Flesh jealousy and faith

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today surface our response to good news when it is accompanied by our jealousy of the person bringing the news.

Key Vs: I Samuel
Chp. 8 verses 7, 9

Key People:
Eli, Hannah, Samuel, Saul, Jonathan, David#Bible #Scripture #Godhttps://t.co/K5dcEnqlPl pic.twitter.com/JY5s94QwKF

— Nicecolumnbyshira (@shira_garnett) July 31, 2017

 In the passage from 1 Samuel, Jonathan tries to remind Saul of the good things that David has brought and implores the King not to kill David from jealousy. In the Gospel from Mark, Jesus is described as attracting large numbers of people from many places who attend to His teaching and healing.

Fig 1 from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/First_century_Iudaea_province.gif/280px-First_century_Iudaea_province.gif

Ray C. Stedman comments that the two men in conflict in 1 Samuel illustrate for us the two principles in the heart of every Christian believer seeking to walk before God. They are the principle of flesh and the principle of faith. Cindy Costanzo gives us insight into the magnetism of Jesus in His ministry. The map of Perea or Peraea gives a idea of the distances from which people travelled to encounter Jesus. Don Schwager quotes Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D. who comments that It is by faith that we touch Jesus. Friar Jude Winkler gives some background on the transition of Israel to an inherited King from the time of Samuel as judge. The large number of people attracted to Jesus were not just Jews but also pagans, who proclaimed Jesus Divinity as “Son of God”. Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, notes that the “now and not-yet Reign of God” is the foundation for our personal hope and our cosmic optimism, but it is also the source of our deepest alienation from the world as it is. We are strangers and nomads on this earth (see Hebrews 11:13). Our task is to learn how to live in both worlds until they become one—at least in us. The Our Daily Bread website and Sam Storms comment on some religious consequences of living in both worlds as discussed by Richard Rohr.

Fig 2 https://d626yq9e83zk1.cloudfront.net/files/cover_200407.jpg

The great promise of the Good News of our kinship with Jesus within is in tension with our natural jealousy toward those who are apparently more popular. This may cause us to attack their revelation and mission for selfish reasons.