Scripture Reflections

In our Gospel lesson on Sunday, we heard Jesus respond to John the Baptist’s doubt over whether Jesus was the Messiah by saying, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
 
This statement includes phrases from both Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61, two passages that describe the restoration of Israel. Both passages envision Israel returning from exile over a magnificent highway in the wilderness, rebuilding ruined towns and cities in joy, and living in peace and security in the presence of the Lord.
 
When we read these passages (read them this week as a part of your devotions!), it is natural to assume that they have not yet come true. They seem to describe what things will look like in the end, when Jesus returns and all is healed and made right. They are simply too good and beautiful to be true at this point in salvation history, so they must be about the future. And yet, on more than one occasion, Jesus quoted these passages and claimed that they were coming true during his earthly ministry. He treated them as coming true in the present.
 
For those of us who feel that there is still a lot of work to do before “the ransomed of the Lord…come to Zion with singing…and sorrow and sighing…flee away” (Is. 35:10), it can be easy to forget that the restoration pictured in these passages is both present and future. Neither reality negates the other. There is real restoration to come; yet that restoration has already begun.
 
Advent is the right time to remember this dual reality. Jesus Christ has brought restoration to us—we do not have to wait! And yet, there is something to come that is worth waiting for! Let the reminder of what he has begun and the hope of what he still will do strengthen your heart this season.
 
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