Scripture Study for

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Understanding the Word

By Br. John R. Barker, OFM

The context of Isaiah’s oracle is the siege of Jerusalem by Assyria  around 701 B.C. Shebna, a scribe, holds the office of “master of the  palace” or “royal steward,” a position of high authority. Apparently  at some point he brought scandal to the royal household and was  replaced by Eliakim, a move here attributed to the judgment of God  on Shebna. As royal steward, Eliakim will now hold “the key of the  House of David,” a symbol of his high authority. Such is the honor  of this post that his family’s glory will depend on him (“hang” from  him), who is fixed like a peg in the wall, holding “descendants and  offspring” like “little dishes” (22:24). 

Paul knows that God’s word has not failed, so Israel’s refusal  to accept Jesus as Messiah must be part of God’s intention from  the beginning. It has allowed for the extension of salvation to the  Gentiles. This plan for the salvation of the world reveals God’s  wisdom, which remains inscrutable and unsearchable, even as the  outlines come slowly into view. Ultimately, Paul cannot know exactly  what God is up to in all the details, but believes that what God is  doing is good and it ultimately means mercy for all, including the  currently “disobedient” Israel. This is cause for wonder and reasons  to give glory to God, whose ways may not be known, but can be trusted.

When Jesus asks his disciples who people say he is, they give the  standard conjectures that he is a forerunner, but not the Messiah  himself. Because Simon has received from God the insight that Jesus  is in fact the Christ and Son of God, he receives the name by which  he has been known to the reader, but never called by anyone in the  Gospel until now: Petros, or “rock.” As elsewhere in the Bible, the  new name reflects both a change of status and the meaning of that  change. The notion that the gates of the netherworld will not prevail  against the church can mean that the dark powers thought to emerge  from them will not be able to defeat the church, or that they will not  be able to prevent the church from defeating them.

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