Fr Matthew Reese

“And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them into the heart of Ab′salom, while he was still alive in the oak. And ten young men, Jo′ab’s armor-bearers, surrounded Ab′salom and struck him, and killed him.”
—2 Samuel 18:14-15

“When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.”
—Acts 23:12

“He had still one other, a beloved son; finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’”
—Mark 12:6-7

Dear Friends in Christ,

The past two Saturdays, my wife Emma and I were away for weddings No. 3 and 4 (of six!) this year. And I had hoped that the daily lections on my return would have given me something cheery and hopeful to tie to those experiences.

But instead, we have this. 

The Daily Lectionary principally follows long narratives of Scripture in order, with relatively little attention to the interrelation between the readings. We’re in the midst of nearly two weeks of simultaneous (and continuous) readings of 2 Samuel, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Gospel according to Mark. Rarely do the themes of these passages align. 

But today, it couldn’t possibly be clearer. The brutal murder of Absalom. The plot to assassinate Paul. Jesus’ gruesome parable about the ungrateful tenants. 

Scripture is—in part—the story of a people and their relationship with God, and in that narrative, it encapsulates the totality of human experience. People can be violent. And so, Scripture is full of the stories of that violence, so much of it so futile. 

What can be particularly shocking to our modern sensibilities is how certain Biblical characters—and certain Biblical authors, such as the Psalmist—valorize it. But Scripture is not an endorsement of violence.

We read in our newspapers, see on our televisions and phones, perhaps even in our own neighborhoods, the callousness, the seeming endlessness of violence in the world. So, how are we to answer that?

Jesus reminds us that it is always our moral duty to align ourselves with—to empathize first with—the victims of this violence. That it is amongst the downtrodden, the beaten, the abused, that He is most to be found. Jesus reminds of the shocking needlessness of violence. Jesus reminds us, most difficultly, that we must not look away.

But by his glorious resurrection, Jesus shows us that death is not the end. That the forces of darkness and evil are no match for the goodness of God. Let us cling to that.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew