ALL THINGS SHALL BECOME NEW June 26, 2020

It is with great sadness that I join former colleagues in mourning the passing of one of our former managers and mentors.  And this too, during a time when it isn’t easy to pass across city borders in our province to join in the wake and keep vigil or just spend a little time with the family.  I just pray that GOD give her soul rest, just as her body has finally rested from all the ailments she had these past few years, and that her family will find peace, even as we all as a community are still on edge and depressed from the pandemic.

Death really has a way of grounding us and making us think of our own mortality.  And nowhere is its impact more heightened than during these times when sickness and death is all around us too, and the whole world.

The Word today in the gospel of Luke chapter 5 gives us some firm consolation, hope and encouragement.  We read of the time when Jesus Christ was just starting His earthly ministry and calling His disciples to follow Him.  We read of His miracles: how He healed the sick, how He brought about the extraordinary catch of fish in the fishermen who became His first disciples (Simon Peter; James and John--the latter two of whom are the famous sons of Zebedee; and later, Levi, the tax collector, who will later be renamed Matthew).  We read how Jesus declared forgiveness on someone who had palsy but whose friends had greater faith, that because of the great number of people through which they could not pass, made a hole on the roof above where Jesus was teaching and lowered the disabled man down through a hammock or couch to be near exactly where Jesus was.

We see in these passages that Jesus Christ was able to do His work because the people who came to Him acted in faith and decided to give it all just for a chance to be touched by His healing hand.  We realize that GOD has the power to cure every inch of us—physically, spiritually, mentally; not for our sake, but so we might declare His glory and love to all people.  And even in times when we might not get healed, as worship leader Don Moen has said, “It doesn’t change the fact that GOD is a healing GOD.”  And by that, we only need to believe, for us to feel and be convicted and convinced that life and everything we have accumulated on our own is worth giving up for the one chance to be able to spend eternity with Him in His kingdom, like what Matthew did in verse 28 which says, “And he left all, rose up, and followed Him.”

In the latter part of the chapter, in verses 29 to 39, we read that the old Levi or the new Matthew gave a feast to celebrate the end of the life he had as a corrupt tax collector and the beginning of the life he will have as Jesus’ disciple (and one of the pillars of the faith until now and for all eternity), while the scribes and Pharisees around them questioned its morality and decency, which if Jesus is a prophet and teacher of GOD’s Word, He should avoid doing.  But Jesus told them that He is the bridegroom, and His bride (His church, of which He had just begun to “call out” His second-in-command team, should celebrate).  We learn that even if the world around us is dark, gloomy, sad and miserable, when we are called to fellowship with our Maker and Savior, it is a great cause of celebration, a source of unending joy.

I tried to look up the meaning of Levi’s name, and why he was called Matthew in the other passages.  Levi is the name of one of Jacob’s sons, the third born of his first wife Leah.  His name means “attached”, because Leah declared that even if her husband first loved her younger sister Rachel, with the birth of a third son, Jacob will be “attached” to her.  Kind of reminds us of an old belief in traditional Filipino households, where it is believed lucky for a family to have three sons.  I am not sure if the third son is the lucky charm or not, but I have heard it too often among elders and mature friends to wonder why.  Levi may have understood his old name to mean being “attached” to the system of his world (the Pharisee-controlled era of Judaism during their time, which also has a great say in political and administrative affairs), and decided that because he is now beginning a new life with Jesus, he will become a new person too.  I looked up the meaning of the name “Matthew”, and it says that this is the English translation of the Hebrew name, “Matityahu”, which means, “gift of Yahweh” or the “gift of GOD”.

These words speak clearly to our time today.  We see a world undergoing great pain as in during childbirth, as the gospel of Matthew himself says in chapter 24 verse 8.  It is physically damaged, spiritually broken, mentally going on a downward spiral in spite of great technological advancements, and morally ruined.  We see a collective community of humanity as being “too attached” to the systems of the world, to their own prejudices and destructive habits and traditions, that have proven themselves to be lacking and failing, and did not bring it any higher along the rungs of justice and fairness, nor to more equitable advancement and wealth appropriate for each and all, and definitely farther away from the better life we have all dreamed of.  Like Levi realized, may we realize too that we need a rebirth.  We need to partake of the “gift of GOD” fully, in exchange for everything that holds us down and holds us back.

Yes, we may still experience pain, hardship, sickness, and even death.  But we have hope.  We can choose to act in faith.  We can grab hold of the gift freely given to us, and spend the rest of our days (here in this physical life and beyond) in bottomless joy because we are assured of salvation and eternal life when Jesus Christ made it perfect on the cross.  We need not spend our days living “in rags, or old garments” (Luke 5:36), because we have hope that “all things shall become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)