Beholding the Christ with the Prophet Isaiah: a sermon for Epiphany III
A sabbath in Nazareth
“...and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.”
When Jesus read the words of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue on that Sabbath day in Nazareth, he was reading words that were already ancient, dating back over half a millennium.
And yet those listening as Jesus read from the scroll are clearly aware that the ancient words have a new and an immediate relevance.
Luke captures the atmosphere of anticipation and expectation: “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”.
How come ancient words from centuries before, read on a sabbath day in a synagogue in unremarkable, insignificant Nazareth, were understood in a new and dramatic way? What was happening? And what relevance does it have for us?
What did the prophets see?
Let’s begin where our Gospel reading ends. After reading from the scroll of prophet Isaiah, Luke tells us that Jesus said to those listening, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”.
The ancient words of the prophet Isaiah were now to be read and understood in a new way.
The people of Nazareth had heard of what had been occurring in the towns and villages around them. They had heard of Jesus of Nazareth proclaiming the kingdom of God, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, liberating those imprisoned in heart and soul by dark powers.
And then he comes to their synagogue and reads ancient words from the prophet Isaiah: “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me … to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”.
What they have heard of Jesus doing in the towns and villages around them was now seen in its true light, its meaning shining forth. In Jesus is “the year of the Lord’s favour”: the grace of God poured out, to restore and to renew, to forgive and to heal.
It is not that the prophet Isaiah, centuries before, had ‘predicted’ this: that is not what prophecy is in Scripture. Rather, the prophets were given glimpses of the character and purposes of God.
What the prophets glimpsed of God’s character and purposes was seen manifested and revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. And so the ancient words of the prophet Isaiah took on a new and dramatic meaning - they pointed to Jesus as Nazareth as the One in whom God is present, renewing, restoring, forgiving, healing.
The vision of Isaiah and the Creed
This has significance for us, in two ways. Firstly, in this season of Sundays after the Epiphany, we are both looking back to Christmas and the Epiphany (the birth of Jesus) and looking forward to Lent, Holy Week and Easter (the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus), the central events of the Christian faith which we, week by week, proclaim in the Creed.
Why are these events central to the Christian faith? The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading, suggest why this is so: “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”.
These events have a depth of meaning glimpsed by the prophets.
At Christmas, we heard Isaiah’s words: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined … For a child has been born for us, a son given to us”.
On Good Friday, we will again hear from Isaiah: “he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed”.
It is not that Isaiah is ‘predicting’ the birth of Jesus or the Cross. No, much more significantly, Isaiah has been given a glimpse of how God works to save us, to restore us, to renew us, to forgive us.
And this brings us to understand what is happening in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ - here is God saving us, restoring us, renewing us, forgiving us.
Which is why we say in the Creed of these events, ‘We believe’; it is why these events are central to the Christian faith. The words of the prophet Isaiah let us see that it is here that God is manifested and revealed, it is here that God restores and forgives.
The vision of Isaiah and wintering
Secondly, another way this has relevance for us is in our own life experiences. Recently I have been reading a book by author Katherine May, Wintering: the power of rest and retreat in difficult times. She uses ‘winter’ as a metaphor for the hard times we all experience.
She puts it this way: “Wintering is a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in life … Some winterings creep upon us more slowly … Some are appallingly sudden … However it arrives, wintering is usually involuntary, lonely and deeply painful”.
Sometimes our personal winters are bitingly cold, piercing us to the depths: bereavement, illness, increasing frailty of body or mind, the end of a relationship, painful and humiliating failure.
Sometimes our personal winters are more akin to a grey, sullen winter’s day: when our pride, or greed, or malice chip away at what is good and joyful in life, the sort of thing that brings us week by week to say in the confession at the start of our liturgy, “we have sinned in thought and word and deed, and in what we have left undone”.
Katherine May calls it ‘wintering’. Isaiah and the prophets of Israel call it ‘exile’, an experience akin to being in a distant land, far from home; far from blessing and goodness; defeated; spiritually impoverished; imprisoned by failure, fear, disappointment.
This, after all, was Israel’s story - a story of failure and defeat, of walking in darkness, of exile. But the prophet Isaiah glimpsed a vision of God delivering Israel from exile, Israel restored.
And so we hear the words of Isaiah - the words on Jesus’ lips that sabbath day in the synagogue in Nazareth - addressing us in our times of wintering, of exile: “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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”.
Our experiences of wintering, of exile are answered in Jesus Christ, the One in whom the grace, mercy, and peace of God touches us, sustains us, leads us, and in whom the slow, lifetime work of our transformation occurs.
Conclusion
“Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The ancient words of the prophet Isaiah unfold for us the mystery of our salvation in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus: for here is God present, active, healing, forgiving, restoring, here is “the year of the Lord’s favour”.
And for us in our experiences of life - in those hard times of wintering, of exile - we are assured of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ to sustain us, to uphold us.
“Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” May the fulfilment of the vision of the prophet Isaiah in Jesus Christ the Son of God encourage us in our faith and sustain us all the days of our lives.
(The icon of the Nativity of the Lord with the Prophet Isaiah is by Olga Shalamova.)
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