Secundus on vacation

Do not be disturbed, Beloved, with any rumour that may emerge that I cannot fulfill my promises to you of a continuing story. I have been delayed these past 6 weeks with work on the estate - such that I have been unable to consider adequately what I will say concerning the fulfillment of Isaiah that our Lord spoke of proleptically in Luke's manuscript that I have. Luke is always in the habit of speaking of something before he introduced it and so he did here too - speaking of works at Capernaum before he describes them later on. (Don't let this fool you into thinking that Luke is copying from Mark!)

What we must note, however, is where Jesus stopped reading. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

He did not read the next phrase et diem retributionis- a day of vengeance for our God. Why? Because, Beloved, he took that day of vengeance on himself and swallowed it up as a counterbalance of the Day of Creation in which we are. The Day, Beloved, this day - today is the day of the acceptable year of the Lord. This is the day in which the Lord God creates a temple meet for his own dwelling - even you and - yes I must include me. You may wish not to include me - but it does include me and even my enemies whom I love and who will be my judges. But not until they too come to see the acceptable Year of the Lord - the Day in which the Lord God created heaven and earth.

So it is that we will enter into his rest - all and sundry.

Those manuscripts - and I have such a one here at the estate - which say that he proclaimed the Day of vengeance - are harder to read - for they focus on judgment which is God's and not ours. Yet if we are judged - even by our enemies - and if we judge our enemies, our judgment is just for while we were enemies, our Lord Christ died for us to bring us to himself that we might indeed be just judges on whatever day or issue we are required to judge.

May you recognize the presence of our Lord so that he does not pass through the midst of you and go away.