The New Thing
(Free Version)- The Fifth Sunday in Lent- Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8
Everything about God is unexpected, surprising to us. Anytime we think that we understand Jesus, that we’ve figured him out, is the moment that we have missed it.
Each of our readings this week are intended to disturb us, to upset the apple cart of our lives. In our Old Testament reading (Isaiah 43:16-21), the prophet tells the people that they must not hold on to God’s activity in the past. The reason why this is so unsettling is that the people of God were formed as a people to remember God’s activity in the past! But we must remember the past in a way that does not forget his ability to upend us in the present, doing a new thing which we otherwise would not expect. The way of Jesus calls us to give up the ways that we think he works. The new exodus did not look like the old exodus.
Our epistle reading (Philippians 3:4b-14) reminds us that the way of Jesus calls us to relativize our previous identities. We cannot rest on who we were before, or who we are on our own. All of that is skubalon (the Greek word Paul uses for excrement)! We must trust in our new and better identity in Christ. So, what does this mean practically? Well, it means that we reframe our lives by him. Lent is an important time to do this. In what ways does who I am flow from who He is? Where am I blinded by what I have built?
Our gospel reading (John 12:1-8) once again reminds us that God is doing a new thing. This new thing is unsettling to the people surrounding Jesus, including his disciples. God’s people were expecting the coming Messiah to do something dramatic like the parting of the sea. They wanted the Roman military drowned, like what happened to the Egyptians in the time of their ancestors. But, the way of Jesus is different. It is the path in the wilderness, the path through death and into new life. It is about dying and rising again.
The way of Jesus calls us to give up the things that are the most valuable to us. If you are looking for people who modeled this for us, it is best to simply look for the name “Mary.” For Mary, the mother of Jesus, it was her reputation and life. For Mary of Bethany, it was her friendship with Jesus. For Mary Magdalene, it was Jesus as she knew him. Many of the disciples (ok, all the men) couldn’t let go of their pre-conceptions of how God was supposed to work. Judas could not let go of his thirst for money.
In Lent, we are called to a season of letting go. God is calling us into something new. Keep watching him, keep your eyes open and your ears alert.