All Things New
Monday, December 28, 2009
The other day I was having some thoughts about this New Year, and what that might mean to us. I mean, we all like new things and the general thought of newness or things that are fresh and not old. When my thoughts turned to the Bible, I kept thinking of one phrase: "I make all things new." I had to think twice about where exactly that was in the Scriptures, but then I remembered something… That phrase is a from a verse in Revelation (21:5), but Mel Gibson (in his movie, The Passion of the Christ) took the liberty of having Jesus say it on His painful walk to Calvary, after he stumbled while carrying the cross. Let me explain… As Jesus is painstakingly making His way to the sight of His crucifixion, His mother, through whose eyes and heart we are invited into this experience, presses her way through the crowd. Jesus, in His rawness and cruel aloneness, stumbles under the weight of the cross in the middle of a Jerusalem street. At this point, the film flashes back in His mother’s memory bank to when He was just a little boy at play, near the same spot where He now lies as a grown man. Of course, the loving mother goes to the aid of her son, but Jesus looks in Mary’s eyes – exhausted, beaten, and wearing a crown of thorns intended to mock any notion of His claim to any throne – and with the thought of new life for the entire universe, He simply says, "See mother, I make all things new." Wow. I remember crying like a baby when I heard him say that. I hope as 2010 approaches, you’ll remember the One who is "making all things new."
