16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Jeremiah 23:1-6     Ephesians 2:13-18       Mark 6:30-34

            In the Old Testament a favorite image for both the Lord’s love for his people and the saving work of the expected Messiah from the line of David is that of the good shepherd who tends his flock with care.  Today’s lessons present Jesus as the fulfillment of these hopes.  Let us praise the Lord’s selfless love for us in Christ in the words of the refrain of our responsorial psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want” (Ps 23).

            The reading from Jeremiah is the culmination of a long section of oracles condemning the recent Davidic kings of Judah for their absolute failure to govern with justice and compassion (see Jeremiah 21:11-22:30). This concluding oracle contains both elements of harsh judgment but also promises of salvation.  It begins with the Lord’s “woe” against the shepherds (kings), especially Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (the last king of Judah), “who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture.”  The result of their misrule will be exile in Babylon and the temporary end of the line of Davidic rulers.  “Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,/ against the shepherds who shepherd my people:/ You have scattered my sheep and driven them away./  You have not cared for them,/ but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.”  The passage ends, however, with two promises.  First of all, the Lord himself will take up the task of shepherding his people.  He will gather the remnant of his flock from the lands to which he has driven them (Babylon) “and bring them back to their meadow (Judah); there they shall increase and multiply.”  Secondly, in “the days to come,” the Lord “will raise up a righteous shoot to David” who will “govern wisely and do what is just and right in the land.”  His reign will bring salvation and security to both Judah and Israel, and he will fulfill the meaning of Zedekiah’s name, ‘The Lord our justice.’

            The reading from Ephesians continues to celebrate the unity of Gentiles and Jews in “one new person,” the body of Christ, the Church.  Using imagery associated with the Jerusalem Temple and its sacrifices and dividing walls, Paul affirms that the Gentiles “who were once far off” from salvation “have become near by the blood of Christ.”  Christ is the Christian community’s “peace” because he has “made both (Jews and Gentiles) one” by breaking down “the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh.”  This dividing wall which separated Jews and Gentiles was “the law with its commandments and legal claims.” It has now been abolished as a way of salvation by Christ who reconciles both groups “with God, in one body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it.”  Our selection concludes with a beautiful Trinitarian formula celebrating God’s action in bringing all, both Gentiles and Jews, to salvation.  “He (Christ) came and preached peace to you who were far off (the Gentiles) and peace to those who were near (Jews), for through him (Christ) we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

            The Gospel selection presents Jesus as the shepherd Messiah who is concerned for both his disciples who have been on mission preaching repentance, driving out demons, and healing the sick, and the vast crowds who are frantically pursuing him and his disciples.  Between the sending out of the disciples (6:7-12) and their return in today’s reading (6:30-34) Mark has inserted King Herod Antipas’ reaction to Jesus—he thinks Jesus is John come back to life (6:14-16) and, in a flashback, the story of his beheading of John the Baptist (6:17-29).  This insertion keeps the question of Jesus’ identity before us and prepares for his violent death at the hands of Pilate and the persecution which his disciples will experience once he has gone (see 8:31-10:52; 13:9-13).  Our reading begins with the apostles gathering together around Jesus and reporting “all they had done and taught.” Jesus, the tender shepherd, then invites them to withdraw to a deserted place to rest because the great crowd of people does not even give them an opportunity to eat.  But when they get in a boat by themselves to go to “a deserted place,” the crowd from all the towns sees them leave and hastens to the place on foot so that they arrive before the apostles. When Jesus disembarks and sees the crowd, Mark tells us, “his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”       

            The scene is filled with allusions to the Old Testament.  The withdrawal to a deserted place recalls the Israelites sojourn in the wilderness as they came out of Egypt and their journey to Sinai where they receive God’s Torah.  In fact in the next section (6:34-44) Jesus will feed the crowd of 5,000 men by multiplying loaves of bread and fishes much as the Lord fed his people with manna and quail in the wilderness (Exodus 16).  But before he feeds the crowds with physical food, the good shepherd’s pity for the lost sheep of Israel first moves him “to teach them many things,” to give them the spiritual food of God’s Wisdom/Torah (See Prov 9; Sir 15:3; 24:19).