Advent III: GOD’S UNSTOPPABLE PURPOSE RESTORES

December 11th, 2005
Jonathan Slater

Text:     Isaiah 61:1-11
“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 it 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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
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 4:16-21)

The text with which Jesus inaugurated his public ministry in the gospel of Luke is the very text of Isaiah that we have heard today. In reading this text, Jesus announced good news: Israel’s long period of waiting was over – God’s promises were being fulfilled.

And indeed, Jesus backed up this claim to fulfill God’s promise to Israel by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and freeing those who had been in captivity to evil spirits. Surely these were signs that confirmed his identity as the Messiah who would redeem Israel.

Those who followed him waited – When would he fulfill his mission and restore Israel to its former glory? When would he enact Jubilee, returning each to the land promised to their ancestors, and restore the kingdom promised to David?

Imagine their excitement as Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people echoing the angels who heralded his birth: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” (Luke 19:38)

This excitement, this expectation that Jesus would restore Israel would only have heightened the shock and dismay of seeing Jesus led off by Roman soldiers to be tortured and crucified.

But this was not the end. Jesus’ crucifixion was not the end of their hopes. He rose from the dead. And with his resurrection, the hope that he was the one to redeem Israel returned. Thus, in the first chapter of Acts, the disciples ask the resurrected Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)

Jesus’ followers just seem not to be able to get it through their heads. He was not going to restore Israel in the way that they expected.

But lest we be too quick to blame them for their blindness, consider the reading for today.

The Jubilee described by Isaiah 61 does appear to be announce a Jubilee for the nation of Israel at the expense of the other nations: The year of Yahweh’s favour is also “the day of vengeance of our God.” This Jubilee is good news for some, but appears to be bad news for others. It is a restoration for Israel, but not for the nations who have oppressed Israel.

The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem and forcefully removed the people of Israel from their land, from the land which Yahweh had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – Land which had been given to Israel after their exodus from Egypt. A foreign nation had destroyed their cities, and plundered the temple in Jerusalem. Now Isaiah announces that there will be a reversal: Not only will the ruined cities be repaired, but “strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines… you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory.” (61:5-6)

The preceding chapter, Isaiah 60, speaks in even stronger terms:
“Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you… nations shall bring you their wealth, with their kings led in procession. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.” (Isaiah 60:10-12)
The year of Jubilee was a radical social vision, a vision of release and redemption Every fifty years all Israelites would be allowed to return to their ancestral property, and any who had become indebted or enslaved would be released.

Jubilee did not, however, extend to non-Israelites. Israel’s vision of Jubilee never included release for foreign slaves, but only for Israelites who had become enslaved to other Israelites. Thus, in Leviticus 25 where the regulations for the year of Jubilee are described, we read:
“It is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property.” (Leviticus 25:44-46)
In light of this, we might then wonder with the disciples why it is that Jesus didn’t restore Israel as a nation.

And yet, Jesus declares that the Jubilee announced in Isaiah 61 is fulfilled in him. God’s purpose for the restoration of Israel has begun in him, but it is a restoration that is not what they expected. How does Jesus fulfill the radical social vision of Jubilee, if not by returning Israelites to their ancestral homes?

Perhaps it is by his practices of welcome and table fellowship, by his reconfiguration of who Jubilee is for – of who is included in the promises. And in doing so, Jesus is also fulfilling another aspect of Isaiah’s witness. For in Isaiah 56 we read:
“Do not let the foreigner joined to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will surely separate me from his people’; and do not let the eunuch say, ‘I am just a dry tree.’ For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah 56:3-5)
And though, immediately after the resurrection, the disciples seem to still have been waiting for Jesus to restore Israel as a nation, the book of Acts continues by showing how Jesus’ followers gradually came to understand that Jesus fulfilled Israel’s hope in a different way – That Christ came to break down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile; that he came to proclaim peace both to those who were far off, and those who were near. (Ephesians 2: 13-19)

God’s unstoppable purpose restores.
But what will God’s restoration look like?
Will we recognize its appearing?

Like the disciples, we are tempted to form pictures about what restoration will look like. And perhaps this is necessary for us, so that there be a concrete form to our hope. On the other hand, however, our visions of what restoration should be can blind us. They can prevent us from noticing when God acts in ways that surprise – that are other than what we had expected or imagined.

God had made promises to Israel. Faithfulness to those promises tended to be understood in light of the past. And yet, while God acts in faithfulness with who he is, with what he has done in the past, his future action is not simply a reiteration of what he has done before.

In light of this, perhaps ‘restore’ is not the best word to use to describe what God does. “Restore” is a “backward-looking verb”, a verb that tends to point to some time in the past that needs to be retrieved. It can prevent us to looking forward, to what new things lie before us, and to the ways in which God may be going ahead of us in these new situations. Perhaps renewal, or even re-creation are better words. [See John Howard Yoder, He came preaching peace (Herald Press, 2004), pp. 126-127)]

The fulfillment of Isaiah’s proclamation of a jubilee for Israel did not mean the restoration of Israel’s golden-age, of the Davidi
c kingdom. Rather, it is the renewal of the vocation of Israel to be a light to the nations; the fulfillment of the promise that Israel was called to be a blessing to the nations.

“The Lord GOD will cause what righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations” (Isaiah 61:11)

Jubilee as national restoration was a difficult image to shake. Even those most intimately acquainted with Jesus, who heard his message of the Kingdom of God again and again, expected him to restore the nation of Israel to its former glory. And I suspect we have our own ideas of how God will fulfill his promises that need to be reshaped in light of Christ.

Isaiah declares: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1).

The gospel of John responds: “The true light which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not receive him.” (John 1:9-10)

I confess that Advent is relatively new to me. I’ve been aware of its existence, but have never seriously considered it on its own terms – as a time of waiting which precedes Christmas, rather than a warm-up period for Christmas. Mark Roberts offers the following description of Advent:
“Advent is about delayed gratification… [it] is a time of waiting. On a literal level, we who keep Advent wait before enjoying some of our beloved Christmas traditions. On a deeper level, we get in touch with the spiritual discipline of waiting. We remember how the Jews waited for centuries for the Messiah. And we attend to our own waiting for Christ to return. Waiting intensifies yearning. It teaches us patience. It reminds us that God is sovereign, and we are not. It challenges us to trust God even when He does not act according to our expectations.” [See www.markdroberts.com]
God’s unstoppable purpose restores. God will fulfill his purposes to restore, to redeem and renew.

But what will God’s restoration look like? Will we recognize its appearing?

Can we learn to trust God even when He does not act according to our expectations?

In this Advent season I invite you to take some time away from the busyness of Christmas preparations to wait. Actually, I am pretty sure that all of us will wait – in traffic, in lineups. But take some time away from this busy waiting,- or even in the midst of it- to reflect on Israel’s waiting. Waiting that was fulfilled in ways quite different than they had expected. Emmanuel will come to ransom captive Israel, but not as a rider on a white horse, but as a baby; Not a baby born in a palace, but in a stable.