Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, November 24, 2024
by Dr. Miles Hopgood, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God’s word is used to overcoming our resistance. Whatever obstacles we erect, God will still reach us with the word we need to hear.
Did you know that Martin Luther dabbled in art criticism? It’s true! Once when pressed to explain why the authors of scripture could be sparse with detail, he answered by referencing a famous depiction of the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Scholars believe it to be a version done by Timanthes,[1] based on how Luther describes it:
“Among historical accounts there is one about a painter who painted the story of Iphigenia at the moment when she was about to be sacrificed. To each of the spectators he assigned his own particular demeanor, expressive of his sorrow and grief. But the head of the father, who was present at the scene, he covered up, because he held that the depth of the father’s feeling could not be expressed in a painting.”[2]
Luther’s point is that sometimes less is more. Leaving gaps in the story is a way to draw us in and ask the questions for ourselves. Where we find those spaces can be where the true meaning resides, a place where the Holy Spirit can speak to us in the way we need to hear God today.
We can see this at work in this moment from the ministry of Jeremiah. The reading provides us with a blow-by-blow account of events, but very little about the feelings and motives. What must it have been like for the people to have heard this prophecy? What was the king’s motive to suppress it? Why would he deny the people the opportunity to repent? Didn’t his advisors tell him that the cover-up is worse than the crime? You get the idea. The events play out like a political drama, but without the interpretation of the actors, we are left to imagine the scene.
We all have at times tried to escape a word from God we did not want to hear. Our motives may be our own, but where they’ve led us is not unique. The good news is that God is used to our resistance and is practiced at overcoming it.
[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Wall_painting_-_sacrifice_of_Iphigenia_-_Pompeii_%28VI_8_5%29_-_Napoli_MAN_9112_-_01.jpg
[2] “Lectures on Genesis” in Luther’s Works: American Edition, 1:279-80.
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