God's Promise Of A Messiah, Offered And Rejected

The Gospel According to Isaiah, Part 6:

God’s Promise of a Messiah, Offered and Rejected

Isaiah 9:2-7

Palm Sunday, April 1, 2012

Rev. Stephen Aram

Bethel United Methodist Church

On that day when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem he presented the crowds with a bit of street theater. He mounted a donkey. He usually just walked, so that caught their attention. He encouraged the crowds to chant Old Testament prophecies about God’s promised Messiah. He allowed them to honor him with the waving of palm branches, and even by laying their cloaks in the dust of the road for the donkey to walk over.

The people were ecstatic, sure that he was going to make his move, start a revolt against the Romans and make Israel strong and wealthy and free again. And they were right that he was the Messiah. They were right that he had come to start a revolt. But they totally misunderstood how he was going to do it. So, when you read about it in Luke’s gospel you see that while everyone else was all happy and excited, Jesus had tears in his eyes because he knew they really didn’t understand.

Many Christians, when they read their Bibles, underline favorite verses, passages that they want to remember. If you do that and read the same Bible for many years there can be quite a few passages marked because the Bible is just full of treasures and you can read the same passage 20 times over 20 years and still see new things in it.

But often times the passages we underline and focus our attention on are the passages about God blessing us and it’s all too easy to skip over the passages that describe our responsibilities to God, the parts that he calls us to do. It’s a good idea for people who underline favorite Bible passages to make a point of reading between the underlines from time to time and look at the difficult passages.

The crowds at the first Palm Sunday needed to read between their underlines. Their heads were full of the Old Testament passages about God sending the Messiah, who would do everything for them. They didn’t seem to notice the parts that called them to respond with holy lives and loving hearts. Sure, they were happy to receive from God. But they overlooked the parts about giving back to God by entering into his plan for the world.

The 66 chapters of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah are just riddled with teasers about what God was going to do some day to redeem the mess that Israel had become. In general, the first 39 chapters talk about God sending a great leader who would someday make Israel strong again and prosperous. Those were the parts that the crowd loved. “God make us strong, happy and prosperous. That’s all we want.” But Isaiah saw that God’s plans went a whole lot farther than that. God’s plans required that something be done about the weight of sin that Israel had accumulated, that something be done about the injustice in their society, and, most importantly, that Israel needed to accept its call to not just squander God’s blessings on themselves, but invest them in being a light to the whole world.

Our first scripture text is from the 1st part of Isaiah, chapter 9. It talks of an amazing, great leader who was coming to Jerusalem. It was probably written when the terrible King Ahaz had a son, Hezekiah, and it expresses hope that Hezekiah would bring reformation and peace to Judah. But as Isaiah prayed to express what God was doing, and wrote out what God laid on his heart, it became something more than just a reforming king. Hezekiah did grow up to be a great reforming king. But Isaiah heard from God the promise of much more.

Now hear the word of God from the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 9, verses 2-7.

2 The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness –

on them light has shined.

3 You have multiplied the nation,

you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

as with joy at the harvest,

as people exult when dividing plunder.

4 For the yoke of their burden,

and the bar across their shoulders,

the rod of their oppressor,

you have broken as on the day of Midian.

5 For all the boots of the tramping warriors

and all the garments rolled in blood

shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

6 For a child has been born for us,

a son given to us;

authority rests upon his shoulders;

and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.