Comfort and Direction for a New Season

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, August 17th, 2025:
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Jeremiah
​38.4-6, 8-10 

Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.”
“He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.”
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So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

Ebed-Melek went out of the palace and said to him, “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.”

Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Quote: “God will always, always welcome us home.”

Sitting down with Jeremiah Chapter 38 this week wasn't just another Bible study for me. I didn't just read it once; I read it again, and then I kept going, digging into the chapters leading up to it. My heart really wanted to get inside Jeremiah's head, to feel what that prophet was truly going through, and what came bubbling up inside me as I tried to make sense of it all was revealing.When you're trying to figure out the Bible, you need the full context – the background, the history, the messy parts – otherwise, you miss so much of what's good in it.

As I read more of Jeremiah’s story, this image kept popping up: "living water" versus those still, muddy "cisterns." It's such a strong picture of people who'd just completely lost their way, sure they knew better than God. They'd turned their backs on God’s fresh, life-giving grace and mercy, choosing instead to dig their own broken, mucky holes that simply couldn't hold any real water. And Jeremiah, speaking God's words, was desperately trying to pull them back, to get them to drink from God's living water instead of their own homemade mud holes. Even when they went against Him, God kept sending His prophet. That's where the awe just floods in – His endless patience, His plan for us, His daughters and sons, even when they walk away.

The image of Jeremiah thrown into a muddy cistern, with no food in a starving city, truly made me think. It brought to mind what Jesus said: "I am the bread of life." Was this foreshadowing, showing just how lost people would become, so stuck in their own mess, so spiritually starved, that only Jesus, the "bread of life," could possibly save them? It was a powerful, almost sad connection to make, seeing the people's deep trouble and Jeremiah's suffering tied to our biggest need for a Savior. Yet, even in that darkness, that awful pit, there’s this little hint of God’s plan, His love for us shining through.

Jeremiah in that muddy pit instantly brought back a time in my own life, over 10 years ago, when I desperately needed a fresh start from my own "mud and mess." I found a powerful symbol in the lotus flower: a beautiful bloom rising from murky depths into sunlight, bright and new. I even got a lotus tattoo, a daily reminder of how I've grown from the mud. Jeremiah's story, like the lotus, whispers the promise of rising even from the deepest holes. But this freeing, this new beauty, only comes by turning to God and surrendering. When I chose Him, He washed my muddy mire away. I learned the most incredible truth: God will always, always welcome us home. We just need to be willing to say, "Yes, Lord, I do." That amazing grace fills me with Holy Awe.




Jacinda Whebby​

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