Wednesday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
2 Kings 2:1, 6-14; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Places in the Bible are often so much more than locations on a map. Bethlehem isn’t just another small town in the Holy Land; it’s the birth place of Jesus. Jerusalem isn’t just a city in the Judean Hills; it’s the City of David, where Jesus died and rose again.
In the same way, the Jordan isn’t just a river flowing into the Dead Sea. It’s where Israel crosses into the Promised Land. As we saw today, it’s where Elijah crosses and is taken up, and Elisha crosses as he begins his own prophetic mission. Of course, it’s also where John baptizes and, most of all, where Jesus is baptized and formally begins his public ministry.
The Jordan is a boundary, a threshold, a place of decision; where people leave one identity behind and accept another.
That’s exactly what Jesus describes in Matthew 6:1-6. Hypocrites pray, fast, and give alms so they can be seen doing it. Their identity is built on being noticed rather than being loved by God. Jesus invites them to cross over to something deeper: a relationship with “your Father who sees in secret.”
The readings pose a couple of hard questions. First, what is the “Jordan” in our own lives that God is asking us to cross? Maybe it’s crossing over from fear to trust, from resentment to forgiveness, from self-reliance to dependence on God, or from public performance to authentic discipleship.
Second, how do we make that crossing? We certainly can’t do it on our own. Fortunately, Jesus gives us a way through the ordinary practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. As we do those humbly, quietly, and from a grateful heart, God provides us with every grace needed to part the water before us, just as He did for Israel, Elijah, and Elisha.
We can think of God’s grace like the mantle in the first reading. Notice that Elisha didn’t cross back alone; rather, he carried Elijah’s mantle, a sign that God will provide what he needs for the mission ahead.
And God will do the same for us. He always has. In the American South generations ago, enslaved Christians knew this. When they wrote spirituals about crossing the Jordan, they sang from bitter experience what Scripture teaches us today – that the deepest desire of every true disciple is to leave bondage behind and cross over into freedom, and the only mantle we need is the glorious gift of God’s grace.
Leave a Reply