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)
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