Lent 4 (B) Exile and Restoration | Homily / Sermon

Thus speaks Cyrus king of Persia, “the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; he has ordered me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! (2 Chronicles 36:23)

Previously in the Old Testament:
We began with Noah, emerging from the disaster of the flood to God’s promise of compassion and salvation symbolised by the Rainbow. Next, we heard of the calamitous plan of Abraham to sacrifice his Son, Isaac, and God’s action in averting the sacrifice and promising a shower of blessings on Abraham, Isaac and their descendants. Last week, the God of the Hebrews, who has rescued his people from persecution and slavery, now binds them closer to himself by a the Commandments, a charter of love and service.
And today, we hear how the people of Israel, having been defeated, conquered and taken into exile, are now rescued once again by the gracious act of God.

Yes, through these passages of the Old Testament there is a recurring pattern, a pattern which speaks to us of sin, and of suffering, and even threatens annihilation, and yet, and yet God does it again. He saves. He rescues. And he restores.

You don’t have to be an expert in theology, or trained in Biblical studies to see that all these passages in the Jewish scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, are pointing ahead to what is summarised in today’s gospel -

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost
but may have eternal life. (John 3:14)

In these words are the shadows of the rainbow, the reflection of the boy given over for sacrifice, the trace of the law which binds through belief and service, and the echo of the rebuilding of the temple, the promised land, the new heaven and the new earth. We know he will do it again - we seem to be told - because he has done it before.

And perhaps one point we can take from this, in our unbelieving and cold hearted world, is this:

So often people today who have no faith, or who struggle with faith, confront us with the hard question: “If there is a God, then why is there suffering”?

But what Scripture says to us is something very different: “There is suffering in the world, but in spite of it, however great it may be, there is hope, because there is God”. That’s what the Old Testament is saying to us each week. That is what the Gospel says to us to today. That is what we read in the Cross - and it what we will see made real in the resurrection.