ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 TUSITE NOVEMA 28, 2023

Sprinkling 

Luluku ‘aki ‘a e vai fakama’a

EZEKIEL 36:24-25

I WILL TAKE YOU FROM THE NATIONS AND GATHER YOU FROM ALL THE COUNTRIES AND BRING YOU INTO YOUR OWN LAND. I WILL SPRINKLE CLEAN WATER ON YOU. AND YOU SHALL BE CLEAN FROM ALL YOUR UNCLEANNESSES AND FROM ALL YOUR IDOLS I WILL CLEANSE YOU.

‘ISIKELI 36:24-25

24 He te u to‘o kimoutolu mei he ngaahi pule‘anga, pea te u tānaki kimoutolu mei he ngaahi fonua, pea te u ‘omi kimoutolu ki homou kelekele. 25 Pea te u luluku kimoutolu ‘aki ‘a e vai fakama‘a, pea te mou ma‘a: ‘io, te u fakama‘a kimoutolu mei ho‘omou ta‘ema‘a fua pē, pea mei homou ngaahi ‘aitoli kotoa.

Israelites who helped prepare the body of a loved one for burial would become ritually unclean through physical contact with death. Like a contagion, you "caught"  uncleanness. To remove it, God ordained that a special mixture of blood, water, and other ingredients be zaraq ("sprinkled") on the unclean person (Num. 19). Ezekiel is riffing off this ancient practice to describe what will happen in the messianic age. God will repatriate believers "from all the countries where they've been exiled. In those far-off" places, they were defiled by corpse-like idols, so he will "zaraq clean water on them. Central to the Messiah's mission, therefore, is removing the stain of death by means of cleansing water.

The writer of Hebrews picks up on this when he says that, by the blood of Jesus, we enter God's presence "with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (10:22). Not only does Jesus bring us home from exile; he sprinkles his blood of atonement and water of baptism on us, to remove the stain of death and bedew us  with his life.

Blessed are you, holy Father, for bathing and beautifying us with the waters of life.