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Reading: Isaiah 25:7-9
The Book of Isaiah is really three books in one. First Isaiah was written prior to Israel’s exile in Babylon. Second Isaiah was composed during their Babylonian exile. And, as you might’ve guessed, Third Isaiah was produced after Israel’s return from exile. So, instead of the words and oracles of one prophet, we have texts that together are from what might be called “the Prophetic School of Isaiah.”
Our reading this morning is from First Isaiah, in which the prophet seeks to bring Israel back to fidelity to their covenant with God. As the first chapter of Isaiah shows us, he does this by warning them of the consequences of failing to build a just a society, one in which the least among them are cared for: the widow, the orphan, the stranger. But in our passage today, we see beyond the present moment, beyond the exile, even beyond death, to the good things God will do, despite their unfaithfulness. This is precisely where this passage becomes relevant to us.
This is the Good News: in and through Christ Jesus, God is faithful to us not even when we are unfaithful but in a weird way through our infidelities. Like ancient Israel, God does not necessarily protect us from the natural consequences of our infidelities. These consequences should never be mistaken for God’s punishment. To use a contemporary phrase, when it comes to the consequences of our actions, “It is what it is.” But, as Christ shows us, God draws near to us especially through our suffering.
Each of us, notes Trevor Hudson, “sits next to a pool of our own tears.”1 Some of our tears result from what has been done to us and some result from our own actions. Either way, these pools “remind us of the grief and losses we have suffered throughout our lives.”2
Especially during Lent, the Lord Jesus gives us the consolation of his tears. Jesus’ “tears remind us that God weeps with us, grieves with us, and suffers with us.”3 Those who fully enter into this holy season experience the intimate company of Jesus. Such a person can experience for herself that Jesus’ “tears represent the empathy of God.”4 We still have a few weeks of Lent before us. And so, I encourage you to take some time to meet Jesus by the pool of your tears.
Our pools are filled with the tears shed over the death of a loved one, the pain of a divorce, the abuse of a child,” our multiple unmet longings, the rejection by a close friend, etc.
What Friedrich Nietzsche observed is true: “only where there are graves are there resurrections.”5
1 Trevor Hudson. Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days, pg 40). Upper Room Books. Kindle Edition.↩
2 Ibid.↩
3 Ibid.↩
4 Ibid.↩
5 Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, XXVI “The Priests,” trans. Thomas Commo.↩
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