Scriptural Reflection Rugby Prison Fellowship
January Prayer Meeting at HMP Onley
I want to offer a broad
outline that emphasises the significance of the Magi seeking out the Christ
Child.
Epiphany, 6th January is also Orthodox Church Christmass Celebrations and is sometimes called Theophany, Little Christmas, Three Kings Day, or Baptism of Jesus.
In Eastern Orthodox
Christianity, the special day focuses on the baptism of Jesus whereas in
Western Christianity the focus is much more on the coming of the Magi who
followed a star to see Jesus in Bethlehem and brought the child gifts of
gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
We are sometimes in danger of
neglecting to acknowledge the huge significance of Gentiles coming to pay homage
to Jesus.
Jesus said, "The Queen of
the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn
it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon;
and behold, something greater than Solomon is here."
(Matthew 12:42).
Blessings and wisdom emanating
from God mediated through his people is a recurring theme that pushes us all
the way back to the creation narrative.
In the opening chapter of
Genesis, we find a poetic story of God creating a Garden Temple and placing it
in Eden.
The Garden in Eden is a Garden
Temple, an earth heaven space where God and humanity walk in harmony.
‘And they heard the sound of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the
garden.’ Genesis 3.8
Adam and Eve were commissioned as
Royal Priest with a mandate to flourish and to multiply, and to rule over the
earth and have dominion over all creation.
In this way they were to extend
the Garden Temple over all the earth.
However, they failed the faithfulness
test and ate from the tree of knowing good and evil, the one thing God said
they were not to do – and all hell broke loose!
No time to develop this but
consider the ‘residents’ incarcerated in our prisons. Consider Eve, who the
Scripture says, ‘saw the tree was good for food, a delight to the eye and
something to be desired. So, she took the fruit and consumed it.’
Desiring something forbidden to
us, then taking it for ourselves God said would lead to death, and we see that
being played out across the world. (Thinking also of death in a broader context, death of relationships, death of freedom, etc.)
However as we continue to read the Biblical narrative we will notice that there is a recurring restoration theme to extend the Garden Temple over all the earth, for example. We find this in the stories of Noah – Abraham – Solomon as just a few examples.
Isaiah and other prophets and
many Psalms speak of a time when all nations shall come to Mount Zion, the
Mountain and Temple of God to receive wisdom and blessing.
Micah 4.2 ‘Many nations will
come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of
the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. ‘
The coming of the Magi to pay homage to Jesus alerts us to something important. That they (the nations) are coming to Mount Zion, to the Temple as prophesied.
As the Jesus story continues, we
see Jesus acting and declaring himself to be the Temple, a New Temple. This is particular so
in John’s Gospel with the Temple cleansing placed in chapter 2 as a guiding and
principal motif that would be played out in the rest of John’s Gospel account.
The Second Temple, still
undergoing development under Herod, had become exclusive and closed rather than
open and expansive, being the place that nations came to learn of God’s will
and ways.
Jesus as the New Temple is inclusive
and expansive. He invites all to come and be embraced by God, to seek God’s forgiveness,
healing and restoration. (See John chapter 4 and the encounter with the woman
at the well as just one example.)
John 2:19-22 “Jesus
answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this
temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking of the
temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples
remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word
which Jesus had spoken.”
Jesus’ as the New Temple was raised
up by God, not by human hands, (cf. Mark 14.58) and that is a
very important point worthy of further reflection and study.
Following Jesus’ Ascension, we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The coming of the indwelling Spirit and an Adamic recommissioning, to be fruitful and multiply, (cf. Matt 28.19-20) to have dominion over all the created order.
1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you yourselves are God's temple, and that God's Spirit
dwells in you?
Our commission as Royal Priest
is to spread God’s Temple over all the earth, beginning in Jerusalem, then to
Judea, into Samaria and out unto the ends of the earth – i.e., everywhere!
(Habakkuk 2:14) “For the
earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters
cover the sea.”
In our various ministries as
Temple People, we must ensure that we remain expansive and inclusive – leaving
open the door for all to enter and engage within the Temple of God as a place
of healing, reconciliation, and hope.
Since it is through people reflecting the glory of God that God’s glory fills the earth (Genesis 1:26), and since we only truly reflect his glory through the redemption that Christ won for us and gives to us (Romans 2:28-30; Colossians 3:10), the promise that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory is a promise that it will be filled with those who believe in Christ and glorify God in him.
God is working his purpose out
as year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.
