Scripture Study for

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Understanding the Word

By Br. John R. Barker, OFM

Nineveh was a capital of the Assyrian Empire, which oppressed  and devastated the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, destroying the  latter completely in 722 B.C. A tale showing any sympathy for  Nineveh was clearly going to challenge its original hearers, who  would likely have been more sympathetic to Jonah’s reluctance  to offer repentance than with God’s intention to forgive. Jonah  famously complains about God’s forgiveness (4:1–3), forgetting that  he himself had received forgiveness from God after running away  to evade his prophetic duty. As such Jonah represents the human  tendency to revel in God’s forgiveness for ourselves while implicitly  or explicitly setting limits on it for others. 

Paul assures the Corinthians that the world as they know it is  “passing away.” The human world and its various relationships,  values, and assumptions is being transformed in light of the death  and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Corinthians cannot go on  acting as if things are pretty much the same as they were before  they heard the gospel. Nothing is the same, Paul insists. The advent  of Christ, both into the world and into the life of each believer, is  earth-shattering, turning everything upside down. To fail to see this  is to fail to grasp the meaning of one’s own baptism and of God’s  purposes being effected through Christ. 

Again this week Jesus gathers his first disciples, this time actively  seeking followers to help him in his mission of proclaiming  repentance and announcing the gospel. His message is simple: now  is the time in which God’s promises are being fulfilled, when God’s  sovereign rule is being manifested and its effects felt in the world.  Jesus has come to announce this good news, and he needs people  to help him. Whereas in John’s Gospel last week the disciples seek  Jesus to “abide” with him, here the disciples have an active role in  gathering up the “catch” of God’s kingdom. In both cases, though,  the ideal response of the call of the disciples is the same: immediate  acceptance of the call, leaving behind everything to follow Jesus.

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