14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

1st Reading                    Zechariah 9:9-10

Psalm                               145: 1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13cd-14 (R. 1)

R:// "I will bless your name forever, my king and my God"

2nd Reading                  Romans 8: 9, 11-13

Gospel                             Matthew 11: 25-30

DISMOUNT THE HORSE

Friends, Peace and Goodness! Today, we have a triadic celebration. Today is the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A), the first Sunday of July, and, since July is traditionally dedicated to the Devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus, this Sunday properly launches us into such the Devotion. May the Precious Blood of Jesus save us. Let's launch into the readings of the day, focusing particularly on the 1st Reading and the Gospel.

The First Reading is from Zechariah 9: 9-10. This is a brief text. Notice that this is the text that is made reference to during Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (Palm Sunday) because of the image it presents, the image of a king riding on a donkey and bringing peace. To digest it well, we need to know when it was written and what world it was written in.

Zechariah chapters 9–14 belong to what scholars call "Second Zechariah", written after the conquests of Alexander the Great swept through the Near East in 333 BCE. Judah had been a subject state for generations, passed from one imperial power to another, from the Babylonians, then the Persians, and now the Greeks. The people of God had grown accustomed to the spectacle of real kings. These are kings with armies, with warhorses, with the terrifying machinery of conquest. Alexander had entered cities on horseback in full military theatre, and that theatre was understood by everyone. Power had a look, and everyone knew what it looked like. Clearly, the era was characterised by wars and factions in war. Into that world, the Prophet Zechariah speaks something very interesting that challenges the status quo. A king will come, but I suggest we see the whole text in three domains: how the king will come, what he is bringing, and to whom is he coming? 

The Prophets clearly says that the King will come "riding on a donkey, the foal of a donkey". This is novel because the usual thing for kings in the Ancient Near East who return from battle and are victorious is to ride on Horses. Why a Horse? In the ancient world, the horse was a war animal. It was expensive, elite, and presented a military image. Its presence pointed to war and conquest. Remember that Solomon's accumulation of horses and chariots (1 Kings 10:26–29) was clearly critiqued in Deuteronomy 17:16 as a symbol of misplaced trust in human power rather than in God. This was the common animal in an era of war and conquest. However, Zechariah says that the King comes riding on a Donkey. The donkey was the animal of civil administration, of peaceful officials travelling between towns, of the common journey. Remember again that King David had chosen a mule for Solomon's coronation procession (1 Kings 1:33) as a clear act of royal humility.

The prophet Zechariah uses the war image of the time, the horse, and turns it to announce the arrival of the King. The arrival of the king will itself announce that his kingdom runs on a different logic entirely. His power will not be to make war but to establish peace. What it means is that the lives of those who acknowledge this king should challenge the contemporary wars of today. Our presence in the lives of people should be a donkey image, not a horse image. 

The second issue is what King is going to do. Zechariah says the king "will banish chariots from Ephraim and horses from Jerusalem; the bow of war will be banished" (Zech. 9:10). Three things are worth considering. These are CHARIOTS, HORSES, BOWS. These are things that on which an empire depends in that era. In addition to that, I suggest that there is a closer dimension to the three. The chariot, although can be used to chase, is what another person uses to chase you to distort your wellbeing. Remember Pharaoh chasing the Israelites. He does so with Chariots. The issue is that there are things outside you that inhibit your peace. They follow you, they chase you. The king will banish them. The second is the Horse in Jerusalem. As established, the horse is an image of war and conquest. Meanwhile, the place where it will be banished is striking. It will be banished in JERUSALEM. Jerusalem, from "Shalom" (peace) means "city of Peace". It is interesting to find a tool that destroys peace in a city that should be full of peace. I want to suggest that the problem is internal. Some things destroy peace internally and within. The king will banish them also. The third is the Bow. Among other things, the bow is what a person directs at another. This is what you yourself orchestrate, what you do to another. This is what you direct at another person and distort their peace. The king will banish them also. The act of the King will be multidimensional. He will destroy what is directed towards us that destroys our peace, what happens within us that destroys our peace and what destroys what we do to others that challenges their peace. The king will not use physical instruments or international policies. His own image and character will act.

The third thing is who will be the recipient of this Peace. To whom is he coming? Zechariah says that the King will "proclaim peace for the nations. His empire shall stretch from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth"(Zech. 9: 10). What should be of interest per our analysis should be SEA or RIVER and EARTH. Why are they relevant to us? Remember that in Genesis 1: 9-13, on the third day, the Creator touches what was below the Heavens. On days one and two, he worked on things in the Heavens. On day three, he started work on things under the Heavens. The first thing He did under the Heavens was to gather the waters into one place to allow the dry land to appear (Gen. 1: 9). He called the dry land EARTH and the gathered waters he called SEAS (Gen. 1: 10). Vegetation and aquatic life creation flowed from the SEA and the EARTH. The point is that the SEA and EARTH become habitats for plant and animal life. 

Zechariah says that the rule or empire of this King and what he will bring, Peace, will cover from SEA to the ends of the EARTH. That is precisely the whole of creation. The domain of war and conflict is creation. The King, God, to whom belongs creation, will bring Peace into his creation. 

We cannot rely on our own power to establish that Peace. That will degenerate into using a Horse. That will be a perpetuation of war. We ought to rely on God himself, the author and ruler. I think that Paul's words to the Romans in the Second Reading will be apt here. "There is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live" (Rom. 8: 12-13).

The Gospel from Matthew 11: 25-30 had Jesus blessing God, Lord of Heaven and Earth, for hiding 'these things' from the "wise and learned" and revealing them to "mere children". The chapter (Matt. 11) opens with John the Baptist sending word from prison, saying "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?" (11:3). Even the forerunner is not sure. Then Jesus turns and reproaches three towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum. These were where he performed his most powerful works and found no repentance (11:20–24). He proclaimed peace and the people did not accept the peace from his Kingdom. He compares the whole generation to children in the marketplace arguing about what game to play. They rejected John for being too severe and reject Jesus for being too sociable (11:16–19). By the time we reach today's passage, Jesus has been questioned, misunderstood, and rejected from multiple directions. It is against that exact background that verse 25 opens. 

When Jesus says God has hidden things from the wise and revealed them to mere children, the Greek word translated as "mere children", whih is "nēpioi" deserves attention. Nēpioi in Greek means infants or very young children. However, in the social world of first-century Judaism, it was also used dismissively for the uneducated, the simple, those without scribal training or social standing. The assumption in that world was that the deeper mysteries of Torah belonged to the learned, those with the time, the training, and the institutional access to study. Jesus overturns this completely not because learning is bad, but because the condition of the nēpioi, their dependence, their openness, their inability to lean on their own understanding is the precise posture that makes receiving revelation possible. That is precisely the disposition that is needed for the reception of the Peace of the Kingdom. 

Pax et Bonum