Rector’s Reflections
Friday 29th November 2024
Keeping Advent with the Prophet Isaiah
I finished yesterday’s reflections with the thought that Advent is a time to remind ourselves that God wishes to declare “new things” in our lives. God has plans for us and our world, plans to bring us a rich blessing, and He wishes to tell us all about them. The phrase “new things” is a reference to Isaiah chapter 42, verses 8 and 9: “ I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other; nor my praise to idols, See the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them”.
There are many passages in the Book of Isaiah which explore the theme of “new things” in more detail. One of the classic passages is found in chapter 61:“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the year Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. “ (Isaiah 61, verses 1-4.)
It is not clear who is speaking these words. It is possible that they are the words of Isaiah himself. But they are often taken to be the words of a figure greater than even the prophet Isaiah: the words of a unique person or community called, empowered, and sent by God to inaugurate God’s kingdom here on earth. There have been different attempts to identify the individual or person in question. Might it be the Jewish nation as a whole? Might it be a particular individual, known as the Messiah? Has the individual or community in question already appeared, or are they still to come at some in the future?
Many Christians are confident that they have the answer to these questions. They believe that Isaiah is referring to Jesus Christ, and that the words of Isaiah 61 are fulfilled in His life and ministry.
This belief starts as early as the gospel of Luke. It might have been an identification which was made or popularised by Luke himself, or he may well have recorded a tradition which was already well-established among the early Christian communities. Perhaps the belief goes all the way back to Jesus Himself. As a faithful Jew, Jesus would have been steeped in the books of the Old Testament, and it is quite possible that He understood his own calling and ministry in terms of various passages and ideas found in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.
According to Luke, Jesus preached a sermon on the opening verses of Isaiah 61, in which he applied the text to Himself. “ When [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where I was written, ”The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke chapter 4, verses 16 to 21).
Interestingly, Jesus stopped his quotation from Isaiah before he reached the reference to “the day of vengeance of our God”. I wonder why this was? A standard interpretation is to distinguish between the First and Second Coming of Jesus: the “good news” of Jesus was for his First Coming, and the “day of vengeance of our God” was to be reserved for His Second Coming, when Jesus will come again, to judge the world. But this turns the Second Coming – whenever that will take place- into some act of “vengeance”. I think several Christians would find it difficult to imagine that God ever acted in a spirit of vengeance – yes, God judges us, but God’s judgment is the judgment of love. Perhaps this is the real reason why Jesus omitted the reference to the “day of vengeance” in the words of sermon.
Jesus came to bring “good news”, and this is what the word “gospel” means. The “gospel” is the good news of God’s love in and through Jesus Christ.
For Christians, the gospel itself is the fulfilment of the promises found in the Book of Isaiah that God will transform our lives for the better: that God will bring us the freedom, healing, and peace which we need. God has sent His Son Jesus to proclaim “good news” to a needy world.
God’s message of “good news” takes different forms, depending on the context and situation in which it is preached. What might God’s “good news” mean to you and I this Advent time?