The Holy Way

In this season of Advent we continue waiting, watching, and preparing with hopeful expectation for the coming of Christ at Christmas.  What do we hope for and expect this year?  What are we looking for in Advent, the coming of Jesus this Christmas?  Are we looking for a good time with our families and friends?  Are we looking for a joyful service with the children’s Christmas pageant and our worship on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?  Are we looking for gifts that others will give to us?  Are we looking for satisfaction from others to whom we will give presents?

Jesus would answer, “Yes” to all of this, but then he asks a more important and far-reaching question, “What are you looking for?  A prophet?  Someone to promise you a better life for everyone in the days and months to come?”  Jesus says “Yes” to all of this.  And then he adds, “Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.”

Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Jesus spoke to the crowds and asked, "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind?  What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.”  Was this the level of their concern, or was there something more?  Jesus continued his questioning and then told them they had gone out to see something more than a prophet.

What the Gospel wants us to know is that Jesus is more than a prophet; he is the Messiah who fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah.  Isaiah said that God “will come and save you.”  What did this mean?  It meant that  “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy….A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way…the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. “

This prophetic theme and the fact that Jesus is the expected Messiah is what Matthew’s Gospel is all about. Matthew builds his case by reporting that when John the Baptist was in prison and heard what Jesus was doing he wanted to know whether Jesus was the Messiah.  Who was this Jesus?  Was he the Messiah, the one anointed by God, or did he and his followers have to wait for someone else?   To answer his question John sent his disciples to find out.  Jesus then told them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

Think about this.  What the prophet Isaiah said would happen was really coming to pass.  This was big news.  It was revolutionary.  Now, over 2000 years later, in our own time, look around at our neighborhoods, our cities, state, and country and ask whether diseases are healed and whether the poor have good news brought to them. What would make life better for everyone?  What can we do to fulfill the prophet’s description of “the Holy Way?”  How do we build that highway so everyone “shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away?“  Jesus ministered to the poor, the bereaved, the downtrodden, the sick, and all who suffered because of oppression and discrimination. 

The biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann has said, “Advent is about readiness to acknowledge, receive, and participate in the revolution that clusters around Jesus. The word from the epistle of James is to have patience. That is not passivity, but it is resolve to stay with it, to watch for the possibility, and not to settle for fatigue, resignation, or cynicism.  The ‘patience’ in James means to continue in ‘joy and gladness,’ with no ‘sorrow or sighing.’”

Our season of Advent is about getting reading for a new day of equality and opportunity for everyone.  It requires both patience and endurance, and it demands that we have an expectation that life will improve for all who are oppressed and marginalized in our society.  As we read in today’s Psalm, “Happy are they whose hope is in the LORD their God; Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; who keeps his promise for ever; Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous; the LORD cares for the stranger; he sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked. The LORD shall reign for ever, your God, O Zion, throughout all generations. Hallelujah! “

May our Christmas celebration coming so quickly renew our hope and expectation that the Lord who lifts up all who are oppressed may reign for ever in the lives of all people.  Hallelujah!  Amen.