Sunday, November 20, 2022

20 November 2022 - the eyes of faith


Here we are, your bone and your flesh.

David was qualified to unite the tribes of Israel under his kingship because, among other reasons, he was of their bone and their flesh. But in a way this also circumscribed his kingship and limited it to the tribes of a single nation. Jesus was qualified to unite all of humanity because of his incarnation. By sharing in our common humanity Jesus was potentially related not only to his brothers and sisters in Israel, but by all who would have faith in him.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity (see Hebrews 2:14).

David was a man after God's own heart (see First Samuel 13:14), and so it was no wonder that it was from tending the sheep that he was called (see First Samuel 16:11) in order to be anointed king.  His reign as king was in turn a call to be a shepherd for the people of Israel. The care and compassion he demonstrated in tending weak and vulnerable sheep was practice for the solicitude to which he was called for the sake of the people of his nation. To David, this king with the heart of a shepherd, God promised to raise up offspring after him to build a house for his name and to establish the throne of his kingdom forever (see Second Samuel 7:12-13). Yet this was obviously not fulfilled in Solomon, although Solomon did build a temple a reign throughout his life. But he himself did not retain a heart like David's, chasing instead after many wives and their pagan gods. And he himself was only the beginning in a long line of kings who were largely sinful and corrupt. It was not long after his reign ended that the kingdom was divided and conquered. It seemed that perhaps the sinfulness of men had canceled out the promises of God. But it was not so. God himself lamented that state of things and promised that the role of shepherd over the people would again be filled.

I myself will be the Shepherd of my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace,” the Lord God says. “I will seek my lost ones, those who strayed away, and bring them safely home again. (see Ezekiel 34:16-18).

‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding (see Jeremiah 3:15).

First, God himself would come to be the Good Shepherd who would lay down his life for his sheep (see John 10:11). Then he would call his apostles and their successors to share in that role.

At the birth of Jesus we see that it precisely as a fulfillment of the promise God made to David that he had come into the world.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (see Luke 1:32-33).

David gained fame for his military victories, shepherding his people by uniting them and protecting them from human enemies. It was rather a different sort of victory by which Jesus gained for his people true and lasting peace. It was his victory over sin and even over death itself that made it possible for his sheep to dwell in everlasting peace. Jesus and his Church would shepherd people even through the dark valley of the shadow of death in order that we might dwell in his courts forever more. It was not human enemies that Jesus conquered for our sake but the very powers of darkness themselves, thereby rescuing all of the lost sheep who had been slaves and captives in that darkness, bringing them into his own Kingdom of light.

He delivered us from the power of darkness
and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Kingdom of Jesus looked very different from the kingdom of David, almost so much as to be unrecognizable. To the eyes of the world it appeared that he had failed to fulfill the promises that the Messiah was meant to embody. Thus they jeered at him and taunted him as he suffered agony on the cross. But this was not defeat. This was exactly where he intended to be. It was precisely here, in this gift of himself for the world, that he was most perfectly reigning as shepherd and King. It was precisely here, as he took on himself our just condemnation, that he most perfectly revealed God's unchanging love for humankind. When seen with the eyes of faith it was not a defeat but rather a victory, the one true victory without which nothing else would avail for us, his lost and scattered sheep. This was what the good thief was able to recognize.

Then he said,
"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
He replied to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
today you will be with me in Paradise."


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