Thursday of Week 2 of Advent – First Reading
Commentary on Isaiah 41:13-20
Again today, we continue reading from ‘The Book of Consolation’. The Jews are coming to the end of their period of exile in Babylon, and today we have a message of encouragement. God is coming to help—to redeem his people. For us during Advent, the message points clearly to Jesus, our Redeemer and Saviour. The theme of today’s reading is that God will protect Israel against its enemies and meet its needs in the desert wilderness. Israel’s enemies will vanish, the empire of Babylon will be no more, but God’s people will continue under his loving protection.
Do not fear, you worm Jacob,
you maggot Israel!
Israel seems so insignificant when seen in comparison with its powerful conquerors. But it is a deceptive weakness, as there is a Strength on their side.
The prophet tells the people that God, “the Holy One of Israel” is their “Redeemer”. The word in Hebrew originally refers to the nearest male relative who will avenge the blood of someone who has been murdered. He is also the one who pays off a debt, and frees the debtor from prison; his duty is to protect the defenceless.
Leviticus (25:47-55) also speaks of a situation where a person has to sell himself to a foreigner. He can be ‘redeemed’, that is, bought back by a brother or uncle or cousin or any other relative (note that the word ‘redeemer’ comes from the Latin redemptor, meaning ‘someone who buys back’).
‘Redeemer’ then comes to refer to God as one who protects the oppressed and who liberates his people. The word is used frequently in this sense in Second Isaiah. The word then was applied to Jesus, who is the Redeemer and Liberator of us all.
Far from being weak, God tells his people:
I will make of you a threshing sledge…
Just as the emperor Cyrus reduced his enemies (including the Babylonians) to dust (Isa 41:2), so too Israel will deal with its enemies:
…you shall thresh the mountains [i.e. their powerful enemies] and crush them…
For the Israelites, good times are coming as they leave their place of exile and return to their homeland. This is symbolised in the provision of an abundance of water—the formation of rivers and lakes. It is reminiscent of Moses, who produced water from the rock for Israelites during the Exodus. The desert is thus transformed by all kinds of magnificent trees. Some of these trees are named later in connection with the adornment of God’s sanctuary. Acacia wood was used for the tabernacle. In Isaiah chapter 55, we are told that pine and myrtle replace thorns and briers.
In fact, King Cyrus, who crushed the Babylonians and allowed the Jews to return to their homeland, is seen as an instrument doing God’s work. Through all these manifestations, the writer foresees the coming of the Messianic age:
…so that all may see and know,
all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Commenting on this text, the Christian Community Bible rightly describes that the Israelites, depressed by their exile experience, are being reminded to stop looking back at the ‘good old days’ of their glorious past and to look forward to a promising future:
“For centuries the Jews had looked upon their past, always expanding the memory of the wonders worked by God in their departure from Egypt. Now, they must look to the future. This time, a new departure is being prepared from Babylon, and it will be accompanied by wonders greater than those of the first Exodus.”
We, too, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas, need to remember that our celebration is not just a nostalgic look at the past, but a renewal of hope and energy in working for the building of the Kingdom in the year ahead.
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Thursday of Week 2 of Advent – Gospel
Commentary on Matthew 11:11-15
Jesus today has high words of praise for John the Baptist. John had a unique role which sets him apart from all others. He was the one to announce the long-awaited arrival of the Messiah. John is the last in the line of the great Old Testament prophets, men who spoke in God’s name pointing the way for God’s people, sometimes denouncing their behaviour and at other times pointing to a great destiny ahead. John is an Old Testament figure, but he forms a kind of bridge between the Old and the New. He died—in fact, was executed—before the mission of Jesus was completed. The New Testament or Covenant was sealed with Jesus’ blood on the cross. John never saw that; he never was fully a disciple of Jesus.
And so, Jesus says, even the very least in the Kingdom of God, inaugurated by Jesus, is in a more privileged position than John. At the time of his death, John was not able to share in the abundance of life that was released through the death and resurrection of Jesus as every believing Christian can do.
At this point, there are some strange words:
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and violent people take it by force.
The meaning is not immediately clear, but it seems to refer to those who are using violence to prevent people from entering the Kingdom, and pulling away those who have already entered.
In the context of Matthew’s Gospel, this could apply to those Jews and others who were bitterly opposed to Jesus and his message, and who either tried to prevent people from entering the Christian community, or tried to make those who were already members, defect. This, we know from the letters of Paul, was happening in many communities. And it is still happening today, sometimes with violence (e.g. persecution) and sometimes in much more subtle ways (suggesting it is not ‘cool’ to be Christian).
John, too, is described as “Elijah who is to come”. We know that the prophet Elijah did not die a natural death. He was carried off to heaven in a chariot. However, it was a Jewish belief that some day he would return to leave this earth in a normal way and join the dead in Sheol. But the important point was that his return would be the immediate prelude to the arrival of the Messiah. In calling John ‘Elijah’, Jesus is clearly pointing to himself as the Messiah. And so Jesus says:
Let anyone with ears listen!
Those with real insight will know what Jesus is saying. They will listen carefully to his words and recognise Jesus for who he really is, and accept him as Lord.
We might conclude by reflecting that the role of John the Baptist is one that each follower of Christ is called to fill. It is up to us to prepare the way for Christ and his vision of the Kingdom to enter the lives of people. In the words of the Benedictus, a hymn said every day in the Church’s Morning Prayer:
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways…
(Luke 2:76)