Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
“I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth.” Could Isaiah have imagined such a thing as someone’s death becoming the means of creating new heavens and a new earth? Can we, who live after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, imagine new heavens and new earth? How do we now experience the joy of God’s people?
Isaiah lists these as some of the elements in the new creation: people living well beyond that age of 100; people building and living in houses that they have personally made, people eating from their own fruit trees; and the conquering of infant mortality.
We could mention other elements, such as welcoming migrants, greater respect for the environment, peaceful and secure borders, meaningful work with adequate pay, friendship and harmony among all the various groups that make up the communities in which we live.
It is Lent. It is not a time for destroying anything. Rather it is a time for creating new heavens and a new earth. God sees this as a time of fulfillment and creativity, of joy and gladness.
Jesus once (John 4:43-54) healed the dying child of a royal official. This is what Jesus does in this Lent. He heals. He challenges us to bring life to our families, to our communities, to our nation and to our world. In the three weeks before Easter, let us take positive steps to be creative for good. We are part of God’s process for creating new heavens and a new earth.
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