First reading for the coming Sunday

The first reading this coming Sunday anticipates the honour and responsibility with which Jesus invests Peter in the episode that is this Sunday’s Gospel reading.

It will be noted that in Isaiah first one steward – Shebna – is demoted and then another – Eliakim – is promoted. The reason is that Shebna has not put trust in the Lord, is not faithful.

There is something of the same tension in the Gospel episode. Peter is honoured for his confession of Jesus as Son of God but then challenged for his lack of faith and understanding. The way Matthew presents this is less stark than Mark does, but it is still somewhat startling.

Stewards for Israel and Bearers of the Keys of the Kingdom are honoured roles, but they are no guarantee of – and certainly no substitute for –  faithful living.

• An inscription which has been interpreted as linking a rock tomb in Siloam to the disgraced Shebna is in the collection of the British Museum. The photograph above shows the site of the tomb (upper left corner!)

Isaiah 22:19-23

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)

22.8In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹ and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, ¹⁰ and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹ You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

¹²  In that day the Lord GOD of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
¹³  and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”

¹⁴  The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”
says the Lord GOD of hosts.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: ¹⁶ What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? ¹⁷ Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you ¹⁸ and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house.

¹⁹ I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. ²⁰ In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, ²¹ and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²² And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. ²³ And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house.

²⁴ And they will hang on him the whole honour of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. ²⁵ In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”

Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Scriptures: English Standard Version (c) 2001-9, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
~ Commentary: (c) 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photo: (c) 2018, Allen Morris. Siloam, Kedron Valley, Jerusalem