Scripture Study for
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 35:4–7a / Psalm 146:1b / James 2:1–5 / Mark 7:31–37
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Understanding the Word
By Br. John R. Barker, OFM
The context of the oracle from Isaiah is a time period or an experience of oppression or military conquest. The oracle contains elements common to many oracles of salvation, such as the exhortation to “be strong, fear not.” Such an exhortation responds to a sense of being defeated and abandoned by God, which is how recurrent political and military oppression at the hands of others was likely to be interpreted. Here the prophet assures the people that God has not in fact abandoned them; God is acting now to “vindicate” them and to bring about a change of fortune. This is exemplified by healing—in the human realm afflictions cease, and in the natural realm the infertile desert blossoms.
James continues to develop his thoughts regarding how to be “doers of the word and not hearers only.” One clear manifestation of this is to “keep oneself unstained by the world,” which is to say, to refuse to live according the greater society’s values, such as the elevation of the rich over the poor and the treatment of the poor with contempt. James has already noted that pure religion involves caring for the vulnerable and the poor, who have a special place in God’s heart, and who will inherit the kingdom. This is the opposite of the world’s perspective. Those who would be doers of the word of truth must be prepared to reject the privileges and privileging of the rich and the powerful.
The Decapolis was a group of ten autonomous city-states, most of them east of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus here enters Gentile territory. Yet here also the people have heard of him and immediately approach him with a deaf man for healing. It is unusual for Jesus to be depicted performing a healing ritual (see, though, 8:22–26; John 9:6–7).
Usually he either touches the sick or simply proclaims that they are healed. Jesus was not limited to one approach to healing. The man is cured, the people are amazed, and word spreads. The Decapolis context of all this indicates that the reign of God is being actively extended beyond the ethnic and geographical borders of Israel.