In each of the three readings today, there is a protagonist facing some antagonists. Jeremiah is questioned by the Israelites, "Why should we listen to you?" If a prophet is not called by God and sent as God's messenger to the people of the covenant, there is no reason why they should listen to him. Paul is quizzed by the Christians in Corinth, "Why should we not exalt the spiritual gifts over the body?" For them, the things of the mind and the spirit are to be preferred to the physical. Jesus is suspected by the Jews in the synagogue, "Why should we be impressed with Jesus?" After all, Jesus is only a son of Joseph, the carpenter.

Jeremiah's response is that he was directly called by God and commissioned to be God's messenger to the covenanted people. That God "knew," "dedicated," and "appointed" Jeremiah to be "a prophet to the nations" even before he was born. Paul's response is that love is the one essential gift that characterises the community worthy of the name Christian. It means that love is the criterion for judging the relative value of all other gifts. Jesus' response is to compare himself to two great prophets of ancient Israel, noting that they served non-Israelites because their own people were not open to their ministries. The implication is that he too, not accepted by his own people, will take his message to outsiders.

If there is a common thread in the three readings today it is that God does not think as human beings do.