An
old man said, ‘Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus and placed it in a
clean garment within a new tomb, which signifies a new humanity. Therefore let
each one strive attentively not to sin so that they do not mistreat the God who
dwells within themselves and drive him away from their soul.’
It is a good thing that we have time at
Easter to take in and make sense of what we have commemorated: Our Lord’s
Passion, Death, & Resurrection. They are linked and form part of a larger
whole of the history which stretches back through the Incarnation, of the Word
made flesh for our sake, to the Creation of the World.
In
the 8th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we see the meeting of
Philip and an Ethiopian eunuch, who is reading the very passage which we have
just heard as our first lesson this
evening– the Suffering Servant. Philip asks him if he can understand what he is
reading. He replies that he cannot, unless someone shows him the way. ‘Then
Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told
him the good news about Jesus.’ (Acts 8:35 ESV). Isaiah’s prophesy is
fulfilled in Jesus and this is the proclamation of the Church: we proclaim Jesus
Christ and him crucified.
We read scripture so that we can understand
it, and see in its words how it discloses the truth of the Word made flesh, who
suffered and died for our sake. Isaiah prophesies Our Lord’s Passion and Death,
it, like the rest of Scripture points to Christ and finds its true meaning in Him,
and thus it makes sense, it can be understood, and the more we come to
understand, the more we come to know just how much God loves us.
Thus for Paul in the Letter to the Romans
he needs to show them how Abraham, the father of our faith is rewarded by God not
through his observance of the Law, as the Pharisees would argue, but rather by the obedience of his faith in God
which can lead to his righteousness.
As Christians we believe that we are saved by
grace through faith – by grace, by the unmerited free gift of God who gives his
own Son to be born, to suffer and die and to rise again for us, so that we might
have life in Him, through our faith, through believing in the God who does this.
We can put our trust in a God who loves us,
who dies this for us, to heal us and restore us, and thus we can have new life and
eternal life in Him. It is unmerited: we do not deserve it, but it is a free gift
rather than a reward, something earned.
In Christ the promise made to Abraham comes true
in that through the proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ to
the whole world Abraham can become the father of many nations, the word for the
non-Jewish peoples of the world – he becomes a spiritual parent to Christians because
of Abraham’s faith in God, he trusts God, even to the point of being ready to sacrifice
his only son, which itself points to Christ, who as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world is a type of the lamb caught in the
thicket at Bethel. Abraham trusts in God, puts his faith in Him, and is rewarded
for that faith. We put our faith in Him, and are fed by Him, fed with Him, so that
we may share in his Divine life, strengthened and nourished by God, so that his
grace may perfect our nature.
Thus we are to follow Abraham’s example and put
our faith in the God who loves us and saves us by His Son, who suffered and died
and rose again for our sake. It’s all about faith: faith in Jesus Christ, who died
and rose again for us, who was delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification,
this is what we believe, we have to be like Philip and share it with others, so
that they too may believe and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit, to whom ….