Reflection for the Second Sunday in Lent

On this second Sunday of Lent, we have a set of readings on dead sons. Beloved sons that die because they are beloved. At least that’s what Jon D. Levenson, an Old Testament scholar, suggests. He offers a compelling exegesis that to be beloved, in scripture, is really to be cursed. Think of Isaac, Joseph, Jesus. According to Levenson, child sacrifice as a practice was largely out of fashion by the time some of these Old Testament stories were written down, but the narrative of the “suffering son” continued as a literary trope for interpreting what seems to be perpetual bad luck for God’s chosen people. Chosenness, in this scheme, is a cross on one’s shoulders. To be chosen is to suffer. To be beloved is to die.