Reconciliation and Re-creation
The past two Sundays we’ve looked at “Lenten epiphanies,” first from Genesis 15 and then, last week, from Exodus 3. On Sunday we’ll reflect on another manifestation of God, Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. However, the lectionary reading from 2 Corinthians 5 is so powerful that I’d like to make a couple of observations on it. Here is the text:
From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)
Paul had a complicated relationship with the Christians in Corinth. He founded the congregation(s?) in Corinth (cf. Acts 18-19) and, after returning to Antioch, maintained a relationship with them through writing (and at least one more visit). Apparently, a group of anti-Pauline missionaries came into Corinth and preached against Paul, criticizing Paul as weak because of his unimpressive physical appearance and his lack of eloquence as a speaker.
While in 1 Corinthians Paul corrects several doctrinal errors embraced by many Corinthian Christians, 2 Corinthians is, in many ways, Paul’s defense of his ministry, which he explains as “having treasure in clay jars,” and that he and his companions are, “afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). Just before our text from 2 Corinthians 5, Paul identifies the motivation behind his ministry when he writes, “the love of Christ urges us on.”
Among the many things that could be drawn from our text, I’ll focus on three. First, notice that the translation above doesn’t say, “If anyone is in Christ he (or she) is a new creation,” but rather, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.” The latter translation is more faithful to the Greek, and seems more consistent with Paul’s understanding of Christ’s death and resurrection as an event with cosmic significance. In Galatians 6, toward the end of the letter, Paul writes, “For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!” (Galatians 6:15). In other words, the things that mattered before – circumcision, food laws, etc. – no longer matter, because God is re-creating the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and in this new creation, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). This isn’t to say that individual transformation isn’t a part of the new creation, but only that we miss the bigger picture of a remade cosmos when we simply focus on God’s work in our individual lives.
Second, the fact that God is the initiator of reconciliation is extraordinary. In the ancient world, when one party wronged another, the guilty party would send an ambassador to the injured and ask for reconciliation, which would always include some kind of reparation on the part of the guilty party. The message of the Christian gospel, however, is that God, the one who has been wronged by our sinful behavior, is actually seeking us, and, rather than demanding some kind of reparation from us, has, in Christ, “become sin for us.” Our God comes to us in our disobedience, and rather than demanding restitution, pays the penalty himself, “so that, in him, we might become the righteousness of God.” In the great hymn “Rock of Ages,” we sing, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” Our experience of the new creation isn’t a matter of doing the right things, but rather of God’s initiative and God’s work on our behalf.
Finally, Paul conceives of Christian ministry as a “ministry of reconciliation,” and Christian ministers as “ambassadors for Christ.” Importantly, this is not a call for ordained ministers only, but to all who are “in Christ.” As I mentioned, in the ancient world an ambassador would often represent a guilty party in seeking reconciliation with an injured party. For Christians, however, we are representing God, whom we have offended, and we are announcing that, because of the cross and resurrection, God no is longer holding trespasses against sinful people like us, but instead reconciling himself to humans as he remakes creation.
Part of our vision at Christ Church is “participating in God’s work of reconciliation and transformation.” Through the cross and resurrection God is re-creating the world. He has come to us seeking reconciliation, even becoming sin for us that, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God.
It is my fervent hope and prayer that, as a community, we might become ambassadors for Christ, announcing, through our words and deeds, that God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, is actually re-creating the world. Our world today is longing for re-creation. As counterintuitive as it seems, this re-creation began with the death of a wrongly accused man, and continues through those who, with Paul, are “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:10). Sacrificial, self-giving love is the means by which God re-creates the world. In our cultural moment filled with such fear, anger, and confusion, let us be ambassadors of the One who, lovingly and gently, took the sins of the whole world on himself, and is now making all things new.
Peace,
Chris