Jeremiah 31:7-14 Psalm 147:12-20 Ephesians 1:3-14 John 12:44-50
Context Changes Everything
Ever since childhood, I have struggled with claustrophobia. I have tried to overcome this several times in several different ways, but the sheer panic that runs through my body like an enormous electrical surge every time I even as much as think about a tight spot, has prevented me from defeating it completely. However, this has not stopped me from venturing into dark, tight spaces, like tunnels and caves. For me, the trick is knowing what lies ahead as well as knowing what lies at the end. I need to know what I am in for, and I need to know where I am going, and that knowing starts at the beginning.
There are two tunnels that come to mind as I write this talk. The first is a tunnel in Ethiopia that links two monastic centres. The purpose of this tunnel, besides the obvious link between the two communities, is didactic. Like so many other things in Ethiopian Orthodoxy, people are not just taught with words but also with images. Ethiopian icons are a very good example. For oral learners, stories or pictures or drama (like acted out parables), are better conduits of knowledge than books.
But back to the tunnel. We were told by our guide at the opening to the tunnel that, for these communities, the journey through the tunnel represents our journey through life. For them, our present life is dark and mysterious. Just like while walking through the subterranean blackness you cannot see where you are going, so in life no one really knows what lies ahead. The tunnel itself is uneven, so at times you either trip over a raised part of the floor or hit your head on a low part of the ceiling or bump into a narrower part of the sides. Our guide encouraged us not to use our flashlights so that we could experience the full effect of the lesson. You really could not see a single thing, that is until you began to approach the end of the tunnel. The community on the other side, the guide told us, represents heaven. Hell is if you lose your nerve in the tunnel and turn back. Well, I was certainly not going to go to hell, so I pressed on through to the other side!
But my point in telling this story is that knowing what lay at the end of my angst-filled adventure helped me to overcome my claustrophobia. There was, quite literally, light at the end of the tunnel, and once there we were jubilantly greeted by friendly fellow believers, just like at a homecoming or a victory celebration after a long trip, battle, or ordeal. Knowing what to expect and knowing that the experience was temporary, helped me to overcome my fear of dark confining spaces and I made it through.
The other tunnel is in Jerusalem. It is a long tunnel connecting a pool inside the city with a spring outside the city. Built by King Hezekiah in the late 8th and early 7th Century, its purpose was twofold. Firstly, to ensure an adequate supply of water for the inhabitants of the city in case of a siege by the menacing Assyrian forces, and, secondly, the tunnel was designed to keep the entire outflow of the spring inside the walled area so that they might deny access to water for those enemies outside the gates. The tunnel was carved out of rock by two teams from both ends with the diggers meeting in the middle. As such, it is an engineering marvel given the time and the implements used.
Here again, like with the tunnel in Ethiopia, knowing the background story, or in this case, the underground story, helped me press on to the end. I even stopped once or twice to observe the niches in the walls made for the oil lamps that served as the digger’s only light. (Yes, this time I cheated and used the flashlight on my phone.) But my point is this: in both cases, in Ethiopia and in Jerusalem, the context changed everything for me…at least I knew the purpose of the tunnels, the shape and structure of the tunnels, and I knew that there was an end to the tunnels.
Now, you are probably wondering where this talk is going! Well, the same principle I used with the tunnels can be applied to the interpretation of Scripture. Knowing the context changes everything…and that context starts at the very beginning.
Very few people will start a novel in the middle or at the end of the story. Of course, one can do this and still have an inkling as to what the plot is about, but you will not have the full picture. The same is true of the Scriptures. Too many believers start two thirds into the story…they start and hang out only or mostly in the New Testament…and while it will not damage their relationship with the Lord nor will it endanger their salvation, they will miss the plot and, sadly, at times even misunderstand or misinterpret or misrepresent the message. Just like a puzzle with missing pieces, an incomplete reading of the Bible can leave many gaps.
The best place to start in order to get that full picture is, of course, the beginning. I have always believed that if one does not grasp the theology of the first three chapters of Genesis, one will never truly understand the devastating effect of sin nor the greatness of grace. Adam and Eve’s fall from grace is all encompassing…their act of defiant treachery and their rejection of their Creator God produced a barrier between them and their source of life. From that point on, everything was in a state of death and decay. But in the very midst of their desperate brokenness God came to find them, even in their wretchedness, to give them a word of hope. One day, God promised, the Seed of the woman would conquer the serpent.
The rest of Scripture builds upon this foundation. There is a reason why certain images and words are repeated throughout Scripture…in the prophets and psalms and in the Gospels and the New Testament Epistles. Images such as gardens and rivers and trees. There is a reason why Israel is often depicted as a garden or a vine or a tree…these are all illustrations of what once was and what is yet to come. The images compel us to view Scripture in context...the context of rebellion and redemption…of exclusion and of restoration. They help to sharpen our understanding with regard to the need for rescue, ransom, and reconciliation.
Reading through the Old Testament is, in many ways, like walking through a deep, dark tunnel. Right at the entrance to the tunnel we are told what lies ahead and what we can expect at the end. Countless times, the authors of Scripture return to the images of the garden to help us grasp the need for divine intervention. Page after page after page we read of the failure of even the best to live up to the standard of our created reality. They stub their toes and bump their heads and sometimes even stumble and fall. As such, the Old Testament can seem like one long litany…a requiem for humanity.
But even amid the sightless blackness, the promise of what lies ahead is raised every so often to provide hope for the future…to encourage those faltering forward to press onward and upward toward the light.
The prophet Jeremiah has been called the weeping prophet for good reason. Regardless of what he said or did, no one listened…even when the disasters he predicted came to pass, the people still refused to heed his warnings. Jeremiah begged his people to repent and turn back to the God they no longer served. He warned them that their ongoing rebellion would lead to judgment. Their attempts to save themselves through political and military alliances and alignment with their pagan neighbours would ultimately fail and their refusal to abandon their idolatry and injustice and ethical misconduct would lead to their defeat and deportment. All to no effect.
He ended up being abducted and taken to the very place he told them not to go…back to Egypt. Like the Ethiopian story of hell waiting for those who turn back, so the return to Egypt illustrated a reversal of their redemption as slaves…a reversal of their status as a free nation. But just as the guides provided hope for us before we plunged into the darkness, and just as the oil lamps helped the diggers plot their way forward, so the prophet Jeremiah provided his readers with hope. All who were scattered would be gathered in once more, he said. The Lord will come to bring them back to the land…he will restore them so that they will be like a well-watered garden…like Eden. He will lead them beside still waters on paths that are level where they will not stumble. Mourning will be turned into dancing and comfort will displace sorrow. In other words, in spite of everything, with God there is always hope for the future.
As such, Jeremiah points us to the fulfilment of God’s promise made in the garden. Through the advent of the Seed of the woman…through the coming of our Lord Jesus, the barrier between God and humanity has been removed, and now those who believe in Him are once more able to receive every spiritual blessing because we have been ransomed, redeemed, rescued, reconciled, and restored. We have been adopted as sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus. We have life through his death. The resurrection of Jesus from a tomb in a garden is a picture of the reversal of the judgement in the Garden of Eden. The entrance once blocked and barred, has now been opened and we may freely enter into God’s presence once more.
And yet, there is a perfect Garden still to come. As Paul says in our reading from Ephesians, we have received a deposit…a guarantor of something we will inherit in the future. You see, we live in an in-between time…the now and the not yet…a place in the tunnel where we can see the light at the end, even though we have not fully arrived at our destination. The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John shows us that we are still to emerge from the shadows into the eternal bliss of another well-watered Garden where, like in the prophecy of Jeremiah, there will be no more sorrow as there will be no more curse…there will be no more death as the Tree of Life bears fruit in abundance.
But as with the tunnel in Ethiopia, the destination is only for those who do not turn back. Jesus speaks quite plainly in our Gospel lesson for today. “When someone believes in me, he believes not only in me but in him who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” In other words, those who do not accept the Son, do not accept the Father either. Jesus said he was the only way to the Father…the only one through whom we can re-enter the Garden.
Clambering through a dark and dingy subterranean tunnel was no easy task…but we believed the word of our guides and we received the reward they had promised. Not that we earned the reward…it was there whether we emerged from the tunnel or not. It was freely ours if we only believed. All we had to do was plod on in hope.
When one places life in its greater biblical context, it really does change everything. It shows us in stark relief where we have come from, and it shows us in all the fulness of bliss where we are and where we are going. And as we plot our way forward in the light of this context, we can be rest assured that even in the deepest, darkest part of the tunnel, our Saviour is right there before us, behind us, beside us, and within us.
Let us pray.
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2021
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