I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth where the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. God has no memories. God is not interested in our past - in what we have done or in how we have lived our lives in the past. God is interested in us right now, in our being fully alive. For, as the psalmist says, if God were to count our iniquities, who would stand?
In our first reading today, we see God doing what God has always done: creating and giving life. God is creating a new heaven and earth, a universe in which celebration of life will abound. It is a universe which will know nothing about mourning and weeping because death will not be part of that creation. It is a creation which will be a fulfillment of God's promises, a fulfillment of God's design for us when God created us.
This fulfillment of God's design is fully realized in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the restorer of life. In Jesus Christ, God gives to humanity that which humanity had lost: a life with God. Jesus Christ is the bridge that closes that chasm created between God and humanity by sin and death. In Jesus Christ, humanity has come to know God once again and yearn for that life that comes from God. It is this that makes the royal official in our Gospel reading today to approach Jesus with a healing request, a request to restore life, a request to bring to fulfillment the prophecies of old: only rejoicing and happiness shall be known in Jerusalem for there will be no more weeping or crying. Although the royal official was not yet a believer, Jesus granted his request and healed his son. For it was for this that Jesus came: to give and restore life. It was a mission that did not segregate. The healing was rightly interpreted as a sign by the evangelist. It was a sign that the Lord was renewing creation.