{"id":7306,"date":"2021-10-03T15:01:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-03T05:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7306"},"modified":"2021-10-03T15:01:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T05:01:23","slug":"better-than-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/better-than-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Better than New"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Better than New<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Elijah Iskander<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke 7:36-50<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[She] stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.<\/em><\/p>Luke 7:38<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This was an act of complete adoration. Think of a time when you have broken something, or when your car is dented, or if you\u2019ve ripped a piece of clothing. How have you tried to fix it? The most reassuring thing you can say to someone next is \u2013 as good as new! Like it was never broken. I can\u2019t even see where the dent used to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is our standard, but when the Lord fixes, He does not make things as good as new, He makes them better than new. We see this clearly in the story of the woman that wiped Jesus feet with her tears and anointed them with fragrant oil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The act of anointing His feet with fragrant oil is significant as the oil was a tool of her trade. An attractive smell that would lure people. Her long hair to attract attention. In those times, hair was not left untied out of modesty. The very things that were the source of her weakness \u2013 the smell of perfume and her long flowing hair \u2013 that invited men into sin also became the source of her honour. These became tools her adoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord transformed these tools to be better than ever before.\nWhen the Lord transforms He does not make things as good as new, He makes them\nbetter than new. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Zacchaeus had a weakness of money. If the Lord was going to make Zacchaeus as good as new, He would have told him to return any money that was stolen. This would be as good as new. When the Lord enters Zacchaeus\u2019 house, he is moved to give so much more. He is not as good as new, but better than new. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Moses the Strong was living a holy man in the monastery. One night, four thieves came into his cell. St Moses single-handedly overpowers all four of the thieves, ties them up, carries them and brought them before the other fathers that were in church. He says to the fathers, \u201cIn my past life, I know exactly what I would have done with them, but now I don\u2019t know what to do next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fathers were stunned and said, \u201clet them go.\u201d The four\nthieves later realised who St Moses was, recognising him from his past life. They\nwere so moved by his transformation that they became monks themselves. If the\nLord would make things as good as new for St Moses, he would have gone from life\nas a thug to a holy life, but our Lord makes things better than new. He makes\nhim a person that inspires others because of his past life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even on the Cross. What was once a symbol of death and a\npunishment for the unrighteousness was completely transformed to life. When our\nLord transforms He does not make things as good as new, but better than new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We pray that the Lord does the same with us. We pray for transformation to be better than new. If I am angry, I pray that the Lord breaks my anger and replaces it with peace. Even if I am broken with shame, with lust, with hypocrisy, for whatever it takes to transform me, and make me better than new. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those who\u00a0wait on the\u00a0Lord
Shall renew\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.<\/p>Isaiah 40:31<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Better than New Adapted from a sermon by Fr Elijah Iskander Luke 7:36-50 [She] stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Luke 7:38 This … Continue reading “Better than New”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7308,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7306\/revisions\/7308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}