“In the
beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless
void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God swept
over the face of the waters. Then God said,
‘Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from
the darkness.” (Gen 1:1-4)
Thus, the
epic narrative of creation begins. The
story of creation will twist and turn, with ups and downs, highs and lows, and
a good few diversions and dead ends along the way. In fact, just a few verses after the journey
begins, we read the first account of the fall.
And then the next, and the next, and the next. From Genesis chapters 3-11, humanity – all human
beings - not just one couple in a garden, fall by taking their eyes off of
their good creator and fixing them on themselves and the rest of creation. This idolatry leads to more and more
de-relational and de-creational sin.
Though sinful
humanity rebels against him, God doesn’t give up on mankind or his
creation. He sets in motion a rescue
operation, whereby humankind and the creation will be set free from sin and
decay. Beginning with the call of
Abraham, the Lord creates a people for himself, a people through whom all of
the nations of the earth will find blessing.
But the story of Israel is itself fraught with sin and rebellion. Kings and prophets are sent, without much
long-term impact, and as time goes by, it becomes obvious that God will have to
act in a new and dramatic way to reverse the curse of sin and destruction unleashed
upon his wonderful world.
The writings
found in the prophet Isaiah look forward to a time when things will begin to
work right again. This new age is described
in a variety of ways. In Isaiah 11, we
read, “A shoot shall come out from the
stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots…He shall not judge by
what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he
shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth…The wolf
shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid…and a little
child shall lead them…They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the
sea.” (Isaiah 11:1-9).
Later on,
Isaiah goes onto say in chapters 25 & 26, “On this mountain the Lord of
hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged
wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the
shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all
nations; he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the
disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth…Your dead shall
live, their corpses shall rise. O
dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those
long dead.” (Isaiah 25:6-8 & 26:19).
About ten
chapters later, Isaiah says this, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the
feeble knees. Say to those who are of a
fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God. He will come
with a vengeance, with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.’ Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then
the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for
joy.” (Isaiah 35:3-6).
Eventually,
in Isaiah 65 and 66, this transformed reality is described as new heavens and a
new earth. “For I am about to create new
heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to
mind…for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people with
delight…no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of
distress…They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards
and eat their fruit…The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall
eat straw like the ox…They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,
says the Lord. Thus says the Lord:
Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool…They shall bring all your
kindred from all the nations as an offering to the Lord…and I will take some of
them as priests and as Levites, says the Lord.
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall
remain before me, says the Lord; so shall your descendants and your name
remain. From new moon to new moon, and
from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the
Lord.” (Isaiah 65:17-25, 66:1, & 66:20-23).
There are
other Old Testament passages that say similar kinds of things, but
Isaiah gives
us a pretty good idea of what many Jews of the 1st Century were
expecting when the Kingdom of God would finally come and God’s will would
finally be done on earth, as in heaven.
The writer
of the gospel of John paints a portrait of new creation for us through his
seven signs. The seven signs demonstrate
that what Isaiah’s prophesy anticipated, was beginning to take place through
the life and ministry of Jesus. The
abundant wine of Isaiah 25 is alluded to in John 2 when Jesus turns water to
wine. The healing of the official’s son
in John 4, the healing of the lame man in John 5, and the healing of the blind
man in John 9 remind us of the restoration to health that Isaiah 35
anticipates. The feeding of the five thousand
in John 6 points to God’s feast described in Isaiah 25. When Jesus comes to his disciples, walking on
the water in John 6, echoes of Isaiah 35’s description of God coming to save
his people reverberates in one’s mind.
And just as Isaiah 25 and 26 look forward to a time when death is
swallowed up forever and the earth gives birth to those long dead, so Lazarus’
resurrection in John 11 points to a day when the dead in Christ will rise to
eternal life.
The fact
that seven signs are selected to awaken faith in Jesus the Messiah, the Son of
God, looks back to the Genesis story of the seven days of creation. But the gospel of John retells this story
with a twist. This isn’t just the old
creation story, this is the story of new creation – the new heavens and the new
earth that Isaiah 65 and 66 point us to.
We discover in John 1:51 that Jesus is the ladder, the bridge between
heaven and earth. Just as the temple had
been the place where heaven and earth came together in Israel’s history, now
Jesus is the place where heaven and earth unite. In 1:46, the writer of John’s gospel invites
us to come and see…come and see this story of new creation.
One can’t
escape the clear echo of Genesis chapter 1 in John 1:1-5. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God. All
things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into
being. What has come into being in him
was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not overcome it.”
Just as the
Spirit hovered over the primeval waters of chaos in Genesis 1, so the Spirit
descends upon the baptismal waters of Jesus in John 1:32-34.
After
passing through the seven signs mentioned earlier, we arrive at the climax of
the gospel in chapter 19. On the sixth
day of Jesus’ Passover week, his dead body is taken down from the cross, and he
rests on the Sabbath, the seventh day, in a garden tomb. So, it’s no surprise that after Jesus rises
from the dead on the eighth day, the first day of the new creation, Mary
confuses Jesus for the gardener. In John
20, we find ourselves back in the garden, back in Genesis, but this is a new
genesis story, a story of regeneration.
As God breathed the breath of life into the man in Genesis 2, so Jesus
breathes on his disciples and they receive the Holy Spirit in John
20:21-22. The writer of the fourth
gospel wants us to see that in the person of Jesus - through his life, death,
and resurrection - God’s new creation has been launched. The new creation has broken in, but it has
yet to come to completion.
We are
living between the times, in the already, but not yet. We live in the overlap of two ages – the
present evil age, and the age to come, when God will renew, restore, and
recreate all things. Another John, John
the prophet caught a glimpse of what that day will be like in the writing that
we call Revelation. He describes what he
saw in Revelation 21. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband. And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; and they will be his
peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their
eyes. Death will be no more; mourning
and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed
away.’ And the one who was seated on the
throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’
Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and
true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is
done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end. To the thirsty I
will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things,
and I will be their God and they will be my children.” (Revelation 21:1-7).
When God’s
recreation of the cosmos is complete, he will dwell with us and we will be his
people – living, worshiping, reigning and serving in his presence forever. But, for those of us in Christ, God’s Spirit
already dwells within us. As the apostle
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, if anyone is in Christ, there is new creation. We don’t have to wait until Jesus returns to
live meaningful, worthwhile lives.
There’s no reason for us to live our lives bound by the death and decay
of the old creation - we don’t have to live lives of sin and slavery - we are
free to live lives rooted in the new creation - now. Eternal life, abundant life, begins when we rise
from the waters of baptism and will continue when we rise from the dead in the
age to come. And it won’t be long until
our King returns and the new creation is finally brought to completion. John’s revelation ends like this... “The one
who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of
the Lord Jesus be with all the saints.”
(Revelation 22:20-21). - Shay
No comments:
Post a Comment