The Gifts that Salvation Brings
You may wounder what the Paschal mystery is? I did. I knew it was a core teaching about Easter, where we celebrate the Resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which is the most important event in human history since the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
It did not take very much digging to find the Hebrew origin of the word Paschal, which is Pesach, or ‘pass over,’ a Jewish feast day in March or April celebrating the deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12). The Angel of Death struck down the first-born males of the Egyptians but “passed over” the homes of the Israelites who had painted the blood of a lamb over the sides and tops of their doorframes as the Lord had commanded through Moses.
But now comes the best part, whereas in the original “Pass over” in Egypt, salvation was glorious but incomplete, the Israelites received a one-time escape from death and slavery in Egypt. The Paschal Mystery includes the Passion of Christ, which is the brutal treatment of our Lord prior to and with his crucifixion which is memorialized in the 12 framed images surrounding us in this chapel followed by His death, Resurrection and Ascension. Through these acts our salvation is fully accomplished and universal for people of all nations, throughout all ages. What must we do to receive salvation? Jesus told Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
The apostle Paul said in his epistle to the Romans, If you confess with your mouth that ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (10:9) Paul writing to a model Christian community, the Ephesians, made a startling revelation to them which caught my breath when I first understood the passage:
because of his great for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ … and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms … (2:4-6)
Interpreting this passage allows this conclusion: while men and women are still here on earth, if they are Christians, they are also spiritually with the Lord in Heaven. We have already begun eternal life. This truth ought to redirect our priorities, in this life.
Through his Paschal Mystery Jesus gave his followers other priceless gifts for this life and the next. Foremost among these is the promise seen in the book of Revelation 3:20. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. The picture is of the God of the Universe, Jesus Himself standing humbly and patiently at the door of someone’s house, politely knocking. Scholars have interpreted this passage to mean that Jesus wants to come into our hearts and have an intimate relationship to us, but he does not wish to do so without an invitation and our consent.
Once we invite Him into our heart, we have a tangible, personal, direct, relationship to our Lord and Savior, through prayer and the study of the Bible. Dr. DL Moody, a 20th century evangelist once said, “When I pray, I talk to God, but when I read the Bible God is talking to me; and it is really more important that God should speak to me than that I should speak to Him … we know better how to pray if we know our Bibles better.”
The next great gift is blessing and protection that we have in Christ. As King David said in Psalm 133, Oh how good and pleasant it is when brethren live together in unity! It is like fine oil upon the head that runs down upon the beard, Upon the beard of Aaron, and runs down upon the collar of his robe. This sounds a bit weird in our day, but it was understood by every Jew in ancient Israel. In Exodus 30, Moses was directed by God to prepare sacred oil and then anoint and consecrate Aaron and his son to initiate the Levitical priesthood. It was done to indicate blessing and protection for their work. King David was anointed with oil by the elders of Israel at age thirty to demonstrate his being chosen by God (2nd Samuel 5:3). He ruled Israel until he was 70. This practice became and remained a western tradition. On the 6th of May 2023, Charles the Third was anointed with oil prior to receiving his crown as king of England.
The Baptism Liturgy is concluded by the anointing of oil on the forehead of the baptized. This act is accompanied by the following powerful words: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” (Book of Common Prayer, 308) Those who belong to Christ are His forever.
We are in one of the most divisive and undignified political campaigns in my memory, and the 2 billion that each presidential candidate is projected to spend seems wrong. This together with the fact that Congress has rejected the time-honored maxim that politics requires good manners, and conciliation and compromise, can bring about nothing good for our Republic.
It could be that each of us are experiencing more turmoil than we should. From beginning to end the bible teaches that rulers are chosen by God, regardless of the nation or the quality of its leaders or what we the people think of them. Before Jesus’ crucifixion Pilate brought him before the seat of judgement and told the crowd that Jesus was guiltless and should be released. The Jewish leaders shouted that he should be crucified because he claimed to be the son of God. When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid (John 19:8) Matthew tells us that Pilate’s wife had earlier sent him this message: Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him. (27:19) so he tried to get Jesus to talk, and he would not. Pilate then said, “Don’t you realize I have power to either to free you or to crucify you. Jesus answered, You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.
This is what our Savior said about those in power just before he was nailed to a cross. I think we should believe him. And if we choose so to do, it may temper our emotions and behavior in this alarming time of our wonderful county’s history. In place of confusion and disappointments we can also listen to what ‘the disciple that Jesus loved’, the one that he entrusted to care for his earthly mother after He was gone … had to say:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)
God be praised,
Christ the King Church
Joseph J. Muñoz Emeritus Warden