Easter 2
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
-- Revelation 1:5b-6
If you want to know where the image of being washed in the blood of Jesus originated, please check your footnote on verse 5b. The NRSV chooses the manuscript that is translated "freed us" rather than "washed us" and thus is consistent with the overall image of the passage. The image that is central to the message of the Hebrew scriptures is that of the exodus from Egypt. That God would hear the cry of a suffering people and be concerned enough to effect their liberation from slavery defined the character of God. Revelation built on that image to interpret the work of Christ. While the Jews continued to marvel at the mystery of why God chose the Jews, they were confident that in doing so, God defined the divine self as one who loves and one who acts out of that love to free people from that which oppresses them.
Revelation understood that which oppresses us to be our sins. After God had freed the children of Israel, God also made clear at Sinai God's intentions for this people. "You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6a). Revelation also saw God's intention through Christ to make us "to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father...." If through Christ we have been invited into Israel, it, nonetheless, is Israel about which the author is talking. In Genesis 12:3, the universal intention of God was announced. Abram and Sarai were to be the parents of a great nation, but the vocation of the nation was for the sake of the rest of the world. "And by you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." Revelation echoed that call with a slight emendation. "And on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail." They would wail not because they were lost but because they finally recognized their sinfulness and their need to be saved.
Christ was the embodiment of Israel in a single person and, as followers of Christ, we have the same calling. As the cloud led the children of Israel by day through the wilderness, so now Christ comes with the cloud to lead us, and even the most resistant, those who pierced him, will recognize that his way is indeed God's way. This Jesus Christ was not only the faithful witness during his life, and the firstborn of the dead at his resurrection, but also the future ruler of the kings of the earth.
-- Revelation 1:5b-6
If you want to know where the image of being washed in the blood of Jesus originated, please check your footnote on verse 5b. The NRSV chooses the manuscript that is translated "freed us" rather than "washed us" and thus is consistent with the overall image of the passage. The image that is central to the message of the Hebrew scriptures is that of the exodus from Egypt. That God would hear the cry of a suffering people and be concerned enough to effect their liberation from slavery defined the character of God. Revelation built on that image to interpret the work of Christ. While the Jews continued to marvel at the mystery of why God chose the Jews, they were confident that in doing so, God defined the divine self as one who loves and one who acts out of that love to free people from that which oppresses them.
Revelation understood that which oppresses us to be our sins. After God had freed the children of Israel, God also made clear at Sinai God's intentions for this people. "You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6a). Revelation also saw God's intention through Christ to make us "to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father...." If through Christ we have been invited into Israel, it, nonetheless, is Israel about which the author is talking. In Genesis 12:3, the universal intention of God was announced. Abram and Sarai were to be the parents of a great nation, but the vocation of the nation was for the sake of the rest of the world. "And by you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." Revelation echoed that call with a slight emendation. "And on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail." They would wail not because they were lost but because they finally recognized their sinfulness and their need to be saved.
Christ was the embodiment of Israel in a single person and, as followers of Christ, we have the same calling. As the cloud led the children of Israel by day through the wilderness, so now Christ comes with the cloud to lead us, and even the most resistant, those who pierced him, will recognize that his way is indeed God's way. This Jesus Christ was not only the faithful witness during his life, and the firstborn of the dead at his resurrection, but also the future ruler of the kings of the earth.
