Scripture Study for

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Understanding the Word

By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.

The role that God plays in suffering has long plagued religious people. The  misfortune of sinners may be just punishment for their offenses, but the suffering of the righteous is always disturbing. In the reading from Isaiah, the servant  gives himself as a sin offering; he endures his agony so that others can be justi fied. His death will win life for others, and in this way he will accomplish God’s  will. The violence inflicted upon him is accepted, embraced, and put to rest. With  the offering of this innocent scapegoat, reconciliation with God is accomplished. 

In order to demonstrate Jesus’ preeminence, the author of the second reading compares him to the high priest. Just as the high priest passed through the  curtain into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, there to sprinkle sacrificial  blood on the mercy seat, so Christ, exalted after shedding his own blood, passed  through the heavens into the presence of God. His sacrifice far exceeds anything  that the ritual performed by the high priest might have actually accomplished or  hoped to accomplish. Unlike previous high priests who approached the mercy  seat alone and only on the Day of Atonement, Christ enables each one of us to  approach God, and to do so continually. 

James and John seek places of prominence in Jesus’ kingdom and Jesus  informs them that real prominence is found in service, not in wielding authority  over others. The proclaimed willingness of the sons of Zebedee to accept the  cup that Jesus will eventually drink and be baptized in his baptism is another  example of their misunderstanding. Even if they had grasped the meaning of his  words, they could hardly have imagined their implications. Since they believed  that Jesus would reign in glory, they could certainly not conceive of his ignominious suffering and death. Jesus assures them that they will indeed face what he  must face, but they will not do so willingly as they now presume they will. 

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