Word of Life Church Podcast

Pagan astrologers read it in the stars — a new king of the Jews had been born. And so the magi came from the Orient bearing their gifts and accidentally got tangled up with the current King of the Jews — a debauched and murderous megalomaniac named Herod who decades earlier had been made an imperial client king by the Roman Senate. Not long after that the death squads were breaking down doors and killing baby boys in Bethlehem. An angel got Mary and Joseph and the baby king out of town in the nick of time. And so the Holy Family became refugees seeking asylum in a foreign country in order to escape a violent regime in their homeland. If this all sounds very political, you’re right, it was…and it still is.

"You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy Son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst in order that He might renew mankind made after Himself."–Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373), On The Incarnation

"You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy Son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst in order that He might renew mankind made after Himself."–Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373), On The Incarnation

Isaiah anticipates a time when the earth will be arid and lifeless, and the people will be blind, deaf, and disabled. The land will be burning and the people will be blind to the problem, deaf to the word of God, and unable to do anything about it. The spiritual aridity of the people is reflected in a once lush land turning into a scorching desert. But in his Messianic poem of hope, Isaiah says something will happen that will change everything: The desert land will blossom and broken lives will be healed. What will cause there to be streams in the desert and for the lame to leap like a deer? God will come!

Waiting on God is an acknowledgement that we are not in charge of our own spiritual formation. Through healthy practices of spiritual formation we regularly present ourselves before God. What happens there will happen in God’s own time or Godspeed.

If we see Jesus in Isaiah's prophecy of a king whose reign causes the lion to lie down with the lamb—and we do!—it means that we cannot reduce Jesus to the “personal savior” of our “private soul.” Jesus may indeed personally save our soul, but he’s also the righteous king who brings justice to the poor and challenges the systems of oppression presided over by the principalities and powers.

“How can we live in the midst of a world marked by fear, hatred, and violence, and not be destroyed by it?”“To live in the world without belonging to the world summarizes the essence of the spiritual life.”“Our true house is not the house of fear, in which the powers of hatred and violence rule, but the house of love, where God resides.”“Through the spiritual life we gradually move from the house of fear to the house of love.”(Henri Nouwen, Behold the Beauty of the Lord.)

Under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord Isaiah re-imagined the world…A world where swords become plowshares and spears become pruning hooks.A world where weapons of war becomes instruments of agriculture.A world where people seek to make the world a garden and not a battleground.A world where tanks are turned into tractors and missile silos become grain silos.

The kingdom of God does not come by the sword, it comes by the cross.The kingdom of God does not come by killing, it comes by dying.The kingdom of God does not come with vengeance, it comes with forgiveness.If it comes by the sword (by some dude on a horse), it’s not the kingdom of God.If it comes by killing (the way of Cain), it’s not the kingdom of God.If it comes with vengeance (the way of the Beast), it’s not the kingdom of God.By the way of the cross…By self-sacrifice, by co-suffering love, and by radical forgiveness…Is how the kingdom of God comes.And it comes no other way.If we lose sight of this, we will be blind to the kingdom of God. And if we’re blind to the kingdom of God, we will mistake something else as the kingdom of God.

"By his wounds you are healed." This is a deep and holy mystery, but it lies at the heart of what happened at the cross. Jesus took a world of suffering and sorrow into himself, so that we could be healed. When we lay our wounds upon the wounds of Christ it does not multiply woundedness, it initiates healing.