Above: Jehoiakim
Image in the Public Domain
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The Collect:
O God, our true life, to serve you is freedom, and to know you is unending joy.
We worship you, we glorify you, we give thanks to you for your great glory.
Abide with us, reign in us, and make this world into a fit habitation for your divine majesty,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 53
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The Assigned Readings:
Zechariah 11:1-17 (Friday)
Jeremiah 22:18-30 (Saturday)
Psalm 46 (Both Days)
1 Peter 1:3-9 (Friday)
Luke 18:15-17 (Saturday)
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God is our refuge and our strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved,
and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea;
Though its waters rage and foam,
and though the mountains tremble at its tumult.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
–Psalm 46:1-4, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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The reading from Second Zechariah is an allegory of a selfish and foolish shepherd who, instead of protecting the sheep of his flock, sells them to their slaughterer for the sum of thirty shekels of silver. The identification of the shepherd (code for political leader) is open-ended, and the price for which he sells the sheep of his flock to their doom is the same amount Judas Iscariot went on to receive for betraying Jesus in Matthew 26:14-16. One might surmise correctly that many members of Matthew’s audience, being Jews familiar with their scriptural heritage, would have recognized the echo of Zechariah 11.
Perhaps Second Zechariah was thinking of monarchs such as Jehoiakim (reigned 608-598 B.C.E.), of whom one can read in Jeremiah 22:13-19, 2 Kings 23:36-24:7, and 2 Chronicles 36:5-8, and of his son, Jeconiah/Jehoiachin (reigned 597 B.C.E.), of whom one can read in Jeremiah 22:20-30, 2 Kings 24:8-17, and 2 Chronicles 36:9-10. Jehoiachin was the penultimate King of Judah, and, by the time of his deposition by a foreign potentate, the realm Kingdom of Judah was obviously independent in name only.
Of Jehoiakim, father of Jehoiachin, Jeremiah 22 says in part:
Woe to him who builds his house on wrong,
his terraces on injustice;
Who works his neighbor without pay,
and gives him no wages.
Who says, “I will build myself a spacious house,
with airy rooms,”
Who cuts out windows for it,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it with vermillion.
–Verses 13-14, The New American Bible (1991)
Such shepherds abound, unfortunately. I refer not to those who strive to do the right thing for their populations yet fail to accomplish their goals, but to those to operate not out of any sense of seeking the common good but out of greed, self-aggrandisement, and indifference toward justice, especially that of the economic variety.
Among the most familiar images of Jesus in the Gospels is that of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-21), who not only watches his flock attentively but lays down his life for it. The Good Shepherd is the polar opposite of the shepherd in Zechariah 11. The Good Shepherd is Jesus in 1 Peter 1 and the figure who points to powerless children as spiritual models in Luke 18. The Good Shepherd is one consistent with the description of God in Psalm 46.
To be a sheep in the flock of the Good Shepherd is wonderful indeed.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 7, 2016 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK LUCIAN HOSMER, U.S. UNITARIAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY MARY GIANELLI, FOUNDER OF THE MISSIONARIES OF SAINT ALPHONSUS LIGUORI AND THE SISTERS OF MARY DELL’ORTO
THE FEAST OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN PASTOR THEN EPISCOPAL PRIEST
THE FEAST OF SAINT ROBERT OF NEWMINSTER, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND PRIEST
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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