Year C. 4th Sunday of Lent March 25th, 2001 2Corinthians 5: 16-21
Title: “Reconciliation with God”
Paul has met with opposition from Christians preaching and or living a gospel of their own making or, at least, a revision of the one “handed down.” He considers those folks to be mere “peddlers” or “panhandlers” of a hybrid gospel, no gospel at all. Even his own authority as an apostle has been challenged. He truly feels the persecution which Christ himself predicted of his followers. Nonetheless, Paul keeps his eye on the ball and remains focused. Here he writes of the essence of the gospel, namely, reconciliation. He spreads this message through word and example and admonishes all Christians to do likewise.
Like so many memorable passages in this letter, this one, intended primarily as a defense of Paul’s ministry, has become one of those known as the “gospel in a nutshell.”
In verse seventeen, “new creation,”a fundamental point of Paul’s perspective is that the cross and resurrection of Jesus is the dividing line between two ages, eons, periods of history, dimensions of reality. One can live “according to the flesh,” that is, the life one has inherited from one’s natural parents or “according to the Spirit,” that is, the life one has received in, from, as a result of Christ. The Christian co-exists in both of these dimensions for now, the heavenly compared to the earthly, the permanent compared to the transient, the new compared to the old. Thus, the Christian must live with a certain tension between the two. The ‘old” creation has passed away, but not quite and the “new” has come to pass, but not fully.
In verse eighteen, “God…has reconciled us to himself through Christ,” “reconciliation” translates a Greek word, katallasso, not found much in Scripture. It is a combination of the preposition, kata, “according to, accordingly,” and the verb, allasso, “to change,” “to make other than what it is.” Katallasso, means “ to exchange,” “to reconcile.” In the middle voice in Greek it means “to re-unite, get back together, as in a marriage after separation- the word for which is from the same root, apallassthai). It differs from forgiveness, which is one-way, in that it is mutual, two-way. A person cannot be reconciled with someone who refuses to be so. Because of and through the agency of Christ God has chosen to ignore our sin and relate to us once again. This is so different that it is truly “new.”
“And given us the ministry of reconciliation,” Certainly, this applies to Paul, but also to all of us who claim to be Christians. “Ministry” translates the Greek, logos, which means, “word,” referring primarily, but not exclusively, to preaching. However, he clearly means this for all Christians. What else would Christians do if they did not share this new status with others who are willing? They share it because God wants them to. Christ died for all. All may not accept the offer, but those who do join in the benefits of the offering of Christ for their sins. All Christians can imitate Paul and obey Christ by behaving in such a way that others also want to be put right with God.
Verse nineteen repeats the thought in verse eighteen. This is not a change of feelings but a change of status before God, who simply out of mercy decides to wipe out human guilt because of the obedience of Jesus. He declares amnesty. Verse twenty, “ambassadors for Christ,” even though we are in Christ, we are not Christ, only his representatives. “We represent, on Christ’s behalf…” is the literal meaning.
“We implore you…be reconciled to God,” this is a version of Paul’s basic moral teaching, “Become what you are.” One cannot bring reconciliation or bring one to reconciliation with God unless one is first reconciled with him. Christians are to be, in reality- even on the earthly plane- what they profess to be-on the heavenly one. On earth this is an ongoing process, even though it is a done deal in heaven.
Verse twenty-one, “for our sakes he made him to be sin who did not know sin,” the word “sin” here has two different senses. The first use means “sin-offering.” It is used in the sense of Isaiah
53:10, the Suffering Servant, who is made or makes himself a sacrificial offering in behalf of the benefit of others, a vicarious sin-offering to atone for or make amends for, the sins of others. The second sense, in “who did not know sin,” means real sin, those committed by humans. Jesus did not “know” that kind of behavior in the Hebraic sense of “know,” by personal experience with and first-hand knowledge of it.
“So that we might become the righteousness of God in him,” the structure of this argument is simple; Christ became human, minus personal sin, that we might become divine, minus identity or equality with God. Humans as sinners are now given a right status, a right relationship, reconciliation before God through the righteous one, the one who always had it and never lost it, who absorbed our sins within his sinlessness.
Thanks to Christ we can now imitate God’s behavior because we have God’s character within us. That behavior is so different from sinful human behavior that those who imitate it are in a new creation, a new scheme of things, an order that does not fit into ordinary human experience or thinking patterns. For God simply does not fit into any of our categories. In his dealings with us he constantly breaks into our lives, conversations, inner thoughts and challenges our presuppositions, always wanting to communicate with us. If we are aware of that and cooperate with his grace, he more than challenges us; he changes us. He calls us to re-write our scripts, change our roles and be open to a different ending than the one we might have dreamed or schemed. In revealing himself to us, especially as Christ, he motivates us to look at things his way rather than our own. And he never gives up on us. The essence of repentance, as Christ means the term, is change, change both once and for all and constant change in the sense of constant growth towards the imitation of God in Christ. This is now possible because Christ now lives within us as well as among us, giving us the power we do not have ourselves to change into his likeness.
When our Father first sent us Christ we, collective humanity, returned him to the Father battered, beaten, broken, dead. Then, this amazingly loving, patient and merciful Father took him and restored him, resurrected him. That was great enough! But then, he goes and gives him back to us again! He trusts us again and entrusts us with his Spirit. If we accept him, we are no longer in the realm or control of the “old” creation. We are a “new” creation, renewed by the very life we took and destroyed. This is so different from the behavior of the old creation. What parent, for instance, would entrust his or her child to a babysitter who beat that child, even once. That would be the end of it, no second chance. The risk would be too great. Yet, that is precisely what God did. He sent his Son back from the dead to give not only the Jews but all peoples yet another chance to accept reality on his terms.
Just as the Father did not keep his Son to and for himself after we were through with him and he returned safely home to eternity again, so he does not want us to keep Christ to ourselves now that he has given him to us a second time. He wants us to give him away to others, so that they may make their peace through him with the Father. Thus, even our own reconciliation with God is not only for ourselves and our own benefit or our own peace. Since we cannot share what we do not ourselves have, we must be reconciled first before we can offer it to others. To be an ambassador for Christ we must go to him and through him and along with him to the Father to receive our portfolio, our “orders,” our commission to carry out his wishes. An absolute change in our standing, status and state before God has occurred by Christ’s death and resurrection and bestowal of his Spirit. It is for us to accept it and to now be his body in the world so that all others have the same opportunity as we to be “in Christ.”
Forgiveness is one thing; reconciliation another. We can forgive others when they repent and ask for our forgiveness. However, reconciliation does require that both parties want to be reconciled. That’s why reconciliation is a ministry. It has to be worked at. It can fail, however, like Jesus failed to reconcile everyone with God, not because of him, but because of those who were not ready for reconciliation or outright refused it or would never be ready. The same thing happens with our well-intentioned attempts at reconciliation. We offer, but if the other refuses, we have still exercised our ministry. The naysayer has exercised his/her right.
Thanks to Christ we no longer have to live in a world solely of human making and human sinning.
Thanks to Christ we have a mission, his very mission, while we are still in this world.
Thanks to Christ we already live in his new world, though we remain in the old one in order to reconcile it to the Father.
The offer of reconciliation must be made to all, but it can also be refused.
It is not obvious to all that we now live in a new creation, a new order, a new scheme of things. That is so because not everyone has accepted Christ on his terms. Even when we have accepted Christ, had a conversion experience, repented of our sins, asked for and received forgiveness, we still live in this world, the old creation. We are still challenged to remain faithful to the truths and standards of the new world, the new creation. Because much of our experience is still this-worldly, still belonging to the reaction and or response of our old brains, we can still return to sin, either mortal or venial sin. Thus the Lord counsels constant vigilance, constant examination of our conscience, to ensure that we are operating by his power, the power of the new creation, and not by our own old power, which is really no power at all.
There are three definable moments when we experience Christ as our reconciler: Baptism, Eucharist and Confession and forgiveness. We receive or celebrate Baptism only once and that protects the truth that we are once and for all reconciled with God through Christ. However, we receive or celebrate Confession and forgiveness and the Eucharist, often throughout our lives and that protects the truth that, while living in the old creation of tick-tock time, we are also involved in the unfolding process of growing into the image of Christ who is the image of God, even God himself. We would not receive the Eucharist if we had mortally sinned without first receiving our reconciliation with God once again through the celebration of Confession and Forgiveness. We know that the Eucharist forgives venial sins and renews our reconciliation with God, but we also receive Confession and forgiveness, even when it is not absolutely necessary because it protects the truth that we are still on our way into the fullness of God’s presence and into the fullness of his image and need renewal of reconciliation, though we may not need restoration. Reconciliation takes a sacramental form in the celebration of these moments, but we also recognize that they are moments that need to be reflected throughout the days of our earthly lives. We are not only celebrants of reconciliation; we are ministers also. We are to live reconciliation, not merely celebrate its highlights. Once reconciled, often renewed, we bring that same reconciliation to others by the way we conduct our daily affairs and relate to others. It is our mission in life, given us by Christ in Baptism and Confirmation, his own mission, now conducted through our earthly bodies and our heavenly union with him. Amen.
