"Whose Prophecy Will I Choose?"

by Revd Bruce Waldron - 27th January 2008

Isaiah 9: 2-7 and Matthew 4: 12-23

Isaiah 9: 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.
You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Matthew 4: Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
"Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles-
the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea-for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

When Matthew started to write his gospel, the experts tell us it was all about demonstrating to people that Jesus was the One who was prophesied would come, God's chosen one, the Messiah.

But that isn't as simple as it sounds. It wasn't as though Israel had this monochrome view of what the Messiah was going to be. People had no more agreement on what the prophecies meant than we do today. You ask six people about what the prophecies in the bible really mean and do you know how many answers you'll get? Probably nine or ten. Most people don't even fully agree with themselves. The people of Matthew's Israel were just like us.

I once went with a bunch of School Chaplains to Temple Beth Israel, one of the larger Jewish Synagogues in Melbourne; it was part of our education in the broader world of our students. Someone asked our guide, Rabbi David ben Levi, about how the Hebrew people saw their scriptures, what we refer to as the Old Testament He told us "You Christians, you think that there is one proper explanation for the Scriptures. But we Jews know that the Scriptures are written without punctuation or capitalization. There is no single, proper view." He said. "We know that they are there to be interpreted, argued about, and so the old saying 'Two Jews, three opinions'.

So Matthew wants to convey that Jesus is God's chosen one; but there is no accepted idea of what that person will be like, or what he will usher in. Of all the Old Testament prophecies, why does he quote this one from Isaiah. It wasn't self evident to the people of the time that this was "the" key prophecy. There are many ideas about what the Kingdom of God under the chosen one is going to look like, and many competing arguments about which prophecies apply.

But Matthew chooses this one, because he believes in a particular shape to the Kingdom of God, a shape that he's learned from Jesus. And it wasn't a shape that was for his own people, his own comfort, his own interests. This prophecy would not have been a popular choice with all of the people in the Hebrew world. But when Matthew wants to choose a word from the prophets, .he goes to the words of Isaiah that express what he has learned the Kingdom of God is about. A light to the gentiles, a light to them out there, the other people, the one's who aren't a part of his comfort zone.

He's learned this from Jesus. Following this one, means you leave your hole, leave your nest, go where the spirit blows, for the sake of those outside the nest, outside the hole, outside of your own interests.

So when Matthew uses the quote from Isaiah, he's not only using the prophecy to try and indicate that Jesus is the light of the world, he's also indicating what type of light. He's picking out, from all the writings of the prophets, the one that he's learned as part of Jesus' people is a description about the sort of Kingdom that Jesus, as God's son, is ushering in.

This particular passage from Isaiah indicates some very particular characteristics of the Kingdom of God. It indicates that the light is about the conclusion of people tearing each other to bits.

For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

It's a bit like that 60's song I learned in my teenage years "I ain't gonna study war no more." It's an end to this way of living, a wiping out of people's destruction of each other. The signs of war will be obliterated..
The light is about the people on the outside, sharing in the light, not being oppressed by it.

In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

This new way is going to be a departure from humanities innate tribalism, the former despising of those who aren't a part of our country. The reversal of contempt is a signifier of this new way.

The light is the one whose presence is going to end oppression and exploitation.

For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

In this strophe the symbols of oppression, are broken. The power of the cross is destroyed, but so is the shackle of slavery, the rod that beats other people into submission. There is a different type of power at work here, an antithesis to the types of power that Israel herself has so often employed against those it considers enemy or worthless. No more slaves, no more oppression, no more exploitation. Then, finally, the power of the inoffensive. It is a child who is born and this infant is the authority of God Himself

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace

The thing about a child is that a child's power is in the love it evokes. Matthew chose to use Isaiah's words to indicate that the power of this One is the power of evoked love: not the warrior born, not the powerful king, not the mighty orator, but a child - a different type of authority, and you can hear in his choice, an echo of the words of Jesus, "Suffer the little children to come to me, and forbid them not, for of such as these is the Kingdom of Heaven."

And when this person's authority is established, it will be about justice and righteousness.

the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Matthew is defining the meaning of the prophecies by the light of Jesus life, what he has received in observing the actions, the teaching, the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

It didn't convince everyone. It wasn't expected to. What it did was define what people were rejecting or accepting.

Matthew, in Chapter 13, again chooses the prophet Isaiah's writings for his book when he recalls Jesus words

The reason I speak to them in parables is that 'seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.' With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:
'You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn- and I would heal them.'
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

"Let him hear who has ears to hear"

Matthew has written to let people know, 'This is who we are. This is what we stand for. This is the message of the church, the fellowship of Christ ones, held together by His Spirit, and the experience of His Spirit.'

Matthew gives shape and content to the Christian church in this passage, at the outset of his story about Jesus ministry. And Matthew's story outlines the way this man's life has exampled what the prophet said. More than that, the narrative of the life of Jesus, compacted into this introductory prophecy, indicates to us today, who we, the Christian church are.

We are the people who are called to act out the zeal of the Lord. To act out the light of justice and righteousness and peace shining in the dark places of our world. And sometimes the dark places are Darfur, and Kenya, and Palestine, and the redlight districts of Norwich and London, the hospitals of Norfolk and All Hallows, the lonely sitting room of someone confined to their house whose friends have all died off and there is no one who shares the memories.

And sometimes, the dark places of injustice and war are in our own hearts and souls. The light has to shine there too. But the light shines, not selfishly for us on the inside, but for the people out there. It isn't a self serving light, but it comes to Zebulon, and Naphtali, to the places beyond the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

This light doesn't serve just the interests of the people in the Covenant, but those outside the Covenant. The church, being true to this prophecy, is always looking outwards, to fulfil this prophecy of bringing the light to those outside the boundaries. The purpose of Christ is never centred on his own comfort, but the use of his self for the blessing of others.

May our church, in its life, its worship, its service, always be like Christ who gave himself for the blessing of others. May we, in our life, our worship, our service, always seek to be that blessing of God's light.