Isaiah 49.1-9 / Ephesians 2.1-10
The book of Isaiah provides more readings for Sunday services in the New Lectionary than any other book of the Old Testament- twice as many as the nearest contender, Genesis, and about the same number as the Gospels of Mathew and Luke. You may think it rather sad that I should spend my time counting readings, and you may be right! But purpose was test, and in fact confirm, my feeling that Isaiah get a disproportionate airing. I think he reason for this disproportionate popularity is because the prophecy of Isaiah has a special bearing on how we understand the life and mission of Jesus.
Nearly fifty of the seventy readings from Isaiah come from the last twenty six (of sixty six) chapters and while they are written in the same tradition as the earlier chapters, they are plainly written much later and look forward to the imminent return of the exiles from Babylon. There is however, no real narrative in these later books; they are more an anthology of poems developing similar generally optimistic themes. They start with the words famous words “Arise, shine for your light has come!” And, on the whole, continue in a celebratory vein.
There is however a series of poems scattered among the others which are identified as the “the Suffering Servant Songs”. We heard the first in the first four verses of this evening’s reading. The Servant is not actually suffering in our poem, but is someone with redemptive power who will undergo trials-“he will not grow faint or be crushed, until he has established justice on the earth;”. It is not very clear exactly to whom Isaiah is referring in these songs, but what is clear is that either Jesus himself, or the evangelists saw an association between Jesus especially in the Passion narratives and the Suffering Servant. It’s hard to believe that the writers of the Passion narratives did not have Isaiah’s poetry in mind when writing the accounts of the Passion.
The suffering Servant is however, only the most obvious facet of the Isaianic Jesus. In each of the Gospels we are introduced to the adult Jesus and his ministry by John the Baptist. John is a self-proclaimed follower of Isaiah quoting himself as the voice crying in the wilderness, the forerunner of the Messiah. Whether John really identified himself so closely with the tradition of Isaiah is hard to tell; John’s sartorial preferences suggest a link with Elijah and baptism is not mentioned in Isaiah, nor is repentance a strong theme in the later books, where the Jews are, rather, reassured that they have paid their penalty and are now released. Nevertheless, the Gospel writers clearly see a link and in this sense Jesus is himself following the tradition of Isaiah.
This is even more explicit, however, in Jesus own use of Isaiah, most notably in the synagogue at Nazareth where, referring to his own ministry, he quotes a passage very similar to that we heard just now; the blind receiving sight and prisoners released from the dark dungeon.
As telling as this express quotation, is the imagery Jesus uses to describe his ministry; John’s Gospel, especially, he uses Isaiah’s metaphors of darkness, night and blindness contrasted with sight and enlightenment.
But perhaps more peculiarly typical of Isaiah is the sense of arrival, the idea of the crucial moment having come, as when Jesus says again in the synagogue at Nazareth; ”Truly in your hearing this text has come true” or when talking to the Samaritan woman by the well; ”The hour is approaching, indeed it is already here..” I hear in these phrases an echo of Isaiah’s repeated catchphrase; “See the former things have come to pass and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you.” And in both Isaiah and the Gospel the sign of this revolution is abundance; gallons of wine at Cana in Galilee; twelve leftover baskets of bread after feeding 5,000; in Isaiah the restoration of Jerusalem is characterised by the luxurious oriental opulence which is drawn to Jerusalem as its sons and daughters return.
While Isaiah wallows in the expensive merchandise, he does not forget the humble and poor; justice, underlying the peace and plenty is the foundation the restored Israel. Jesus’ teaching is not, it’s true, overtly insistent on justice, but it is implicit in his concern both for honesty in ethical thinking and even more in his interest in the marginalised and excluded of society- and this he follows – or happens to agree with Isaiah whose particular emphasis is on universality. The restoration of Israel is not just the salvation of the Jews but all people.
At this point you may well be asking, so what? It I hope moderately interesting in an intellectual sort of way to see where some of Jesus’, or the Gospel writers’ ideas, may come from, but does it help us to understand Jesus’ life and message? One might also object that while Jesus may adopt some themes from Isaiah that is not the full story. Until his Passion, Jesus is not particularly quiet, and does indeed lift up his voice to preach for example, to the crowds who follow him and who chases the moneychangers out of the Temple, not the actions of the retiring Servant.
We have no authentic first hand record of what Jesus did and said, and rely entirely on the understanding of writers living at a considerable distance from their subject, who inevitably mould their story to their interests and those of their communities and times. So the question for us is how helpful it is for us to see whether and how Jesus fits into an Isaiah shape mould. You will be astonished to hear, if you have been listening so far, that I think it does help.
We believe Jesus was both wholly a man and yet divine; the son of God or the way in which we can come to understand God; this humanity and divinity are caught in Isaiah’s prophecy. Our reading this evening was an example of both; starting with the very human servant, who, whatever he represents, is a man with whom we can identify, however inadequate he may make us feel. On the other hand there is the creator God who stretches out the universe and inspires the world. But crucially, out of both these, the created human and the creator God comes Justice. The creator God knows that not all is well with the World; there are bruised reeds and smouldering wicks; there are the blind and the those imprisoned in darkness; people who fail for one reason or another to achieve full humanity. He knows this because he can experience it, as we believe the created man Jesus can experience it. By seeing Jesus’ life in this light I am inspired being part of creation; both creator and lawgiver and created and sympathiser, moved to love my fellow creatures. This gives my life meaning and I find that meaning expressed and amplified beyond explanation in Isaiah’s poetry. And I like to think that same poetry inspired Jesus himself. Amen.