Sunday Readings Commentary

Antioch was a big city, one of the largest in the ancient world. On the Mediterranean coast of Syria, it was at the end of the trade-route from the east. So it had a busy commercial life, and a large colony of Jews among the traders. A considerable group of them accepted Jesus as Messiah and Lord, and it was at Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called ‘Christians’ or ‘Messianists’. Other Jews thought the Messiah had not yet come. The community there had appointed the well-trained and eloquent Paul to accompany Barnabas (Barnabas was still the leader) in spreading the Good News about Jesus as the Messiah. At the end of their journey they reported back to the community at Antioch. It is significant that Barnabas and Paul appointed elders in each community. This was the normal constitution of a Jewish community. A synagogue is still ruled by a body of elders, of whom one is chosen to preside. Obviously, in spite of the upset of which we read last Sunday, these Christian communities felt themselves to be like the other Jewish communities, though accepting Jesus as Messiah, and living by his Spirit.

Like so much of the Book of Revelation, this prophecy of the New Jerusalem is heavily dependent on the prophets of the Old Testament. In the dark days of the Babylonian Exile the prophet Ezekiel had foretold that God would rebuild Jerusalem as a new city where God would dwell, a city named Hephzibah, ‘My pleasure is in her’. The prophets had long spoken of the relationship of Israel to God as that of a bride to her husband, a bride who was often unfaithful. Then Isaiah had foretold a joyful marriage-feast in which God would be the bridegroom and Jerusalem the bride, the final wedding of God to his people. God’s bride, Israel, who had so often been unfaithful, would at last be wedded to him for ever in fidelity and happiness. This was the intended meaning of the marriage-feast at Cana and of the parables of Jesus about a wedding-feast of the great king, to which the poor and the outcasts would be invited. Here the Book of Revelation promises just such a festival to those who have sustained the grimness of Roman persecution. Now, as we celebrate Christ’s triumph over death, we look forward to this same unalloyed happiness of God’s presence and his love.

We are grateful for the wisdom for the Church Fathers and sit at the feet of St. Cyril of Alexandra as he unpacks today’s scripture for us.

“ I give you a new commandment”, said Jesus: “love one another”. But how, we might ask, could he call this commandment new? He was not content simply to say, I give you a new commandment: love one another. He showed the novelty of his command and how far the love he enjoyed surpassed the old conception of mutual love by going on immediately to add: “Love one another as I have loved you”.

‘To understand the full force of these words, we have to consider how Christ loved us. Paul tells us that “ although his nature was divine, he did not cling to his equality with God but stripped himself of all privilege to assume the condition of a slave. He became as we are and appearing in human form humbled himself by being obedient even to the extent of dying, dying on a cross”.

‘Do you not see what is new in Christ’s love for us? He who was one in nature with God the Father and his equal would not have descended to our lowly estate, nor endured in his flesh such a bitter death for us, not submitted to the blows given him by his enemies, to the shame, the derision, and all the other sufferings that could not possibly be enumerated; nor, being rich, would he have become poor, had he not loved us far more than himself. It was indeed something new for love to go as far as that!

‘Christ commands us to love as he did, putting neither reputation nor wealth, nor anything whatever before love of our brothers and sisters. If need be, we must even be prepared to face death for our neighbour’s’ salvation as did our Saviour’s blessed disciples and those who followed I their footsteps. To them the salvation of others mattered more than their own lives and they were ready to do anything or to suffer anything to save souls that were perishing. “ I did daily”, said Paul.

‘The Saviour urged us to practise this love that transcends the law as the foundation of true devotion to God. He knew that only in this way could we become pleasing in God’s eyes, and that it was by seeking the beauty of the love implanted in us by himself that we should attain to the highest blessing.’ (Cyril of Alexandria)