Pre-figure
pre·fig·ure [priːˈfɪɡə] – be an early indication or version of (something):
As I read through the scripture passage today, especially in the Jesus Storybook Bible, I was reminded of this word. We have been reading through the ancient stories in the book of Genesis together and each of them have a story to tell in their own right. And yet as we have seen, each of them points beyond themselves to something else. Something grander that God is up to and not in the present tense, but in the future tense.
Adam and Eve, the first humans fall and falter in their faith, but one would come after them who would crush the head of the serpent, his name was Jeshua (Jesus). God put a bow in the sky as a promise to never destroy the earth, instead God made a plan to rescue it. The Tower of Babel wasn’t enough for us to reach heaven, instead God would come to us. God chose a family, Abram and Sarai, through whose lineage all people of the earth would be blessed. That same man would be asked to sacrifice their son, but instead a sacrifice would send The Son as a sacrifice for us all. Isaac’s son Jacob would marry Leah, and we can trace her lineage all the way to Jesus. And today there is Joseph, who was rejected and despised, was left for dead, but arose from the pit to sit at the right hand of the King of Egypt, and chose not to condemn his brothers, but to forgive them!
And this goes both ways. It is not just that these prefigures point us to Jesus, but that these prefigures help us to understand the whole of who Jesus is. As Christians we read the bible with a Jesus lens. And not just the parts that are explicitly about Jesus. All of it. We can see Jesus and what Jesus represents throughout every page. Grace, mercy, forgiveness, blessing, and calling.
This past week, we voted our news church officers into leadership in the church. They will each answer the ordination questions of the denomination. There is one question that is particularly pertinent here.
“Do you believe the scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments to be the authoritative witness to Jesus Christ and God’s word to you?”
The questions isn’t “do you believe in the old and new testaments?” The question is “do you believe them to have the power to lead us to Jesus?” In other words, has the entire scope and sequence in its pages led you personally to believe that God’s love and mercy represented throughout the biblical story and fully present in Jesus are meant for you!
This is the Good News that we celebrate at Christmas time! But we don’t have to wait until Christmas to start to piece the puzzle together. Every story whispers his name. Every story prefigures Jesus. Hallelujah and Amen!