Isaiah 49:1-7Is God speaking to the prophet, or to Israel? Yes. I mean, what is the distinction? Israel is the children of Abraham, the children of Abraham are Israel. Israel will be a light to the nations, Isaiah will be a light to the nations. The individual is of the people. The people are of the individual. It’s not a concept we can grasp in our post-Enlightenment, post-Romantic world. For us, there is the individual; and there is the mass. One can be rational; the other can be nothing but irrational. One can be ethical; the other cannot. But Isaiah says the people can be as ethical as the individual.
The servant brings light to the nations
Listen to me, O coastlands; pay attention, you peoples from far away! The LORD called me before I was born; while I was in my mother's womb he named me.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified."
But I said, "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the LORD and my reward with my God."
And now the LORD says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God has become my strength-
he says, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, "Kings shall see and stand up; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."
This is not a concept we can grasp, we if the post-Enlightenment and post-Romantic eras. And I don’t think we should. We are too democratic (small “d”) now to not make “individual” our primary source of identity. I’m just pointing out Isaiah saw things differently; everyone did “back then.” And our baseline weltanschauung would be as alien and incomprehensible to them, as theirs is to us.
You have to be careful how you read these things. Isaiah wasn’t talking to you. But you can still listen. You just have to be careful about what you hear.
Isaiah crosses between himself, the prophet of Israel, and Israel, the children of Abraham. The prophet has a relationship with God; from the womb, he says. The metaphor applies to Israel as well, formed in the metaphorical womb by the covenant with Abraham, sustained by the salvific history of Israel (attend an Easter Vigil service; or come back here on Easter Sunday, and you’ll find a review of that story). The prophet means to mingle the two, to make individual and national history co-terminous, the better to explain the word of the Lord.
And now the LORD says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God has become my strength-
he says, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, "Kings shall see and stand up; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."
he says, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, "Kings shall see and stand up; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."
Israel; and Isaiah; and their purpose. Deeply despised; abhorred by nations; once again the slave of rulers; chosen by the Creator. To be a light to the nations.
The power of powerlessness.
Psalm 71:1-14Again: the song of the individual; the song of the children of Abraham. Which is which? Can’t it be both/and?
From my mother's womb you have been my strength
In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
From my birth I have leaned upon you, my protector since my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.
I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with your praise and with your glory all day long.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together.
They say, "Pursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver."
O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed; let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.
Israel/the Psalmist forsaken? Or the Psalmist/Israel redeemed? By the power of God; which is powerlessness.
1 Corinthians 1:18-31What is Christ crucified, except powerlessness? What is foolishness, except powerlessness? What is wisdom, except powerlessness? What is God, except powerlessness?
Christ crucified, the wisdom and power of God
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe.
For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles,
but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are,
so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Which is not weakness, but true power.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are,
so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
And where’s the power in that?
Precisely.
John 12:20-36
Jesus speaks of his death
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.
They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."
Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.
Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."
The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.
Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
The crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?"
Jesus said to them, "The light is in you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.
While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light." After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.
"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.
Derrida asked: “My death, is it possible?” That question has gone suddenly from abstract to concrete for Jesus. Even John’s divine Jesus is troubled by the truth of mortality. He realizes his death is finally not only possible, but imminent. And like the Psalmist, he turns to God:
Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."One of the most interesting passages in the gospels: some hear thunder; some hear the voice of an angel. But no hears what is said. And Jesus says: “That wasn’t for me, that was for you.”
The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.
Jesus is God. Jesus is human. And everyone’s hearing without listening. Maybe God could make them listen? But then what would they hear?
After all, he doesn’t explain. The narrator tells us Jesus is talking about the death he will die. So at least we know. But Jesus can’t explain to the crowd. He talks in metaphors about light and darkness and then…runs for the darkness? For the moment, at least, they don’t know where he’s going.
It’s another very human moment for John’s Jesus: desperately seeking the power of powerlessness.
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