Our first reading from Isaiah is one of those passages from the Hebrew Bible that indicate Israel is not chosen for itself but as the people through whom God will accomplish the salvation of the world. Of course, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah consists of three distinct sections, each written during a different period of time. The portion of Isaiah from which today's reading is taken is from deutero- or second Isaiah. Deutero-Isaiah was likely written during Israel's Babylonian Exile (BC 598/7-539). A major theme of deutero-Isaiah is a savior who will rescue them from exile. Historically, one can easily interpret this to be Cyrus, the king of Persia, who defeated Israel's oppressor and returned the Israelites to the Promised Land.
But it seems to me that deutero-Isaiah's predictions of a rescuing messiah or savior transcend, at least to some extent, these historical contingencies. What else can you make of this passage other than this transcendence:
It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth (Isa 49:6)?The restoration of Israel to the Promised Land is a necessary condition for Israel to be a light to the nations so that God's salvation, which is to be accomplished through "the Jews," extends to the ends of the earth.
This shows the significance of our epistle reading for this Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, taken from the beginning of Saint Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, which can seem almost like a throwaway. Paul, of course, is the (Jewish) apostle to Gentiles. It is through Paul, Barnabas, and other Jewish Christians that the promises made in deutero-Isaiah start to be realized.
Finally, we can look at today's Gospel. Despite being in Year A of the Lectionary, during which the Church focuses on Saint Matthew's Gospel, our reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel According to Saint John. Last week Roman Catholics celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It was during that celebration we considered Saint Matthew's account of Jesus's baptism by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Jesus's baptism is reckoned to be the beginning of the Lord's public ministry.
In today's Gospel, John the Baptist, who some were convinced was himself the Messiah, recognizes Jesus as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). In each account of Jesus's baptism, the Holy Spirit figure prominently. In John, it is the Baptist who sees the Spirit "come down and remain" on Jesus. Presumably, it is the Holy Spirit, then, who reveals Jesus to John as the Lamb of God. It is the Spirit's coming down and remaining on him that allows Jesus to baptize with the Holy Spirit.
"Messiah" means "Anointed One." Jesus, in each evangelist's account of his baptism, is anointed with the Holy Spirit, thus making him the Anointed One. It is by virtue of being God's Anointed that Jesus is the Lamb of God, whose sacrificial death takes away the world's sin.
Jesus baptizes with the same Spirit that breathed on the waters and, as a result, made life start to emerge, which is why we revere the Holy Spirit in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as "the Lord, the Giver of life" (Gen 1:2; Roman Missal, "The Order of Mass, sec. 18). Let's never lose sight of the fact that when Jesus ascended he did not abandon us, did not leave his disciples orphans, but sent the Holy Spirit (see John 14:18). This is why Paul, in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, insists that "whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Cor 5:17).
As disciples of Jesus, as people who have been baptized by water and the Spirit, we are to be heralds of this new creation, proclaimers of the kingdom of God in thought, word, and deed. In light of Jesus's teaching, maybe we should reverse order and say in deed, word, and thought. This is how we "see" the fulfillment of God's promise that his "salvation" reaches "the ends of the earth" (Isa 49:6). The Holy Spirit is Christ's resurrection presence in us, among us, and through us.
What Jesus told the Samaritan woman in his encounter with her at the well bears noting again, as I did on Epiphany: "salvation is from the Jews" ("Epiphany of the Lord;" John 4:22). This why what Lutheran theologian and likely martyr, Ernst Lohmeyer wrote in a letter of support to Martin Buber so very important: "the Christian faith is Christian only insofar as it bears the Jewish faith in its heart" (See "The Nazis Persecuted Him. The Soviets Killed Him. Today He’s Barely Known").
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