Faithful to the End

2 Maccabees 7. This is one of the best stories in the old testament showing the faithfulness of a family who freely gave their lives to follow God.  It is staged around 169 B.C.  As the story unfolds, this king, Antiochus IV, forces the Jews to choose between eating pork, a violation of the law, or being tortured and killed.  This family chooses death over dishonor of God’s laws.  Each son comes forth to be cruelly tortured.  If you read the entire story, you see how truly cruel the torture is as each brother is lead to their death, but even the soldiers and their king are amazed that they freely give their lives to follow their God.  During all of this time, it is the mother speaking to each of them and encouraging them.  Finally they come to the last son, who is the youngest.  The mother speaks to him, in their native tongue and the king believes she is insulting him.  He attempts to persuade the youngest with promises to make him rich and happy if he would only abandon his faith.

At this point the mother speaks to the son to live for God and God alone and not turn away from his faith in God.  The youngest speaks up and tells the king he is more than willing to die.  The king is enraged and treats this son the worst of all.  The story only tells us that the mother is finally put to death.  If you stop and consider what she did, the writer most likely did not want to describe how bad she was treated before she died.  Usually when one is considered the instigator of events, they receive the worst punishment.  Jesus did the same thing for us.  He was willing to obey his Father and bring the good news to each one of us. As Paul says in the second reading today, God and his Son Jesus loved us and has given us everlasting encouragement.  Before they killed him, he was cruelly  tortured, beaten and paraded through the streets.  He was hung on a cross and at one point, gave his life, so we could live.  It is the reversal of story endings.

In the Maccabean story, the Jewish family gives their lives to not offend God, but it is their lives that are being saved through their obedience to God.  In the story of Jesus, he freely gives his life as an offering, but it is so we can live.  The former shows death with the hope of being raised again. The other shows that hope comes from the one who can raise us up again to eternal life.  My hope is you will give your life to God today through his Son Jesus, so that one day, you might be raised up again.  God loves you and wants you to live forever with him.  As Jesus says in the gospel, he is the God of the living and not the dead.  We are alive because of what he has done for us.