Jesus has said, “many are called but few are chosen.” I believe the Scriptures selected for this Sunday work as a further exposition on this.
God chose the ancient people of Israel in order to prepare not only them, but as a means of preparing and reaching out to the whole world in a finite and definitive way through them. This is something that is evident even before the advent of Christ, such as what’s described by the prophet Isiah. He says that it is by our inclusion and coming into the fold of the People of God, that the lost, scattered and dispersed peoples of Israel will be brought back to him. Further, God will appoint some of us to be among the holy ministers of God himself, and by extension his Temple and his people. This is striking, given that these roles used to be restricted to only those with the proper genealogy.
Christ in the Gospel further makes this explicit. He tells the people that there will be people from everywhere under heaven welcomed into the Kingdom. However, not all, even of Israel, or of those who have seen, listened to, and even ate and drank with him will make it in. That will be dependant on how we respond to the invitation, as Christ tells us in another parable.
Now the passage from Hebrews fits in. It is about how we respond. Particularly, how we respond when the call doesn’t always seem pleasant or inviting to us. When it is asking us to change our lives and to cease from things that are pleasing to us or to accept things that are not. Though discipline may be seen or felt as unpleasant, we have assurance that when it comes from God at least, that it comes from a place of true love and care for us, even if we do not always recognize it as such. Since we can see its worth in ordinary life, how much more so for that Life to which we are being called. May we respond well to the invitation. Peace.
– Aaron Neiva
