The Man Believed

The Man Believed

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Thus, says the LORD: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create;

For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight.  Isaiah 66:17-18

The royal official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "You may go; your son will live." The man believed what Jesus said to him and left. John 4:49-50

Piety

I praise you, LORD, for you raised me up

and did not let my enemies rejoice over me

O LORD, my God,

I cried out to you for help and you healed* me. Psalm 30:2-3

Study

We start out Lent in the dark, cold, late winter days.  As we move through the five weeks toward the Holy Week, spring approaches.  We have more hours of sunlight. Daytime temperatures begin to get warmer.  The cherry blossom trees bloom. The crocus and the azalea bloom.  Death yields to new life.

The passage from Isaiah reminds us of the “remnant” theology of the Old Testament.   No matter how bad things get, the Lord is there to come to the rescue. He rescued Job. He rescued the Jews in Egypt and led them back to the Promised Land. He rescued Joseph once sold into slavery. Isaiah reminds us that no matter who dies, who is exiled, or who is sick, “everyone left in Jerusalem Will be called holy.”

If there remain a tenth part in it,

then this in turn shall be laid waste;

As with a terebinth or an oak

whose trunk remains when its leaves have fallen.

Holy offspring is the trunk.  Isaiah 6:13

Faith really is just the basis for hope that we will face a better future.  If you don’t believe that, then check in with the Roman official whose son was cured.

I used to think that God in the Old Testament was the fire-and-brimstone God.  After all, the first stories I learned were that God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden.  God who sent forty days of rain on Noah’s ark and family.  God’s chosen people were exiled to Egypt and wandered in the desert for forty years.  

My old theology was based on the idea that Jesus changed everything about God. However, now I realize that Jesus changed nothing about God.  

The Hebrew Bible is the story about how people forgot how good God was.  Prophets like Isaiah tried to keep the flame of hope alive.  Jesus was sent as a reminder to restore us to our senses.  Jesus replaces the old with the new. He replaced the plain water with celebratory wine in Cana.  He replaced ignorance with knowledge of the Spirit and Truth in the mind of Nicodemus.  He replaced sickness with a healthy son in the Roman official’s house. All these signs and more are there to replace our doubt with faith.  

Action

Look around this week for signs of life.  Easter will be here soon.  But life grows.  It is not a magic trick from one day to the next.  It is an evolution. What signs of life do you notice today that you did not notice last week?  

There might be remnants of Winter remaining…but the signs of Spring are emerging.