Week 26 Wednesday (Year 1)

Readings: Nehemiah 2.1-8; Psalm 137; Luke 9.57-62

Once again the city of Jerusalem is the focus of concern in today's liturgy. Nehemiah is among the exiles in Babylon, and finds a sympathetic listener in King Artaxerxes whom he is serving and who notices his sadness. Artaxerxes is the third Persian king we hear about in recent days, after his predecessors Cyrus and Darius. All three are credited in the Bible with having facilitated the return of the exiled Hebrews to the land of Judah.

The sadness of Nehemiah is reflected in the most plaintive of the psalms, 'by the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept as we remembered Zion'. It was not just the ordinary homesickness and nostalgia of the person forced into exile but something much more powerful. Because it meant losing all the ways in which God had assured His people of His presence with them - the land, the city, the temple - it was a sadness of heart, as the king noticed. But, we might even say, it was a sadness of soul - metaphysical, theological, spiritual - at the thought that it was the people's own infidelity that had led to their loss and exile. So a sadness mixed with guilt, a profound grief. How could the people pretend to be joyuful living in such a state of soul?

They were coming to see,  however, that the Lord, their God, was not confined to them or to their city. Had he not used foreign powers as his instruments in bringing about the exile? And was he not using these foreign kings as his ministers in facilitating the restoration? It might seem that we should even apply to God Himself the sentiments of the exiles - may my right hand wither if I forget you, Jerusalem, and may my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not. For had He not, not long before this and through the prophet Jeremiah, declared that His love for them was everlasting (Jeremiah 31.1).

Jesus is also on the way to Jerusalem and there is an intensity in his state of soul as he journeys there. His destination however is not just the earthly city of Jerusalem but what he calls 'the Kingdom of God'. That is where he is going and he sees that it will be difficult to find companions who will stay with him once they realise what inaugurating the Kingdom will entail. He himself clearly does realise this - it will involve a freedom, a detachment, a sacrifice of oneself and of everything; it will demand a more than ordinary human strength and courage.

Nehemiah is on his way to rebuild the Temple. Jesus is on his way to inaugurate the Kingdom. Now the everlasting love of God, become flesh in Jesus Christ, will engage with the greatest enemies of humanity, sin, the powers of evil, death itself, in order to overcome these enemies and establish an eternal kingdom of justice, love and peace. It is already now established, and it is coming, even as we grieve all that continues to work against it - wars and oppression, violence and exploitation, injustice and cruelty. May our right hands wither and our tongues cleave to our mouths if we fail to remember what the Lord has done, and is doing, for us.