GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (30) Jeremiah & Jesus, part II: covenant & kingdom

 

“[Jesus] also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (Gospel of Mark 4.30-32)

     What were Jeremiah and Jesus trying to accomplish?  Both prophets seemed to have dedicated their lives to a fool’s errand.  In the case of Jeremiah, God told him at the moment of his calling that his audience would resist his message (Jer. 1.17-19) and as we read the book of Jeremiah, it often feels like the destruction of Judah is a foregone conclusion.  As for Jesus, he quoted the prophet Isaiah to describe his contemporaries’ inability to understand his teaching (Mk. 4.11-12; cf. Is. 6.9-10).  Both Jeremiah and Jesus called their contemporaries to “repent”, i.e., to change their ways, but with very mixed results.  In both cases, the worse predictions of the two prophets came true.

     Jeremiah spent his life pleading, cajoling and threatening Jerusalem to return to faithfulness to the covenant with Yahweh as stipulated in the book of Deuteronomy.  Jeremiah insisted that covenant faithfulness was the way to “life” (cf. Dt. 30.15-20; Jer. 21.8-10).  However, the Judahites continued to put their trust either in pagan deities (cf. Jer. 7.16-18) or in political alliances with pagan nations (cf. Is. 36.6).  As Judah’s very survival was threatened, the people of Yahweh looked everywhere but to their God for salvation, and instead, met with disaster.

     At the time of Jesus, the issue was no longer idolatry, but rather defining what faithfulness to the covenant looked like.  Added to the variety of expressions of covenant-faithfulness that were on offer was the added hope for the advent of the “kingdom of Yahweh”, the reign of the true King of the Universe/Israel which would displace the pagan empires that had subjugated the people of God for centuries (cf. Dn. 2.44-45).  The Scriptures were replete with promises of this moment of liberation that would make the Golden Age of David/Solomon seem insignificant in comparison.  Well, centuries had come and gone since these promises had been made.  Life had gone on – the harsh reality of trying to eke an existence out of the soil and the flocks, all the while being bled dry by taxes and subjugated to the daily humiliations of being a conquered people in an enemy-occupied land.  Hopes had been raised and dashed, time and time again.  Several groups formed in the centuries before the birth of Jesus, each one having its own view of the kingdom and what one should do in the present to hasten the kingdom’s/the king’s arrival.

     Many undertook an intense study of the Scriptures, looking frantically for clues as to when the great moment would arrive (usually trying to figure out when Daniel’s 70 weeks would come to an end: Dn. 9.24-27.  The more things change…) and trying to teach others how they should be living in the meantime (= the Pharisees).  This was a “kingdom by torah-observance” movement.  Others had gotten tired of waiting and decided to “storm the Capitol” in the hope that God would notice and “get with their program”, one of revolt against the enemies of Yahweh’s people (= the Zealots, brigands). This was a “kingdom by violence” movement.  Many priests who had become fed up with the corruption of the Sadducean hierarchy in the Jerusalem Temple fled to Qumran by the Dead Sea to await the Day of the Lord with the Essene community.  This was a “kingdom by piety” movement.  Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and Essenes – the first-century Jewish historian Josephus described these groups to the Romans as constituting the “Four philosophies” of Judaism.  The program of all of these “kingdom” movements was to mark themselves out in the present time as being the true, faithful people of God over against pagans and “sinful” Jews.  When God returned to establish his kingdom, he would “justify” and vindicate those who had demonstrated their loyalty to him as being the true people of God.  They would enter the Age to Come as the Righteous (i.e., the “justified ones”). 

     While Jeremiah called the people to turn from their idolatry, and failing that, to throw themselves on the mercy of the Babylonians (=Yahweh?!), Jesus called his contemporaries to a radical imitation of Yahweh, who makes the sun shine on the bad and good alike (cf. Mt. 5.38-48).  Jesus calls his generation to the love of enemy, i.e., the Roman occupiers and the Jewish collaborators that collected their taxes.  Jesus subverted all notions of self-preserving nationalism that had attached themselves to the hope for the kingdom of God among many of his contemporaries.  Jesus offered his own interpretation of the reign of God – his was a “kingdom by suffering service” movement (cf. Mk. 8.27-38; 10.32-45).  Indeed, as far as Jesus was concerned, the way to honour the covenant was to serve “the nations” by being “the salt of the earth and the light of the world” (Mt. 5.13-16).  This would inevitably lead to suffering, but also future vindication (Mt. 5.9-12).  Of course, then as now, the upside-down kingdom of Jesus remains invisible to those who are blinded by fear and pride…

 

“for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that

‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
    and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’” (Mk. 4.11-12)

 

“Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mk. 8.31)