Scripture Daily

Context No. 1438 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

2 Maccabees 4:18-22: in context

18Now when certain games that came every fifth year were kept at Tyre, and the king was present, 19the vile Jason sent sacred envoys, as being Antiochians of Jerusalem, bearing three hundred drachmas of silver to the sacrifice of Hercules, which even the bearers thereof thought not right to use for any sacrifice, because it was not fit, but to spend it for another purpose. 20Although the sender intended that this money was for the sacrifice of Hercules, yet on account of present circumstances it went to the construction of trireme warships. 21Now when Apollonius the son of Menestheus was sent into Egypt for the enthronement of Philometor as king, Antiochus, learning that Philometor had shown himself hostile toward the government, took precautions for the security of his realm. Therefore, going to Joppa, he travelled on to Jerusalem. 22Being magnificently received by Jason and the city, he was brought in with torches and shouting. Then he led his army down into Phoenicia.

The story of Jason gives a picture of how far the priesthood had fallen. Jason had bought the high priesthood and set about turning Jerusalem toward Greek ways. Here, when athletic games are held at Tyre with the king present, Jason sends envoys carrying three hundred drachmas of silver as an offering for a pagan sacrifice to Hercules. Even the men who carried the money thought it wrong to use it for such a sacrifice and diverted it to another purpose. Later, when the king Antiochus comes to Jerusalem, Jason receives him magnificently, welcoming him with torches and shouting into the holy city.

What stands out is how far a leader entrusted with the worship of God had gone in accommodating the surrounding pagan culture. Jason was the high priest, the man responsible for Israel's worship of the true God, and here he is sending silver to fund a sacrifice to Hercules and welcoming a pagan king into Jerusalem with fanfare. The office set apart for God had become an instrument of assimilation, so eager to fit in with the Greek world, its games and its gods and its fashions, that it would sell out the very holiness it existed to protect. And there is a telling detail that sharpens the indictment: even the envoys who carried the money had more scruple than the high priest who sent it, balking at using it for a pagan sacrifice. When those lower down have more conscience than the leader, something has gone badly wrong at the top. There is a warning in this that reaches beyond ancient priests. The desire to fit in with the surrounding culture, to be accepted, to not seem out of step with the fashions and values of the world around us, can corrupt even those entrusted with holy things, and can corrupt us. Assimilation is a slow process; it does not usually announce itself as apostasy but as reasonableness, as keeping up with the times, as not wanting to seem strange. But followed far enough, as Jason followed it, it sells out the very thing that made us God's. To guard against the pull to assimilate, to be willing to remain out of step with the world where faithfulness requires it, is to refuse the road Jason took.

Has the desire to fit in with the surrounding culture, to be accepted and not seem out of step, quietly corrupted my faithfulness, and am I willing, where it is required, to remain out of step with the world rather than assimilate as Jason did until the holy was sold out?

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