The spirit of the lord God is upon me (Isaiah 61:1-11)
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 brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 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 a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
4 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.
5 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;
6 but you shall be called priests of the Lord,
you shall be named ministers of our God;
you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations,
and in their riches you shall glory.
7 Because their shame was double,
and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot,
therefore they shall possess a double portion;
everlasting joy shall be theirs.
8 For I the Lord love justice,
I hate robbery and wrongdoing;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
and their offspring among the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge
that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
Christ the King Sunday Sermon Notes
November 20, 2016
Last week’s sermon wrestled with the call of Prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 6 the prophet had a vision of God’s presence in the temple. Isaiah was cleansed and then sent out to proclaim the message that he had received from God. His call was to take him to a people who would not understand his message and would resist what he had to say. He would end up ministering in one of the most difficult times of his nation’s history. The northern kingdom had just fallen to the Assyrians and shortly the southern kingdom would be conquered by the Babylonians.
The book of Isaiah records what the prophet said throughout his ministry. At times Isaiah was confrontational facing down unjust powers, including within his own kingdom. At other times he was offering comfort and reassurance to exiles who had been captured and taken away from their homeland. Even though the words he used changed depending on the situation, the prophet’s message of God’s presence and coming restoration remained constant throughout.
Exile comes to an end
Today’s text comes from a collection of prophecies made as the Babylonian exile was coming to an end. Them empire which had conquered Jerusalem had itself been conquered by the Persian empire. The Persian king issued a proclamation allowing the citizens of Judah to return home. Many did, but when they arrived they found their city in ruin, and their homeland being ruled by a puppet king.
Just as the release being proclaimed in Isaiah directly applied to the exiles returning from Babylon, so did the proclamation of justice and future prosperity mentioned in the rest of the chapter. God’s sense of justice declared that it was not enough to simply bring people back to a devastated homeland. Rather, that homeland would one day see prosperity and peace again. This was good news to the oppressed, and a direct challenge to those who were oppressing them.
Jesus gives Isaiah new meaning
In Luke 4 Jesus gave this passage from Isaiah new meaning. Very early in him ministry he was worshiping in his home synagogue in Nazareth. When it was his turn to speak he rose and read this particular text. After doing so, he declared himself to be the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. He said that he was the Messiah the people had been waiting for. Things did not end well for him that day, but we will revisit that issue in a couple of months.
For now, let us focus on the kind of Messiah, and the kind of kingdom, that the prophet Isaiah was describing. The salvation that was proclaimed recognized the present reality of ashes, mourning, and injustice. Any faith that does not take account of sin in the world is utterly unrealistic.
What kind of Messiah?
While the promise is that God will offer restoration and an overthrow of the ways of the world, it is not a pledge of military conquest. The prophet uses an agricultural metaphor to describe a kingdom that rises from the ashes of the world as it is. This restoration will come up in small shoots until someday it will be more prosperous, just, and peaceful and than anything that was ever experienced before.
Jesus chose not to be a military leader. The people offered him the chance to storm the gates of Jerusalem. Instead, he chose to be the kind of Messiah Isaiah promised. He worked planted the seeds of a kingdom that would someday bring about the downfall of the Roman Empire itself.
What about us?
The Bible reminds us that this process is not yet done. As the body of Christ in this world, we are called to tend his garden. We are called to follow a king who rejected military domination and earthly power. We are called to find our power in the slow work of salvation, justice, and peace. If Christ is king, the prophet Isaiah reminds us exactly of the kind of work we are to be doing, because we have seen him on the throne and experienced a foretaste of his kingdom.
