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Thus saith the Lord: And in that day God shall shine gloriously in counsel on the earth, to exalt and glorify the remnant of Israel. 3 And it shall be, that the remnant left in Sion, and the remnant left in Jerusalem, even all that are appointed to life in Jerusalem, shall be called holy. 4 For the Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Sion, and shall purge out the blood from the midst of them, with the spirit of judgement, and the spirit of burning. 5 And he shall come, and it shall be with regard to every place of mount Sion, yea, all the region round about it shall a cloud overshadow by day, and there shall be as it were the smoke and light of fire burning by night: and upon all the glory shall be a defence. 6 And it shall be for a shadow from the heat, and as a shelter and a hiding place from inclemency of weather and from rain.
5:1 Now I will sing to my beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a high hill in a fertile place. 2 And I made a hedge round it, and dug a trench, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and dug a place for the wine-vat in it: and I waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns. 3 And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem, and every man of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What shall I do any more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Whereas I expected it to bring forth grapes, but it has brought forth thorns. 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for a spoil; and I will pull down its walls, and it shall be left to be trodden down. 6 And I will forsake my vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as on barren land; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Juda his beloved plant: I expected it to bring forth judgement, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry.
Today’s reading begins with nearly the whole of chapter four, one of the consoling passages in which the Lord promises to forgive and to save the holy remnant who will have remained faithful to Him. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, with all the Fathers, sees the fulfillment of this prophecy in the economy of the Incarnate Word:
In the “last days” (Heb. 1:1), “when the fulness of time of liberty had arrived (Gal. 4:4),” The Word Himself in His own person washed away the filth of the daughters of Sion (Esaias 4:4) by washing His disciples’ feet with His own hands (John 13:5). This is the end to which the human race was destined, namely, to become inheritors of God. As in the beginning we were all brought into bondage by the actions of our first parents and made subject to death, so in these last days through the person of the Last Man all who were His disciples from the beginning, being cleansed and washed from those things that pertain to death, come to share the life of God. For the One Who washed the feet of His disciples sanctified and made pure the entire body.” – Against Heresies, 4.22.1
Great Lent, as we know, is the time given us to prepare for the great annual commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. We pray that by the time we arrive at Great and Holy Week, our minds and hearts will be disposed so as to know clearly and feel deeply the meaning of every word we shall hear spoken by the Lord and every action we shall see performed by the Lord, as they are recorded and portrayed in the unforgettable Gospel account we shall hear read aloud in Church that week. Among these actions the washing of the feet holds great significance, both as a moral exhortation to humility and service to our brethren, and as a prophecy in action foretelling the Good News of our redemption by the washing not of our feet only but of our entire being – in the water of Baptism that was to flow from the pierced side of the crucified Savior.
When St. Irenaeus call Christ “the Last Man,” he is echoing the words of St. Paul in I Corinthians 15: 45: “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit.” There are only two Adams: the First Adam our forefather, and the Second Adam, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Since there are only two, Our Lord being the second, He is also the last. But, of course, the word “last” (the Greek eschatos) in this instance means far more than simply the final item in a series. Our Lord is the “Last Man” in that He fulfills all that men were meant to be: He is the ultimate revelation – not simply by His words, but by His Person, by Who and What He is – He is the final word not only about Who God is, but also about what a man is supposed to be. Our Lord is also the Last Man in that His coming to earth is really the end of history. Yes, two thousand years have elapsed since He ascended from us and promised to return in glory, but these years are not a mere dreary chronology of human folly, as the secular historian usually paints it, but rather a joyful and dynamic betwixt and between period breathing already the breath of eternity, a short wait for the final revelation and fulfillment of something that has already been revealed and fulfilled. We need not worry about the outcome of the Great Story of which we are inescapably characters in the tale. The final chapter has already been written, and the good guys are going to win, in fact have won already. Our hearts can, at last, be at rest – as long as they rest at last in the Last Man, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Studying the texts of the Holy Week services would form an excellent Lenten exercise. Most of us already own a Holy Week service book, and those who do not can easily obtain one. As you read these inspired words carefully, you will discover throughout that Week this threefold character of the Paschal Mystery we have referred to today: There will be moral exhortations for the Christians to imitate the Lord’s voluntary humiliation by humbling themselves and living lives of sacrifice for others, there will be the obvious and central story of the Passion and Resurrection, and there will also be frequent references to the Lord’s Coming at the End, when He shall return not in humiliation as at His First Coming, but in glory, to judge the living and the dead.
This study would provide a God-pleasing way to spend our leisure time during Great Lent!
