Messiah. As the Son of God. That's the faith that Jesus is talking about. It's not necessarily just that if Jesus if I talk to Jesus, I get my eyes, my sight back.
This was the fact that he believed and stated out loud, Son of David. So he knew he was the the prophesied Messiah, the savior of Israel. And he called him that. And Jesus, of course, gave him his sight. And they went on to Jerusalem, where this Sunday, tomorrow is Palm Sunday, and this is where Jesus makes the grand entrance on the using the donkey and going, This is the only time that Jesus enters anywhere during his life and ministry and a, quote, grand style on the back of a donkey, people yelling and worshipping and praising him and welcoming him and all you, all the big crowd seen it all up. This is the only time and this is what really freaks out. Even more so, the Pharisees and the scribes are like, Wait a minute, You know, we got to shut this down. This guy is going to take away our livelihood.
So Jesus goes into This is tomorrow, Palm Sunday, and that's the beginning of Holy Week. And then next week during our podcast, I'm going to be doing the Holy Week readings that we have in the Episcopal Church will be starting on Monday with the Annunciation of Christ. And we will be going through each of the days. This is the final week of Jesus's life and ministry here on Earth as a human being. And we're going to walk through each day all the way up to Good Friday. And then we have the Saturday vigil. And then, of course, Sunday will be Easter when he is found to be resurrected.
So I hope you join us on this Holy Week journey and bring some things out and think things that some of you may not have heard before and may not know about in the last week and what Jesus did in the in his ministry and in his life. Amen.
