Jerry Branch is a 58 year old professional horse shoer- he cares for the feet of champion race horses, filing, and shoeing and tending to their hooves. He has been doing this work for over 25 years and has business with his wife. But when Jerry was only 8 years old a random thing happened. He grew up in a rough neighborhood and for no apparent reason a boy came up to him with a baseball bat and started to beat him. Fortunately, his mother saw what was happening and took the bat away from the boy. But not until after his left eyes was badly injured. As the years went on, he struggled with poor sight and a great deal of pain in that eye, having to put eye drops in maybe 4-5 times per day just to get by. He lost the depth of vision in that eye which over time made him have to give up his profession. Finally, when the pain got so bad, Jerry consulted a cornea transplant surgeon who wondered why he had waited so long to get some relief. But with the donation of a cornea and the skilled talents of the surgeon, Jerry not only was pain free but also had is sight completely restored. His quality of life greatly improved and he could take up his profession once again because of the gift of life shared with an organ donation.
Jerry experienced a complete reversal of fortunes because of this transplant. He regained his profession, could see depth once again and was free from the pain that plagued his life. He like 46,000 individuals each year had his sight restored because of another’s generosity. This is a modern account of a redemption story; of how a person’s life can be transformed by a change in circumstance. Both of our lessons this morning speak to the idea of redemption; of a reversal of fortunes. Isaiah almost redeems a desert with the joyful transformation that comes. The sands shall become a pool of water and the desert shall bloom like the spring crocus. But the desert is really symbolic of the life the Israelites endured because they were in Babylonian exile. They had been taken from their land and set adrift, lost in the wilderness. But into this painful moment Isaiah speaks a word of hope. This word of hope does two things. First it foretells of the Holy Way a pathway for God’s faithful people. It is like a roadmap for recovery, a promise to the faithful that God is still with them. God will help them to one day return to their beloved land and that all the people who are now in power will not be able to take this path.
Isaiah refers to this path as a highway creating an image of an actual road, but of course there is no such road only God’s guidance. But when I was reading this it reminded me of an old West Wing episode, one when Jeb Bartlett wanted to hear the American people so he told his top staff to receive people with creative ideas for the nation- projects, ideas, thing they wanted the government to fund. One that was really interesting was the Wolf Highway- a literal path the government would create to help these endangered animals migrate when it was time. Animal activists saw a need but the plan fell on deaf ears. I can still hear CJ, Craig the Press Secretary, saying “but how do you get the wolves to use the highway?” Needless to say this idea never made the cut. But for the Israelite’s it was comforting to know that God would protect them, lead them, and redeem them from their current circumstance with or without an actual road. Moreover, the tenor of those walking this path is one of pure joy, singing and gladness. For as they return to God’s promised land, they will be seeing the glory of the Lord, they shall know peace, the complete shalom, of God.
The second form of hope comes from the prophecy of what will happen: the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped and the lame shall leap like a deer; true redemptive reversals of fortune, because they will be transformed by God. The blind that see, and the lame that walk would no longer be unclean or barred from the Holy Way of God. Their disabilities would be removed by God, much like Jerry’s eyesight was restored. But of course the Israelite’s will have to wait, much like we are waiting now. They waited for their Messiah as we wait for arrival of God with us -Emmanuel. They did not know when this promise will be fulfilled only that God will bring forth such a time.
And that is where our gospel lesson picks up! Once again we are hearing about John the Baptist. Last week we looked at the stumps of our lives and John’s call to repentance. The people in Jesus’ time leave their homes to repent in the wilderness to make a space for God. They thought John might be the messiah. But now John is in a very different place. He too has had a reversal in his life. Remember John has always favored Jesus. He leapt in his mother’s womb when he heard Mary’s voice while carrying Jesus. John was the first to proclaim Jesus as he wanted to be baptized by him, but consented to Jesus’ wishes being the one to anoint and baptize God’s Son in the river Jordan. John was the one who prepared the way for Jesus. He was the one everyone followed out into the wilderness. But no longer is he the one everyone is following. Now he is in prison because of his words and deeds that threatened the Roman authorities. His sedition put him in prison. And while forlorn and locked in his cell John asks a very important question. “Are you the one or are we to wait for another?”
Why this turn of events? Because as you recall John sees Jesus as the one to bring God’s judgment; remember the wheat and the chaff? Sitting in prison John is being treated like the chaff. He feels discarded and he is hoping he has placed his belief in the right person. So he asks his disciples to ask Jesus “Are you the one?”
Their answer comes in Jesus’ actions- deeds that harken us back to Isaiah. Jesus has just reversed people’s fortunes by redeeming them: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised. Even the poor are given good news. Jesus is living out Isaiah’s prophetic words. Jesus has no need to tell everyone he is the Messiah because his action is declaring it in a dramatic and undeniable way.
Back east we held ecumenical services at the A and E Zion Church for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Almost a year after the service, a colleague told me again how much he liked the sermon I preached honoring King. Another colleague turned to me and said most people forget the sermon by Wed it has almost been a year so you are doing well. But what I concluded was that something I said helped him to re-live his own powerful memories of that transformative and redemptive time. You see my colleague participated in the marches, he proudly fought for his beliefs during a time that has and continues to change countless lives. My words simply resurrected what had already transpired. Well something like that happened in reverse. The people watching Jesus already had the words, Isaiah’s words, the prophecy of what was to come, so that when they saw Jesus actually do such things the moment was more than powerful, it was redemptive. No longer could one question if Jesus was the Messiah- here he was doing what was foretold- taking a broken and painful life and making it into a new creation.
To us here today who have a broken area of our lives, we too can find our reversal of fortunes through our faith in Christ. Christ can take away the blindness of our eyes as we see a relationship more clearly, or unstop our ears so we can hear his transformative word more completely, or become new creations in the good news we have found in Christ Jesus. If your health is ailing, you can find your strength in Jesus. Isaiah’ words give us courage: for Jesus will give strength to what is weak and make firm what is feeble and if your health concerns have put fear in your heart, keeping you awake at night and worrying about what the future holds, then know redemption is coming. But we too have to wait, we do not know when or how but God will come and save you, of that you are assured through God’s promise.
Finally, we receive two gifts from Jesus. First we have Jesus acknowledging who he is by quoting the Old Testament – because if John is the messenger coming ahead of the Messiah then beyond a doubt Jesus is the one they are waiting for. Jesus is the king who is to rule their lives, Jesus is their Lord. And as we wait for Christmas we too are declaring that Jesus is our Lord and the king of our lives. As we prepare for Christmas morn, we are truly declaring we will place no others before him, but humbly honor him in every way, making Jesus Lord of our lives.
Secondly, as Jesus elevated John as the greatest of all people born of the flesh, greater than Moses, and all the prophets, in the next breath he guarantees our place as worthy members of the kingdom of heaven. Even the least of these will be greater. Of course our worthiness is strictly a function of God grace and Jesus’ work on the cross, but because of our faith in the Messiah, the one standing there healing the blind and the deaf, we have the most precious gift of all time, the gift of salvation as we experience the redemptive reversal in our lives with the love, grace and peace of God through Christ. This Advent season let us celebrate what God has done on our behalf, shown us a Holy Way into the redemptive grace of Christ.
Let us Pray: Eternal God, giver of life and salvation, help us to see the blessings you have generously lavished upon us and the ultimate shalom we have in you. Minimize the frantic scurrying of the season so that we can abide in your peace and claim the redemptive reversals you create all around us. Open our eyes and ears as we await the birth of your son. In his holy name we pray. Amen.
