March 5, 2007

Exodus

After proclaiming Luke's account of the Transfiguration a couple of times yesterday, I realized that the critical moment is the conversation of Jesus with Moses and Elijah. They were discussing the "exodus" that Jesus would accomplish in Jerusalem.

For Luke, of course, Jerusalem is everything. The Gospel up to the Passion leads there, and then the Spirit proceeds out from Jerusalem to the whole world.

As the Israel of history passed through the Red Sea to the new life of the promised land, so Jesus Christ, the Israel of God, passes through his suffering and death to the new life of the Resurrection.

And he does it through the humanity he takes from us! So if only we allow ourselves to be fully human, to have our own humanity be Christo-formed, as it were, we will be caught up into this Exodus. And then we will have left behind the shadow of death that hangs over this world.

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