Exodus 15:11
Who is like thee, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like thee, majestic in holiness,
terrible in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
These words were spoken after God performed the greatest miracle in the Old Testament, the parting of the Sea of Reeds, the deliverance of Israel, and the destruction of Pharaoh’s pursuing army. This was the Old Testament benchmark for “glorious deeds” and “wonders”. Yet, incredibly, St. Paul tells us that all these miracles were only preparations and foreshadows of God’s ultimate miracle: the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the birth of the Church in the waters of baptism just as Israel was born in the waters of the Sea of Reeds. We moderns, trained by television to live by our eyes, tend to think that parting the sea is somehow “bigger” than the ordinary miracle of baptism. Ten plagues seem to have more Cecil B. DeMille power to them than seven sacraments. And yet, the reality is that the forgiveness of a single sin is more amazing than the creation of the universe. That is why the book of Revelation can speak in wonder of the terrible and wonderful Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world. Today, worship the terrible, glorious and wonderful Lamb whose most awesome deed is to slay our sins in the waters of death and bring us forth alive, as he did for Israel long ago.
