From Gloom to Delight

Our Old Testament reading today is from third Isaiah. Third Isaiah was written after the return from Babylon. The Israelites were experiencing hardship because the economy had been disrupted by their return. They did not return to an empty land. Other people were dwelling in the land of Judah. Upon their return, the land had to support more people than it was prepared to. The Israelites were also impatient. Everyone wanted life to be like it was before the captivity in Babylon. That was a time few of the returnees (if any) experienced in person. Most of those who returned only knew how it had been through the stories of their elders. We know how those stories of past times exaggerate the good and forget the bad. Just like when people today talk about the “good old times.” For the Israelites, it seems they had another problem: While they struggled to rebuild their lives in the land of milk and honey, they had forgotten who and whose they were. A careful listening to third Isaiah in this passage and those before it, we hear Isaiah chastise the people because they had forgotten their history. They had returned, not only to the land but also to their old selfish ways. They had forgotten God’s command to take care of the orphans, widows, and the aliens in the land. Their prejudices and desires had drowned out the cry of those who were hurt by their selfish action and their disregard of the covenant.

We read that story because of the story in Luke. Luke is the only gospel that has this story. A woman who had been nearly crippled for eighteen years was healed and, instead of rejoicing, the leader of the synagogue objected to it. He was so adamant about keeping the covenant that he could not see the needs of the people. Instead of treating the Law as God’s gift he had turned it into a hard and fast rule. You know people like that. Jesus puts the concerns of the leader of the synagogue away by reminding him that he would not object to someone taking care of the livestock. Is not one of God’s children more important? While he did not say it here, he was telling all that the law was made for the people and not the people for the law.

Our reading from Hebrews tells us this by contrasting two events: Moses and the people at Mount Sinai, and Jesus at Mount Zion. At Mount Sinai the people were afraid and impatient. When Moses had not returned in a timely fashion they melted all their gold and made an idol. When he returned he was angry, smashed the commandments and the golden calf, admonished the people and returned to receive the gift of the law a second time. It was a time of fear. Jesus, on Mount Zion, gave his life so that all people may be freed from bondage as the woman was in our story from Luke. 

We fit into that second category. We have been set free from our bondage to sin and death by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We have been made whole by the blood of Jesus. That is why we are called to a different life than the world around us. While they continue to chase after things that are not fulfilling, living lives that are selfish, we are called to lives of care and love for others. While others believe that they must strictly follow the law in order to be saved, we know that God has given us all that we need. While they say, “We have to follow the law in order to be saved.” We say, “Because we are saved, we get to follow the law.” By the blood of Jesus we have been set free and now get to work with Jesus bringing God’s love and peace to the world. Give up your selfish desires and share God’s gifts that he so lavishly showers upon you with others so that, through you, they may experience God’s love.