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16th Sunday after Pentecost

What is wisdom? The book of Proverbs describes the traditional wisdom of the Old
Testament while the Gospel shows Jesus reacted to traditional Old Testament wisdom
1. One part of the Old Testament is commonly known as the Wisdom books, and includes: Job,
the Psalms, Proverbs, the Song of Songs and the Book of Wisdom.
All ancient cultures (and modern ones too) have proverbs: they are sayings that briefly encapsulate
traditional wisdom. Proverbs were not a Jewish invention.
In the Ancient Middle East, the royal courts of Egypt and Mesopotamia had schools for the training of
men who would work in the administration of the country. Their training was based on learning the
traditional ways of doing things by memorizing proverbs. There are collections of Egyptian and
Mesopotamian proverbs that are very similar to the Proverbs in the Bible.
In Israel, Proverbs became a textbook used to train young men for careers at court or in business. So
mastering traditional Proverbs was the ancient equivalent of getting a Masters in Business
Administration, or in Government Administration.
With this in mind, you can understand that Proverbs in not a book about God, but is a very practical and
pragmatic how to book. The book of Proverbs pays homage to God as the creator: God created the
world wisely, according to precise laws. The universe is a logical place governed by Gods laws. So, a
wise man understands that God is the creator of the universe and is all-powerful, and also understands
his place in creation, and has a healthy dose of fear and respect for God and for Gods power. Thus, the
Bible says that the fear of the Lord (to know that God is the all powerful creator and we are totally
dependent on God) is the beginning of wisdom. Beyond that, Proverbs does not deal all that much with
God and with religion. In fact some Proverbs are very pragmatic and not very moral.
The book of Proverbs uses a literary devise, or a metaphor throughout the book: young men are
attracted to 2 women: one called Lady Wisdom, and the other Lady Folly. This is a way a metaphor
about the fact that the young must choose to either do the right thing, (follow the wisdom of traditions),
or the wrong thing, (abandon the traditional ways and do what is fun and exciting).
In todays reading, Lady Wisdom is warning the young men that if they follow Lady Folly they will be
ruined, and because they have ignored the counsel of Wisdom, Lady Wisdom will laugh at them when
they fail and fall on their face.

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The Book of Proverbs tends to reflect the culture of the time: it is chauvinistic and misogynous. There
are several proverbs in which women are put down and mistrusted. Women are praised if they
produce children and work as slaves to make their husbands look good.
The key lesson from the book of Proverbs is that to be wise we must learn from bygone generations
and follow traditions. If we reject tradition and try to find our own way in life we are fools.

2. Let us think about the difference between the wisdom of Proverbs and the way things
are now in our society:
Modern science is based on the principle of experimentation: scientists dont take anything for
granted, check things out, verify, try new things.
Our education system encourages children to be creative
Democracy is based on the notion that each person is capable of thinking with their own mind, has the
right to question authority, and to vote to change the government when things are not working out .
We are encouraged to study the past, learn lean lessons from it, apply them to our life, and not repeat
the same mistakes. Proverbial wisdom is totally static and diametrically opposed to our way of
thinking

3. Now, let us think about what Jesus did with Jewish laws and traditions: he did not
follow the traditions and the rules of ancient Israel, but challenged them
Over time, Biblical wisdom came to be identified with following unquestionably all the 613 laws in the
Bible. The Pharisees with their insistence of following literally all the Jewish laws system and the
traditional interpretations of those laws were the epitome of the wisdom of the wisdom of Proverbs.
Jesus challenged the very notion that these 613 rules had come from God, and that tradition was the
expression of Gods will and of Gods wisdom.
For Jesus, Gods will is summarized in two statements: love God with all your heart and love your
neighbor as yourself. All the laws and rules that dont express love are human traditions. For Jesus,
Pharisaic traditions were not expressions of fear (respect) for the Lord, but rejections of his
commandment to love.

16th Sunday after Pentecost

4. Jesus views on what it means to be wise are expressed in todays Gospel by the way he rejects
the traditional ideas about the Messiah, and changes the expectation about what the Messiah is
supposed to be and to do.
Traditionally, the Jews expected a political Messiah who would free them from foreign oppression and make
Israel the most powerful and feared nation in the world: a superpower.
Jesus in this passage announces a totally different kind of Messiah one who would suffer and die, and through
his death would reconcile humanity to God.
Jesus idea of Messiah runs against all expectations and all traditions. Peter here represents traditional wisdom,
so he tries to talk sense to Jesus and make him understand that he is will not win people over by talking about
suffering and death. But Jesus rejects him as Satan, and tells him that he is reasoning from the stand point of
human, not divine wisdom. Jesus 'mission is not to create a political empire, but to bring humanity back to
God
Then Jesus goes on to make a series of counter-intuitive statement that dont make any sense, unless we
believe that our life does not end here on earth, but will continue for eternity with God:
Those who focus on material things and on achieving wealth and power here on earth will lose the chance to
achieve eternal life with God after death.
Those who seek to go along with the values of the world and not to stand with Jesus and with his values might
be successful here on earth but will be rejected in the end, and will not achieve eternal life.
If we are ashamed of Jesus and his values here on earth, we will not have a share in eternal life.

5. So, what can we take away from this debate between Jesus' wisdom and traditional wisdom?
a. Not every word in the Bible is the word of God: todays Gospel shows how Jesus contradicted the Jewish
reliance on the traditional wisdom of Proverbs and on the legalism of the Pharisees.
b. We need to remember that God's revelation in the Bible is progressive: the Old Testament contains nuggets of
revelation, but the full revelation of God and of Gods will come only with Jesus.
c. We all have traditions and are all attached to our traditions, but we are warned: even the most cherished
traditions are human, and must be constantly checked and confronted with Jesus commandment to love. If
they dont lead to love our neighbors, they are only human traditions
d. Jesus wisdom is counter-intuitive, based on divine power in spite of human failure. We were saved through
Jesus' suffering and death. We are called to do our best, but can rely only on God.