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Context No. 4134 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

2 Maccabees 12:29-35: in context

29Setting out from there, they marched in haste against Scythopolis, which is six hundred furlongs away from Jerusalem. 30But when the Jews who were settled there testified of the good will that the Scythopolitans had shown toward them, and of their kind treatment of them in the times of their misfortune, 31they gave thanks, and further exhorted them to remain well disposed toward the race for the future. Then they went up to Jerusalem, the feast of weeks being close at hand. 32But after the feast called Pentecost, they marched in haste against Gorgias the governor of Idumaea. 33He came out with three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. 34When they had set themselves in array, it came to pass that a few of the Jews fell. 35A certain Dositheus, one of Bacenor’s company, who was on horseback and was a strong man, pressed hard on Gorgias, and taking hold of his cloke dragged him along by main force. While he planned to take the accursed man alive, one of the Thracian cavalry bore down on him and disabled his shoulder, and so Gorgias escaped to Marisa.

As Judas Maccabaeus and his men march through the region, they come to a city, Scythopolis, whose people had, in earlier days of misfortune, treated the Jews living there with kindness and goodwill. And rather than harm them, the Jews testify to this kindness, give thanks for it, and urge the people of the city to remain well-disposed toward their nation in the future.

In the midst of a campaign, they pause to remember and honor those who had been good to them. There is something worth noticing in this gratitude. The kindness shown to them in a hard time was not forgotten; it was remembered and repaid with goodwill and thanks. Even in the pressures of conflict, they took the time to acknowledge those who had treated them well, rather than lumping everyone together as enemies. It is easy to forget the good others have done for us, especially when we are busy or under pressure. But gratitude remembers; it holds onto the kindness shown to us in our need and looks for ways to repay it, or at least to acknowledge it.

Do I remember and honor those who have shown me kindness, especially in hard times, repaying their goodness with gratitude and goodwill rather than forgetting it under the pressures of life?

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