11 February 2019 - something greater

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.

Creation was made good. "God saw how good it was." In the beginning there was a proper order to all things and the beauty of existence was easily and clearly seen. Disorder was introduced that obscured this goodness. Yet looking back before this point we can see that creation was meant for more.

God did not make death,
and he does not delight in the death of the living (see Wisdom 1:13).

The order we see God creating in the garden is the same order we see restored wherever Jesus goes. But Jesus does not simply restore what was meant to be. He raises it to something still greater. He is doing what he promised through the mouth of Isaiah.

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind" (see Isaiah 65:17).

Jesus is beginning to bring about this new creation in humanity in particular.

Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come (see Second Corinthians 5:17).

Again, what Jesus is doing is more than mere healing. It is more than restoration to what was. It is the seed of a life together with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the indestructible life of love they share that the resurrection of Jesus reveals and makes available to us even now.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (see Colossians 3:3).

There is plenty in the world that makes us doubt the goodness of creation, and therefore of the Creator. The invitation today is to remember just how good the Creator is and to renew our trust in his plans for us. What we are invited to share in even here and now is a paradise greater than the life of Eden. Let's embrace it.

Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory,
robed in light as with a cloak.