All posts tagged New Jerusalem

Lesson 12: Christmas Story as Salvation

by Scott Noon on October 28, 2011 in Salvation with No comments

I think “The Peaceable Kingdom” and “The New Jerusalem” might be the only detailed pictures of salvation in the Bible. Most of our conceptions have been pieced together from short illustrations. The Christmas Story is a perfect example. Matthew’s and Luke’s versions are quite different, yet still offer the same magnificent picture of salvation.
The angels instruct both Mary and Joseph the name shall be “Jesus” that means “God saves”. Matthew also cites Isaiah 7, claiming this is Emmanuel. It is clear these stories are about God coming to save his world.

Both gospels make clear salvation rescues us from self-serving, if not downright evil, government. Matthew pictures Herod, willing to kill all children less than two years old in order to get rid of a possible rival. We should think of modern governments willing to kill civilians in order to defeat their enemies. Luke begins his tale with an indifferent mighty emperor ordering a census to make sure nobody can hide from his tax collectors. This causes a poor pregnant woman to travel and finally give birth in a cow stall. We should think of modern politicians serving the extremely wealthy and neglecting the unemployed. The stories promise God, not worldly rulers, will bring the peace, safety, and justice we all crave.

Both also make clear God will first rescue the needy. In Luke angels announce the birth first to shepherds, the riffraff of that society. Both gospels present an embarrassed, young unmarried girl who offers a lame excuse for her pregnancy. Joseph is ready to get rid of her quietly. Perhaps Mary visits her cousin, Elizabeth, to find refuge from the barbs of the self-righteous. Certainly the Christmas story brings hope to those who most need it. Jesus describes that hope when he starts his ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4: 18, 19)

Both gospels also describe salvation being open up to include many, many strange people. Matthew reports the first to bring gifts for the Christ Child are visitors from the East. These strange fellows obviously practice another religion. Luke makes the same point when he calls Jesus a “light for the Gentiles”.

Obviously, the Christmas stories make clear salvation will turn everything upside down. Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1 pretty much sums up their meaning. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. …He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.”

My recent classes have forced me to confront how difficult each part of the Christmas message is for us: 1) We have a terrible time believing the movement of salvation is God coming to us. That means. everything around us has meaning. What happens in history is important. God is active right here, right now. We prefer salvation to be our trying to get to God–after we die. In other words, having little to do with what is happening now. 2) We refuse to see God has trouble with the way we govern ourselves. No matter how much we complain, we want to think bad government and greed are simply what comes naturally. That enables us to ignore God’s call to repent and reform. 3) We resist the calls for helping the poor, rationalizing it really boils down to their not working as hard as we do. We prefer to pass charity on to institutions, pretending they must be more efficient than we in responding to our neighbors’ needs. Ho, ho, ho! 4) We are uneasy with foreigners who do not look and act as we do. Our Christianity is bound up with “American Exceptionalism” far more than we want to admit. Merry Christmas!

Lesson 11: An Urban Paradise

by Scott Noon on October 28, 2011 in Salvation with No comments

If Isaiah’s Peaceable Kingdom is the most fleshed out picture of salvation in the Old Testament, certainly John’s New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22 is the New Testament’s. The latter offers much the same promises as the former but in an urban rather than agrarian setting.

The religious sillies have so misread Revelation that we often miss that it is trying to picture history’s fulfillment just as much as Isaiah. Humans do not go to heaven; God comes to earth. That is always the direction of biblical salvation. God comes to us. Twice John wrote “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”. The point is always healing the creation and calling us to participate in this here and now.

Again the promise of safety is the most prominent. Isaiah speaks of wolves living with lambs and children playing with snakes. John writes the gates of his city are never shut and its walls too low to keep out an enemy. There is no need for defense. The promise still speaks to us who are afraid to walk most of our cities’ streets.

Both promise a justice and well being not enjoyed by all now in any of our historical societies. In Isaiah you reap what you sow. The rich do not take it from you, the government does not tax it out from underneath you, and armies do not pillage it. John pictures an extremely fertile city with its river of life and fruits of the month. And it’s all free. “To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.” No longer will Rome deforest Israel, taking its lumber to build the Eternal City. No longer will pollution rot our modern cities.

John goes even beyond Isaiah’s promise that salvation promises long life for all. He says there will be no death at all. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.”

He also opens up creation to all people. The city is actually a cube 1200 miles on a side. There will be plenty of room for all. The prophet makes clear we shall need the room, because the leaves of the trees are for “the healing of the nations”.

In our urgency to stress we should not take the poetic picture literally, we often miss John’s introduction of beauty into salvation. He wants us to see how attractive this city with its streets of gold and bejeweled buildings is for all people. The source, of course, is “the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.”

John can promise more than Isaiah, because he has seen God himself come to earth when the Word is made flesh at Christmas. He is sure this will happen again when Christ returns. God will not only hear the cries of his people quickly. He will now be speaking with them face to face, immediately knowing their needs.

No wonder we respond to this picture as John does with “Amen. Come Lord Jesus”.

Most, if not all, of the other biblical pictures of salvation are short illustrations. Next week we’ll examine how that works in the Christmas Story, using it as a picture of salvation.

Tags: Salvation, Urban Paradise, Peaceable Kingdom, Holy City, Come Lord Jesus, New Jerusalem

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