In the last session, we saw how the gospel story of Emmaus picks up the thread of an ancient tragedy and rewrites the plotline. Instead of atrocity, there’s blessing; instead of civil war, there’s divine favour. It’s a tale of threshold covenant done right. It’s about kindness and goodness being extended to a guest and about the grace of covenantal defence flowing in return. Jesus brings healing to history in this story, as He does on so many other occasions.
Perhaps, looking at the correspondences between the opening of the Emmaus story and that of the tragedy in Gibeah—parallels noted by the early church—disaster would have struck Cleopas and Miriam if they’d stayed in the village overnight. But they didn’t. They hurried back to Jerusalem—as perhaps Jonathan and his concubine should have done on realising that, strangely, there was no welcome for them in Gibeah.
Jesus acts with integrity and honour towards His hosts when He’s invited for a meal and towards His guests when He is the host. He is the Paraclete who promises another Paraclete, and therefore He is the covenant defender. But He is also the Passover and the Cornerstone. He’s been rejected but He’s still become the Head of the Corner. His actions are different from those whose actions on thresholds have been highlighted in the past.
Think of Samson. He manipulated threshold covenant by pulling up the gates of Gaza in order to extend the protective boundaries of the city and so prevent the covenant-keeping Philistines from attacking him. Samson abused the cornerstone and eventually reaped what he sowed. He took the gates of Gaza, no doubt causing the Philistines to be a laughingstock from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. The men of Gaza took his hair and caused him to be mocked in turn. The Hebrew word for gate and hair is exactly the same in this instance—‘sha’ar’.
Or think of Jehoshaphat. He was a king of Judah, related to Ahab and Jezebel through their daughter Athaliah’s marriage to his son Jehoram. While Jehoshaphat was on a state visit to his in-laws in Samaria, Ahab manipulated threshold covenant to coerce Jehoshaphat into a campaign to retake the fortress of Ramoth Gilead from the Arameans.
Jesus doesn’t manipulate. He waits for an invitation. He extends an invitation and waits for it to be accepted. He passes on by if we do not put out the welcome sign for Him to pass over the cornerstone of our lives and become our covenant defender.
But there’s a problem. Our cornerstone is defiled. He won’t pass over it if it means He’d covenant with the spirit of Python. There are two Hebrew words that indicate a threshold stone or cornerstone in Scripture. One is ‘keph’, related to covering, atonement and names like Cephas. The other is ‘miphtan’, containing the word ‘pethen’, snake, cobra or python. When ‘miphtan’ is used in Scripture it indicates the threshold has been defiled by an unholy guardian. The Greek equivalent of ‘miphtan’ is ‘belos’—a threshold contaminated by the entry of a thief. This word ‘belos’ also means darts or arrows, and is found in the description of the Armour of God, telling us that not only does our covenant defender protect us from the flaming arrows of the evil one but also from the dangers of the fire-threshold he has set to bar our way.
The prophet Isaiah proclaimed that the Lord would lay a new cornerstone in Zion:
This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.’
Isaiah 28:16 NIV
Just as Jerusalem in the time of Isaiah needed a new cornerstone—Jesus Himself—so we too need a new cornerstone. And that too is Jesus Himself. But before we can ask for that, we need to ask Him, as again Isaiah says, for His help to remove the false refuges from our lives and also to divest ourselves of our covenants with Death and our pacts with Sheol.
While we are dependent on Death or on the grave as our covenant defender, we cannot expect Jesus to also be our Paraclete. We have to choose. We can’t ally ourselves with Death, or maintain the alliance our ancestors have chosen, and expect that the Resurrection and the Life will partner in that union. We have to choose. And before we pray to renounce those covenants with Death and Sheol, we first need to ask Jesus to forbid any retaliation against us, even for asking.
This is Grace Drops and I’m Anne Hamilton. May Jesus of Nazareth empower you to choose today.
Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.
For more on a covenant with Death, see God’s Pottery: The Sea of Names and the Pierced Inheritance. Please get in touch through the contact form at Armour Books if you are in the US, UK or Australia and there are unusual availability/price issues at the retailer.