The Saturday after the Third Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord
Posted on February 1, 2025 by under
Scripture: Romans 11:13-22 (NKJV)
11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
Devotion
The main topic of today’s reading is haughtiness. The Jewish people had been haughty in their consideration of God’s promises. Instead of humbly acknowledging God’s goodness in choosing their nation to bear the Messiah, they bragged about their status as God’s special people. Rather than be a light to the Gentiles, they suppressed the Gospel and treated the other nations with contempt.
Now that the Gospel had come to the Gentiles through the ministry of St. Paul, the Gentiles were beginning to act haughtily. They said things like, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” In other words, they boasted that they were God’s replacements for the unbelieving Jews. While this was true, the Gentiles were saying it as a point of pride, as if they were the worthy upgrade that God needed.
Our Old Adam is very haughty. He would like to make us think that we are a special gift to God—as if God could not do without us! Thus Paul’s teaching to the Romans applies equally to us: “remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.” God does not need us. We are not members of His Church because He cannot do without us. We are grafted in by His great love. Because of His goodness, He spared us from the burn pile which we deserve, and grafted us into His Tree. Rather than exalt our works or virtues, let us continue in the goodness of God and remember that we are saved by His grace alone.
Collect: Almighty and Everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities, stretch forth the right hand of Thy Majesty to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
