“Unveil Your Heart…!”

“Unveil Your Heart…!”(II Cor.3:12-18).
One of those who groomed us was the Rev Dr Elangwe Isaac Sakwe. One day in class he told us that his first son, after spending just a month in boarding school wrote a four page letter to them. Reading through the letter he concluded that the simple content of the letter in one sentence was that, “Mother’s food is the best.” Sometimes we read through a pericope of Scripture we should search for that content that summarizes in one sentence.
Yesterday in discussion with my barber while having a facelift, we were on the same wavelength as we took different routes to arrive at the same conclusion. He is of a charismatic faith.
Our discussion was about where we are as opposed to where we came from vis-a-vis the Old and New Testaments. While I saw continuity, he said the fulfilment of the Old in the New abrogated the Old and makes it irrelevant. On my part I explained that “when you dig a new road, you cut across the old road sometimes in many places.” Continuity is stressed in scriptures.
As part of (dis)continuity Paul in today’s passage likens the new glory to the old glory of the old covenant where Moses use to cover his face with a veil so that the radiance of his face should not be seen. In contrast to the presence where Christ through the Spirit has unveiled everything.
Whatever glory there was in the past was temporary and ended in death. The ministry of the Spirit is much more glorious for it brings righteousness.
What we have now is a surpassing glory which is beyond compare, and it is everlasting.
This is the kind of hope that we have and it should make us bold.
In Christ Jesus the veil has been removed.
In the theological confusion that Paul presents to the Corinthians and by extension to us, let us take this: “Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone comes to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
Paul wrote this to the Gentiles and to us by extension. If there is completeness in the New, and if there is no need for the Old, why was he bringing this veil thing to us? If the New stands by itself, how can we make sense of what he is saying if we do not go back to the Old to see what Moses and the veil was all about?
Bottom line dear friend, what is worthy of note to us is that sin is a veil that beclouds the radiance, “whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Therefore, turn to the Lord so that the veil may be taken away for you to reflect the Lord’s glory and be transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.
Weekend prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus Christ, for taking the veil away from our hearts. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.