Sunday, November 17, 2019 ~ Pentecost 23

Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

© 2019, Dr. Tamilio

Isaiah is one of the Old Testament’s major prophets.  What separates the major prophets (like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) from the minor prophets (like Hosea, Jonah, and Micah) is the length of their manuscripts.  Isaiah is sixty-six chapters long.  Hosea is fourteen, and that is on the lengthier end for a minor Hebrew prophet.  If you were to ask most Christians, they would say that the designation of major vs. minor has to do with importance: what each writer has to say.  That isn’t wholly accurate, though.

That said — the prophet Isaiah holds an esteemed place in the Christian canon.  Some scholars, like John F. A. Sawyer, refer to this book as the fifth Gospel.  Sawyer writes, “Isaiah’s unique position in the Church goes right back to the beginning.  He is far more often quoted or alluded to in the Gospels, Acts, Paul, and Revelation than any other part of Scripture (with the possible exception of Psalms).”  Sawyer goes on to say that Isaiah in referred to 250 times in the New Testament.”[1]  This points to the prophet’s importance, indeed.

But why is Isaiah quoted so much and why do some consider his text the fifth Gospel?  Christians believe that the Book of Isaiah is replete with references to the coming Messiah.  Jesus appears again and again in his five-and-a-half dozen chapters.  Here are just a few examples:

Isaiah 7:14      Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.

Isaiah 9:6        For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 53:4-5   Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

And of course, there are a host of other examples that point to the Messiah.  One of my favorites is today’s Old Testament lesson: Isaiah 65:17-25.

In this passage, Isaiah doesn’t so much tell us about the coming Messiah, as he does the age that he will inaugurate — the time he will bring to fruition.  I’m sure that many of the images in this passage sound familiar to you, particular the final verse (verse 25):

The wolf and the lamb will feed together,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox,

and dust will be the serpent’s food.

They will neither harm nor destroy

on all my holy mountain,

says the Lord.

This vision is often cited as an image of the peace that the Christ will bring.  Enemies will be friends.  War will end.  Suffering will cease.

Sounds pretty far-fetched and idealistic, doesn’t it?  That’s because our lives have been saturated with the reality of war and rumors of war.  I was born at the height of the War in Vietnam.  I remember hearing the term “nuclear war” at a young age and it terrified me.  Although the Cold War is over, the threat of a global, nuclear conflict still exists.  During my lifetime there has also been Lebanon, Grenada, Libya, Panama, the Gulf War, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the never-ending war on terror, among others.  And these are just the armed conflicts that involve the United States.  There are dozens and dozens of others across the globe.  When you add the wars before my lifetime, the numbers grow exponentially.  According to The New York Times, 108 million people were killed in the wars of the twentieth century.  Numbers appear daily counting the deaths resulting from twenty-first century wars, but, already, most estimates place it close to 1.1 million!

An agnostic or atheistic cynic could look at these numbers and say to us, “Your Messiah came two thousand years ago.  So much for that reign of peace.”

There are many ways that we can respond to such criticism.  War is the result of sin and sin is the result of humankind not embracing God’s will for us, so let’s not be too quick to put the blame on God.  Still, the teachings of the Risen One remain.  We are to love our enemy.  We are to turn the other cheek.  We are to find peace and rest in Jesus.

Christ’s call to us is to strive for the realm of peace that Isaiah foretold.  I know that we all have different political views when it comes everything, war included.  Is it sometimes necessary?  Is it never necessary?  Is it only justified as an act of self-defense?  Should it always be a last resort?  Regardless of your personal, political orientation, war, at best, is a necessary evil — the operative word being “evil.”  At worst, it is a rejection of the sacred in all of us.

Before you glorify war, talk to a veteran.  Talk a veteran who has seen combat.  It is not something they remember fondly.  It isn’t an experience they wish to relive.  Since World War I, which ended 100 years ago, we have come up with terms to describe the condition combat vets often struggle with.  Today it is called post-traumatic stress disorder.  We used to call it shell shock.  I like that term better.  It captures the horror of war.  “Post-traumatic stress disorder” is too clinical, too sanitary.  It is an important phrase, no doubt, and it involves not just veterans, but it sounds like a medical term.  Shell shock?  You can almost hear the explosions and smell the gun powder.  You feel rattled to your core.

I could reflect upon this all day, but my point is simply that war, whether it is ever necessary or not, points to our inability to communicate and cooperate with each other.  War is not God’s will for humanity.  Isaiah shows us the will of God.  He gives us a vision of the life of shalom for which God created for us.

I like what Bible scholar Geoffrey Grogan says about this passage.  Grogan writes, “The greatest of all the blessings [we] will know…will be a relationship with God in which there is complete harmony between [our] prayer and his will, between his desire to provide and [our] dependence on him to give…these blessings come only through the Messiah.”[2]

The peace that the Christ will bring is all inclusive.  James King West writes that the hope Isaiah describes in verse 25 “includes all people.  Yahweh will gather all nations and tongues to see his glory…and share in a world-wide peace which encompasses even the wild beasts.”[3]

What might the world look like if the Church took Isaiah’s vision seriously?  What would the world look like if the Church not only tried to make God’s peace a reality in our midst, but embodied that peace as well?  The Hebrew word “shalom” means much more than “peace.”  It’s about right relationships — ones that build community based on trust, and love, and respect.  It’s about enemies and friends becoming one.  It’s about the wolf and the lamb together.  It’s about God.  It’s about us.  It’s about all of creation together on God’s holy mountain.  Amen.

[1] John F. A. Sawyer, The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity (Cambridge/New York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1996), 21.

[2] Geoffrey W. Grogan, “Isaiah” from The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 6 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 351.

[3] James King West, Introduction to the Old Testament, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. / London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1981), 428-429.