Isaiah 45:6b-8, 18, 21b-end | Psalm 85:7-end
Luke 7:18b-23
18 The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples 19 and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 20 When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” 21 Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. 22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. 23 And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.”
Introduction
If this sermon sounds familiar at all, it is because the Gospel text also sounds familiar. Indeed, the lectionary designers have conspired to give us today Luke’s version of the beginning of the small narrative we heard from Matthew’s Gospel this past Sunday.
Rather than repeat the sermon from a few days ago, I will take this opportunity to point out a few unique details. Remembering that the Gospels themselves are compiled and arranged and even rewritten to suit the theological agenda of the individual authors, we might do well to look at what Luke is doing uniquely. What is his particular focus? What details has he chosen to include? Why does he tell the story the way he does? And in this regard, I’d like to look at two things: 1) Where does Luke focus our attention? 2) And why?
1. Luke’s Focus
First, what is Luke’s particular focus? Is it the reed and the robe? No. Unlike Matthew’s Gospel, Luke doesn’t come back to those objects, which play a role in the torture of Jesus before his execution, as Patrick so excellently pointed out on Sunday. Is the fate of John? Probably not as Luke doesn’t even mention that he’s in prison. Is it his apparently doubt? Maybe, but might also be in response, as Luke tells it, to the fact that Jesus’s fame was ‘spreading throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.’ Though if this was Luke’s focus, we shouldn’t be surprised. John the Baptist is, after all, the last of the prophets—a long line of God’s mediators that includes Moses, Hosea, and Jonah—who constantly had doubts and even openly rebelled against God. We can’t blame John for his humanity, his tendency to doubt. He does, after all, need to enter the Kingdom just like the rest of us. And in fact, here he might actually be being commended by way of contrast. If we were reading the Gospel of Luke up to this point, we will have seen a lot of rejection of Jesus—something that would not sit right with an early reader of the Gospel. How can God’s agent of salvation be so rejected? John’s openness is something of a refresher and it launches this passage in which he and Jesus interact via disciples running back and forth.
No, I submit to you, Luke’s focus still seems to be elsewhere. Interestingly, he mentions the list of things that Jesus is doing… twice. Verse 21: “Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. Then verses 22: “And he answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.” I think we might safely assume that Luke is, then, focusing here. The repetition in such a short passage is peculiar.
2. Fulfilling Isaiah
So, second: why this list? Why does Luke concentrate our attention on this list of things that Jesus has been doing? To a first-century Jewish audience, it screams of Isaiah. Drawing on Isaiah 29:18-19, 35:5-6, 42:18, 43:8, and 61:1—Jesus’s activities are that of God’s promised salvation. Isaiah is writing to a people of God who are in the midst of being taken into captivity—to exile. And yet, he is promising to redeem them—to save them. And the words he chooses, the picture he paints of salvation for his people, proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah, is one in which the blind and the lame and the deaf are healed, the oppressed and the poor are blessed. Listen to Isaiah 61:1, which was cited by Luke in chapter 4 at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry:
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners.
In other words, Jesus’s proof to John that he is, in fact, the Messiah, the one come to rescue God’s people, is his fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Salvation will come in a particular form and Jesus has done precisely that. And it is, I believe, meant to be a surprise to us as readers. It was undoubtedly a surprise to John, his disciples, Jesus’s disciples, and probably most Jews around. ‘The Messiah is going to come in triumph. The Messiah is going to come in judgment,’ they thought. The Baptist, himself, prophesied only a few chapters earlier—a passage we have seen twice this autumn—‘Jesus will come with Spirit and fire. A winnowing fork in his hand. He will separate the wheat from the chaff and submit the chaff, those who do not enter the kingdom of God or bear fruit worthy of repentance, to the judgment of unquenchable fire.’ This was—rightly—the expectation. But in this moment, Jesus chose to prove himself, his identity, as the one who saves people.
Conclusion
So, what does this mean for us? What does it mean in this day and age? I think it gives us something to look forward to. We, God’s people, are not necessarily promised healing of blindness and deafness or the reversal of oppression and need in this life. Rather, it is what Jesus brought, in a limited form, the first time when he came to be with his people in the flesh—in the Incarnation. And not just physical healing. Note the last two terms in the list: the dead are raised and those in need have been given the good news, the gospel. Jesus didn’t just come to perform miracles, but to give his life as a ransom for many so that those who died in him will be raised and the gospel will be realized in all its fullness. And friends, this is important, if we are reading the Scriptures correctly, it is what he will bring when he comes back. In the end, after the final judgment, his people will be healed. For those who have placed their faith in him: the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the sick will be healed, the sinners will be cleansed, the oppressed will freed, the dead will rise, and his people will be saved. In the mean time, we wait. In this season of Advent, we wait with great anticipation:
O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice ! Rejoice ! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Let me pray: Heavenly Father, we are grateful that you sent your Son to us, to bring us life in a world of death, light in a world of darkness. We as that you help us. Give us the faith to be those who look to your return and all the hope that will be fulfilled in that joyous moment. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.