Matthew 20:17-28

Jeremiah 18:18-20

Psalm 31:5-6, 14, 15-16

Matthew 20:17-28

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem,

he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves,

and said to them on the way,

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem,

and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests

and the scribes,

and they will condemn him to death,

and hand him over to the Gentiles

to be mocked and scourged and crucified,

and he will be raised on the third day.”

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons

and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.

He said to her, “What do you wish?”

She answered him,

“Command that these two sons of mine sit,

one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”

Jesus said in reply,

“You do not know what you are asking.

Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”

They said to him, “We can.”

He replied,

“My chalice you will indeed drink,

but to sit at my right and at my left,

this is not mine to give

but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

When the ten heard this,

they became indignant at the two brothers.

But Jesus summoned them and said,

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,

and the great ones make their authority over them felt.

But it shall not be so among you.

Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;

whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.

Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve

and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, your servants are called to persevere through suffering and endure persecution. This is a mystery that far surpasses my understanding. Help me to welcome this mystery in my life.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Life of Jeremiah: As he was being persecuted, Jeremiah compared himself to a gentle lamb led to the slaughter (Jeremiah 11:19). In this, we see that Jeremiah’s life, especially the persecutions and rejections he suffered from his contemporaries, looks forward to the rejection and abuse heaped on Jesus during his passion. The similarity with Jeremiah is such that when Jesus asks his disciples who people think the Son of Man is, one of the answers is that Jesus is Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14). Jeremiah was chosen from the womb by God, consecrated, and appointed as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). He was destined for rejection by the people and the leaders of Judah (Jeremiah 1:18-19). He was betrayed by his own kindred (Jeremiah 12:6). He prophesied and foretold the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 26:2-6). Because he preached against the Temple, Jeremiah was opposed and persecuted by the chief priests and the elders (Jeremiah 20:1-3; 26:7-9). At his trial, the princes of the people had Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned, yet the puppet king Zedekiah was eager to listen to Jeremiah and was sympathetic toward him. Ultimately, Zedekiah was weak-willed and handed Jeremiah over to the princes who had him imprisoned in a dungeon (Jeremiah 37-38). Jeremiah was cast into a cistern and left to die but was raised up out of it later by a rope (38:6-13).

2. The Life of Jesus: Like Jeremiah, Jesus was chosen from the womb by God and called holy (Luke 1:31-35). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was destined for rejection by the people and would be a sign of contradiction (Luke 2:34). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was betrayed by someone close to him (John 13:18). Like Jeremiah, Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem (Mark 11:15-19). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was opposed and persecuted by the chief priests and the elders, who plotted his death (Mark 3:6; 11:18). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was condemned to death for preaching against the Temple (Mark 14:57-58). Like Jeremiah’s trial, Jesus’ trial was held before a ruler who was sympathetic to Jesus but who ultimately gave in to the will of the priests and elders of the people and handed him over to be killed (John 18-19). Finally, Jeremiah’s time in the cistern pit and rising out of the pit looks forward to the three days Jesus spends in the tomb before his glorious resurrection.

3. Conforming our Lives to the Life of Christ: As Christians, we are capable of something far greater than Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s life prophetically looked forward to the life of Jesus. And he suffered as a prophet of the Lord. We, however, can be conformed to the life of Christ (Romans 12:2) in a way Jeremiah never could. The Good News is that we were eternally predestined to become conformed to the image of God’s Son (Romans 8:29). St. Paul continually makes the exhortation to put on Christ (Romans 13:14), to know that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus (Romans 6:3-10), to have the same mind as Jesus (Philippians 2:5), to share in and rejoice in the sufferings of Christ (Philippians 3:10-11).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you invite me to share in your sufferings and to take up my cross each day. I need your help to do this. I cannot do it alone. I need you every step of the way. Be at my side this day and always.

Resolution: How can I conform my life to that of Christ today?