Readings:
Amos 3-5
John 12:1-19

Amos 3-5

Chapter 3 begins a long prophecy against Israel for its many transgressions. Now we have to remember that Judah was guilty of many of the same crimes, but they’d have a good king every couple of generations that would reinstate proper worship of the One True God, while in Israel they had no such king.

In the midst of all this doom, God promises to rescue them, but he will rescue them as a shepherd rescues a leg or an ear from a lion. In those days if a sheep was taken by a predator, the shepherd would try his best to gather as many body parts to present to his boss so that he wouldn’t have to reimburse him a lost sheep from his wages. So God is saying that he’ll rescue a small remnant, but only after they’ve been torn to shreds by the predatory nations around them.

God then lists a bunch of instances where he used famine, drought, disease, pestilence and war to try and get the people to return to him, but every time they’d cry out to their new gods.

The final rebuff of chapter 5 is quoted by Saint Stephen in his speech before the council, when he is stoned in Jerusalem. When God tells them to “take up Sukkuth your king” and go be exiled beyond Damascus. That name is not an Israelite king, but may be another name for the Assyrian god Sakkut, that was their name for the planet Saturn. It also sounds similar to the Hebrew word for tent, and Saint Stephen rendered it as “tent of moloch” in Acts 7:43. So either way, God is saying ‘pack up your idols and take them with you because you’re out of here!’

John 12:1-19

Jesus is back in Mary and Martha’s house, and Mary brings out a jar of extremely expensive scented oil and she anoints Jesus with it. This causes Judas to object that they could’ve sold he oil and given the money to the poor, but Jesus rebukes him and says she’s anticipating his burial and that even though Jesus had great care for the poor, he shouldn’t stop people from extravagantly showing their love for the Lord. After all, the people coming out of the wilderness in the exodus took up collections of precious metals to make the instruments for the tabernacle, and Solomon used literally tons of gold and silver when he was building the temple.

Throughout history, people with not much to spare have given sacrificially to build monuments and temples to their gods, so how much more should the people give to build the temple to the only true God? And so it was with Mary anointing Jesus.

John then recounts the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event we commemorate every year on Palm Sunday. He connects this to a prophecy from Zechariah that the king will come riding on a donkey.

Readings:
Amos 6-9
John 12:20-50