ordinary time The Sánchez Archives

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Year A

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Meek Messiah - An Oxymoron?

ZECHARIAH 9:9-10
ROMANS 8:9, 11-13
MATTHEW 11:25-30

As the political machine which periodically attempts to overhaul this nation grinds into gear, the air is rife with sound-bites and slogans intended to grab the attention of the voting public. Great care is taken to preserve and promote what has come to be known as “political correctness”. Pundits and pollsters prattle in a jargon characterized by certain so-called buzzwords or important sounding words or phrases which give the impression that the speaker is an expert about the topic at hand. A dictionary of these terms entitled, Buzzwords: A Guide to the Language of Leadership, has been compiled; each of the six hundred entries has been chosen because of its potential for graphic and persuasive communication.

Among these buzzwords are adjectives, descriptive of an electable leader, e.g. decisive, ambitious, wise, strong, forceful, assertive, determined, experienced, etc. But nowhere in the dictionary, in any sound-bite, slogan or politically correct jargon can the adjective meek be found predicated of a would-be leader. In contemporary parlance the term meek is evocative of weakness; in fact, the American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, defines the word as “easily imposed upon; submissive”. Etymologically, however, the word has a much more potent meaning and for this reason, meek is an apt term for describing Israel’s long-awaited Messiah (first reading) as well as the heart and mind of Jesus (gospel).

Meek or meekness comes from the Greek word, praotes, which means not easily provoked. Aristotle, who defined virtue as a mean between two extremes, understood praotes or meekness as the balance between orgilotes or excessive anger and aorgesia which means a complete lack of anger. A meek person would therefore understand that the control and direction of his/her temper could be “one of the great moral dynamics of the world.” (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, St. Andrew’s Press, Edinburgh: 1978). A wild horse which had been brought under control was also said to be meek. Meekness is not weakness, but power which is fully controlled. Another way of understanding praotes or meekness is as a quality which makes a person capable of learning and open to God. Those lacking in meekness are so convinced of their own knowledge that they are incapable of being taught. Without the discipline of meekness, discipleship is not possible. So also, only the meek person, who recognizes the truth of himself/herself as sinful and needful before God, is receptive to his healing forgiveness.

When Jesus invited believers to “learn from me, for I am meek (or gentle) and humble of heart” (gospel), he was in effect professing his openness and obedience to the will of his Father and calling others to follow his lead. “Meekness, however, is not simple compliance; it is rather a daring acquiescence that will trust God regardless of the circumstances.” (C. Paul Willis, Bells and Pomegranates, Destiny Image Publishers, Shippensburg, PA: 1991). Having been sent by the Father to answer Israel’s messianic hopes, Jesus, in all meekness, fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah (first reading); through his saving death on the cross he brought justice, peace and salvation to the nations.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans (second reading) explains that true meekness is possible when the believer dares to acquiesce to the power of God and becomes a dwelling place for the Spirit. Politics, and pundits notwithstanding, today’s liturgy reminds this gathered assembly that authentic leadership is not defined by buzzwords or sound-bites but by virtue.

ZECHARIAH 9:9-10

Although the earliest known manuscripts of the scrolls of the minor prophets indicate no interruption between Zechariah, chapters 1-8 and Zechariah 9-14, contemporary scholarship attributes the work to two, if not three, distinct authors. First Zechariah appears to be the message of a post-exilic prophet, a contemporary and colleague of Haggai, who was instrumental in the reconstruction of Judah after the Babylonian exile, ca. 520 B.C.E. The first eight chapters of Zechariah are comprised of a series of symbolic visions intended to impart encouragement to the recently returned exiles. This sixth century B.C.E. prophet was the first biblical writer to feature an angel interpreter whose explanations elucidated the otherwise cryptic visions. Angel interpreters became a standard feature of apocalyptic literature and a source of assurance that God remained in close contact with his people, aware of their plight and guiding their course.

The second part of the book of Zechariah (ch. 9-14) appears to be the work of a later prophet but the precise historical situation is difficult to ascertain. Some scholars have dated these oracles to a period as early as 721 B.C.E.; others posit a time near the end of the southern kingdom, ca. 597 B.C.E. Still others and, this latter group is a growing consensus, believe Zechariah 9-14 to represent God’s message to his people in the early Hellenistic period, viz. after 333 B.C.E. but before 200 B.C.E. Thierry Maertens and Jean Frisque have described the unnamed author of Deutero or Second Zechariah as an anthologist who borrowed images and themes from his predecessors and modified them according to the requirements of his contemporary situation“ (Guide for the Christian Assembly, Fides Publishing Inc., Notre Dame: 1970).

In this particular pericope, the prophet has revived his readers’ hopes in a Davidic messiahship. With the death of Judah’s last king and the subsequent years of foreign rule (under Persia), messianic anticipation had withered; but Deutero-Zechariah’s vision made it palpable once again. In the verses immediately preceding this excerpt (Zechariah 9:1-8), God has been portrayed as a warrior defending his people against their enemies. According to the prophet, once these former enemies were purged of their unacceptable pagan cults, they would be incorporated into the people of God.

At this point in his prophecy Deutero-Zechariah announced the reign of a just and peaceable king in terms reminiscent of Isaiah 11:1-9 and Genesis 49:10-11. His rule shall be signified not by the horse and chariot which were symbols of war and destruction but by the foal of a donkey, an animal associated with a time of peace. Like Moses, the great leader of Israel who was described as “the meekest man on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3) because of his trust and faith in God, the future king would be characterized as a meek messiah, viz. one whose power and authority would be derived not from self-assertion but from reliance on God. Through his reign, Ephraim (Israel) and Jerusalem (Judah) would be united once again and his dominion would extend to universal proportions. From sea to sea (vs. 10) is probably a reference to the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the Persian Gulf in the east; the River is the Euphrates and the term “the ends of the earth” referred to southwestern Europe (Spain) which was thought to be the extent of the then known world.

When each of the evangelists told of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (see Palm Sunday liturgy), they did so in terms which evoked this prophetic vision (Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:29-44, John 12:12-15); the early Christians recognized Jesus’ actions as messianic and understood that the promised reign of universal peace had begun to emerge in his person and through his mission. After his death and resurrection, Jesus’ followers remembered, preserved and passed on his teaching concerning the virtue of meekness. “Blessed are the meek; they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

ROMANS 8:9, 11-13

World renowned evangelist Billy Graham once explained that a person who has been “meeked” by God has been tamed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Like a river under control which can be used to generate power. . . like a fire under control can heat a home, so also meekness is power, strength, spirit and wildness under control” (The Faithful Christian, An Anthology of Billy Graham, McCracken Press, New York: 1994). Paul, for his part, described this same quality as living, not according to the flesh and its evil deeds, but according to the Spirit.

Recall, if you will, that when Paul speaks of flesh, he does not simply mean the body or humanity’s carnal nature; by the term sarx Paul means human nature centered on itself rather than God. Flesh includes the human propensity to weakness and its solidarity with sin and death through Adam. Pneuma or Spirit, on the other hand, refers to humanity centered on and constantly reoriented to God. Paul understood that all human beings, because of their bond with Adam, are “in the flesh”. But it is possible for a person to definitively break his or her identification with Adam and live “in the Spirit” by appropriating in faith the gift of salvation made available through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Earlier in his letter to the Christians of Rome, Paul had expounded upon the freedoms afforded to believers because of Jesus’ saving work. Having established, in a negative sense, all that Christians have been freed from, viz., from sin and death (5:12-21), from sin and self (6:1-23), and from the law (7:1-25), he then proceeded to express the positive benefits of Christian freedom. Through Christ and through the Spirit of God which dwells within, believers are free to live a new life for God.

Notice Paul’s several references, in this pericope, to the reality of the Christian experience. Believers are variously described as “in the Spirit”; the Spirit of God wells in you; having the Spirit of Christ; belonging to Christ; the Spirit of him who raised Christ. . . dwells in you; through his Spirit dwelling in you. As Joseph Fitzmyer has observed, “when one first meets such diverse modes of expression, they seem confusing and one might ask, ‘Who is in whom?’ Yet, by them Paul forestalls an overfacile interpretation of how the Christian is united with Christ in the service of God. He is trying to describe the indescribable symbiotic union of Christ and the Christian.” (Spiritual Exerices Based On Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Paulist Press, New York: 1995). Because of this union, the life of the believers is transformed; thereafter, it is by the power, strength and Spirit of Christ that the Christian is enlivened and empowered. Elsewhere in his correspondence, Paul described the Christian experience in these words, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Michael Whelan described the process of turning away from the flesh to the Spirit and from self to God as a “shifting of one’s center of gravity” (Living Strings, An Introduction to Biblical Spirituality, Morehouse Publishing Co., Ridgefield, CT: 1994). It is to find the center of human existence, outside and beyond myself, in God. John the Baptizer expressed his awareness of this experience by declaring, “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). Mary acquiesced to a God-centered life by proclaiming “Let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Today Paul reminds each of us that life in Christ demands a deliberate and daily shifting of our center of gravity, an acquiescence to the power of God which is meekness.

MATTHEW 11:25-30

In the verses immediately preceding this gospel (Matthew 11:16-24), Jesus confronted those who refused to believe in him with their lack of meekness. Full of themselves and their own messianic expectations, they were unreceptive to Jesus’ words and works. In the prayer which comprises the first half of today’s pericope (vss. 25-27), Jesus praises “merest children” who in their meekness are capable of learning the mysteries he had come to reveal and thereby are candidates for discipleship. The second section of the gospel (vss. 28-30) represents a formal invitation which Jesus extends to all, who in their meekness, would come to him to learn and to find refreshment in him.

Verses 25-27 are also found in Luke’s gospel and were apparently drawn from a common source shared by both evangelists, viz. Q. Q stands for Quelle, the German word for source and refers to a collection of sayings of Jesus circulated in Greek in the fifties C.E. which was known to both Matthew and Luke. Because these verses (25-27) are unlike most of the synoptic material and are very similar to the Johannine literature, (especially the theme of the mutuality between the Father and the Son), Reginald Fuller has described them as a “synoptic thunderbolt from the Johannine sky”. Deeply rooted in Jesus’ self-understanding, these verses are “probably best understood as an early liturgical fragment celebrating the knowledge of God which has come through Jesus Christ and as a half-way house toward the development of the Johannine discourses.” (Preaching the New Lectionary, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville: 1976).

The mention of little ones or merest children who are open to the mysteries of God is reminiscent of the poor ones or anawim of the Hebrew Scriptures who in meekness and faith looked to God as the source and center of their lives.

Unique to Matthew’s gospel, the invitation of verses 28-30 resembles the invitations extended by personified Wisdom (Proverbs 8-9) and by the sage, Jesus ben Sirach (Sirach 51:23-30) in the sapiential literature. Jesus’ cordial invitation was directed at those whom the Pharisees (“the learned and clever” of vs. 25) referred to derogatively as ’am-ha aretz, which is Hebrew, for people of the land. These were despised and regarded as cursed (see John 7:49) because their observance of the law did not equal that of the Pharisees. Actually, it was the unwieldy Pharisaic halakah, or oral tradition surrounding the law, which had proven to be an insufferable burden to the ordinary people of Jesus’ day. Aware of their situation (see Matthew 23:4), as well as the fact that the rabbis referred to the Torah or law as a yoke, Jesus bid the weary to exchange their burdensome yoke for the one he offered. Perhaps Jesus described his yoke, viz. his interpretation of the law as easy and light because it was not an obligation imposed by a lawyer but a choice freely offered and supported by a loving brother and friend (John 15:14-15). “Central to the yoke or law of Jesus is Jesus himself. Since he embodies all he teaches and commands, the pupil must study him, his meekness towards men (cf. 9:5; 21:5), his lowly, obedient heart given to God.” (John P. Meier, Matthew, Michael Glazier, Inc., Wilmington: 1983). The rest Jesus offers is the security and peace of following the path of goodness (Jeremiah 6:16). Rest was also understood as God’s gift to those who remained faithful to their covenant relationship with him and enjoyed the constancy of his presence (Exodus 33:12-14).

Jesus’ invitation to come and find rest and refreshment is an appealing reminder that every burden and restlessness will be eased for those who acquiesce to his power and, in meekness, shift their center of gravity to him.

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