5th February 2019

Happy Chinese New Year! Hurstville today is all aflame with red lanterns and golden pigs, and all in expectation of a year of wealth and happiness. For that’s the hope: a time of adding money to one’s “piggy-bank”, and the wish of putting more spring in one’s tail, and the thought of having a crackling good time.

However when Jesus arrived on earth, the Jews were not quite into the Year of the Pig. Pork was not on the kosher list, and no Jewish kid would have ever had to sit in the dentist’s chair with a crackling-induced injury. But when Jesus began his official ministry in his more mature years, there was a moment when all that changed.  In a conversation with his disciples about the danger of mere ritual and human tradition, he declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19).

That’s astonishing when you think about it. Not the bit about crackling now being back on the menu, but the bit about exercising authority over animals, plants and minerals. Really, that’s a big think to do, and a big claim to make, to put oneself higher than everything else in all of creation. But that’s what he did, for that’s who he is. The One who is Lord over all. And the One who is Lord not only of this year, but of every year that will follow; until time stands forever still in the eternal Year of the Lamb.

DM 5^th Feb 2019