Sunday 13 February

Exodus 13:1-14:31

The parting of the Red Sea is probably the defining image of the saving activity of God.  OK, I can you see you unzipping your heresy stick right now and getting ready to whack me with it.  I appreciate that it is a fairly bold claim to place the deliverance from Egypt over and above the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus but do bear with me; I have not suddenly abandoned the great truths of the new covenant.  No, what I am asserting here is that we can’t properly understand the beauty of the cross unless we have previously been a courting with the parting of these waters.  The Old Testament brims with exultation of the exodus, pointing back to it as the ‘thing’ that God has done for his people.  But, by the time of Isaiah and some of his fellow lunatic prophets, it is becoming  increasingly clear that God needs to do a ‘new thing’ to achieve a real deliverance of his people from the wickedness and slavery that engulfs them.  The people of Israel start to look forward to a second exodus where they will not only be set free from the enemy troops arrayed against them but will also know freedom from the stoney-hearted, wearying, wilderness-infested way of living that clings to them.  So, when Jesus talks about forgiving sins and giving his life as a ransom for many, he is not bringing a new idea to Israel.  No, rather he is claiming that he has in his own body the new version of the plagues, the defeat of Pharoah, the parting of the Red Sea and the access into the Land flowing with milk and honey.  It’s no wonder the religious leaders wanted to kill him as a blasphemer.  And it is no wonder that the early church, when they finally got their heads round this, went completely bonkers in worshipping him.

Matthew 27:45-66

You know as well as I do about Psalm 22, the temple being torn and the people being raised from the dead (I wonder how they actually chose to appear to people?  I mean if you’ve been dead for a while and are now back alive you would like to make a bit of an entrance wouldn’t you? Maybe with a bit of smoke and a drum roll; you could seriously mess with people’s heads!).  You probably also know the serious girl power thing that is going on here but I think it is so surprising that it is still worth drawing it out.  We don’t know who Matthew was exactly (or at least I don’t) but he was obviously deeply knowledgable about Jewish beliefs and customs and well able to construct a decent argument.  So it is pretty astounding that he gives this group of mothers and others such a high profile in the narrative.  At the time there would have been a lingering air of suspicion around a man collaborating so closely with so many of the ‘weaker sex’ and their testimony about Jesus’ death and resurrection would have added nothing in a court of law.  So why did Matthew choose to include these disreputable details?  Well, it is clear that for Jesus and the disciples these ladies were fundamental to the story; they formed the backbone of support for Jesus throughout the toughest episode in his life, they kept watch over his tomb while Pilate was sealing it and putting guards on it and, in my mind, they almost certainly formed the basis of the new Christian community that arose out of the witness of the resurrection.  In short, they were probably the first disciples to ‘get it’.  Most of the bible is understandably dominated by tales of men; it would be inconceivable in the society of the time for it to be any other way.  But, in places, it exposes the shocking level of respect and empowerment that Jesus gave to the ladies around him.  It really is a great thing to be part of a church that emulates this and tries to treat women in the same way today.

Proverbs 4:20-27

“Let your eyes look straight ahead”.  I like that! It seems to be about treading the path that the Lord has prepared for me and not worrying about what I might be missing out on.