When King Nebuchadnezzar deported the citizens of Jerusalem to Babylon, “no one remained, except the poorest people of the land.” Still, he left Judah a king, Jehoiachin’s uncle, whose name he changed to Zedekiah. But in 2Kings 25: 1-12 Zedekiah continues the pattern: “he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done.” And that did it. “Jerusalem and Judah so angered the LORD that he expelled them from his presence” (2Kings 24: 17-20). 

Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonians (Chaldeans) came back. They captured Zedekiah, slaughtered his sons before his eyes, put out his eyes, and took him to Babylon. They “burned the house of the Lord… and all the houses of Jerusalem…. broke down the walls around Jerusalem…. [and] carried into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city… all the rest of the population.” Jerusalem was no more. The history of God’s People had reached its lowest point, the Babylonian exile (Psalm 137; and see Matthew 1:17). 

By the rivers of Babylon 

there we sat and wept, 

remembering Zion…. 

If I forget you, Jerusalem, 

let my right hand wither. 

Why did this happen? Because their kings, one after another, misministered to the people by leading them away from God, and because the people neglected the ministry of keeping each other faithful to God’s law. They ignored the “manufacturer’s instructions” in the way they used the life God gave them. 

Are we doing the same thing as individuals? As families? As a nation? If so, we can expect the same predictable, inevitable results: the ruins of our personal life, our family life, our civic life, and freedom. We ourselves are bringing it about through the “ministry of death”—for which it is enough just to neglect the ministry of life. 

In Matthew 8: 1-4 a man with incurable leprosy says to Jesus, “If you choose, you can cure me.” Jesus replies, “I do choose. Be cured.” For Jesus, no evil is incurable. He will choose to save us—if we choose to approach him as Teacher and Lord. 

We can’t ask God to keep us alive while we are shooting ourselves in the head, which is what we are doing when we come to him as Healer and abandon him as Teacher. To speak to God as God, we have to listen to God as God. Listen, learn, and obey. It is not enough to ask Jesus to choose. We have to choose. This means choosing his way of life. 

Today’s Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 137) laments lost Jerusalem: “Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!” 

Prayer Prompt: Do I go to the Father as Healer, yet abandon him as Teacher? 

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings, Lectionary #375, on the USCCB website here

Fr. David M. Knight (1931-2021) was a priest of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, a prolific writer, and a highly sought after confessor, spiritual director, and retreat master. He authored more than 40 books and hundreds of articles that focus primarily on lay spirituality and life-long spiritual growth.