TOWARD THE SPIRITUALITY OF HISTORY

Advent 3rd Week
Isaiah 61:1-14

A tradition of prophet
Adding to certain explanation to today’s content may be a little awkward like an additional painting on a masterpiece. Basically I used to stand here not to preach but reveal God’s will through his word. However, today I would like to intentionally reduce my role as a preacher for Isaiah 61 doesn’t contain any complicated sentences that need to be explained. So I only would like to give a guide for the background of writing of today’s contents. It might be just similar to a role of a guide in an art gallery.

While you’re reading today’s content you might vividly sense prophet Isaiah’s spiritual breathing. The author was a person popularly regarded as the third Isaiah. He wrote it in early B.C. 5 century, the end stage of Babylon captivity life of Southern Judean. We can imagine his feeling when he was writing today’s content. Just imagine the moment of a freedom fighter who met the Independence Day after long time suffering in the prison under the British colonial. Also imagine the moment when a patient who suffered from a chronicle disease like cancer comes out of hospital with complete healing. Would they like to sing and dance? Today’s content was written in such situation. The words deliverance, freedom and hope in today’s content reflect such situation.

The prophecy of Isaiah wasn’t a creative idea of his own but connected to Israel’s historical tradition, the year of the Lord’s favour that mentioned in Levites 25:8-12. The year of the Lord’s favour is rooted in the tradition of the year of Sabbath and it goes back to the tradition of the Sabbath. The Sabbath mentioned in the fourth commandment is the result of the spirit of God’s creation and Exodus. Both the creation and Exodus signifies life, deliverance, liberty and hope. The year of the Lord’s favour lies at the end of traditional stem. The year of the Lord’s favour comes after fiftieth year, rightly next year of the seven times of the year of Sabbath. At this year everything returns to where it was. “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.” (Lev. 25:10).

Based on such tradition of the year of the Lord’s favour, Isaiah wrote today’s contents. Look at verses 1b, 2. “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.”

Coincidently it was Jesus’ first reading at the synagogue. Jesus read the very content at the Nazarene synagogue after returning from wilderness. "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18, 19)

The tradition of prophet was not a peculiar idea of one or two person but the thoughts that underlined the entire Israel’s history. After returning from Babylon captivity, Isaiah inherited the tradition from the Law that the Exodus community Israel had received in the wilderness. Jesus the savior of the world inherited it from Isaiah. What the tradition of prophet all about and then it had been continually leading the life of Israel? The author of gospel accepted Jesus Christ as the savior of the world and didn’t bind the gospel within Israel. Then how did they regard the tradition of prophet of Israel and Jesus’ world salvation as one? Don’t you wonder about this? What in the world the tradition of prophet penetrates the entire Old and New Testament?

The people of spirit
When we consider the tradition of prophet the first thinking point is ‘spirit’. Look at verse 1. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” The tradition of the year of the Lord’s favour in Levites also was the command given by the Lord God. Jesus who read Isaiah’s prophesy at the synagogue also worked in the spirit as we can confirm from the statement that ‘the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.’ (Luke 3:22) Today we also live by the spirit, the tradition of prophet. According to Acts, Christian community is the Spiritual community. Not only Acts but the entire New Testament is the report of the activity of the Holy Spirit. Even today churches often mention the word ‘fulfillment of the Holy Spirit’. Connecting to the Spirit in both a believer personal and church community means to take the tradition of prophet preciously.

What do you think about the Spirit? Who are the people filled their heart with the Holy Spirit? The word written in verse 1, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me” is often greatly misunderstood in two ways. One of them is the instrumentalism of the Spirit. It is the activities to make their life convenient by using the Spirit. If they go to the extreme, they become a fortuneteller who prophesies other believers’ future. They prophesy sexes of baby in a mother’s womb. Some people identify the Spirit and tongues. Their activities look very pure but still it is an act of instrumentalism of the Spirit. They utilize the Spirit as an instrument to strengthen their faith.

Another phenomenon to misunderstand the Spirit is the extreme ideation of the Spirit. Of course the Spirit can be thought as an idea but also as an extreme it becomes distortion of the Spirit. We usually use the term ‘the salvation of the Spirit’. If it signifies only salvation of our spiritual part regardless of body part then it is wrong idea. Those who think human as structure of dualism of body and soul have a possibility to regard the Holy Spirit as a sort of ghost. This matter is a little complicated and I do not want to take it long time to deal with now. It’s enough for us to confirm the fact that we do not regard the Holy Spirit as a mere spiritual thing without regard to the physical. The attitude of thinking the Spirit as a ghost never can be a right idea of Christianity.

I have explained misunderstanding about the Spirit. Now I would like to a little positively tell you what the Spirit is. I cannot tell you it using a word or two for there is many descriptions about the Spirit in the Bible. I will tell you it with a simple example. Baby Abeidao began to walk. What was the power to let him come out of the world? Of course his father and mother might take an important role. If we see it superficially it is a combination of an egg and a sperm. However, if we look into it at the profound deeper level we can see there is much fundamental power that gives a new life birth combining an egg and a sperm. What is the power? Several millions years of history worked on it and now a certain a gene action might be involved in his birth. This is the biological foundation that we know. So people think if they research it then the origin of life can be clarified. However, with such research the origin of life cannot be plainly clarified. What we can do is to explain the phenomena that have been partially revealed. Generally, we don’t know why this world is progressing with what we are experiencing now not with other aspects. Man is composed not only of dust but also soul. It means the soul works through the dust only. There is no body there is no soul for man. It is quite a mystery. Soul and body are different phenomena but it becomes a life through combining them together. We call the power that makes the mysterious things possible but unknown way to us as the Holy Spirit. Like this the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God fills the world with life in mysterious, concealing, hidden, secret ways, beyond our imagination. This is the mystery of the world. Those who are captured by the mysterious spirit of life are spiritual people and prophets.

Justice and praise
There are many spiritual people in Israel who look into the depth of life. Isaiah was one of them and saw the mystery of history. It means he saw history with spiritual view. It, that is to say, is a prophesy. What is this in detail? The first thing we need to confirm is that like other prophets Isaiah also didn’t receive a peculiar transcendental oracle. He tried to catch God’s salvation act through mysterious God’s reign that had been working in Israel’s history.

When Isaiah was thinking about Israel’s history he couldn’t think it separately from the Lord God. Isaiah lived in the history like us and he didn’t rise above Israel’s history. So Israel’s history became the background of his prophesies. Naturally his prophecies were filled with Israel’s historical viewpoint. For example, look at verse 6, 7. “And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.” These phrases can be doubted because of excessive nationalism. However, Isaiah was not the person limited to such nationalism. The Lord chose Israel but it was not an unconditional choice. When Israel was dishonest and didn’t serve God rightly they were forsaken. Judging at a fundamental level, Isaiah showed his sincerity to the will of the Lord God rather than Israel his nation. It was because he was, as I pointed earlier, the man who tried to preach the salvation plan of the Lord God through God’s reign on his nation.
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The salvation plan and God’s reign that Isaiah had seen is well summarized in verse 11. “For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” Read it carefully. Though the tradition of prophet is clearly established in Israel’s history it never seems to favor Israel. The main concern of prophets focused on raising up a righteous community on God’s point of view. Such righteous community affected not only Israel but also ‘all nations’. Isaiah proclaims, “The Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” Though Israel is the chosen people if they become unrighteous community then God would never forgive them.

A righteous community contains all qualities that I have mentioned in earlier paragraphs. The foundation of restoration of the poor, brokenhearted and captivities into the image of God again is righteousness. You may remember the fact that this prophecy is related to the tradition of the year of the Lord’s favour. The Lord God had given Israelites the command to keep the year of the Lord’s favor in order to establish a righteous community.

What relationship does a righteous community and spirituality have? The prophets who were anointed by the Spirit of the Lord thought that the society could only be righteous when it was ruled by God. In other word, if there is a righteous community then it means the Lord God is ruling the community. So Isaiah suggested righteousness and praise as one. It signifies a righteous society and God’s praise can never be separated. It again can be said those who direct a righteous community only can be true God worshipper. A yearning desire for righteousness is a spirituality of history. Whoever has seen the righteousness wants to give a true worship. The worship service we are having together on the day of third Advent may sublimate your hope and waiting for a righteous community.