MAKING THINGS NEW

 

 Revelation 21:

5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ ⁶Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. ⁷Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. ⁸But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.’

 Salvation is all about newness; so is the Season of Epiphany. This Sunday we will look at the miracle of the wedding feast at Cana where Jesus reveals that He has come to "make all things new".

 The newness of Jesus in his teaching, however, has little to do with innovation, the latest trend, or a fashion that may come or go. Nor does it have anything to do with being hostile to the past. The newness Jesus brings is the restoration of all of God's creation. It has to do with the transformation of human life and a reconciled relationship with the Father.

 The kingdom of this world is "old" in the sense that it has been shaped and polluted by the rebellion and sin of mankind - a rebellion that has infected the entire creation (see Genesis chapter 3 and Romans chapter 8). This is the kingdom that Jesus entered, and with Him, He brought the newness of salvation. Hear the words of St. Paul:

 Ephesians 4:

²²You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

 and

 Romans 6:

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For whoever has died is freed from sin.

 ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 At our baptism we died to a life enslaved by sin and to our "old man"; the old way of life was bound to defeat and defeated. Now, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we live to follow and obey Christ and His ways. We hunger and thirst after Him, and we are continually given new life in Christ. Now, we know what life is, and when we engage our "old ways" of living, we also know what death feels and looks like.

 BUT, that is not who we are as the baptized. We have been transformed.

Christ has come into the world that we might know life and know it abundantly. Those who do not know this life will consistently and constantly live out "the old man" in their thinking, and their ways. Let us embrace the newness of Epiphany.